Let us turn back again tonight
to 1 Samuel chapter 2. 1 Samuel chapter 2, and tonight
we'll begin reading in verse 11. and Elkanah went to Rama to his
house and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the
priest. Now the sons of Eli were sons
of Bilal, they knew not the Lord. And the priest's custom with
the people was that 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. 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, and then take
as much as thy soul desireth, then he would answer him, no,
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. But Samuel ministered before
the Lord, being a child girded with the 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, Lord, give thee seed of 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 bear
three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before
the Lord. Now Eli was very old and heard
all that his sons did unto all Israel. and how they lay with
the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation. And he said unto them, why do
you 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. You 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.
And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favor both with the
Lord and also with men. And there came a man of God unto
Eli, and 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 mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and
honors thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the
chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people. 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.
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 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 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. 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. And I will raise me
up a faithful priest that shall do according to that which is
in mine 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 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. I want us to notice
that in these verses that I've just read, we are given a most
solemn truth. A very solemn truth. In verse
30, the Lord said, them that honor me, I will honor. And they
that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. As I looked at that,
I wanted to mention, first of all, we do not know who said
that. We do not know the man's name
who said these words to Eli. We do know, according to verse
27, that he was a man of God. It says in verse 27, and there
came a man of God unto Eli. And we do know that he was speaking
the word of the Lord, because in verse 30, we read, wherefore
the Lord God of Israel saith. And that made me think of the
many men and women God's children who have passed through this
world unknown to their posterity or to history, whose names are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life, but their names are not
recorded in the Word of God. And as far as the history books,
they don't contain their names. How many men and women have served
their own generation by the will of God as they lived in this
world And no one knows about them except the Lord. They honored
the Lord and the Lord has honored them. But this, this text, this
truth is them that honor me, I will honor. And they that despise
me shall be lightly esteemed. Now that's a truth. That's a
truth that God has delivered unto us. And in these verses
tonight, I want us to say that we have an example of someone
who honored the Lord and was honored, and someone who despised
the Lord and was lightly esteemed. First, Hannah honored the Lord. She honored the Lord. In the
last two messages, we have seen how that Hannah honored the Lord. We saw how she honored the Lord
first she believed God. She believed God when she was
praying and the priest told her that she would have what she
asked. We saw that she believed God
and she had been crying and weeping, and the scripture says there
that she was no longer sad, which tells us she believed God. She
believed the word which this priest of God had spoken unto
her. That's how she honored God, first
of all. She believed God. If we doubt God and distrust
God, certainly we don't think we're honoring God. You know,
In Romans chapter four, the apostle Paul tells us this about Abraham,
how he gave glory to God. How did he give glory to God?
He was strong in faith. Being strong in faith, he gave
glory to God. God cannot lie, and yet many
times we're guilty of unbelief. The sin which doth so often beset
us is unbelief, doubting God, questioning God's providence,
questioning God's love, doubting God. Hannah honored God, first
of all, she believed God. She believed the man of God,
his word, which he was in the place of God for her, that is
Eli. And he told her that she would
be granted her request, and she believed him. She believed the
word of God. We saw how she honored the Lord's
second. We saw this last week when she
brought her son Samuel to leave him there at the tabernacle with
Eli. She had made a vow, and she honored
God in keeping her vow. She vowed, if you would give
me a son, I will give him unto the Lord. The Lord gave her a
son, and she honored the Lord in keeping that vow. I should have pointed this truth
out last time, but I didn't, but I want to tonight. If you look back in chapter one,
Hannah, she gave Samuel to the Lord. We know that. She gave
him to the Lord. But the point I want us to see
is, she only gave God what God gave her. Right? She only gave the Lord what the
Lord had given to her. And that's what we read here
in verse 27 of chapter one. For this child I prayed, and
the Lord hath given me my petition. The Lord gave her this child,
this Samuel, which I ask of Him, therefore also I have lent him
to the Lord. And the point I want to make,
if you will keep your places here, but look with me in 1 Chronicles. When we give our offerings to
the Lord, and it is a great privilege, isn't it, to be able to give
an offering to the Lord. But when we do so, what are we
doing? We're only giving back a part
of what He's given us. That's all we're doing. When
she gave Samuel to the Lord, she was only giving back to the
Lord what He had given her. And everything we have, He's
given unto us. And David acknowledges this here.
This is a passage I wanted us to see in 1 Chronicles. chapter
29, when David is making provision for the building of the temple. David, of course, wanted to build
the temple. It was in his heart to do so,
but God said no. God said no because of the fact
that David had been a warrior and had shed much blood. And
God told David he would give him a son of peace, which is
Solomon. And incidentally, both of those
men, both David as a warrior and Solomon as a man of peace,
they both pictured to us the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. He conquered our enemies, just
like David conquered the enemies of the people of Israel. And
Solomon reigned in peace. But here in 1 Chronicles 29,
beginning with verse 10, Wherefore, David blessed the Lord before
all the congregation. And David said, blessed be thou,
Lord God of Israel, our father, forever and ever. Thine, O Lord,
is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory
and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth
is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor
come of thee. And Hannah acknowledged that
in her hymn that we looked at last week. The Lord makes rich
and the Lord makes poor. David said, both riches and honor
come of thee, and thou reignest over all, and in thine hand is
power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great and
to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, We thank
thee and praise thy glorious name. But who am I and what is
my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this
thought? For all things come of thee and
of thine own hand, of thine own have we given thee. David gave
Gold and silver and precious stones and brass and without
measure, the brass. All these materials for the temple
construction. And he acknowledged, he said,
we've only given what you've given unto us. And that's the
way, it's such a privilege to be able to give. I encourage parents, teach your
children to give. When they're small, teach them
to give. You know, our Lord said it's
more blessed to give than to receive. And that's just a truism. People that are stingy and tight-fisted,
there's no place for that among God's children, really. I mean,
God has given us so much. Everything we have, really. Everything. It all came from his hand. And
we just give back a portion of what he gives to us. And to live
in a country like we live in, where we have so much, and I
know everyone in this room here tonight, we've always probably
most likely been able to give. That's a blessing. because there
are people in this world tonight who are like that woman, that
widow woman our Lord watched as she cast those two mites into
the offering box. And the Lord said she's given
more than everyone else here. All these wealthy people, these
Pharisees and Sadducees and wealthy people to come and made a big
show of their giving and this little lady gave two mites which
Not much of anything, but it was everything she had. She just gave what the Lord had
given her. And we see Hannah, that's the
second way I see that she honored the Lord. She gave her son Samuel
as she had promised in her oath. And then third, In her song, we looked at that
song of praise in the first 10 verses of chapter two last week,
but you cannot read that song, that hymn there, and not see
that it is a hymn of praise. You know, I heard a pastor, a
message a few weeks ago, and the pastor pointed this out.
I had never heard this, but I realized it, that somewhere in the 20th
century, in the 1900s, the hymns that were written for believers
to sing, there was a great change from singing praises to God,
worshiping God, and writing things about ourselves, about men. There's been a great change.
And you look in the hymn book, and I try to choose out hymns
that praise the Lord. that give glory to God. And that's
one reason I like that hymn we just sang, The Lord is King,
to praise God. That's what we come here to do
is to worship God, to praise Him. And we know He's worthy. As David said, Thine is the majesty,
Thine is the glory. Oh, how he praised the Lord.
And that's what we want to do in our hymn singing is praise
the Lord and we honor the Lord like that. Tell the truth. That's what I heard Scott Richardson
say one time. That's how we praise God. We
just tell God back what he's told us about himself. We just
tell it back to him what he's told us about himself. That's
how we praise him. That's how we honor him and Hannah
honored We see that at least in those three ways. Tonight,
in the verses that we read, we see how the Lord honored Hannah. You know, in her hymn of praise,
verse five, she said, the barren hath born seven. Now in verse
21, we read that Hannah, counting Samuel, was given six children. And I thought, well, what about
that number seven there? In verse five. In verse five,
she said, the barren hath born seven. She had six. But you know the number seven
is a number of completeness, isn't it? In the scriptures,
it stands for completeness. And that was her complete. Children,
six, she had six children. And children, the Bible says,
are an heritage of the Lord. She had three more sons and two
daughters. And when I think about God honoring
Hannah, I also believe that we can see how the Lord honored
Hannah. in giving her such a son as Samuel. My, what mother, what mother,
what Christian mother would not love to have a son like Samuel,
like Samuel. Everything we read about him.
I want you to notice these three verses here. in these verses
that we read that speak to us about Samuel. Notice in verse
11, in verse 11 it says, Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house,
and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. In other words, he's just a small,
young person, and he's under the supervision of Eli. And Eli
said, do this, he did that. He ministered unto the Lord,
as it says there, before Eli the priest. He needed someone
to teach him, didn't he? He needed someone to guide him,
as children do. But notice down further in verse
number 18, we read, but Samuel ministered before the Lord. Doesn't
mention Eli in this verse, does it? At first, he was under the
guidance of Eli, doing what Eli instructed him to do. But as
he learned, as he ministered unto the Lord, then he didn't
need Eli. He knew what he was to do, to
minister unto the Lord. And then look down to verse 26.
And the child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the
Lord and also with men. Now when I read that, I could
not help but think of that passage in Luke chapter two of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember when he went up
to Jerusalem with his mother and Joseph and they started home
and he stayed behind. And after a day's journey, they
realized he wasn't in their company. They go back, where did they
find him? They find him in the midst of the doctors, speaking
and talking to the doctors. That means those who learned
in the law of God, those who'd studied the law of God. And that's
where we have his first recorded words. When he answered his mother,
Marian, said, dost thou not know that I must be about my father's
business? His whole life he was about his
father's business, wasn't he? God, his father. What was that
business? It was to obey the law of God
perfectly. It was to bring in an everlasting
righteousness. It was to make an end of sin.
It was to seal up prophecy, all the promises and the Prophecies
concerning the Messiah were all fulfilled by him being about
his father's business. But the point I wanted to make
is the last verse in that chapter, now he's just 12 years of age.
I don't know how old Samuel was there at that point. But the
scripture there says, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. and in favor with God and man. And that's one of the most amazing
verses in the Bible, isn't it? Now he who is God, God manifest
in the flesh, how it could be said about him that he increased
in wisdom and in favor with God. Now we can see how he increased
in stature, naturally would grow from an infant to a young man,
but to increase in wisdom, he who is wisdom personified. We know this is speaking of his
humanity as a man, how men can read the word of God and fail
to see that the Savior, the Messiah. is both God and man. It amazes
me how anyone could read the scriptures and not see that the
Lord Jesus Christ and his two natures, God and man, they're
not mixed. They're not fused together. No, he joined to his deity, that
body that was prepared him of God the Holy Spirit so that he
is fully God and fully man. And so he could and did increase
his humanity in stature, and yes, even in wisdom, and in favor
with God and man. Now, I want us to look at another
example of some who honor God. The scripture says, them that
honor me, that's what the Lord said here. Them that honor me, I will honor.
Hannah honored the Lord, didn't she? Amen. Stay with me now. Hannah honored the Lord and the
Lord honored Hannah. She's not the only one in the
scriptures that honored the Lord and the Lord honored. There are
many examples. I wanted to call our attention
to this one in the book of Daniel. We're all familiar with the three
Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Look here in Daniel
chapter three. Verse 16. Chapter three, verse
16 of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we're not careful
to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, we want you to know
this. If it's God's will to deliver
us, he's able. We want you to know that first
of all. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver
us from the burning, fiery furnace. Can you imagine that? The soldiers
who threw them into the furnace themselves were killed. because
of the heat. And they're in the presence,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego of the king, and there's that
furnace that's just heated up to no telling what degree, and
they let the king know. They honor God, don't they? That's
all you can say. They honor the Lord in their
speech. We want you to know this, O king.
Our God whom we serve is able There's nothing he cannot do.
He's not limited in any way. Not the God that we serve. Not
the God of our salvation. He's able. And he will deliver
us out of thine hand, O King. If it's his will for us to be
thrown into that fire and our life to end In doing so, we will
be delivered from your hand. We want you to know that. Either
way, either way, we're going to be delivered. It's kind of
like when we pray for people that are very sick and close
to death and they tell us sometimes, well, I'm going to be better
either way. Either I'm going to be better
with the Lord or I'm going to get better physically. One or
the other, it's gonna take place here. But if not, be it known
unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship
the golden image which thou hast set up. Did they not honor the Lord?
Did they not honor him? Then was Nebuchadnezzar Full of fury, you know the rest
of the story, how they were delivered. And when they came up out of
that burning fiery furnace, there was not even the smell of fire. Wasn't even the smell of fire
on their clothes. All right, let's go back to 1
Samuel. Ooh, 1 Samuel. And hurriedly,
let's look at a person who did not honor the Lord. And that
person, of course, is Eli. Eli. I have no doubt that he
was a believer, that he was a true believer, a righteous man. But
in the matter with his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, he did not
honor the Lord. His sons were evil. They were
wicked. They did not know the Lord, verse
12 says. That doesn't mean they didn't
know that there is a God. All men know that. But they did
not know the Lord. They had no fear. The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. They didn't fear the
Lord. Now, they were naturally made priests because they were
Eli's sons. And that's just the way it was
under that old dispensation. They became priests because they
were born of Eli. But they were covetous. They
were covetous. They were not content. with what
God provided for them through the offerings. And their sin
in disobeying the law of God, it was great, their sin. It was great, but it was even
greater because they caused the people of God not to want to
offer unto the Lord. to abhor, the scripture here
says in verse 17, because of their conduct, because of the
way they lived, their actions, they caused the people of Israel
to abhor the offering of the Lord. What Eli did in verse 23,
it said, he said, why do you such things? Listen, He should
have done a whole lot more than that. That wasn't good enough
just to say, why are you doing this? No, he knew what they were
doing. What he should have done was
put them out of the priesthood. They were not worthy to be priests.
He was a high priest. He had that authority. He should
have put them out of the priesthood. But God says he honored his sons
above himself. That is, he honored his sons
above God. That's what it says in verse
29. Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice
and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and
honors thy sons above me. Above me. You know what God called that? What God says about him honoring? His sons above God, despising
the Lord. Look at that in 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 That's what they were guilty
of, despising the Lord, despising the Lord by honoring their sons
above God. And you know, I looked at this
just a few minutes ago before I came to make sure about this. It came to my mind after I'd
already prepared these notes, but that's the very same thing
that God told David. concerning his sin with Bathsheba
and the murder of her husband, God said, you've despised me. You've despised me. There's other examples in the
word of God, of course. But how, how did this turn out
for Eli? God said, In that passage there,
they that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed. How did it turn out for Eli?
Well, we know that in one day, Hophni and Phinehas were killed. Those sons that he honored more
than he honored God, they were both killed in one day. And the
office of high priest would pass out of the family of Eli. and
still be in the family of Aaron. Remember, Aaron had four sons.
God killed two the day the tabernacle was put up. He did. God killed those two sons because
they offered strange fire before the Lord. That left him with
two sons. And Eli was a descendant of one
of those sons. But later on, the priesthood
will be taken from that line to the other line, but still
Aaron's sons. What a lesson is given unto us
in this matter. We must, we must honor the Lord
above all, above everyone, above everything, or we will be guilty
of despising the Lord. That's a serious charge, isn't
it? It really is. We must honor Him above everyone,
everything. God, give us the grace to do
so. Amen? Okay.