“He is The Lord; Let Him Do What Seems Good to Him” – 1 Samuel 3

So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “What is the word that He spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. May God do the same to you, and more so, if you hide a single word from me of all the words that He spoke to you!” So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “He is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.” (15-18)

Eli is such a tragic figure in this text. He can remember a day when he led Israel well and pleased the Lord in all things. Now he is ancient, he is very overweight, his eyes are dim, and he can only live vicariously through the adopted child Samuel. You probably remember Samuel’s story; his mother Hannah had devoted him to the Lord to live and serve in the temple as a very young child. By this time, Samuel has yet to hear the voice of the Lord but he ministers faithfully in the “tent of meeting” and sleeps right beside the Ark of God. Samuel hears God calling him, but it takes several times and some advice from Eli before he figures out this is actually God speaking. This story begins in verse 1 with the statement, “word from the Lord was rare in those days; visions were infrequent.”

There was likely a time in Eli’s life when he heard the voice of God, but in his later years, things had gone awry. His sons, Hophni and Phineas, were wicked and a disgrace to their office. They abused people at the temple and grew fat from their sacrifices. They even slept with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. In God’s estimation, they were “worthless men.” Yet, Eli failed to do anything about his sons. Instead, their abuses and behavior brought him disgrace from the people and judgment from God. Eli wants to hear a word from God because it has been so long, so Samuel unwillingly tells him that his sons will be killed and he will also die because of God’s judgment on his house. Eli’s response is stoic, “He is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.”

I think that Eli felt like a failure in his old age. He felt like a failure as a prophet and priest; he was definitely a failure as a father, which led to his fatalistic embrace of God’s inevitable judgment. It is sad to me when someone is so far gone that they think, “what is the use of changing now?” Eli looked back on his glory days and his failures, and in some ways, it’s like he craved God’s intervention. If God took out his sons and even old Eli, then at least he wouldn’t have to do anything about it. Whatever God is dealing with you about today, own it! Don’t be like fatalistic Eli! It is not too late to repent, it’s not too late to address your mistakes, and it’s not too late to become a different person. Let God have His way in your life. Whether you are blissfully ignorant of your present and living in the past or just being stubborn and refusing to admit that it’s your fault, address the problem with the Lord before it’s too late.