Series: From Pastor’s Desk
Number: Vol. 14, No. 51
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to another week of the month of April 2026. I pray that God will keep you from being a victim of His judgment on any of the people in your life or around you. Amen.
Now I offered that prayer for you because it is not every time that people experience God’s judgment because they themselves are evil. There are times that people experience God’s judgment because they fail to use their authority to judge the evil being done by those under their watch. For example, God said this to Samuel about Eli the priest: “For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them.” (1 Sam 3:13NIV)
Why was God going to judge the house of Eli? Was it because the man was wicked? No! Or was it simply because his sons were wicked? No! The reason God was going to judge his house was that he failed to restrain his sons, even though he was well aware of their sins.If Eli had not been aware of the sins of his children, God would not have held him responsible for them.
Also, if Eli had not been in a position to restrain his children, so that they would no longer be able to freely sin against God, He would not have held him responsible for their sins. But not only was he aware of their sins, he was also in a position to judge and restrain them. Yet he failed to do so. Therefore, God told him that He would judge his family for the sins of the young men.
Now why did God tell him about His coming judgment ahead of time? It was so that he would urgently do the needful. But did he do the needful? No, he did not. Instead, his response was that God was free to do whatever was good in His sight about the matter. In other words, as far as he was concerned, he was not going to stress himself again about what his sons were doing. (Cf. 1Sam 3:18)
What, in any case, is this teaching us? It is that when God places people under our authority, He does not expect us to allow them to do as they please. Instead, He expects us to use our authority to set them right, if they should be messing up. Otherwise, we will be committing the sin of Eli. That being the case, anytime God steps in to judge the wickedness we have refused to judge, we too are sure to partake in His judgment, unless we are shown mercy. And who knows how He will judge?Therefore, don’t be like Eli that refused to act on God’s warning to judge his sons because he was tired of their mess.
Instead, begin to use your authority to set things right wherever you have the authority to do so. That way, you can keep yourself from partaking in the judgment of the disobedient.Then don’t get upset when those who have authority over you will not allow you to carry on with any kind of nonsense under their watch. That is because they are doing the will of God. Not only that, by now allowing you to misbehave under their watch, they are protecting you from God’s judgment. So, you should really be thanking them for being responsible leaders. Otherwise, you may just get yourself wounded through God’s judgment, if you fail to accept correction. I pray that such will not be your lot, in Jesus’ name. Amen.Have a lovely week.
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