God's Judgment Disregarded (1 Samuel 2:22-26)

4/17/2010 7:09 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DAIRY

 

My Worship Time                              Focus:  God’s judgment disregarded

 

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  1 Sam. 2:22-26

 

            Message of the verses:  “22  Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 23  He said to them, "Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people? 24  "No, my sons; for the report is not good which I hear the LORD’S people circulating. 25  "If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?" But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the LORD desired to put them to death. 26  Now the boy Samuel was growing in stature and in favor both with the LORD and with men.”

            This will be the first of two sub-divisions that I will cover today.  I don’t know how old the sons of Eli were, however they could not have been too young because of the age of Eli.  The time for disciplining these two sons should have been when they were much younger, for to try and do it at this older age would not be successful.  Dr. Wiersbe writes these words concerning Eli and his sons:  “To tolerate sin and not deal with it severely is to participate in that sin.”  God would not tolerate these sins much longer and He would send a messenger to Eli to tell him what he was going to do.  “Hophni and Phinehas had no respect for the Lord or for the office of their father the high priest, so all God could do was judge them and replace them with faithful servants.”

            Message of the verses:  “27 ¶  Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, ’Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? 28  ’Did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before Me; and did I not give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? 29  ’Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the choicest of every offering of My people Israel?’ 30  "Therefore the LORD God of Israel declares, ’I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk 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 will be lightly esteemed. 31  ’Behold, the days are coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father’s house so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32  ’You will see the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that I do for Israel; and an old man will not be in your house forever. 33  ’Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life. 34  ’This will be the sign to you which will come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on the same day both of them will die. 35  ’But I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed always. 36  ’Everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and say, "Please assign me to one of the priest’s offices so that I may eat a piece of bread."’"

            This sub-section is called “God’s judgment declared.”  There are three parts that come from the “man of God” in this section, the past, the present, and the future.  The phrase “man of God” is used some seventy times in the OT and refers to a prophet, of which some of the times the name of this man is not given like in this case.  He tells Eli the history of the priesthood in the nation of Israel, how God, by His grace chose Aaron and his family to be the priests before the Lord.  Next he tells Eli the bad news about him and his sons, that they will die, his sons on the same day, and actually he, his sons, and a newborn grandson died on the same day.  Next he give some good news concerning the priesthood, as he foretells a priest would come latter on to do good, and this priest would be the Lord Jesus Christ although He came from the tribe of Judah and was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. 

            There is part of this whole prophecy that I have never quite understood and that is that back in the book of Numbers:  “7  When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, 8  and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. 9  Those who died by the plague were 24,000. 10  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 11  "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. 12  "Therefore say, ’Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; 13  and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’"

            In reading the commentary from Warren Wiersbe he states that Eli come from the line of Ithamar who was Aarons fourth son, and then in a footnote on this he writes “There is no record in Scripture how the high priesthood moved from Eleazar’s line to Ithamar’s and hence eventually to Eli.”  So as near as I can figure this out this mystery is the clue that I needed to understand this. 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Be sure your sin will find you out is what I have learned from this section along with God being patience and will do what is needed to work out His plan no matter whether or not it is in a persons life or the life of a nation.