Who wants to hear bad news? A parent finds a child standing in the kitchen next to an empty cookie jar with crumbs on his shirt. The parent asks, “Who ate all the cookies?” Looking bewildered, the child responds, “I don’t know.” Perhaps the parent responds with punishment for lying. Another parent might approach the situation differently by creating a safe place for the child to describe what happened.
Samuel receives bad news about Eli from the Lord, but he avoids interacting with his mentor, Eli. Perhaps he hopes the Lord’s message is not real and that he can forget about it. However, Samuel trusts Eli and has enough confidence and courage to deliver the bad news. He delivers all of it, leaving nothing out. Eli accepts the consequences of what he has heard, saying, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”
These verses convey many lessons. Perhaps we learn the importance of creating safe places for people to share bad news. Perhaps we can focus on developing the internal confidence and courage necessary to deliver bad news. Maybe, like Eli, we can learn to ask for the bad news, be strengthened to receive it and gracious enough to acknowledge our identity as God’s children even in the face of such news.
Samuel models responsiveness and obedience to God’s word; Eli submits to that word. May we remain obedient to the message we have heard from the Lord and accept the consequences of acting on it.