and begins in verse 11 of 1 Samuel
2. And Elkanah went to Ramah, to
his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before
the priest. But now look at the contrast
that begins in verse 12. Now, the sons of Eli were sons
of Belial. They knew not the Lord. Now,
Eli's sons were the priests. He was the high priest, and the
high priest's sons served as priests. But they did not know
the Lord. Now they knew who the Lord is.
Eli taught them that. They had a head knowledge of
who the Lord is. They were the priests, so they knew the form
and the ceremonies of the things they were supposed to be doing.
They knew the form in their head, but they didn't love the Lord
in the heart. That was the problem, and that explains all their actions
that we see described in this chapter. In every page of this
book, tells us salvation is of the Lord. It's every page. Salvation is of God's grace that
He bestows on whom He will. Now, parents, we can and we should
give our children many things. We should help them and raise
them. It's like Sue and I were talking about being a parent.
It's hard work. It's a full-time job. But the one thing we cannot
give our children is faith. Faith, salvation, doesn't come
from the blood of our parents. It's found only in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. And Hocmah
and Phinehas did not know the Lord. And you see how evil and
deceptive these two young men were. They did know the Lord,
but now they didn't serve idols and, you know, idolaters, temples
and so forth. They served as the priests of
God in the temple. And really what they're doing,
they're not serving the Lord, they're serving their own belly
under the guise of religion. And what they're doing is deceiving
and robbing the people. Look at verse 13. And the priest's
custom with the people was that any man, when any man offered
sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in
seething, with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand, and
he struck it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot, and
all that the flesh hook brought up, the priest took for himself.
So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither.
Also, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came and
said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest,
for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw. And if any
man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently,
or today, and then take as much as thy soul desireth. Then he
would answer him, Nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if
not, I will take it by force. Wherefore, the sin of the young
man was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering
of the Lord." Now, this custom was a custom that Phineas and
Hophni introduced. This was not the law of God.
This was a custom that these two men made up, and it went
on so long that it was very well established and treated like
it was law. And this just shows how these
young men were making merchandise of men's souls. And the offering
in particular that he's referring to here is the peace offering.
When someone would bring a peace offering, part of that offering
belonged to the Lord. It was the fat that they burned
on the altar. Part of that offering belonged to the priest. The breast
and the shoulder of the sacrifice belonged to the priest. That
was where they got their meat. The rest of the sacrifice belonged
to the owner, and he would make a feast for his family and friends
of the rest of that meat. Now the high priest took the
breast and the shoulder of that sacrifice. But then, after that,
while the rest of the sacrifice was boiling for the feast, the
priest's servant came with some sort of a trident. And he sticked
that trident down in that pot, and whatever meat he pulled out
of there, he took to the priest. And they say that trident could
pull off about a pound of meat. Pretty substantial. These are
the men that Isaiah is going to describe later on when he
wrote, these are greedy dogs who could never have enough.
It wasn't enough that they had the breast and the shoulder.
Now they got to have more. And even that wasn't enough.
The problem was of sticking that trident down in the boiling pot.
You couldn't tell what you were getting, just sticking it down
in there and pull meat up. So what they started doing was
taking raw meat. And the reason they did that.
is so the servant of the priest could choose the best cut of
meat. That's exactly why they did it. And then it could be
roasted, not boiled, which, you know, they tasted better. And
the people, the Israelites, like the sheep of God, were so compliant. They just kept saying, OK. And
this thing just kept going and going and going and going. Believers. have a giving nature. That's
the nature God gives His people in regeneration. They have a
giving nature. They have a true heartfelt desire to glorify God
and be self-sacrificing in doing so. And that's the way it ought
to be. I'm not saying anything against
that. That's the way God's sheep are. That's the way He made them.
That's the way we ought to be. But a wolf will take advantage of
that nature if he can. And that's what these men were
doing. When the servant would come to get the raw meat, The
sacrifice wasn't even made yet. And they say, well, now let's
make sure that we burn the fat first so that the Lord's glorified,
so he's honored first. I mean, that's the reason we
brought the sacrifices to the Lord. We didn't bring the sacrifice
to you. We're bringing it to the Lord. So make sure the fat's
offered to the Lord first. And the servant said, no, you
give it to me now or I'll take it by force. We'll offer it to
the Lord later. And I'm telling you that's the
way false prophets operate today. That's the way they force people
to give today. By force. By threat. By threat
of God's judgment. By telling them it's God's law
that you tithe. By threat. And here's the root
of the whole problem. They abhorred the offering of
the Lord. That's the root of the whole problem. They did not
hold the sacrifice sacred. And we'll see in a minute how
that always brings swift, severe wrath of God on those who do
not hold the sacrifice as sacred. And what is so horrible is that
the behavior of Hocknine Phineas made the people hate worship
too. It's just heartbreaking. You know, the people say it's
not supposed to be like this. Worship is not supposed to be
like this. And make this applicable to us today. The problem with
man-made religion in the world today is the preacher, the man
who's supposed to be the preacher, abhors the sacrifice of the Lord. He does not hold the sacrifice
of Christ as sacred. He does not esteem the sacrifice
of Christ. And I know that so by listening
to his message. He says you have to do something
to make the sacrifice of Christ effectual. You have to do something.
You have to keep your salvation. The way they tell it, the sacrifice
of Christ alone is not enough. They abhor the sacrifice. And
you know what that message does? It puts a burden on people. The
gospel takes the burden off of people. Puts it on Christ. What
they're doing is putting a burden on people so that they abhor
religion. I don't blame somebody for abhorring
religion. It's what people think of as
religion, what they see on TV and this stuff, and they abhor
it because of the actions of the preacher. He doesn't deserve
their respect, hence they just abhor religion and the sacrifice
altogether. Now that's ugly, isn't it? Isn't
that dark and ugly? It's our day. It's what's happening
here. We see it in our day. And the whole story's not even
told yet. We see today the servants of Satan. I mean, you know they're
servants of Satan. They're prospering in the name
of religion. And it's discouraging. It's disgusting
and it's discouraging. And in the midst of all that
darkness and that despair, God gives us a ray of light. Look
over at 1 Kings 19. All is not lost. We feel this
way, just discouraged. Now, all is not lost. Elijah
felt that way in 1 Kings 19. This is Elijah speaking, and
he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because
the children of Israel have forsaken my covenant, they've thrown down
mine altars, they've slain thy prophets with the sword, and
I, even I only, am left. And they seek my life to take
it away. Now turn over a page to verse 18. Here's the end of
God's answer to him. Think you're alone? Think you're
the only one with faith? God says, yet have I left me
7,000 in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal,
and every mouth which hath not kissed him. All is not lost.
God's preserved some faith, some faithful people in this wicked
world. Now look at verse 18 in our text. Here's this dark, ugly
situation. Samuel ministered before the
Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod. Moreover, his
mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year
to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly
sacrifice. And Eli blessed Elkanah and his
wife, and said, The Lord give thee seed, this woman, for the
loan which is lent to the Lord. And they went unto their own
home, and the Lord visited Hannah. so that she conceived and bare
three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before
the Lord." Now, I'm pretty confident that Elkanah and Hannah visited
Samuel more than just one time a year. I mean, surely they visited
him at least at the three annual feasts, you know, where they
came three times a year. They lived less than 10 miles
away. I'm pretty confident they visited him more often than just
once a year. But here's the point. This is an act of faith. This
couple gave their only son. This is Hannah's only son. And she gave him to the service
of the Lord and turned around and went home and left him there.
And that ray of light that God gives us in this dark, ugly situation
is a picture of Christ, the Son of God. God gave His only Son
to be the servant of God, to serve Him, to do His will, and
to offer the sacrifice that would take away the sins of His people.
So here's young Samuel. He's a picture of Christ. He's
serving in the temple. Now he's about 12 years old.
You know his service began small. He's probably opening doors and
cleaning and sweeping and so forth. But his service, from
what the writers say, quickly grew. And Hannah made him a linen
ephod and a linen coat. We studied that in our study
of the tabernacle that the regular priest wore, and she brought
it to him. He always had the proper clothing. His mother made
him. And, you know, just because she gave Samuel to serve the
Lord, she didn't forget about this child. She kept him in her
heart. And this is, you know, us parents. Now, we can give grace to our
children. We can't do it. Can't give them grace. Can't
give them faith. But we can teach them Christ. She kept being faithful
to make him this linen coat and so forth. We can teach our children
Christ. We can do that. And you never
know when the Lord will be pleased to bless it. He blessed it in
Samuel's case. I know he blessed it because
Eli's happy to have him. At first, I'm sure he thought,
I'm going to do this 12-year-old kid. After a while, Eli's thankful
to have Samuel there serving in the temple with him. And he
blessed Hannah and Elkanah for their faith. And the Lord gave
them five more children. Look over Mark chapter 10. Our
Lord said something very similar about this in Mark chapter 10. Then Peter began to say unto him,
Lo, we have left all and followed thee. And Jesus answered and
said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands for my sake and for the gospel's. But
he shall receive a hundredfold. Now in this time, houses and
brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions,
and in the world to come, eternal life." My mother bore me a brother and
a sister. I've got that a hundredfold in
the Lord. That's what we do. And they had
it in this world, five more children. Now that's a good example of
faith, isn't it? Faith. But unbelief is still
running wild. Look at verse 22. Now Eli was
very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel,
and how they lay with women that assembled at the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation. Now I'm telling you, that could
be an article in this morning's newspaper. This week at work,
I did not take part in this conversation, but I heard it going on outside
my office. telling a story. He was just so distraught. This
TV preacher, he must like apparently, has been caught up in a sex scandal.
He's just devastated, you know. And there's this other fellow
there at work, a vile man, and he said, well, there's a surprise
for you. Don't you just expect it? Unfortunately
so. This is the way this thing's
been going for centuries. And Hopna and Phineas aren't
just going out here and seducing or sleeping with local harvests.
These are women who are coming to the temple to worship. I mean,
this is how horrible. Instead of turning their hearts
to the Lord, the priests are seducing them or forcing themselves
on these women. Now, most of the writers think
this is what happened. These women are coming to the
temple, bringing an offering for purification. And Hothni
and Phinehas delayed making the offering until the next day so
that the women had to spend the night. And then they took advantage
of them. It's my opinion that they took
it by force. The same way they took the meat
of the sacrifice by force, they probably blackmailed them, took
whatever they did, took it by force. And these men are corrupting
the people rather than leading them to Christ, rather than pointing
them to Christ. They're corrupting him. These
men have no regard for God's glory and no regard for the welfare
of men. Now that ought to be the two
primary traits of any true servant of God, has regard for the glory
of God and regard for the welfare of people. And these men obviously
don't have that. And the shame of it is Eli knew
what was going on. Look at verse 23. And he said
unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings
by all this people. Nay, my sons, for it is no good
report that I hear. Ye make the Lord's people to
transgress. If one man sin against another,
the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the
Lord, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearkened
not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them."
Now Eli, here's 90 years old or so, and I don't know, maybe
he's gotten too old to lead. Men tend to get sweeter with
age. I don't know. I know he's lost
some of the energy of youth, but he should have had a whole
lot more wisdom than he had here by the time he's 90 years old.
And he did rebuke his sons, but he didn't do it near harshly
enough. Because Eli, you've got to remember, is not just their
daddy. He's the high priest. He's the judge in Israel, and
he should have been much more harsh with them, but they didn't
listen. They just didn't listen to the
rebuke that he did give them. And why would you expect them
to? They didn't regard God. They don't regard the welfare
of people. It's no surprise they didn't regard their father either.
And Eli tells them, now a man can judge between two men. One
man wrongs another man. You know, the judge can judge.
You give down the verdict and the matter's settled. The debt's
paid, the matter's settled. But when you violate the sacrifice,
there remaineth no more offering for sin. There isn't anyone who
can entreat mercy for you when you've rejected the sacrifice,
because there's only one sacrifice for sin. Now again, here this
evil and unbelief, it's so dark. I mean, I just hate to talk about
it. It brings us down. But now listen to me, that does
not mean that no one anywhere has faith. It may be hard to
find, but I promise you, the Lord's preserved faith in the
earth. Look at verse 26. In contrast
to Hophni and Phinehas, the child Samuel grew on and was in favor
both with the Lord and also with men. Now look over at Luke chapter
2. Again, the ray of light that
God gives us here, the contrast, is a picture of Christ. Wasn't
it the same as Samuel's day when Christ appeared on the earth?
The religious leaders waxing worse and worse and worse, and
by stark contrast, the Son of God in His perfection stood in
such contrast to these men who were supposed to be the religious
leaders. And the same thing is said about Samuel is said about
our Lord in Luke 2, verse 52. increased in wisdom and stature
and in favor with God and man. Same thing that is said about
Samuel. Now, back in our text, verse 27, the prophet appears
to Eli. There came a man of God unto
Eli, and he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Did I plainly
appear unto the house of thy father when they were in Egypt
in Pharaoh's house? And did I choose him out of all
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? Wherefore, kick ye at my sacrifice,
and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and
honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fast with
the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people." Now, here
is this man of God. Maybe he's a prophet that he's
called a man of God. There's a lot of speculation
this man's actually Elkanah, but we don't really know. But
he comes and gives Eli the message of the Lord. Wasn't I gracious
to choose Aaron out of all the people down there in Egypt, in
Israel? Wasn't I gracious to choose Aaron
out of the tribe of Levi to be my priest? I entrusted the priesthood
to you. I entrusted the sacrifices to
you. I entrusted the sacrifices that you make for my people,
Israel. I entrusted that to you. Now, doesn't that grace deserve
faithfulness? It does. Our Lord said, For unto
whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. Much
has been given unto you. And Eli, not just your sons,
Eli, but you, you are not honoring the sacrifice. You are not honoring
the worship of God. Why are you honoring your sons
more than the Son of God? He says, I've provided you plenty
to eat from the sacrifices. You know, God's not going to
Just ignore it. People leave you begging for
bread. I've provided you plenty to eat from the sacrifices. So
why are you taking more and making yourselves fat? He says yourselves. It's not just Hoth, Nivenius.
Eli's enjoying that meat too. The extra meat that they took.
And you're making yourself fat by stealing from my people. And
Eli allowed this to go on. And so God's sending judgment.
And you'll notice As we go down through these verses, everything
that God says he's judging him for relates to the sacrifice.
These other sins are bad enough, but what is bringing this horrible
judgment on Eli's house is he had no regard for the sacrifice. God is a jealous God. He's jealous
of his glory. He will have no rivals. Look
at verse 30. Wherefore, the Lord God of Israel
saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father,
shall walk before me for ever. But now, the Lord saith, be it
far from me, for them that honour me I will honour, and they that
despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days 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. in all the wealth which God shall
give Israel, and there shall not be an old man in mine house
forever. And the man of thine, whom I
shall 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 he says, I'm
going to cut off thy arm, he means I'm cutting off your power.
I'm cutting off your right to the priesthood. I'm cutting off
your power to be the high priest. And that's going to happen. Eventually
that's going to happen to Eli's house. But the complete fulfillment
of that is going to be the abolishment of the Levitical priesthood when
Christ comes. We studied that high priest in
the tabernacle. There's no high priest wearing
that glorious ephod in the breastplate and the miter. Nobody's wearing
that any day because the priesthood has been abolished in Christ,
our high priest. And he tells them, there's not
going to be an old man in your house. They're all going to die
young. And you know, the historians say that happened for centuries. And centuries later, once they
lost track, you know, of Eli's lineage, there was a family and
all the boys in that family were dying about 18, 19 years old.
And the king said, check. I bet they're descendants of
Eli. This happened for centuries. And God tells him, you're going
to see an enemy in my habitation. And that's going to happen. Eli
is going to see the Philistines come into the temple and take
that ark. And it's going to break his heart.
He's just going to be so grieved. He's going to fall over backwards
and hit his head and die. And you know what is so sad?
The people suffered because of the actions of the high priest.
He's going to die, and they're going to be left with the mess
that he created. You cannot stress enough the importance of sound
leadership in the pulpit. And read on in verse 34. And
this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come upon thy two
sons on Hothni and Phinehas, in one day they shall die, both
of them. Now that's just a horrible experience. I would not wish that on people.
It's a horrible experience for a parent. Not only to lose one
child, but to lose them both in the same day. Especially bad
for someone who put his children ahead of the priesthood. Who
put his children ahead of the Son of God. The Lord will have
no rivals. He's going to remove those rivals.
Now again, that's so sad. In the midst of this darkness
and just utter despair. we have another ray of light.
And this is what I want us to take home. God's purpose does
not depend on the faithfulness of men. 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. And it shall
come to pass that every one that is left in thine house shall
come and crouch to him, bow to him, for a piece of silver and
a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into
one of the priest's offices, that I may eat a piece of bread."
Now this faithful priest he's talking about here, he's not
referring to Samuel. Now Samuel will be a good example
of a faithful servant, but he's not the priest that this prophecy
is talking about. This prophecy was fulfilled about
eighty years later, when Solomon came to the throne. Abiathar,
who was a descendant of Elias, was the high priest at that time.
And Abiathar had taken part in a plot against David and against
Solomon. And when Solomon came to the
throne, he spared Abiathar's life. But he removed him from
the priesthood. Sent him out to a farm out in
the country. Removed him from the priesthood. And a man named
Zadok took his place. And Zadok was a good and faithful
high priest. And I would imagine if a byfarer
wanted anything, he had to beg Zadok for it. He had to beg him
for a morsel of bread. He would have to ask him for
permission to serve in the lowest of positions. He'd have to beg
Zadok to even be able to come in and sweep the temple or serve
in the lowest form. But the real fulfillment of this
is in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the faithful high priest. He offered the only sacrifice
for sin that pleased the Father. He always obeyed the Father. He always pleased the Father.
He knew what was in his Father's heart and mind and he accomplished
it all. All the will of God. And Christ
did not come from the tribe of Levi. He didn't come from the
same tribe Eli came from. He came from the tribe of Judah,
the kingly tribe. He's not a high priest after
the order of Aaron. He's a high priest after the
order of Melchizedek, the king priest. Turn over to Hebrews
chapter 5. And not only is Christ our high
priest faithful, always faithful, so much better than a man, He
is a merciful and a faithful high priest. Hebrews 5 verse
1, for every high priest taken from among men is ordained for
men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins, who can have compassion, oh, the
compassion, the of Christ our High Priest. He has compassion
on the ignorant. I've got written above this verse,
Christ came for me. He has compassion on the ignorant
and on them that are out of the way, for he himself also is compassed
with infirmity. He's a merciful and faithful
High Priest. And Christ, our high priest,
built a sure house. He built the church. He put every
stone, every one of those living stones in its place. It's so
sure, Scripture says the gates of hell should not prevail against
it. And Christ, our high priest, stands before the Father eternally. Men die and their priesthood
ends, but not our Lord Jesus. Look over page of Hebrews 7,
verse 23. And they truly were many priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death,
but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them." And I promise you,
every knee is going to bow. Everyone is going to couch and
bow before him, before Christ the King Priest. Now, this is
what I really want us to take home. We see so much heresy and
apostasy in our day, don't we? It seems to us this is the worst
day in the history of the world. It probably is just as bad as
it's ever been, but it seems that way. But now don't quit. Don't quit. It's disappointing, but do not
quit. God has promised the faithful
one. He's promised the faithful Christ. And He shall never fail. All the promises of God in Him
are yea, and in Him, amen. And we have a good hope through
grace. Through the faithfulness of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Not our faithfulness. His faithfulness. Now listen. Nobody's been given
more physically or spiritually than the people in this room.
We ought to be faithful. We ought to be faithful. But
when we're not, when we're not as faithful as we ought to be,
and it happens all the time, this is our confidence. This
is our comfort. Our salvation is not based on
our faithfulness. It's based entirely on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He is faithful that promised. And the best of men are going
to let you down. They're just men. Eli let Israel
down. And you know Samuel made the
same mistake as Eli did. Samuel let them down with his
sons. They're going to make the same
mistake Men are going to let you down, the best of men. But
if they preach Christ, their message won't let you down. Now,
they may let you down, but their message will not let you down
because Christ will never let you down. Now, look back a few
pages if you're still there in Hebrews, Hebrews 4. Here's what
all this means to believers today. dark world that we live in, but
God preserved a ray of light. He's preserved faith in this
world and the Lord Jesus Christ. So what does that mean to you
and me? Hebrews 4 verse 14. Now seeing then that we have
a great High Priest, we have a great High Priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son
of God. So let us hold fast our profession,
don't quit, hold fast your profession. For we have not a High Priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore, it's dark,
it's disappointing, it's an evil world that we live in, let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The only place
you're going to find it is at the throne of grace. Let's be
a frequent visitor. The Lord bless you.