1 Samuel 2:12 Now the
sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the LORD.
This is a sad verse
indeed. Eli’s sons were born into the priest hood and they were serving as
priest for God but here we see that they were considered corrupt or worthless
and the reason why they were this way was because they did not know God so
therefore they had no regard for his laws. It amazes me that there father was
such a Godly man and he seemed to great job when it came to teaching Samuel
about God but he had neglected to train his own sons and discipline them. Let’s
read on and see what they did.
13 And the priests' custom with the
people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant
would come with a three-pronged fleshhook in his hand
while the meat was boiling. 14
Then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; and
the priest would take for himself all that the fleshhook
brought up. So they did in
Here we find out that
these two boys were being very greedy when it came to the portion they were supposed
to receive from a sacrifice. Leviticus 7
and Deuteronomy 18 tells us that a priest’s
portion of a sacrifice only includes the shoulder, the breast, the cheeks, and
the stomach. Yet these boys wanted it all including the fat which was forbidden
by the law of God. There sin didn’t just affect them it started making the
people start to despise giving their sacrifice because they came to give it to
God not to these 2 men. Violating God’s Word this way calls for these men to be
cut off before God. But this wasn’t the only thing they were doing wrong.
1 Samuel 2:22 Now Eli
was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all
Not only did they violate
the God’s law about the sacrifices that were made, they were also indulging in
fornication. These sons of Eli were out of control and they needed to be dealt
with.
23
So he said to them, "Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil
dealings from all the people. 24 "No, my sons! For it
is not a good report that I hear. You make the LORD's people
transgress. 25 "If one
man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man
sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?" Nevertheless
they did not heed the voice of their father, because the LORD desired to kill
them. 26 And the child Samuel
grew in stature, and in favor both with the LORD and men.
Here we see Eli feeble attempt to deal with his sons. But they did not listen to him just like they had not listened to him their whole lives. Eli had failed miserable to raise his sons up in such away that they respected him and God. Eli should have never let his sons serve as priest. He should not have neglected training his son in the way of the Lord.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child
in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Though we all have a free will and can do what we want, most of the time if we raise our children in the way of the Lord they will not depart from it. Now there were some very hefty consequences that were allowed under the Old Testament for those children who rebellious against their parents and God. According to Deut. 21:18-21, a stubborn child that would not listen could be stoned to death. By all rights this is exactly what needed to be done to Eli’s 2 son but instead he just gave them a slap on the wrist and allowed them continue on serving as priest. In way of contrast we see that Samuel was nothing like Eli’s 2 sons because he was godly man who had found favor by both man and God. Notice the message that is given to Eli because of his lack of discipline.
27 Then a man of God came to Eli and
said to him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in
This messenger of God is
talking about Aaron the priest. Then he makes the point about how God took care
of the priest by allowing them to take part of the sacrifices that were made by
the children of Israel, but Eli’s 2 sons had become greedy and started taken
the best part of the sacrifice for themselves and leaving the leftovers for
God. Because of this God wants to know, why are you giving more honor to your
sons than to me. The phrase “Why do you kick at my sacrifice” is one that
describes a over fed beast who becomes unmanageable
and is always trying to throw its yoke or its harness off. That describes Eli’s
rebellious sons to a T and these verses also describe Eli’s neglect to make
sure that God was honored instead of his sons. Now please pay close attention
to these next verses.
30
"Therefore the LORD God of
There is a powerful
lesson here that we need to learn and especially those in the religious world.
Whenever God told Aaron that his house would walk before forever this was only
true if his house remained true to God. Notice God will not honor those who do
not honor him. God has always had condition when it comes to being right in his
sight and if you are not he will cut you off and you will be separated from
him. This tells you and I that if we want to be able to embrace the promise of
heaven given to us by God that we must honor him by living faithful lives but
if we turn on him and we start doing our own thing like Eli’s two sons did then
we will not make into heaven. This verse shows clearly that just because a
person becomes saved and is in good standing with God doesn’t mean that they
can’t fall from the grace and once again be in unsaved condition because God
demands that we honor him and if we fail to do this we can and we will lose our
salvation.
We also learn that we
must always put God first even above our children. We should always honor our
Father in heaven first by upholding His Word. We should not allow the love for
our children or anyone else to make us compromise God’s truth by justifying the
sinful actions of our loved ones.
Let’s not read the consequences
of Eli’s neglect of his two sinful sons.
31
'Behold, the days are coming that I will cut off your arm and the arm of your
father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32 'And you will see an enemy in
My dwelling place, despite all the good
which God does for
It was considered an honor to have older men within your household but God is letting Eli know that this will not happen any longer because these men would die in flower of their youth and God is going to take away the power from Eli and give the priesthood to another. To prove when this was going to begin, Eli’s two sons would be killed in the same day.
We learn from this Chapter how important it is that we teach our children about God and use discipline if they get out of line. How we train our children up by our words and action will mold our children on how they we be when they are older. If they cannot see the love of God in us or how important He is to us, then most likely they will not grow up knowing God. This is why it’s important for us to realize that we set the example for our children of what being a Christian is all about. So, we should be careful not to miss our opportunities to teach our children about God by our words and our actions.
We have also learned that God wants us to honor him and to respect his commandments. If we don’t, there can be dire consequences.
1 Samuel 3:1 Then the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli.
And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread
revelation.
During this time it was
very rare that God was talking to anyone. However, Samuel was about to have his
first encounter with the Lord.
1 Samuel 3:2 And it came
to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when
his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, 3 and before the lamp of God went
out in the tabernacle of the LORD where the ark of God was, and while
Samuel was lying down, 4 that
the LORD called Samuel. And he answered, "Here I am!" 5 So he ran to Eli and said,
"Here I am, for you called me." And he said, "I did not call;
lie down again." And he went and lay down.
6 Then the LORD called yet again, "Samuel!" So
Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called
me." He answered, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." 7 (Now Samuel
did not yet know the LORD, nor was the word of the LORD yet revealed to him.)
Samuel must have been confused because the first 2 times the Lord calls out to him that he gets up and runs to Eli because he thinks Eli is calling his name. Each time he came to Eli, he sent him right back to bed telling him he didn’t call for him. Now verse 7 says that Samuel did not yet know the Lord. Now I do not believe this is talking about that he didn’t know about Him through the Scriptures because it has already been stated that He had grown in favor with God, but this is saying that he did not know God in the sense that he never received a revelation nor heard the voice of God.
8 And the LORD called Samuel again the
third time. Then he arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you
did call me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD had called the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel,
"Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say,
'Speak, LORD, for Your servant hears.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Finally after this third
time Eli figures out that is the Lord that is calling Samuel and he instructs
him on what to say. But the news he is about to receive is not good news for
the household of Eli.
1 Samuel 3:11Then the
LORD said to Samuel: "Behold, I will do something in
Samuel had been let in on
the secret that Eli had been keeping to himself. But Samuel obviously had great
respect for Eli and he did not want to share this news with him. Now the text
says he laid there till morning, but I bet he didn’t go to sleep or at least I
don’t think I could have. I would be laying their in awe from the fact that God
spoke to me and then also wouldn’t be able to put the dreadful message out of
my mind. One thing we know for sure is that Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the
vision.
1 Samuel 3:16 Then
Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son!" And he answered,
"Here I am." 17 And
he said, "What is the word that the Lord spoke to you?
Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you,
and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said to
you." 18 Then Samuel
told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, "It is the
LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him."
Well so much for not telling Eli the message of the Lord. Eli wants to know what it is now Samuel must tell him this awful news. We can imagine what kind of emotions Samuel was experiencing because most of us have had to share bad news with those that we love and there is no easy way to do it. You feel like you are going to jump out of your skin and sometimes you may not be able to get through the bad news without breaking out in tears and this exactly the kind of emotions that Samuel was probably going through. Samuel tells Eli everything, and Eli accepts the message and the judgment God has made. All this did for Eli was reconfirm the previous message from God.
1 Samuel 3: 19
So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words
fall to the ground. 20
And all
We learn here that Samuel became a prophet. Since Samuel was
faithful to the Lord, he was a well-respected
prophet in all of Israel, and he fully knew the Lord. God continued to be with
and spoke with him.
This story shows us without a doubt that if you oppose God then he will oppose you, but if you embrace God and are faithful then God will bless you and he will be with you forever. So let us always strive to do our best and try to put God first in ever avenue of our life.