faith and judgment

I wish I was as faithful a follower of God as Eli was.

Oh, I know, Eli doesn’t look very good when we read about him in 1 Samuel. The things that were going on in the temple under his leadership were terrible, and because it was his sons doing them, he seemed inclined just to let it go.

Yet for all that, when Samuel tells him of God’s plan to destroy his family, he only had this to say, recorded in 1 Samuel 3:18 “So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, ‘He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.’”

For all his weakness, Eli knew two things about God. One was that Eli couldn’t stop God from doing anything. And the other was that God was just, and what he planned was justice. Even when God’s justice was about to fall on Eli’s boys, he didn’t object, he didn’t rail against God, he didn’t try to change God’s mind. His trust in God extended far enough that he accepted even God’s judgment.

Can I do that? Do I have enough faith to put myself in God’s hands for judgment? Or would I rather avoid judgment? I’m not sure. But the fact that even Eli, weak as he was, could trust God gives me hope that I will too, no matter what God’s decisions might bring me.