restraining evil

​2nd Sunday after Epiphany – B                                                                      LSB #’s 589, 850, 827
Text – 1 Samuel 3:13
 
And I declare to [Eli] that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, & he did not restrain them.
 
RESTRAINING EVIL
 
 
In professional sports like football & basketball you hear a lot of trash talking.  Then, there are other sports like tennis & golf that adhere to fairly strict rules on etiquette & showing respect to your opponents.  Instead of loudly talking trash, while a player is putting on the green or making their serve on the court, polite silence is expected. 
Because all current humans beings are sinners, etiquette & respect are behaviors that need to be taught, whereas trash talking comes naturally.   And what is God’s design for children to learn respect & etiquette?   He gives children to parents & the parents are responsible to train them.  They are to address the wrong behavior of their children & teach them what is right. 
That is not easy work, as any parent already knows.   Even those who are not parents certainly should remember, & feel at least a tinge of regret, that we were not always perfect children.  The 1st order of business for any parent is to lead their children to Christ.  After that, parents teach their children to do good & help them learn to restrain their evil nature. 
 It is especially in that latter task that Eli failed as a father.  Because he did not restrain his sons, in the evil they were doing, Yahweh would bring judgment upon Eli’s entire household.  Ironically, Eli has been training his own replacement, & that’s where we are in the OT reading for this morning.    Samuel is about to graduate:
“And the Lord came & stood, calling as at other times, ‘Samuel!  Samuel!’  And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant hears.’  Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.   On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.  And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God,   & he did not restrain them.’”  (1 Samuel 3:10-13 ESV) 
Many people in our nation no longer restrain evil but celebrate with it.    All manner of sinful behavior, in direct contradiction to the Word of God, is being encouraged by our leaders.  From not working, when someone is able, to glorifying abortion as a path to choice & freedom, Americans are refusing to restrain evil.   People think Christians are fools for trying. 
Our culture no longer defines marriage or gender as does the word of God.  Lawlessness is celebrated as the right to free speech & political corruption is winked at as some kind of cost of democracy.  In many cities the very people who are supposed to work at restraining evil are encouraging it by refusing to enforce the laws that have been legally enacted by legislatures. 
The demise of Eli & his sons should serve as a warning to our nation & to us.  Shortly after Samuel graduates, Israel goes to war.  Four thousand of their soldiers were killed, so they call for the Ark of the Covenant to be brought.  Eli’s sons come with it.  This time 30,000 Israelites are killed, among them Eli’s sons, & the Ark of the Covenant is captured. 
A messenger came to Eli with the news.  He was so stunned by it that he fell over backward such that his neck was broken & he died.  Thus, the first prophecy given to Samuel was fulfilled.  After this, he directed the people of Israel to repent.  They did so & the Lord once again gave them victory over the Philistines.  Eventually, the Ark of the Covenant is returned. 
Like the people of Israel, when you & I, or our nation, live apart from God, it causes us to experience frustration & defeat.   That should lead us back in repentance, to seek His mercy.  Then, He restores us & makes us whole in Christ our Lord.   Eli’s sons refused to repent.  Eli failed to remove them from their positions in the temple.  God removed all three of them, & put Samuel in their place.  The 2nd sentence of the OT reading set the tone regarding the priesthood of Eli, “And the word of the Lord was rare in those days…”  (1 Samuel 3:1 ESV)   People in our country no longer respect the Word of the Lord, at least not the Word that tingles the ear.  They assume that whatever god there is loves them & that repentance is a thing of the past. 
The Word of the Lord has become rare in our day & people do not miss it at all.   Only 20% of Americans attend church weekly,   & 31% never attend church at all.  In verse 9 of the OT reading, Eli tells Samuel to listen to God.  The irony is that Eli himself was not listening.  Finally, the Word did come to Samuel, not to Eli, & that Word brought judgment. 
Restraining evil is something we cannot do without the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  We must accept that restraining evil is necessary in order for life on earth to flourish.   Accepting that is also something you & I cannot do without the power of God the Holy Spirit.   Satan works hard against any sort of restraint of evil, because evil brings death & that is his joy. 
It is a sick & twisted creature that finds joy in the death of others.  Yet the world wants us to believe that restraining evil is for prudish & narrow-minded bigots.  Satan & his demons want you to believe the saying, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” 
However, the truth that Jesus’ Gospel shares with us is that God’s children have already beaten Satan & his hordes.  We beat them when Jesus died & then rose from that death to eternal life.  We beat Satan & his demons when the waters of Holy Baptism washed our sins away by the power of God’s Spirit.  We beat them when Christ joins Himself to us in His body & blood. 
When you hear the true Word of God preached to you, when you read, mark, learn & inwardly digest the Word of God, then Satan & his hordes are defeated as surely as when Christ Himself said, “It is finished!”  Right this very moment, the Creator of the universe is calling to you, like He called to Samuel.  The Creator wants you to know His love, because that love alone can empower you to turn away from your sinful heart & back to the loving heart of Yahweh.  Satan takes joy in your death & that is all he offers to you, no matter how he disguises it.  Christ is offering life to you in its fullest & eternal form, in a place where death will be no more.  Still, Eli’s sons chose death disguised as earthly power & pleasure.  
Samuel listened to the grace of God & said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”  Any time we even attempt to restrain evil, it is a blessing from the heavenly Father.  It is living out the life that Christ offers to us already here on earth.  In heaven we will experience that life completely & fully.  In heaven there will be no more evil to restrain. 
Yes, even as children of God, here on earth we still experience the tinge of regret for failing to be perfect children of God.  There are even times when, like Peter, we literally weep over our failures & our sins.  Yet that weeping is a blessing from God as it reveals that our hearts are not indifferent to His will.  Revelation is one of the themes of this season of Epiphany. 
As the OT reading begins, the word of the Lord is rare in those days.  By the end of the reading, “…all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord.”  (1 Samuel 3:20 ESV)   A thousand years later, the Word of the Lord had again been rare in those days.  When it finally arrived, it was Gentiles – the Magi – who revealed its arrival. 
By the end of Christ’s life, another Gentile, proclaimed who Jesus was: “And when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that in this way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’”  (Mark 15:39 ESV)   Through that word, God is calling us to restrain evil, & once again return to the house of the Lord that we might receive His blessings.  Amen. 
Lo, the hosts of evil round us scorn the Christ, assail His ways!  From the fears that long have bound us free our hearts to faith & praise.     Cure Your children’s warring madness; bend our pride to Your control; shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things & poor in soul.     Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore; let the gift of Your salvation be our glory evermore.  Grant us wisdom, grant us courage lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal.  Amen.  LSB 850:2-4.