For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. – 1 Samuel 3:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 12, 2016): 1 Samuel 3

Win the Lottery. It was the answer to a question I asked a middle aged couple not long ago. The question, how do you plan to finance your retirement? The reality was that unless the Lottery win came through, retirement for this couple was simply not an option. And I get it. Working for the rest of our lives seems like a possibility when we are younger, but as the years pass and our bodies begin to tire, at some point we realize that it may not be. And if our health does not hold, well, we are in serious trouble. The reality is that I know too many people my age who feel trapped. They have not prepared for retirement, and the Lottery wins are rare.

It is not like we didn’t know. It was just that other things were more important. And it scares me. It scares me about others – and about me. The problem with the idea of retirement is that we have to start preparing for it when we are young – and we have to resist the urge to use that money for other things as we begin to start families and buy houses. It is the only way that people will be able to retire and even just maintain their standard of living. For too many of us, we have ignored all of the warning signs, pushed them away so that they couldn’t attract our attention, and now we are in trouble – and retirement isn’t even a possibility. It would be different if we didn’t know, but deep down we have to admit that we knew.

I have a number of emotions play with me whenever I read this story of Samuel as a child. Jewish scholars believe that Samuel was probably about 12. In his day that was on the verge of being an adult. And yet still the message seems harsh for such a young man. Yet, there also might not have been a better carrier for the message. There are two things that we need to note in this verse.

First, we need to understand that this was not the first time that Eli had received this word from God. God makes it clear that this was something that God had told Eli before. Eli knew. He had been told exactly in what way he was failing God. At this point in time, Eli was the high priest who was ignoring the misbehaviour of two of his priests because they were his sons. But, in the past, this behavior probably started with a father who refused to discipline his young children. He had maybe pushed the revelation from God deep into his subconscious, he had probably hidden it away and ignored the message, but he knew.

The second thing was that if Samuel was going to become the man and priest that God was calling him to be, this was a lesson that Samuel needed to learn well. The day would come when the adult Samuel would meet with the first King of Israel, a man named Saul of the tribe of Benjamin. And Samuel would have a choice. He could coddle this king for his actions against God, or he could confront him. On that day he would need to remember this conversation with God and the one that would follow it with Eli. Because on that day, as it was on this day, it was God that ruled over Israel – and God’s laws were the ones that needed to be followed.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 4