1 Samuel 2:12-36
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Transcript
My name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here grab a Bible and go to First Samuel we are working through the book of 1 Samuel together so far we have learned about elaa and his wife Hannah and Hannah was praying for a son and she was blessed eventually with a son and she named him Samuel and I don't want to give anything away but he's kind of important in this book um and we are picking up in chapter 2 where we are going to.
See the growth and development of Samuel compared to and contrasted with the uh sons of Eli hne and Phineas and we're going to see the wickedness of hne and Phineas and we're going to to kind of read through this story together make a few observations but then we will end with four observations from the text on the nature of their sin the nature of their wickedness and the nature of God's response to their sin and so that's that's what we're going to do with our time this morning will be in 1st Samuel 2: 11-36.
If you will join me in prayer father we pray that you would bless this time as we study your word help us to hear from you may your spirit guide us and lead us towards greater faith in Jesus name amen uh 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 11 then elaa went home to Rama and the boy that's Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest he is little he's been weaned so he's not in need of his mother anymore.
But he is a small child and he's been given to the Tabernacle at Shiloh Eli is the high priest his two sons hne and Phineas were told in chapter one were priests under him and so uh Samuel is now serving as basically a small boy participating in running tasks doing errands those sort of things developing and growing as he's been given to them at Shiloh and it's going to compare them back and forth so that's what it says in 11 it says that he's there the boy was ministering to the.
Lord in the presence of Eli the priest now the sons of Eli were worthless men they did not know the Lord and so this story is going to unfold in that manner we're going to go back and forth mostly looking at hofi and Phineas but we're going to see that contrasted with Samuel he's going to be in the background throughout and so basically it's going to say look at how awful the they are and then it's going hey look they're Samuel and that's basically how it's going to go back and forth um the sons of Eli were worthless men they did not know the.
Lord that is not how you want the Bible to describe you and it is particularly bad if you are the priests these are the priests it's not they they had one Tabernacle where all the people of Israel had to come to partake in sacrifice and this is where you would Worship the Lord they were not allowed to just do sacrifices wherever they were he said you'll have to do that in the place where I've chosen to make my name dwell which at this time was Shiloh.
Because they had not yet claimed Jerusalem and had not yet built the temple so you had to go to this place to see these priests and they don't know the Lord which means it's very possible as a person to know a lot about the Lord and not know the Lord to be around the things of God but not know God and that's the situation that they are in now it's going to expound basically upon their worthlessness help you understand what that means.
Verse 13 the custom of the priests with the people the custom here being this is what they practice not what they were taught to practice but what they were currently doing how they interacted with the people the custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice the priest servant would come while the meat was boiling so he would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand he would thrust it into the pan or Kettle or cauldron or pot which I love how that's written cover you can cook it however you want they were going to do this that's basically what it's saying into the pan.
The or Kettle or cauldron or pot all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself this is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there okay so if you're reading this we just told they were worthless we're told they do this thing and then we're told this is what they were doing to the people at Shiloh now I don't think many of us were like what you like is it supposed to be a four-pronged fork like I don't know what are the what are the rules here.
Well in Leviticus chapter 2 chapter 7 and all over the place but those are two specific places Leviticus 23 731 through 36 there are specific portions that the priests are supposed to eat they were only allowed to have certain sections of the sacrifice so what would happen is all the people would come to to perform a sacrifice there were portions that belonged to the Lord and it depended on the type of sacrifice there were peace offerings and wave offerings and burnt offerings and sacrificial off offerings and offerings.
For sin and offerings for Fellowship there were all kinds of different offerings and this is all laid out in Leviticus uh mostly is the place where that most of that is laid out it's in other places as well but they had portions that belonged to the Lord they had portions that belonged to the priests and then the person there were portions that belong to nobody they'd burn up or take out and throw away and then the the people who brought the sacrifice would eat the other portions and in some ways they were partaking in depending on the type of sacrifice they were partaking in sharing a meal with the.
Lord and so what we're just told is the priests were taking portions that did not belong to them they were supposed to have the right thigh and the breast of whatever the animal was but they're showing up and just skewering and potentially getting better parts of meat they don't want to eat the same thing all the time they're just going to come by and get some things that's the first thing that they're doing verse 15 moreover before the fat was burned the priest servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing give meat.
For the priest to roast for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw and if the man said to him let them burn the fat first and then take as much as you wish he would say no you must give it now and if not I will take it by force okay again we need a little context to see why I mean other than threatening to beat people up why this is bad Leviticus 3:5 and then well I'm sorry Leviticus 3 uh parts of two and three.
And then we'll look at verse 16 and 17 I just want you to see this Aaron's sons the priests that's that's Eli Hoff Phineas shall throw the blood against the sides of the Altar and from the sacrifice of the PE peace offering as a food offering to the Lord he shall offer the fat F covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails then it goes on and talks a lot about fat and different parts of the the body that had fat on them that were belonging to the.
Lord and says and the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing Aroma all fat is the Lord's it shall be a statute forever throughout your Generations in all your Dwelling Places that you eat neither fat nor blood so the priests were coming by saying give us raw meat don't cook it first and the person who was there knew more or was trying to follow more than the priests were because they would say Let Me Burn the fat off.
Then he can have whatever he wants and then they would respond do you want to fight a priest today this system is wicked they are not following the Lord verse 17 thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt Verse 18 Samuel was ministering before the Lord a boy clothed with the linen ephod which is a a little linen priest outfit you know how cute little kids are.
When you put like a suit on them or whatever that's that's Samuel he's running around in his little little ephan and his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice which is such a sweet kind of sad part of the story she sees him once a year she comes up she's been sewing him in ephod she's making him closeth she's guessing how big she's how big he's getting.
But she takes seriously the the blessing that he was when she prayed for him and she take seriously her desire for him to know the Lord and I would just say that as parents care about your children knowing the Lord care about him serving the lord I realized at one point when I would go pick up my kids from Kid City I would say did you have fun which something I want I want them to have fun in Kid City but I realized that week after week as I was asking that question do you have fun do you have fun I was helping them frame up what the point of kid city was.
So I've started asking what' you learn about Jesus today what you learn about the Lord because that's actually what I want for them truth is if kid city was only fun and they didn't learn about Jesus we would have failed miserably so we wanted to be mostly Jesus and some fun all right but we want them to know the Lord and that's what she cares about she's blessing him and bringing this ephod each year then Eli would bless ELCA and his wife and say may the.
Lord give you children by this woman for the petition she asked of the Lord so then they would return to their home indeed the Lord visited Hannah and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters and the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord okay she is blessed she does have more children and something else that happens in this story is time just passed by she's had five children now so Samuel has gotten bigger and older and hoffi and Phineas have dragged out the amount of time they're doing this nonsense that's what just happened we just had a little Montage like a little you know the seasons went by it was a.
Little fast forward and then suddenly Samuel's taller that's what happened here now Eli is verse 22 now Eli was very old and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting so now we find out something else that they're doing using their position to either extort exploit or just to entice no matter what this is wickedness not to be done and he said to them why do you do such things.
For I hear of your evil dealings with all these people from all these people know my my sons it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad if someone sins against a man God will mediate for him but if someone sins against the Lord who can intercede for him so he corrects them but they would not listen to the voice of their father for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death that.
God is passing sentence and judgment on them you can almost feel them sneer and scoff at the correction now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man I I love how this story is written we've zoomed in this conversation where Eli is correcting his sons he's correcting the priests and he just says they disregarded and then it's like we pass out of the the place where they're having this conversation.
Look look Samuel's taller look at him doing a good job that's basically what the text says he's grown in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man and I want to say this we we have uh kid city fourth and fifth graders most of the time they go they have their own they're in here with us when we sing and then they go have their own um class that they're a part of and then once a month they're in the room and and you're in the room.
Today do you see see that God's eye was on the growth and development of a child do you see that Samuel was growing in favor with the Lord and with men what you do matters what your heart is doing matters how your acting matters that you develop and grow you can you are not too little to serve the Lord you are not too little to bless people you are not too little to partake in the things of God it's an encouraging part of this text.
Verse 27 and there came a man of God to Eli and said to him thus says the Lord did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt and subject to the house of Pharaoh did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest to go up to my altar to burn incense to wear an ephod before me I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel a man of.
God just appears and corrects the high priest and this is one of the things that's been true for the people of God as God has dealt with Humanity since the very beginning and something that is still true and we need to be aware of the word of God has a authority over the people of God the people of God do not have authority over the word of God that he shows up and speaks the word of the Lord specifically to the high priest just corrects him says here's what the.
Lord says it's like it almost feel like he walks in goes where's the high priest Eli says I'm a high priest he says sit down the Lord has something to say there is no council no Creed no Church history no no power no position no anything that has authority over the word of God the word of God has authority over the Church and we are to be people who love the word study the word know the word and follow the word there's just this glimpse of that in this moment.
But what he says what he starts off with what he's speaking on behalf of God is didn't didn't I Choose You and he's talking to Eli who's a son he's a levite and a son of Aaron he says didn't I choose you when you were still in Egypt meaning that God had chosen for the levitical priesthood and specifically the line of Aaron to be the high priest to do this role and the way the Bible talks about it is that they were chosen special and it was a blessing to them.
When they come into the land they don't the Levites don't get a um a portion of the land it says over and over again the Levites don't have an inheritance because the Lord is their inheritance he says didn't I choose CH you to walk up the steps of my altar didn't I choose you to stand before me didn't I choose you to share my table like you were invited in that's where he starts verse 29 why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded.
For my dwelling and honor your sons Above Me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of My People Israel therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever but now the Lord declares far be it from me for those who honor me I will honor and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed behold the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house.
So that there will be there will not be an old man in your house then in distress you will look with envious ey on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel and there shall not be an old man in your house forever the only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out and to grieve his heart and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men and this that shall come upon your two sons Hof and Phineas shall be the sign to you both of them shall die on the same day and I will raise up.
For myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind and I will build him a sure house and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever and everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say please put me in one of the priest's places that I may eat a morsel of bread judgment has been passed on the line of Eli he says we the line was going to run through you.
But not anymore more we're actually told in Second Kings I'm sorry First Kings chapter 2 27 it says so Solomon expelled abiathar so this is later this is when Solomon's King abar from being Priests of the Lord thus fulfilling the word of the Lord that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh eventually Eli's house is no longer the priesthood it moves to to Z zadok who is still a levite still of the line of Aaron and just not Eli's line they had been placed in a position of service and a position of belonging to the.
Lord but they didn't know the Lord and they used it for their own personal gain and he says your whole line is going to be dead or weeping and begging for bread because of how you've handled this now I want to make that's that's the story that's the section of text we're reading today I want to make four observations from this story the first one is I think we should see the wicked abuse of power that hofi and Phineas did I honestly think that's one of the things that would stand out most to us as we read this text that they were granted a position that was meant to be a blessing that was meant.
To be service and they used the position for their own gain for their own glory for their own good the God speaking through the man of God says you have fattened yourselves and I can't read this without giving serious consideration first and foremost to the role of pastors I couldn't read this this week without thinking about the position the office of elder or Pastor in a Church you see they had to have priests and you had to interact with these priests.
If you were going to go offer sacrifices you had to interact you had to go to Shiloh you had to interact with these priests and so this was happening you were you were stuck in the situation and Christians are supposed to belong to a Church and supposed to have pastors it's one of the roles that meant to exist in your life if you belong to the Lord now you can move around and go find a different pastor but you're meant to have one they couldn't change this up they had to the.
Lord had to work and intercede but we live in a culture right now where we're seeing consistently Pastor abusing their role doing some of this same stuff and it's wicked it's disheartening and there there needs to be those who would go into the pastorate to serve and to love and to take seriously the call of God and know the Lord but you can read story after Story right now people who have mishandled it chosen sin walked in hiding or who have used it.
For their own personal gain and glory and there is some fearful comfort in this story that God sees God knows and God responds and certainly this is one of the reasons why things were such a mess in Israel that those who were supposed to be leading them towards the Lord were not I'm certain it created a lot of cynicism and Brokenness and we can see that culturally as well where there's a lot of people who have Church hurt but I'm thankful that the.
Lord responds but we do need to take seriously the roles and positions of trust that we have I would think the next step of trying to look at that and understanding the abuse of power would be for for anyone who's in a position of trust a teacher a doctor a babysitter a manager at your job that you would take very seriously that you use your authority to serve and to love and to care for people rather than to just benefit yourself I think we need to.
See that from the text I think we need to see the abuse of power but I also think we need to acknowledge wrap our mind around that that is not the primary thing that God addresses when he shows up he doesn't really talk about that it seems as if that's more of a symptom of the problem but the main thing is something bigger and deeper and something that I think that we would largely ignore that there's actually a foundation of their sin or there's an aspect of sin that's underneath why they're doing these things that he comes at here's what it says in.
Verse 17 thus the sin of the young young men was very great in the sight of the Lord for he's going to tell us why the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt it doesn't say for they bullied the people of Israel which they did but that's not the main problem 29 when the man of God speaking he says why then do you scorn that's to treat with contempt my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling and honor your sons Above Me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of My People Israel.
So there's this contempt and honor scale that he's addressing the next verse he says Those Who despise me the main issue here is that they are dishonoring the Lord now we don't live in an honor culture we actually live in a very dishonoring culture we just do and there's some parts of that that I think are okay and appreciate or whatever but we don't hold many things sacred as a as a people there's not much that's taboo there not much that's off limits there's not many things that we would plug our ears about and refuse to.
Listen to because it's sacred and to be defended so we're not set up well to understand why this is the bigger issue there are a few places I was I was I was digging around trying to figure out where where are there a few places culturally where we might just go okay hold on stop I think there are some places in South Carolina if you were traveling and you had to stop you were taking back roads to get to the beach or something and you had to stop and get some gas and there was five or six people sitting out in front of the gas station you were walking into the gas station they had.
A brick wall here and they had painted a mural on it let's say on that mural mural there was an American flag or let's say on that mural there was a painting of Martin Luther King Jr and let's say the moment that you saw it you and spit on it I think in certain places in South Carolina the rest of your day would go poorly and it's not that you spit on the wall because if you did that to any brick wall people might think you're gross.
But I don't think they would be up in arms it's that the wall represents more it has something more to it there's something there that's represented that's bigger than the wall there's something there that's sacred you see I think so often when we consider what what's right and wrong what's good and bad and we talked about this some when we did our Series in Exodus and looked at the Ten Commandments that the framework we mostly use is fairness and then we use harm does it hurt somebody.
If you can prove to us it hurts somebody Americans will think it's bad for the record it is but I'm just letting you know that that's one of our main ones this is why when they were trying to stop piracy of like DVDs or whatever people downloading stuff the whole ad campaign was it's not a victimless crime they want they needed you to know that you were hurting someone because if they just said stealing is wrong the people downloading the stuff didn't care they had to try to convince you there was harm.
But that those are the ones that we understand understand but if we look through something and we go I don't think it's hurting anybody and I don't really understand why this would be a rule in the first place it can't be that bad none of us even after we found out the rule I don't think we're scandalized by them eating fat we were just like well okay he said not to this is very clear to me with with having children there are times where we give instructions to our children and the actual thing doesn't matter a lot.
For example if I say you have to clean this up before you go play the actual thing doesn't matter a lot that's a different rule than don't stab your brother that one the actual action matters a lot but if I come into the room and they're playing and they haven't cleaned up the bigger issue is dishonor that's the problem disregard lack of respect contempt and culturally we go yeah but that's not that bad so there's a there's an issue here where.
God gives instructions and if we don't really understand it or if we don't really really agree or if he hadn't done enough to convince me or if I don't really see who it hurts we'll say things to ourselves like well it's really not that bad and what we need to understand we're saying is he's really not that glorious he's really not that big he's really not that good he really doesn't matter that much that's a big problem to dishonor hold with in contempt belittle the.
Lord and the things of the Lord matters immensely and one of the things that we need to realize is that that means there's a current of contempt that runs underneath our sin that it doesn't matter what the action is it can still have this current of contempt that runs underneath it I I walked in on my youngest son at one point in his room and he immediately stopped doing what he was doing and looked at me well what you doing buddy.
And then he said I'm sorry and he told me what he was doing and I was like why are you sorry for that he said you told me not to and I had not told him not to do that thing I don't know what he had gotten confused that was not a rule that anyone had ever given him but I immediately was like you're still in trouble though because in his heart he's rebelling against me so I had to have a whole discussion with him about you broke a non rule.
But you broke a bigger one and there's a reality to our sin that has this current of contempt dishonor and disrespect that runs underneath it and so that when we would let ourselves off the hook cuz we would go well this is just in the privacy of my own home This only affects me this doesn't really bother anybody I don't understand I see it somebody in your group talks to you about it you go I see it's written there but I don't.
But I don't see it I'm going to need him to do a little more work to convince me and the problem isn't that his rules are wrong is that we just don't think he's all that glorious and all that honorable and all that big and that's what the problem in this text was that's why he shows up and doesn't say you did this you did this you did this he shows up and says you've held me in contempt and we need to be mindful to not just.
Look at the sin but to look at the sin underneath the sin and consider what's my heart doing here and do I hold him as glorious and big is he weighty which leads us to the next observation I think we should make which logically flows and again might strike like us is is odd did you notice who the the man of God spoke to is Eli not Hoff and Phineas he mentions them he doesn't speak to them and he says to Eli why.
Then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling and honor your sons above me see Eli's the high priest Eli's their father by the nature of his position by the nature of his relationship he should have addressed this differently because if you're reading the story you go wait wa wait Eli didn't agree he corrected them he told them they were wrong hold on hold on hold on you're fussing at the wrong guy Eli knew it was wrong he said it was wrong yeah.
But he let it keep going I'll give you an example to help you picture it let's say I'm in high school let's say I invite a friend over to my house let's say he starts being disrespectful to my mother for the sake of this hypothetical situation we will say my dad is not there so the story can continue let's say I correct him I say no don't talk about that in the house don't say that in front of her hey watch your mouth whatever let's say he continues at some point I'm going to choose who has more weight and who gets more honor at some point I'm going to choose who the room tilts towards.
And if I want to keep the friendship if I want the person to think I'm cool if I want this relationship to work then it'll shift towards my friend and will dishonor my mom and God speaks to Eli and he says you let the room shift to your sons and you joined in the dishonoring there is a type of holy protection that we are meant to have where we say no the Lord will be honored as long as I'm present and we're around we will hold that the.
Lord is Honorable and I'm not going to listen to this I'm not going to partake in this this matters with the things that we watch and listen to the jokes that we tell or that we listen to the shows that we watch where we say well it's not that big a deal the people that we hang out and we go well that's not that big a deal this is one of the things that's happening in Church discipline is that we're trying to pursue someone and call them to repentance.
But one of the things that happens at the end of Church discipline is we collectively as a Church say we're going to hold to the Holiness of God the room will not tilt towards you we have to stand as if he is glorious we cannot continue so he shows up to Eli and he says you let them have more weight you gave them more honor this matters immensely this is how Jesus teaches his disciples to pray Our Father in Heaven may your name be honored as holy may we live like you're the most glorious like you're the most wonderful May our hearts be in tune with you may we follow you like we trust you.
Like we love you like you're good even when we don't understand even when we don't know why the rules will rule even in the midst of things that we would desire and our desires are contrary may we walk with you fourth final observation Christ is the solution to the problem of these Wicked priests Jesus is the solution to the problem of these Wicked priests I love verse 35 in the middle of pronouncing judgment he says this and I will raise up.
For myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind and I will build him a sure house and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever I will get a priest who does what's in my heart and in my my mind there is a glorious gracious Sovereign willfulness of God a loving stubbornness when we think of willfulness so often we think of it in negative context my mom my entire life would periodically.
Look at me and go you're the kid I had to read the strong willed child about she'd be in the middle of saying something about one of my brothers you know the real criminals here and she'd be like yeah they did that and then she'd stop and go but you're the one I had to read a book about and it's like I'm not even like that anymore you guys I'm so easy to get along with delightful we think of willfulness so often in the negative context.
But there's a beautiful glorious wonderful willfulness of God that he looks in the middle of this broken mess and says I will fix it I'm going to have what I want and what he wants is a priest who loves and serves what's in his heart and was in his mind and in his heart is a priest that's going to sacrifice himself so that he might rescue a people for himself what's in his mind and in his heart is that God himself would join us to make a way.
For us in the cross oh don't we want a God who looks in the middle of our mess and says I will have it work out glorious and for the good of the people who would come to me it's wonderful we're told in the New Testament see it should shifts to zadok but zadok doesn't fulfill This Promise he's not still going in and out before the Lord he doesn't do it forever Jesus does we're told in Hebrews repeatedly that Jesus is our high priest that he's the one who stands the priest was meant to represent the people to.
God and God to the people and they're bad at it consistently but Jesus isn't Jesus actually answers the question that Eli asks Eli says verse 25 if someone sins against a man God will mediate for him but if someone sins against the Lord who can intercede for him he looks at his sons and says y'all are the priests y'all are supposed to help intercede but you're actively directly sinning against God what do you think where's your hope what's going to happen and our hope is that there's a great high priest who is fully man and fully.
God so that he could represent God to us and us to God and that he could take our place as first Timothy says for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and Men the man Christ Jesus so that as we look into our souls and we see a current of contempt running underneath all of our sins sin we can go to the Lord and we can say praise be to Christ that you sent a priest praise be to you.
Father that you sent a priest that I have hope that I have a mediator that will atone for my sin that has been directed at you in a Heart full of contempt every time I've disregarded you every time I've Dishonored you every time I've acted as if you did not matter praise be may Jesus cover my sin and forgive me and give me hope and he says he's going to have a high priest that stands before him forever and that's our hope the band's going to come back up we're going to sing together and celebrate together that we have a high priest I would encourage you to consider your sin I would encourage you to.
Ask what is underneath it why do I think it's okay why do I keep coming back to it what does I really want from it what does really believe about it I would encourage you to ask am I living in such a way that I act as if God is small or easily Dishonored easily disrespected and I would ask you to take a moment if you've never trusted in Christ to say Lord I need forgiveness I need someone to stand in between me and you.
And if you've trusted in Jesus take a moment to say Thank You Lord that I do not stand before you without imediator and then let's take some time to praise Christ for his love and the Lord for his willful gracious Sovereign willfulness his stubbornness to redeem a people for himself let's s.