Fathers and Sons

Why doesn’t God do something about the state of the church? Do you ever ask yourself that? Not that we can ask from being above criticism – we fall short of everything we say we believe. But why are there so many church leaders who believe nothing at all? And why are so many living in immorality which results in no discipline at all? I mean, if you were God, and your reputation depended on the state of the church, wouldn’t you weigh in a bit more to clean it up?

Well if you’d been an Old Testament (OT) believer living in the time of the book of 1 Samuel, you’d certainly have asked that, because the state of God’s people was shockingly bad. So would you turn in the Bible to 1 Samuel, as we come to part two of our new series on this OT book. And would you find 1 Samuel, chapter 2 and v12:

12Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD. (v12)

And in case you missed last week, let me remind you who Eli was. He lived 1,000 years before Jesus. He was the senior priest in charge of the make-shift temple where people brought sacrifices to God at that time. And in old age, he’d delegated the running of it to his sons. And v12:

12Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD. (v12)

Now, for background you just need to know that with all sacrifices, some of the animal – like the fat – was to be symbolically given to the Lord by being burned up on the altar. And then with some sacrifices, the person bringing it was allowed to eat some; and the priests offering it were allowed to take some – as a kind of living allowance. But look at v13:

13Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. 14He would plunge it into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot, and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. (vv13-14)

So it was totally sacrilegious behaviour – literally taking ‘pot luck’ for themselves with what was supposed to be for the Lord. It would be like a sidesman here dipping into the collection bag every two rows when it came back to him. Verse 15:

15But even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”16If the man said to him, “Let the fat be burned up first [which is what the law said], 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.” (vv15-16)

So, as is tragically sometimes true today, the people knew their Bibles better than the leaders. But the leaders had the power of position on their side. And then skip down to v22;

22Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. (v22)

So if you count meat as money, then money, sex and power were the classic three areas, as today, in which the leaders of God’s people showed themselves to be false leaders, mis-leaders. Which begs the question, ‘What is God doing here?’ And in fact, that’s the question for getting at the point of any OT narrative: What is God doing here? Because the Bible isn’t primarily a book about us and how we should behave. It’s primarily a book about God. As someone put it, ‘Bible history is his story’ – the events in which God has made himself known. So, let’s come at 1 Samuel chapter 2 with that question – ‘What is God doing here?’ – and see what we find.

And the first clue is in Hannah’s prayer in vv1-10. Now we met Hannah last week in chapter 1. In childlessness, she’d prayed for a son and promised that, if given one, she would give him back to the Lord’s service. And that’s how her firstborn, Samuel, ends up apprenticed to Eli. And Hannah’s prayer in 2.1-10 shows the insight God had given her into what Samuel’s ministry would trigger. Eg, look down to v3:

3“Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance,[highly appropriate words for men like Eli’s sons]for the LORD is a God who knows,and by him deeds are weighed.[Skip down to v9:]9He will guard the feet of his saints [ie, genuine believers], but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. “It is not by strength that one prevails;10those who oppose the LORD will be shattered.He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth. “He will give strength to his kingand exalt the horn of his anointed.” (vv8-10)

So Hannah has this vision that Samuel’s ministry will somehow trigger the judgement of men like Eli’s sons, and the arrival of God’s own choice of king to rule his people. And by the end of 1 and 2 Samuel, that vision has been partially and imperfectly fulfilled in the emergence of David as King. But back in 1 Samuel 2, we then come back down to earth with a bump in v12, and these sins of money, sex and power among the leaders. So what is God doing here? Well, apparently, nothing. But only apparently – just look at v17:

17This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’s sight, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt. (v17)

So what is God doing? He’s watching and waiting as Judge. Just like Hannah said back in v3: ‘for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.’ Ie, he knows everything that everyone of us does and says and even thinks; and he will call it all to account. So why doesn’t he weigh in at v17 and strike down the sons of Eli with a few well-aimed thunderbolts? Isn’t that what Hannah was hoping for back in v10 – ‘he will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth’? And why doesn’t he remove the worst of the bishops and clergy today? Well that question assumes they’re beyond the point of no repentance – which of course we don’t know. Only the Lord knows when that point has been reached. All we know is that he’s unbelievably patient, and that in his mercy he waits and waits and waits – partly so that even people as far gone from the Lord as Eli’s sons may repent and be forgiven; but partly so that those who won’t repent, and end up judged, can never accuse God of failing to give them time and opportunity to repent.

So the Lord is watching and waiting as Judge. But then he’s also growing a spiritual leader in the shape of Samuel. Look on to v18:

18But Samuel was ministering before the LORD – a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 20Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the LORD give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the LORD.” Then they would go home. 21And the LORD was gracious to Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD. (vv18-21)

And it’s striking that twice he’s described as a ‘boy’. You may know that one-liner, ‘What’s the difference between idealism and cynicism?’ And the answer: ‘Twenty years.’ And Eli’s adult sons were obviously arch-cynics. Whereas the Lord Jesus said of children, ‘the kingdom of God belongs to such as these’ (Mark 10.16). That’s not because children are innocent – people who think that have either never had, or never met, any children. It’s because some of the attitudes of childhood are the attitudes of faith – like dependence. So whereas Eli’s adult sons had long since grown into the arrogance of thinking God couldn’t see their sin, Samuel, v21, ‘grew up in the presence of the Lord’ – ie, knowing the reality of those words we prayed at the start of this service: ‘God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden...’ ‘He grew up in the presence of the Lord’ is a way of describing what someone has called, ‘the habit of living before an audience of one’ – ie, making the Lord the only audience you’re bothered about pleasing. Which is why, down the tracks, Samuel would be able to confront not just the people about their sins, but even the king about his. And he would have agreed with the words of that hymn that say:

Fear Him, ye saints, and you will thenHave nothing else to fear

So the Lord is growing a spiritual leader in the form of Samuel. And one of my prayers is that we will see more people in our church led into full-time gospel ministry both here and throughout the world. We’ve seen less of that than comparable churches in this country, and I guess that partly reflects weaknesses in what we do. But even if we do things better, it’s ultimately God who grows spiritual leaders through their walk with him – they can’t be churned out by a program. And the extent to which any of us will exercise spiritual leadership tomorrow depends on whether we learn to live ‘in the presence of the Lord’ – for the audience of one – today.

So the Lord is watching and waiting as Judge; he’s growing a spiritual leader in the form of Samuel. And finally, he’s also in the process of removing false leaders in the form of Eli and his sons.
Look on to v22:

22Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 23So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. 24No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading among the LORD’s people. 25If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD [ie, high-handedly, cynically], who will intercede for him?” His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the LORD’s will to put them to death. (vv22-25)

So by v25, God has already begun to bring judgement on Eli’s sons – although it may not look like it. After all, they haven’t been struck down, there have been no thunderbolts. But v25 says: the beginning of judgement is that God allows them to harden their hearts against his word of rebuke through Eli. And that’s a sobering reminder that we are never neutral when dealing with God’s Word. Even right now, each of us is either softening our hearts more towards God – listening with a willingness to believe him and be changed by him – or we’re hardening our hearts more towards him – putting off, or maybe inwardly even laughing off, his call to turn to him and let him deal with our sin. Well, learn from Eli’s sons that the time to respond to what we see of God in his Word is always now.

But then look on to v27:

27Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Did I not clearly reveal myself to your father’s house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? 28I chose your father [ie, Aaron] out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your father’s house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites. 29Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honour your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?’ (vv27-29)

And perhaps you’re shocked, in v29, to find Eli condemned together with his sons. After all, hasn’t he just spoken against their behaviour? Well, yes he has. But he’s not acted against it. And in his position, as senior priest at the temple, that was culpable. Sometimes we have no power to act, and all we can do is to dissent from what’s going on by speaking against it. But here, Eli had power to act. He could and should have barred his sons from the priesthood. Actions, not just words, were called for. But he didn’t act. Why? Well v29 gives two reasons that can paralyse us, as well, today – so we’re not sitting smugly in judgement as we read this, are we? There’s fear – ‘You honour your sons more than me’ – the very opposite of treating God as that audience of one. And there’s vested interest – ‘fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering.’ There’s nothing like benefiting from the status quo, even depending on the status quo, to make you loathe to challenge the status quo when you know you ought to.

So Eli had the power to exercise discipline, but didn’t. In our denomination, local churches have no formal power, eg, to discipline bishops who teach error on primary matters. But actions and not just words are still called for – which is why we’ve had to take the stand of saying we can’t recognise the authority of the bishop here. So read on to v30:

30“Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and your father’s house [ie, the house of Aaron] would minister before me forever.’ But now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me! (v30)

Now is the Lord going back on a promise there? Is he saying, ‘I promised your family specifically that you’d always be priests, but now I’m going back on that’? No. He’s saying, ‘Far be it from me to keep my general promise to the house of Aaron to your family specifically, regardless of how you respond to me.’ Because God doesn’t promise to be gracious to us regardless of how we respond to him, regardless of how insincere we are. That’s just sheer presumption. Maybe that’s the presumption that Eli’s sons made. It’s certainly the presumption that those brought up in the church can be prone to – to treat sin lightly, because you treat grace lightly, because familiarity has bred contempt. Eg, a Christian friend of mine visited his niece during her first year at university. She’d grown up in a Christian home but was now open about sleeping with her boyfriend. And my friend gently asked her, ‘And what do you think the Lord reckons to how you’re behaving with your boyfriend?’ And she rather casually said, ‘Oh, he’ll forgive me.’ No. Learn from Eli and his sons that God doesn’t promise to be gracious to us regardless of how we respond to him. If we respond with sincerity – willing and trying (albeit imperfectly) to turn from our sins – then we can be confident that his promises of grace and forgiveness do apply to us. But those who profess to be God’s people but make no sincere response to him are heading for judgement – if that’s the way they carry on. Read on in v30, where the Lord says:

Those who honour me I will honour, but those who despise me will be disdained. 31The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your family line 32and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, in your family line there will never be an old man. 33Every one of you that I do not cut off from my altar will be spared only to blind your eyes with tears and to grieve your heart, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life. 34“‘And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you—they will both die on the same day. (vv30-34)

Which they do in chapter 4, rapidly followed by their father. So negatively, God acts to remove those who dishonour him – like Eli and his sons. And when he does the same today, it may similarly take time – often more time than we can understand. And it may look as if God is allowing such false people to damage his church. And it may look as if God himself is damaging his church – eg, as numbers are apparently reduced. But it’s dead wood, not live, that he prunes out – and that is never damaging.

But then, positively, he acts to replace those who dishonour him with those who do honour him, v35:

35I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his house, and he will minister before my anointed one always. (v35)

And in the first place, that ‘faithful priest’ was Zadok and that ‘anointed one’ was David – the spiritual leadership duo that emerges in 1 and 2 Samuel – triggered by Samuel’s ministry.

Well, we’ve asked the question, ‘What is God doing here?’ The other question to ask any OT passage is, ‘Where is Jesus, here? How does this passage point to him?’ And in 1 Samuel 2, it’s back in Hannah’s prayer. You remember she has this vision that Samuel’s ministry will trigger the judgement of men like Eli’s sons, and the arrival of God’s own choice of king to rule his people. Well Mary’s song in Luke chapter 1 (vv46-56) – often called the magnificat – is almost a copy of Hannah’s prayer. Because Mary has a similar vision of how the ministry of her son will trigger the ultimate judgement of all who stand proudly against him, and the ultimate acceptance of all who humble themselves before him. So in this chapter, where Eli’s sons are being brought down and Samuel is being raised up, we’re seeing a glimpse of what the risen Lord Jesus is doing every day – as people hear the gospel, and either accept or reject him – and of what he’ll one day bring to completion when he comes again as Judge.

And the question is: which side of him will you be on?