1 Samuel 3:18
And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good. And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good.
Samuel told Eli everything God had shown him, hiding nothing when Eli called him to speak faithfully. Eli bowed in humble submission to the terrible sentence on his house, acknowledging that it was from the Lord and that He has the right to do what seems good and right to Him. He accepted the judgment as just and deserved, knowing his own neglect in failing to restrain his wicked sons had dishonored God and brought the punishment. Yet his answer was submission without repentance and without a firm will to obey, for he remained passive and indolent instead of rising at once to do his duty. The verse teaches humble submission to the Lord in adversity, placing oneself in His hands to accept merited punishment as well as sickness, wrong, and loss, and to do His pleasure and bear the cross as He sees good.
Samuel Faithfully Speaks
Samuel told Eli every part of what God had revealed, hiding nothing, only after Eli called him and solemnly charged him to relate it faithfully. He had dreaded delivering so terrible a message against one he loved and reverenced, and went about his morning duties with a heavy heart. He had remained silent because God had not commanded him to speak, and had avoided Eli lest questioning force him to declare it, while Eli was sure the message foretold great calamity to him and his house.
God passed by the aged priest to commune with the child because the sins of Eli and his sons shut out His Holy Spirit, and because Eli had only remonstrated with his sons and had not restrained them. That He spoke to a child who remained true in the midst of evil instead of the chosen servant of hoary hairs was itself a bitter yet deserved rebuke to Eli and his house. Delivering this message was Samuel's commission as a prophet while still a boy, for God honored the young by calling Samuel in his youth and committing a solemn message to him. He was established to the prophetic office from Dan to Beersheba and received further revelations of God's will in the tabernacle at Shiloh.
Eli showed no envy or jealousy but helped Samuel hear, telling him to answer Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. By contrast older persons can become so set in their own course that even when God sends messages they do not hear with a firm will to obey, while children and youth are more impressible and the Lord can communicate with them, instruct them, and mold their minds as He did Samuel's. Samuel made the messages of warning and reproof to the house of Eli known to the whole nation, hoping to counteract in some measure the evil influence of past neglect and to make amends in some measure for that neglect. The warnings were disregarded by the people as they had been by the priests, and the surrounding nations, who knew of the iniquities openly practiced in Israel, became bolder and more determined in idolatry and crime and felt no guilt for their sins as they would have felt had Israel preserved its integrity.
Eli Submits to Judgment
When Samuel told him every part of the message, Eli bowed in humble submission to the appalling sentence of condemnation against his house, acknowledging it as from the LORD and acknowledging the Lord's right to do what seems good to Him and what is right. He accepted the Lord's judgment against his house as just and as what he deserved, knowing that God had been dishonored and that his own sinful neglect had brought the punishment. That judgment was soon carried out.
He did not resent the messenger but accepted the rebuke and condemned himself, receiving Samuel's message as a rebuke from God and loving Samuel as before. The rebuke came because he failed to restrain his wicked sons and remove them from office, though he knew of their wrongdoing. He only remonstrated with them and did not act promptly to restrain them and put the disgusting evil away from Israel.
Though good and pure in morals and loving purity, righteousness, peace and harmony, he was an ease-loving, affectionate father who was too indulgent and lacked moral courage and force to strengthen his weak points, to rebuke and reprove sin, and to remove and restrain his vile sons who profaned the house of God, growing insensible to impurity and crime until God took the matter in hand Himself. His answer was remarkable submission, but it was submission without repentance and without a firm will to obey. He did not feel the importance of at once acting himself instead of passively accepting the outcome, but remained discouraged thinking effort to correct his children was useless, and stayed indolent and blind in continued neglect of duty. Had he been aroused to the full guilt of his neglect, Israel might have been saved from the humiliation of defeat and the ark of God would not have fallen into the enemy's hands.
The verse means that God condemns negligence that dallies with sin and crime and insensibility that is slow to detect its baleful presence in the families of professed Christians, and holds parents accountable in a great degree for the faults and follies of their offspring. He visited with His curse not only the sons of Eli but Eli himself and his household and Israel as a fearful warning to parents of this time.
Accepting God's Good Pleasure
The verse teaches humble submission to the Lord in adversity, receiving both deserved punishment and undeserved wrong, false accusation, and cursing as permitted under His hand and not as merely the work of men. The one who takes this place is not hardened by trial but humbled and mournful, bridling the mouth before the wicked and bearing reproach without retaliation. Such a person trusts God as Friend and Helper and only hope, and though cast down and cut to the quick by loss and suspicion is not destroyed but is tenderly regarded by God. In God's sight that sufferer stands greater and more elevated than in prosperity, wrestling with the storm while leaving God free to restore or to refuse according to His pleasure.
It means placing oneself in God's hands in sickness and physical weakness and accepting whatever He sees as good, without anxiety, complaining, or unbelief. Its words express surrender to accept what He chooses as good and to place oneself in His hands in willingness to serve Him. That willingness takes up the work He gives and bears the cross rather than withdrawing into despair.
Here that acceptance calls for walking carefully before God and letting go of the desire to accumulate wealth, for the Lord may do what is good in His sight. It means giving up one's own will about where to go and labor and letting the Lord place one as seems good in His sight. It means lying passive in God's hands to do His pleasure instead of placing oneself as inclination directs, even when facing conflicting claims such as promised meetings in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark set against desire to return to California.