Turn with me again tonight to
the book of 1 Samuel chapter 2, please. 1 Samuel chapter 2. As we saw in our last study,
there was a serious issue and problem with the sons of Eli. The scripture here calls them
the sons of Belial. Sons of the devil. They stole
from God and they stole from His people. They took more than
was their due. They did so in an indecent and
dictatorial manner. They took these things by force. As the so-called priest of God,
they threw their weight around. You've heard that expression,
throwing your weight around. They took flesh out of the pot
before the fat was offered to the Lord. They stole, they robbed
God. They took more than the law allowed. They took their portion before
they gave the Lord the first fruits of the offering. And that
reminds me of a passage found in Malachi chapter three, verse
eight that says, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But you say, where in have we
robbed thee? And God says, in tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse,
for you've robbed me, even the whole nation, even this whole
nation. Bring me all the tithes into
the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house, and prove
me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open
the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing. that there shall
not be room enough to receive it." Now, we live in a day where
get-rich-harlings say things like, well, you can't out-give
God. And that's true, you can't. But
this religious world of health and wealth preaching makes those
blessings out to be from God to be a monetary or financial
and they use such verses as what I just read you to convince men
and women to sow or give into their ministry, which in return
makes them rich. And I have never known a man
or a woman to leave this mortal, perishable, physical life concerned
with how much money they had in their pocket or in their bank
account. Moses esteemed the reproach of
Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. For he had respect
unto the recompense of reward. Friends, Christ is our reward. Christ is our treasure. Christ
is the believer's recompense or compensation. What do I get
for trusting in Christ? Christ. Christ. And if I get Christ, I get all
that belongs to Him. It's all mine. In Christ are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2,
3. Job said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked
shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Why are you so blessed, Job?
Because I have Christ. I have Christ. The Lord Jesus,
speaking of Mary, said, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath
chosen what? The good part, that good part
which shall never be taken away from her. If I've got Christ,
He can never be taken away from me. And what a treasure that
is. The good portion is Christ. Eternal
life and salvation by Him. That's a good part. This portion
is forever. And this is the inheritance of
the saints in life. Colossians 1.12. Now here in
1 Samuel 2, verse 22, We read, now Eli was very old. It's probable that Eli was near
90 years old, because he died just a few years later at age
98. And it seems here that Eli's
age and somewhat decreased capacity for doing his job gave his sons
opportunity to act wickedly without any real reproof. These verses, it was a gentle
reproof that he gave them, and it seems as though he had lost
his vigor and his spirit. And I'm sure with the sons now
grown, you that have grown children know what I'm talking about.
You kind of lose your authority over them. I remember my daughter,
Leah, a few years ago, I tried to get on her about something.
Don't remember now what it was. And she said, I'm a grown woman
and I pay my own bills. She's right. So we lose some
authority over them, if we have any at all. And Eli should have considered himself
less a father and more of a high priest and a judge of Israel.
And again, we read now, Eli was very old and he heard all that
his sons did unto Israel and how they lay with the women that
assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
You see, not only did they rob God and his people, when devout
women, godly women came to worship at the tabernacle, these sons
of Belial defile these women by laying with them. Now, it
says here at the door of the tabernacle. It doesn't mean that
they lay with them actually at the door of the tabernacle in
some beastly fashion. But undoubtedly, they met these
women at the door and got them to go to their own dwelling
quarters to lay with them. And in verse 23, it says, And
he, speaking of Eli, said unto them, Why do you do such thing? You know, I ask myself that question
a lot. Why do you do such a thing? Why
do you act the way you are? Why do you think the things you
think? Why do you do such things? For
I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. There were
people coming to Eli and complaining about these boys. And Eli should
have rebuked them more sharply. As a judge, he should have punished
them. He was constantly receiving these
complaints, but he did nothing. But be assured that God did.
And that God would. Verse 24, he says, nay, my sons. And this reference to them as
sons seems to be too soft, too kind, and endearing considering
their offense. And he continues saying, for
it is no good report that I hear you make the Lord's people to
transgress. And that word transgress there
means to cry out. You're causing God's people to
cry out. It was far from being a good
report. Worse could not have been said of them. The people
of Israel quit bringing their sacrifices because they were
stealing from them. And they defiled the women and
they didn't come to worship. And they caused the people of
God to cry out. Verse 25, if one man sinned against
another, Eli said, the judge shall judge him. But if a man
sinned against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding,
they hearkened not unto the voice of their father. And notice,
this is very interesting terminology. They hearkened not unto the voice
of their father because the Lord would slay them. Now, no doubt
these men were evil. They were not dealt with by their
father as they should have been. And I'm reminded of the verse
of Scripture in Galatians that says, be not deceived. God is
not mocked. What's over a man soweth that. What he sows, that he shall also
reap. If you're a gardener and you
plant corn, you're gonna reap corn. If you plant potatoes,
you're gonna reap potatoes. A man's gonna reap that which
he sowed, whether it be good or bad. Good, he'll reap good. Bad, he'll reap bad. But it's
obvious from verse 25 that Eli knew that the Lord would deal
with him in the end. which makes His neglect of them
even a greater injustice. If man sinned against man, he'd
be brought before the judge. The judge would hear the charge,
he would hear the evidence, consider the evidence, he'd make a decision,
a determination, judgment would be made, punishment executed,
and the matter would be settled. But if a man sinned against the
Lord, Who is the judge of the earth? The one who always does
right. Who could defend the offender? Who can argue with God? What
argument could one make who sinned against the one who is their
creator and their preserver and the provider of all the blessings
that they enjoy? Who would entreat the favor of
God for such a person? Who would ask pardon for them?
and beseeched the Lord to be merciful to them. Few would dare
to stand in the gap between God and sinners. And Eli here suggests
by this question that not even he could when it came to his
son. Only the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one mediator, that faithful high priest. a just high priest
who's made peace and reconciliation by the shedding of his own blood
could provide the propitiation for sin. I hope we never forget
that. I hope we never forget that.
There's no one who can save us from our sin but the Lord Jesus. As I was thinking about this,
I asked myself, who hardened Pharaoh's heart? The scriptures
say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, but the scriptures
also say that the Lord hardened his heart. Which was it? Well,
it was both. Both are true. All the Lord has
to do, you know this, we've said this many times, to harden a
man or a woman's heart is just leave them to themselves and
let them harden it. And it was the same with Hothni
and Phinehas. They would not hearken to Eli
because the Lord, now this is the answer to that question earlier,
because the Lord had already determined not to grant them
repentance. You see, that's the Lord's prerogative.
He had withheld His mercy. He had withheld His grace and
His repentance from them. And they were doomed to die.
Peter's denial of Christ was no worse than Judas' betrayal
of Him. They both denied the Lord in
one way or the other. But God showed grace. to Peter
and he pursued Judas. It's God's prerogative to do
so. He has mercy on whom he'll have mercy, has compassion on
whom he'll have compassion, and he hardens whom he'll harm. Yet, when the Lord rose from
the grave, he told those who sought him at the tomb, he said,
you go your way and you tell my disciples and Peter. that
he goeth before you in Galilee, and there you shall see him."
Judas has already hung himself. No mercy for Judas. But there
was mercy for Peter, whose crime was no worse than Judas's. You
see, there'll be no mercy, no grace, no repentance granted
to Eli's sons, because the Lord would slay them. As far as the
priesthood had fallen, God has never left himself without a
witness. He always sees to it that his
people have rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling
our hearts with food and gladness. Acts chapter 14, 17. God's gonna
take care of his people. And in verse 16, it says, and
the child Samuel grew on, and was in favor both with the Lord
and also with men. God's not gonna leave Himself
without a witness. While these two boys were doing,
men were doing this evil, God had already, was already raising
up a young boy by the name of Samuel to serve Him and His people. He grew in stature and grace.
Eli's sons grew darker and darker. And the contrast makes one to
appear illustrious and the other to look blacker. I've told you
before that, you know, jewelers always get that black felt to
put a diamond or a pearl in front of it, because it just makes
it gleam with the dark background. And that's what we have here.
The Lord's showing us Samuel, who's gonna be his prophet and
his judge in the land. Now look at verse 27. Here we're
told, and there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him,
thus saith the Lord, did I plainly appear into the house of thy
father when they were in Egypt and Pharaoh's house? The Lord
had sent a prophet here to Eli to tell him the truth of his
actions and the consequences that would follow. That's how
God speaks today. He speaks through the preaching
of the gospel. He speaks through the word of
God, which is his Lord. He's spoken to us in these days
by his son. This message came from God. It came through a man whose name
is not recorded. It came through a man of God.
He's a prophet with no name. It's not important who this prophet
is. It's his message that's important. Why? Because it came from God.
Paul asked, you know, the Corinthian church had their favorites. Well,
I like the way Paul preaches, and I like the way Apollos preaches,
and Peter, I like the way Peter preaches. And Paul asked, who's
Paul and who's Apollos? They are but ministers by whom
you believe. The Lord does the saving, and
He uses sinful men like me to preach His gospel. He said, even
as the Lord gave to every man, every believer, that's the gift
of a preacher, to tell you who and what you are and who God
is, and how God saves sinners. And our message, it's a comfort
to some, and it's a warning to others. It's an encouragement
to some and it's a rebuke to others. It's salvation to some
and it's judgment to others. The message of this unknown prophet
came sometime before the events announced actually transpired. And the purpose for which this
message was sent was to lead Eli to repentance. And to some,
the preaching of the gospel leads to repentance. There are some
valuable lessons, I think, for us to learn here. We're accountable
to God for how we use the gifts that he gives us. Now, some of
you are immediately gonna say, well, I don't have any gifts.
Yes, you do. Yes, you do. The Lord tells Eli
here, he said, did I not appear into the house of your father?
Speaking of Aaron, who he descended from his line, he said in verse
28, and did I choose him out of all of the tribes of Israel
to be my priest? to offer upon mine altar, to
burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? And did I give unto
the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the
children of Israel?" God said, I gave these gifts. Every good
and perfect gift comes down from the Father of light. Any gifts
that we have are from Him. And He said, God said, I chose
your father, not speaking of his earthly father, but of Aaron,
the high priest from whom he descended. And he said, did I
now choose him out of the tribes of Israel to be my priest? His
tribe was given the privilege of offering sacrifices upon the
altar, he said. He was given the honor and the
privilege of burning incense to wear an ephod before God. And what an honor it was to be
a priest of God, because it all pictured Christ. God gave to
Eli's father's house the wondrous privilege of sharing the offerings
made by far. As we saw in our last study,
God made provisions for the priest and his family to share of the
sacrifice. of the meat that was offered
for the sacrifice. And Eli's sons abused that privilege. They took extra portions from
the people. So this man of God, whoever he
is, we're never told, doesn't matter. He begins to rebuke Eli
in light of these many privileges, and then he highlights Eli's
sins. Look at verse 29. Wherefore,
kick ye at my sacrifice and mine offering, which I've commanded
in my habitation, and honors thy sons above me, to make yourselves
fat with the cheapest of all the offerings of Israel my people."
Now, it seems in reading this that Eli's sin here is twofold. He scorned God's sacrifice and
offering. That's what that word kick there
means. It means to scorn, it means to
despise, it means to trample. This was the practice of Eli's
sons, but to allow his son's actions was to share in their
sin. When someone kicks a dog, it's
a sign of scorn and disrespect. Notice that the man of God here
includes Eli when he tells him that they've fattened themselves.
God said, you have made yourselves fat. He includes him in with
the sins of his two sons. Now, Eli wasn't taking the meat
from the people, but he still ate from the meat. that his sons
brought back. And in doing so, Eli sinned in
a second way. What was his second sin? He honored
his sons above God. Any believer who loves and honors
parents, children, or anyone above the Lord, the Lord himself
says, not worthy of me, not worthy of me. Eli knew what his sons
were doing. He knew about the sacrifices
they were stealing. He knew how they bullied and
threatened people to get them. In verse 24, he said, it's no
good report that I hear. People come to him. He knew what
was going on, but he preferred his sons over the glory of God. He knew they were sleeping around
with the women who came to serve in the temple in Shiloh. And
again, he didn't stop them. He didn't remove them from their
priestly service. He honored his sons above God.
It's a violation of the first commandment. We're all accountable
for the gifts that God gives us. Every good and perfect gift
comes from Him. Now, we may not have the privileges
that Eli had, but we've all been given gifts to honor and serve
God. The question is, are we using
them to serve God, and the greater the gifts, the greater the sin.
You know, I was watching this week at the conference in Lexington,
and there were some men that I knew that attended there, and
I've never seen them preach. I've never seen them do special
music, play an instrument. But I've seen some that I knew
attended there handing out bulletins and picking up the pews afterwards,
the trash or whatever it was. There's always something for
us to do. God's given us all something
that we can do. And we should, whatever that
is, do it to the glory of God. Are we using those gifts to serve
God? May the Lord enable us to see a way to honor him with a
gift that he's given us. For unto whomsoever much is given
of him shall be much required, the Lord said in Luke chapter
12. And to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask the
more. Friends, whatever gift we have.
Whatever we do, may we do it to the glory of God. First Corinthians 10, 31. Let's
be faithful in the small things. That's what the Lord said. Be
faithful in the small things that God gives us to do. You
know, unfaithful conduct is always punished. God's no respecter
of persons. Scripture clearly teaches that.
He'll give to every man according to his works. What we reap, that
we sow. And here's another lesson to
learn from this passage. It's a principle found throughout
the scriptures. Some call it the law of the harvest.
We reap what we sow. We've already talked about it.
We plant one thing and that's what we reap. Be not deceived,
God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Our attitude towards
God really does matter. Look at verse 30. Wherefore the
Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house and the
house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now, the
Lord saith, be it far from me. For them that honor me, I will
honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
What does that mean? You reaping what you've sown.
That's exactly what that means. God has made a promise. He made
a promise to the descendants of Aaron that they would serve
as priests before him forever. But now that promise has been
taken away from Eli and his descendants because Eli had dishonored God. God honors those who honor him,
but those who despise him will become vessels of dishonor. And
I'll remind you that he's the sovereign potter, as the sovereign potter forms
the clay, and he forms some into honored vessels of honor and
some into vessels of dishonor. God's judgment can be severe. Look at verse 31. Here God says,
behold, the days will come that I will cut off thine arm and
the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old
man in thine house. And thou shalt see an enemy in
my habitation and all the wealth which God shall give Israel,
and there shall not be an old man in thine house forever. And
the man of thine whom I shall not cut off from mine altar shall
be to consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart, and all
the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age. Now part of God's judgment on
Eli here would be that all his descendants would die young in
the prime of their life. And we don't have all the historical
details of how each of Eli's descendants died or what happened
to each of them, but we do know that this prophecy was fulfilled
in a dramatic way later on in the book of 1 Samuel. Eli's son,
Phinehas, had a son named Ahitub. And Ahitub had a son named Ahimelech. And Ahimelech was Eli's great-grandson. And if you remember, Ahimelech
was a priest during the time of King Saul. You remember when
David was on the run from King Saul, Ahimelech gave David and
his men food and provisions. When they went to that cave,
All those men came unto him. And as a result of that, Saul
killed 85 priests under Ahimelech's supervision. And Ahimelech and
all his sons died in that massacre, except for one man who managed
to escape and tell David. He died a young man. Listen,
when God says something, it's so. You can count on it. And the more immediate would
be the destruction of Eli's two sons, which in chapter four,
we'll see they come to their demise. Look at verse 34, and
this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon thy two
sons on Hophni and Phinehas, and one day they shall die, both
of them. So again, we see that men and
women reap what they sow. Folks may get away with sin for
a season, but be sure, the scripture says, that your sin will find
you out. That is, unless your sin is put
on Christ and punished in Him. I don't understand men and women
who think that God can't live without them. and there are plenty
of them. Think they're a gift of God to
God. God doesn't need you and God
doesn't need me to fulfill his will and purpose. He's God. Look at verse 35. And I will
raise me up a faithful priest that shall do according to that
which is in my heart and in my mind and I will build him a sure
house, and he shall walk before mine anointed forever." Now Eli
and his sons had shown themselves to be anything but faithful priests. But man's lack of faithfulness
has never kept God from being faithful, never. That's what
Paul said. He said, what if some did not
believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? God forbid, he said. No way.
God is forever true. And every man by nature is a
liar. God is true and faithful. You know, in Revelation chapter
three, verse 14, the Lord is called the Amen. So be it. that faithful and true witness. In Revelation 19, verse 11, we're
told, and he that sat upon the white horse was called faithful
and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. The Lord Jesus is the true and
faithful one. God would raise up for himself
a faithful priest, high priest, who would serve God from his
heart. You know who that is. You know who that is. At first
glance, you may think it's Samuel. Samuel is certainly the only
one who at this time is enjoying God's favor in Shiloh. But although
Samuel fulfills some of the priestly roles, he functions more as a
prophet and a judge than a priest. So if not Samuel, then who? Well,
we need to look further down the line before we identify this
faithful high priest. And as you know, it was referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me quickly remind you in
closing of what you already know. Under the old covenant, the priest
made atonement for the sins of the people by sacrificing a lamb,
symbolically putting the people's sin on the lamb, And the problem
with this system was that it could never totally satisfy the
wrath of God. The earthly priests were also
imperfect themselves, so they had to also make atonement for
their own sin. And it was just a reminder of
sin. The blood of bulls and goats and lambs could never put away
sin. It was just a remembrance of our sin. But the priesthood
of Christ, while comparable to The earthly priest was different
because the Lord's priesthood was final. His priesthood was
final because the sacrifice that He made on behalf of us was perfect. That being the sacrifice of Himself. The sacrifice provided, that
being Christ Himself. He didn't stay dead. The justice
of God couldn't hold Him in the grave. Death had no dominion
over Him. It had to let Him go. Christ,
the eternal Lamb of God, sacrificed Himself. He rose from the grave.
Then He sat down at the right hand of God the Father, continuing
to intercede for His people, His redeemed people. And when
our Lord came into this world, you remember what He said? He
said, "...sacrificed an offering thou wouldst not, but a body
hast thou prepared Me." and burnt offerings and sacrifices for
sin, God had no pleasure. These were offered by the law,
but our Lord taketh away the first that he might establish
the second. And I love the verse that says,
by the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ. once for all. No more sacrifice to be made.
No more offering to be made. Christ is our offering and our
sacrifice. The Old Testament sacrifice can
never take away sins, but this man, the God man, after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down. on the right hand of God, from
henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. You know, I was thinking about
that this afternoon. Who are these enemies? Well,
by nature, it's you and I. No doubt this refers to the world,
this refers to sin, this refers to Satan, this refers to the
powers of darkness, this refers to even death. But all those things are in us
by nature. We are sin. We are of our Father
Satan and Adam and darkness and death dwells in us. But Christ
takes His enemies and He makes them His own. And as our high
priest in offering our perfect sacrifice and surety, He can
justly do so. I cherish the fact, I honestly
do, that I am His footstool. What's a footstool? Well, it's
something under the feet. to rest from your work. You get
home sometimes, I hear you men say, I say it myself, can't wait
to get in my recliner. What do we do in a recliner?
We recline. We kick our feet up and we rest on that footstool. In most cases, the feet rest
upon the footstool, but in the gospel, the footstool rests under
Christ's feet. That's where we find our rest
and our comfort. His people are subdued under
him. And they wouldn't have it any
other way. They trust and rest alone in
His finished work of righteousness. The chief priests and Pharisees
in our Lord's day, well, they thought they had God's blessing
forever. But they didn't have Christ.
So they didn't have His blessings forever. He's truly the one thing
needful. You see, friends, there's only
one true guarantee of eternal life. He that hath the Son, he
that hath the Lord Jesus Christ, hath life. And he that does not
have the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, hath not life. So the
question is, is Jesus Christ your faithful high priest? May God be pleased to make it
so.