Providential Interference

1 Samuel 2:25

“..His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.”

The Bible says that Eli’s sons were very wicked.  Many sermons have been preached stating that the fatherly duties of Eli was not good. Discipline in the house of Eli was inadequate.  However, the fact is that the Bible never says anything about Eli bringing up his boys at all.  It just records them as young men who were very wicked and, according to verse 25, they did not listen to Eli’s rebuke. 

A lot can be inferred by reading between the lines here but I want you to pay attention to verse 25.  I have noticed people in my lifetime that I would consider just plain wicked and some that had a mean streak a mile wide.  Here we read the Lord was going to put Eli’s son’s to death.  In other words by taking out Eli’s sons, the Lord was going to use that and send a message to His people. 

I had a roommate in college at UT and we had a good time rooming together.  After I graduated and landed a job here in Austin, I felt like I needed to get my own place and I did.  I moved out and had my first apartment.  It was great having your own place and not sharing with a roommate.  It was later that I met my future wife while I was living in this apartment.  All good times. 

I often look back on my life as a chess match and watch the game being played out before me.  Moving out and getting my own apartment was a huge move for one reason: God was calling me away from my roommate to get my own place.  I still keep in contact with my old roommate but it was a good thing that I moved out when I did because God had some big plans for my life. 

From the outside looking in, friends may go away, jobs my go away, you might even get new friends or a new job but you have to look at things from God’s perspective. As George Washington puts it, providential interference.  Just like me moving out and getting my own place after I graduated from college with a new job, God’s hand was at work. I was blessed because I chose to be moved by Him and not move in spite of Him.  Eli’s son’s later die on the same day and Eli would die as well very soon after that because God was raising up a Samuel who will later anoint a shepherd boy named David as the king of Israel. 

Your life is not game of chance.  The Bible says that He holds us in palm of His hand.  Psalm 91 is a great reminder of what the Lord promises to do if you put the Lord first in your life. (I have posted the Psalm below for you to read.) Be mindful of those things that seem to go away and those that show up in your life; it could be the providential hand of God guiding your life.  Listen to rebuke or correction from authority figures because they might be delivering the very message from God that you have been waiting for. Pray Psalm 91 and make it a personal narrative of you and your walk with the Lord. The Lord’s providential hand is at work.

Psalm 91

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

³ Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”