Three Men & A Mother with Her Boy OT Series. 23. 1 Samuel XICF Gabe Orea 7/Oct/2018

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Eli and His Two Sons

1 Samuel 2 12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless scoundrels; they did not know Yahweh… 17 So the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of Yahweh, because the men treated the offering of Yahweh with contempt… 25 If a man sins against a man, then God can intercede for him. But if a man sins against Yahweh, who can intercede for him?” This is people whose lives were dedicated to serve the Lord. What an irony, they are not only described as evil people, but they just don’t know the Lord. This is scary. It is scary to open our eyes to the reality of being around God, even participating in ministry, even serving at the church, and still not knowing God. This is so serious I think we should dedicate some time for honest introspection. We believers have the Holy Spirit in us. But at home we can have different type of people. We may have guests, of whom we know little about them, even though they are staying at our place; or we may have our own parents, our family, whom we know well and love dearly, also staying with us. What kind of guest is the Holy Spirit in us? Do we actually know God? Which testimony our life proclaim? That we know God or that we don’t know him?

1 Samuel 2 12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless scoundrels; they did not know Yahweh… 17 So the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of Yahweh, because the men treated the offering of Yahweh with contempt… 25 If a man sins against a man, then God can intercede for him. But if a man sins against Yahweh, who can intercede for him?” In this story there are two sinful behaviors described. We won’t go into the details but will jump right into the conclusion: they treated the offering of God with contempt. What can this translate into our time? What is our offering? How do we see our offerings? The most obvious thought is our monetary offering. We should treat our offerings with, well, the opposite of contempt.

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1 Samuel 2 12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless scoundrels; they did not know Yahweh… 17 So the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of Yahweh, because the men treated the offering of Yahweh with contempt… 25 If a man sins against a man, then God can intercede for him. But if a man sins against Yahweh, who can intercede for him?” How can God intercede for someone unless the Trinity is real? I then see here a reference to more than one divine person. In the second part, sinning against God, I see here a reference to the blasphemy against the Spirit. Matthew 12:31-32. 31For this reason I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven! 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the coming one!

1 Samuel 2 27… “Thus says Yahweh:.. 29 Why do you despise my sacrifice and my offering …? 30 Therefore, declares Yahweh the God of Israel, though I solemnly said that your house and the house of your ancestor would walk before me forever, but now, declares Yahweh, far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me, I will treat with contempt! Our brother Philip recently preached about the promises of God to his people, and he reminded us that Scripture is clear: The Lord will fulfil his promises as long as we remain in obedience to him. Here we see one more instance of the same situation. Even though the Lord had promised all descendants of Elkanah would be blessed with priesthood, because of their sin, the Lord is now stepping away from his promise. We should take note! One more reason for us to remain faithful to our God. Jesus was very clear on this regard as well, “if you love me you will obey me.” Doesn’t if feel good when someone honors you? Now, can you imagine being honored by God himself? That is just amazing! Well, it is here for us! We should just, sincerely, honor him! But the other side of the coin is scary. I don’t even want to imagine how would it go to be treated by God with contempt. Despise the Lord, Scripture says, and you will be treated with contempt. Is there any good reason to put ourselves into that position? Is there?

Hannah and Samuel

1 Samuel 2 11 Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house. Now the boy was serving Yahweh in the presence of Eli the priest… 18 Now Samuel was serving before Yahweh, as a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19 His mother used to make for him a small robe and take it to him year by year whenever she came up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.

Ephod was the dress of the high priest or similar garments worn by other priests. I can imagine Hannah, the mother of Samuel, all year long while she was back at home, collecting the best fabrics she could find and ornaments and other accessories to design and make by herself a beautiful priestly attire for her son. In such high esteem this family had the service of God! We should be like that! The father, Elkanah, would bring his whole family to render worship to God. To a certain extent I am glad it was not a perfect family, they had their issues, but still the father would assume his role and bring his whole family to bring their offerings and worship to God. We should take note and follow that example. The mother, Hannah, was willing to offer her own child to the Lord, and she fulfilled her promise. A woman who not only made a sacrificial offering, giving away what she loved the most, but that also supported her own decision through the years by affirming her son’s service to God. Most of us do not have our physical families with is but we have a huge spiritual family around. Shouldn’t we support each other in our service to the Lord? The son, the young boy Samuel, in the middle of a corrupted environment, not having too much of a good example around, he remained faithful to the Lord. I wonder how much of a role his mother Hannah played. Very likely his mother’s positive influence was quite important. Let’s take note! We should learn from all these examples.

You don’t need to read this, just to see the image You don’t need to read this, just to see the image. In orange are the passages that talk about Samuel and in Green are the passages that I choose to talk about and that refer to Eli and his sons. As you can see, the story of young Samuel is intermixed with the story of the priests.

1 Samuel 2 26 But the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with Yahweh and with the people. “But” points to a contrast. Even though Samuel grew up in a corrupted environment, he remained faithful to the love and respect that her mother and probably some other people taught him.

Some encouragement The promises of the Lord are great! Let’s not be foolish and lose them by sinful behavior.

Some encouragement The promises of the Lord are great! Let’s not be foolish and lose them by sinful behavior. Let’s honor, respect and appreciate all that we offer to the Lord at XICF.