Reflecting on 1 Samuel

This isn’t an update on our lives or a “published to Facebook post” and is me organizing some thoughts on Bible reading I’ve been doing – so if you’re randomly stumbling upon it, feel free to read on but it wasn’t written or edited with the anticipation of much public viewing!

1^st Samuel 2:27 – 3:18 & 4:12-25 – God says terrible things are going to happen to the house of Eli because his sons were wicked. He says all the descendants will either be cut off from his altar, have their eyes blinded with tears, have their hearts grieved, and die in the prime of life. When Eli hears all of this is about to happen he says  “He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes.”  Eli’s sons die, his daughter in law dies giving birth and he dies by falling and breaking his neck (after serving the Lord for 40 years) when he hears his sons are dead and the ark of God has been captured  (while sitting at the road watching for the ark because “his heart feared for [it]”).

-           I mean really, honestly? My first reaction was “Are you kidding me. ” But then there’s what Eli said… “He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes.” 

-          When I hear of innocent, faithful people dying painful untimely deaths – I almost always equate it with evil. Misfortune in the very least. But here…the deaths were the work of God…AFTER he had PROMISED that the family would “minister before Him forever”. FURTHERMORE Eli STILL assumes it is good in the eyes of the Lord.

-          Eli’s daughter dies from labor pains …  she lives long enough to know it is a boy which means it is likely she died shortly after holding her child for the first time. The reality here is that if this story was written with God as an anonymous character, I would likely judge God to be a ruthless, uncaring, extremely evil person.  I struggle with that fact.

-          I have rarely considered that what seems “good” (as in, the opposite of evil) to me might be vastly different than what God considers good. I’ve heard people say God sometimes allows evil to accomplish good… but now I’m somewhat convinced that some things that seem evil to me simply don’t to God.  Now, there are things that He has said are plainly evil – idolatry, adultery, that whole list… but since God is not speaking to us the way he did to Eli – how do we know when things that happen to us, or to those around us are good or evil if we cannot judge by appearance or how they make us feel?

-          It seems it must be true that being merciful to the house of Eli would somehow have brought less glory to God than to take them all out. This has huge impact in my world if I am applying this passage to my own life. Events that initially seem inherently evil  – I must consider that they could be part of a plan God has that I simply am not able to see or understand.

-          Most of all I want to have a faith like Eli. Perhaps the true cost of following Christ and the reason we are reminded time and again that we will have sorrow in this life is highlighted in this passage.  I must grapple with the fact that what happens, even if it is tragic – and EVEN IF IT IS CAUSED BY THE LORD,  is for the good of those who love Him – not necessarily for ME or for RIGHT NOW but for the kingdom of God as a whole… in the end.