SEA POINT EVANGELICAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, CAPE TOWN.

MINISTER, Rev. Thomas Scarborough.

Samuel: 1 Samuel 2:11 to 1 Samuel 2:36.

Morning Worship, 5 November 2006.

Well this past week I was looking for a suitable theme for the dedication of young Alessia at the end of this month — and I was looking over the dedication of Samuel, in the opening chapters of the books of Samuel. And as I was doing so, my eye fell on the story which follows, which is the story of the High Priest Eli and his two sons.

Eli is perhaps most famous for having fallen off a chair and broken his neck — but there is of course a lot more to the story than that.

So for two Sundays, I’m going to spend some time with the story of Eli the High Priest.

And let’s not forget that the Old Testament can in fact be just as spiritually inspiring, and just as spiritually upbuilding as the New Testament. We should not forget that the people of the Old Testament also had a living, personal relationship with God.

The really big difference is that they were still looking forward to the Saviour — while we look back to the Saviour, and we know that He has already done what they were looking forward to in hope.

* * * * * * * * * *

I have a question to begin with. What are the most important choices that you and I will ever make in life?

We might be tempted to answer: my career choice — or the person I choose as my life’s partner — or the schooling of my children.

But that is not strictly true if we look at it from a Biblical point of view.

In fact the most important choices of life are a lot simpler than that. Often they are a lot less obvious than that. The most important choices are those simple moments of life when I must choose between my way or the Lord’s way — when I must choose between God’s commands and ignoring God’s commands. Those are the real markers on the way.

Those are the most important decisions of life. Sometimes we overlook that.

* * * * * * * * * *

This morning we are going to look at three people who rejected God’s commands, or ignored God’s commands — there is a difference there. And we are also going to look at a fourth person, and just why God chose him to speak to him and bless him.

One important thing we need to understand before we look at these Bible characters is that history works according to where people stand with God. It’s not the career choice that ultimately matters — it’s not one’s life’s partner that ultimately matters — and so on. What determines the outcome is not those kinds of choices, but rather whether your choices please God.

God is a living God. He is an almighty God. The Bible shows us that He has absolute power over your life and mine. Therefore our future is in His hands, and our future is determined by what we do with Him.

Just before we get to the story of the High Priest Eli and his sons, we read in 1 Samuel 2 verses 9 and 10: “It is not by strength that one prevails. Those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.”

In other words, it is not by your own strength that you shape your life. It is not by your own strength that you build a house or get a promotion — or whatever it is that happens. That strength can be turned to nothing if you are opposing the Lord in your life.

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Let us first take a look at the High Priest Eli’s two sons. Let us look at chapter 2 — and verse 12: “Eli’s sons were wicked men. They had no regard for the Lord.”

And then this chapter goes on to tell us how, when the people came to the temple to sacrifice, Hophni and Phinehas — that’s the names of the two sons — took away their sacrifices from the altar, to take them for themselves.

Now a priest was allowed to take some of the sacrifice — but he was only permitted to do so after it had been sacrificed to the Lord. Hophni and Phinehas took it before it had been sacrificed. People must have been incredulous. They brought their sacrifice to the altar — and Hophni and Phinehas said, “Thanks” and they too it straight to the kitchen — or wherever they took it.

In verse 16 we read: “If the man sacrificing said to the servant of Hophni or Phinehas, ‘Let the fat be burned up first — that’s what the Law required — and then take whatever you want,’ the servant would then answer, ‘No, hand it over now. If you don’t, I’ll take it by force.” And then verse 17: “This sin of the young priests was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.”

And another grave sin appears in verse 22: “[Eli’s] sons slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.” This was another act of open disobedience to God’s Word.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now if we look over these sins of Hophni and Phinehas, what were they really doing?

Well they clearly had no interest in God. They were interested in their own desires and their own wants before the commandment of the Lord. And let us notice also that they wanted things in their own time — not in the Lord’s time — we see it most clearly in verse 16: “No, hand over the sacrifice now. If you don’t, I’ll take it by force.”

“It is not by strength that one prevails.” And often we run into sin when we want things in our own time — now, now now — “I am in charge” — and we are not willing to wait for the Lord. We don’t give the Lord the credit for being in control.

In fact one good sign of Christian conversion is that you and I put God’s wants and God’s desires and God’s time first in our life. We hand over the control of our life, and all its circumstances, to the Lord.

As soon as you put your own wants first, you are going to sin — and you are going to come — as we see in this story — under the judgement of God.

* * * * * * * * * *

What is the central problem in our society today? Why are the normal rules of decency and honesty and order being flaunted on the streets and in our businesses and in the suburbs of our city?

It is because everyone is following their own wants and their own desires, with nothing above them to guide them — and they want everything now, and they can think only me, me me.

50 years ago, even if you were not a Christian, you still believed that there were morals in life. You still believed in higher guiding principles. These days that view of life has fallen apart. People no longer believe in morals or guiding principles. “I am the measure of everything.” And that is the sickness of our society today.

As Christians we are different. We have a different orientation. As a Christian, I don’t just grab what I can, but I look to see if it is pleasing to God. As a Christian, I don’t just grab the maximum earnings or promotions that I can, while my wife becomes resentful at home, or my children feel neglected. I don’t just work all the way through Sunday, and neglect my soul.

I don’t take shortcuts in business which unethical shortcuts, or hurt other people in some way.

Hophni and Phinehas might have said to themselves — what’s a piece of meat — who’s going to suffer any harm if I do a few shortcuts with God’s Law. Maybe they even said, “What’s wrong with a little foolishness with the girls?”

But we read that these were wicked deeds, and that this sin was very great in the sight of the Lord — verse 17. We read that they were in fact scorning the Lord — they were despising Him.

* * * * * * * * * *

Well we’ve looked briefly at the sins of Hophni and Phinehas — now let’s look at the sins of Eli.

Eli was basically a good man. He was one of the great men of Israel. And yet Eli allowed things to happen in his temple and in his nation that should not have happened. And he could have stopped these things from happening, because he had the authority to stop it. He was the High Priest. He had enormous power.

Eli’s sin was what we call the sin of omission. Hophni and Phinehas were guilty of sins of commission — Eli of sins of omission.

In Chapter 2 verse 22, we read: “Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel.” He heard about it. And he knew that it was affecting the whole nation — in the same way I suppose that something can affect your whole family, or your whole business.

And what did Eli do about these things?

In verse 23, Eli said to his Hophni and Phineshas: “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. No, my sons. It is not a good report that I hear.”

Now it would be easy to excuse old Eli. He had noted what his sons had been doing. He had not approved — and he had spoken to them about their wickedness.

But what had Eli actually done about it? How had he exercised the responsibility and great authority that he had? In the eyes of the Lord, it was just not good enough.

It was Eli’s responsibility to rule over all that took place in the temple — and the Lord held Eli responsible. We see this clearly in verse 29 — the second part of the verse. The Lord says, “Eli, why do you honour your sons more than Me?”

Eli’s sin was actually very much the same as the sin of his sons. He was putting certain things in his life before the Lord.

Perhaps he was very proud of his sons. Perhaps he had always hoped that they would follow him in the priesthood, and he didn’t want that dream to be shattered. Perhaps he consoled himself with the thought that they would learn through experience. Perhaps he was afraid of a confrontation.

But that was not good enough for the Lord. God saw that Eli had a responsibility — and Eli was allowing a great evil to take place.

You might be a manager with a responsibility over your employees. You might be a mother with a responsibility over your children.

If you have a business — or even if you just have an area of responsibility — this means that you are responsible before God for dishonest practices or broken promises or whatever may be the case — in the department that is under you. Or if you are a parent, it means that you are responsible for lovingly disciplining your children and teaching them Christian truths and principles.

Everybody has some responsibilities in life. They might be big or they might be small — but we have responsibilities.

I am a minister with a responsibility for the spiritual growth and blessing of a congregation.

So if you yourself obey the Lord, but you do not properly exercise your responsibility in your particular sphere of life, you are — like Eli — in opposition to the Lord, and in line for the Lord’s judgement.

You need of course to determine your area of responsibility. If you are a mother-in-law, you don’t take responsibility for your son-in-law, unless you get clear guidance from God. If you are a shop steward, you don’t take responsibility for the steward over in the next shop — unless it is clear that you should. You take responsibility for your own area of responsibility.

So are you taking practical steps to bring a Christian ethos into your workplace and into your home? Are you exercising your God-given responsibility to make sure that you are pleasing the Lord.

* * * * * * * * * *

I have only briefly mentioned the prophecy against Eli and Hophni and Phinehas — that section at the end of chapter 2 is titled “Prophecy Against the House of Eli”. And as we move to chapter 3, we have another prophecy against them.

And notice that God warns them twice. God is a patient God. God doesn’t just pounce. He gives you a wake-up call — or two, as we see here.

Now one of the first things we notice about this chapter 3, in verse 1, is that the Lord reveals himself to a boy. Some say that Samuel was probably in his pre-teens — around 10 or 12 years old.

Now the very fact that God revealed Himself to Samuel is a highly unusual thing. The real representative of God in Israel was Eli — and Eli was the man for whom Samuel did menial duties in the temple. Samuel was just a humble servant-boy. Eli was the Chief Priest.

Why did God not speak to the chief priest Eli? Why did he speak to a young boy, who opened the temple doors, and did other servile tasks?

Well the answer is a very simple one.

Eli was no longer obedient to the Lord. He was no longer walking in obedience. And so Eli no longer got the privilege of hearing from the Lord, and communing with the Lord.

If you want to hear the Lord speaking to you — if you want to know the Lord’s guidance in your life — then you must be in a place where you are respecting the Lord, and truly putting Him first. Perhaps I should say that you must have a humble and submissive spirit before Him — because that is where all obedience begins.

In Isaiah 57:15 we read, “For this is what high and lofty One says — He who lives forever, whose name is Holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.” “I live … with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.”

If you want to know God speaking to you, and if you want to experience His presence in your life, then you need to yield yourself in every way to Him.

And incidentally there are many people in the Church today — not necessarily our Church — who have honour and status like Eli. They may be the minister, or a deacon, or a Bible Study leader.

But that office — that position — even years and years of service and experience in the Church — are worth little to the Lord if a person is not humble before the Lord, and does not have a living, personal relationship with Him.

If that humility before the Lord is missing, the Lord will bypass the High Priest for the humble boy.

* * * * * * * * * *

Let’s notice another important point arising from verse 1.

Verse 1 tells us: “The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.” “The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord.”

Then let us move on to verse 7: “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.”

Samuel ministered before the Lord, but Samuel did not yet know the Lord. These are fascinating verses, and they show us that a person can serve the Lord without actually knowing the Lord — without having a living, personal, saving relationship with Him.

I have no doubt that many people deceive themselves in this way. They say to themselves, “Well, I am serving the Lord. I am serving Him faithfully. I love the Lord’s house. I am serving God’s house.” But does that mean that they know the Lord, or that they are saved? Not always.

One of the greatest truths of the gospel is that you and I can know Almighty God in a personal way. You and I can have a personal relationship with Him.

* * * * * * * * * *

Well we are coming to a close, and I began by asking, “What are the most important choices that you and I will ever make in life?”

We see from the story of Eli and His sons that it comes down to simple everyday decisions to honour the Lord — and to discern how to honour the Lord — how to make the whole of your life a life that is pleasing to Him.

For Eli and his sons, their most important decisions were not — “I’m going to go into the priesthood“ — or “I’m going to get to the top of my profession in Israel.”

The world tells us that the important decisions are the things that will guarantee my success or prosperity — or the important decisions are the great milestones of life.

Now we haven’t looked very deeply this morning into God’s judgements against Eli and his house — but we have read enough to understand that your blessing in life — your ultimate wellbeing — depends on honouring the Lord. If that is missing, God might close the curtain on everything else.

Secondly, we have seen that your communion with God depends on the honour you give Him in your life. If you don’t honour Him, he’ll go and talk to a young boy over there instead. He’ll leave you without the blessings of knowing Him and walking with Him in a personal way.

Perhaps I could close this morning by asking, ” Are you truly seeking to honour the Lord in every area of your life? And are you exercising the responsibility that God has given you in life?”

AMEN.