I Samuel 2:22-25
“By this time Eli was very old. He kept getting reports on how his sons were ripping off the people and sleeping with the women who helped out at the sanctuary. Eli called them out: ‘What’s going on here? Why are you doing these things? I hear story after story of your corrupt and evil carrying on. Oh, my sons, this is not right! These are terrible reports I’m getting, stories spreading right and left among GOD’s people! If you sin against another person, there’s help—God’s help. But if you sin against GOD, who is around to help?’”
“Now Eli was very old, but he was aware of what his sons were doing to the p4eople of Israel. He knew for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle. Eli said to them, ‘I have been hearing reports from all the people about the wicked things you are doing. Why do you keep sinning? You must stop my sons! The reports I hear among the Lord’s people are not good. If someone sins against an othe4r person, God can mediat4ed for the guilty party. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede’ But Eli’s sons wouldn’t listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to put them to death.”
Samuel’s sons were the bullies of their time. Today we have terrorists, Nazis, whit-supremacists, etc. Anyone who uses force, from guns or personality, to coerce another against their will. At their moment of time they seem to themselves of supreme importance, destined for historical notoriety. But God says differently.
How do we respond to this kind of social pressure? How do we hope we to respond when our lives are at steak? However we answer, God calls us to remember him, knowing his judgement for sins while not immediate is sure. God had judged the sins of Samuel’s sons long before judgement was evident. One way we express faith is to count on God’s judgement though it is not immediately evident. In the midst of oppression, regardless our suffering, remember the eternal judge of the universe is at work.
Lord, make me strong in these moments of oppression. Vanquish my fears. Let me live through them in the confident reality I belong to another realm, far more real than the present, where the wicked are defeated and ignominious and truth reigns.