Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): All throughout scripture we see the right and wrong way to live. Here's Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

Bill Luebkemann: What a contrast continues to be shown here, back and forth, evil and good, evil and good. And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men. Doesn't that sound a lot like Luke chapter two about Jesus continuing to grow? And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

What a contrast here we see. Eli's sons are one extremely bad example, and here we have Samuel, on the other hand, being a really good example. Eli's sons show a picture perfect representation of the devil, and Samuel here is just flowing with godliness.

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Hope From the Word. Pastor Bill Luebkemann will join us in a moment and continue his study of 1 Samuel. What a blessing it is to be raised by godly parents, and maybe that's been your experience. Hannah raised her son Samuel to serve the Lord, and today we will see Samuel as a child continue to grow in the Lord. He was in the middle of God's will. What a great example for us to follow. Pastor Bill is in chapter two.

Bill Luebkemann: But Samuel, verse 18, was ministering before the Lord. We keep having this contrast here. Remember back in the first ten verses was that great prayer, and then in verse 11, it reminds us the boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest. So now we have another context here, another comparison. Verses 12 to 17 setting up the evil side of the comparison, but now in verse 18 setting up the opposite side, and we're going to see that pattern repeat a couple more times here.

But Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod. Each 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. Eli 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, and 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.

So here we have bad going to worse on the one hand, people stealing the offering of God, stealing from the Lord, people turning off the Israelites to faith in God, turning them off to making a sacrifice, turning them off to following the Lord's command, turning the people off to seeking after God. And here you have it going from bad to worse, but here we have an example of what good can happen. This little boy Samuel had been prayed for by his mother and he was given over to the Lord full time, devoted to Him all the time, every day, all day, and all night. No doubt Mom was home, she was still praying for the boy, and her prayers were being answered big time.

He even had his own little junior priest outfit here that he wore. It says here he had a linen ephod, so he was learning the trade. He was kind of like an apprentice here, learning from Eli. And there were corrupt and evil people here working against the will of God. They're not really getting anywhere, and here we see the Lord raising up someone else to take their place. So we have the corrupt and evil people working against God, and even while they're doing that, the Lord has a plan here to replace them.

And he let them go on for many, many years. They might have said, and they would be mistaken if they did, but they might have said, "Oh, God's not alive. He doesn't care what we're doing. We're doing just fine. We're having loads of fun. We're living well, eating high, living the good life." If they did say that, they would have been confusing God's forbearance and His patience. They would have been confusing that with His justice, which is going to come at some point.

And we see the Lord here, even now, working through this situation, as bad as it is, raising up somebody. In the case of Moses, they were praying for a deliverer. Moses was born and it was 80 years before Moses led the people out of Egypt. The Lord works in advance and He plans things out. We think we waited eight years to have a radio station and that was a long time. How could God make us wait that long? We started working on it in 1997. And here, when Israel was in Egypt, they waited 80 years from when the boy was born, Moses, to when he led them out. They were praying for a deliverer even before that.

Many of them didn't even live to see it. But we can see here corrupt and evil people that are working against the will of God. They don't hold up the will of God, and He's still going to do His will and He's still going to do it in His time. The Lord here raising up somebody, a person named Samuel, to take their place.

And we see in verse 19 every year Hannah visiting and every year bringing him some new clothes, and every year Eli would bless her and thank her for what she did. And he prayed that the Lord's further blessing would be upon her, and the Lord answered that prayer as well. She had plenty more children, three more sons and two daughters. Remember at the beginning of the book, just one chapter ago, she was childless. Now she has one plus three, four sons and two daughters, six kids altogether.

Meanwhile, Samuel is growing up in the presence of the Lord. What did Eli do wrong? What went wrong with his sons? Was it just that their free will allowed them to make this decision? Certainly. Were they taught and instructed properly in the ways of the Lord? I would tend to think not.

Now verse 22. Now 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. So he said to them, "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 spreading among the Lord's people. If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him, but if a man sins against the Lord, 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.

That's the bad part. But now we have the good part in verse 26. And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men. What a shame here that Eli didn't hear about these evil deeds sooner. Was he unaware? Was he just not paying attention? I don't want to blame him entirely, but it seems like there's some lack of oversight here. Maybe one of the reasons age is mentioned is because now would be the normal time when he might be considering about turning the reins over to his sons.

He was old. And when you're old, it's time to give it over to your sons and let them take over. What he should have been doing, he couldn't do because his sons weren't there, and they were never going to be there. And he heard about what they were doing. What were they doing? They were stealing God's offering. They were stealing it from the people. They were stealing it before God got His share.

And now we find out also that they were into sexual immorality. They were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. That's "women" plural. They were supposed to care about the sheep, and instead they were taking advantage of the sheep. That's the condition of a hireling. That's what a hireling does. And Jesus compared the hireling to the true shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep and goes after the one that has drifted away.

Whereas the hireling sees the wolf coming and he's out of there. He's out for his own skin. Someone who's in it for themselves to get what they can get and whose heart really is not in it. That's a hireling. A hireling is somebody who's doing the job for money, somebody who's in it for what they can benefit for, for whatever the reason. If it's just a salary, it's a job.

There's people in ministry today who just treat it as a job. They went to college, got a degree, they're in ministry, they get paid. That's their career choice. They're a hireling. They're doing it for what they can get out of it and their heart is really not in it. And among the wicked deeds they were doing, sleeping with these multiple women who were serving at the tent of meeting. It's not really clear who they were, but in some way they were serving there, but his sons were getting with these women.

And Eli asks his sons, "Why do they do such things?" I guess that's an academic question. Maybe he really needed to ask it, but who cares why? What does that matter? He's hearing from all the people what's happening. Why does he have to hear it from all the people? Why doesn't he see it himself? Why didn't he see it earlier? Why didn't he see it coming? Why did he let it get this far? Why doesn't he do something about it? Why does he just talk about it?

And he says, "Look, it's not a good report I'm hearing," in verse 24. "No, my sons, it is not a good report that I hear spreading among the Lord's people." Well, duh. No kidding. It's not a good report. You're stealing from God. You're taking advantage of the sheep.

The question comes back down to this: Eli, what are you going to do about it? It seems like he's more concerned about what he hears than what is right. It seems like he's more concerned about what other people think than about what the right thing is to do. It seems like he's more concerned about pleasing the people, making them happy, doing the right thing. He's more concerned about appearance than he is about righteousness.

And he points out here in verse 25, "Well, the Lord can be a judge if you have a difference between you and another man. He can judge between you and another one. If you're having trouble getting along with someone, the Lord will be your judge. But who's going to be the judge if you can't get along with the Lord? Then what are you going to do? Who are you going to appeal that to?" You know you can always have a dispute with somebody, you can go to court. You don't get along with somebody, you can seek the Lord about it. When you have a problem getting along with God himself, who do you go to? How do you handle that one?

Fortunately today, well, we know the answer is Jesus Christ. He's the one that mediates between God and man. He's the one that will forgive us of our sins. He's the one that paid the debt that we owe to Him. 1 John chapter 2, verse 1 says, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin, but if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world."

But you still have to believe. You have to know the Lord. The work of God is this, that you believe in the one that He has sent. Eli's sons were not anywhere near that place. And what a contrast continues to be shown here, back and forth, evil and good, evil and good. And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.

Doesn't that sound a lot like Luke chapter two about Jesus continuing to grow? Luke chapter 2, verse 52, why not just read it here just for fun? And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. That was after the 12-year-old point when he had the incident at the temple and as he continued to grow.

What a contrast here we see. Eli's sons are one extremely bad example, and here we have Samuel, on the other hand, being a really good example. Eli's sons show a picture perfect representation of the devil, and Samuel here is just flowing with godliness.

Verse 27. Now 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? I chose your father 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. Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?"

This man of God comes along, this anonymous prophet here. He comes on the scene. His name isn't mentioned, but he's speaking on behalf of the Lord himself. And he says to him, "Did I not," this is God talking, "Did I not clearly reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?"

Think about all the ways God revealed himself to the Jews when they were in Egypt. All the plagues, one after another after another. The water turned to blood, the locusts, the frogs, the darkness, all the plagues, one after another after another. God revealed himself to them in a powerful, powerful way. So, didn't I just do that for you guys just a few hundred years ago?

What happened in the desert? When you look at the desert, the water coming from the rock, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna that came from heaven, the way that their shoes never wore out, their clothes never got holes in them. That lasted that entire time. They even grew with them. The kids that grew up, their clothes must have grown with them because they were wearing the same clothes at the end.

He says, "Didn't I reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt?" I chose your father out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest to go up to my altar to burn incense and to wear the ephod. This was the Lord reminding Eli, it was your father Aaron, a descendant from Moses, it was Aaron that I chose to be the high priest.

And these were the things that he did. He would go up to the altar, he would burn the incense. That was their worship service. He would wear the proper garments. I also gave your father's house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites. In other words, they got plenty of food. And the Israelites brought an offering, that's a lot of Israelites bringing a lot of offerings. The priest got to keep all that. They were not hungry. There was plenty of food to eat.

He did all that for them. He chose the priest to serve the people and represent the Lord to them. He was the priest of God, Eli was supposed to be, not the priest of the people. He made the offerings, he ran the worship service, so to speak, and they got paid pretty well for it.

What the Lord seems to be saying here, to hear the Luebkemann paraphrase here, he's saying, "Wow, what a great deal I gave you. It was a terrific deal. I gave you all of that. You got to have this position of honor. You got to run the worship service here. You got to wear the garments. You got the respect of the people, and you get to keep a part of all the offerings that they bring in. You got so much from me, such a good deal."

And instead, what is this you're doing? You're scorning my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling. Treating it with scorn, stealing it. I can't think of any more scornful way to treat it than that. God says, "Why do you honor your sons more than me?" Obviously, he was putting up with his sons. He could have put a stop to it. Eli could have called his sons on the carpet. He could have fired them. He could have thrown them out. He could have executed them. He could have got rid of them, banished them, whatever. He could have done something. Anything would have been better than leaving them there.

The Lord said, "You're scorning my sacrifice that I prescribed, and you're honoring your sons more than me, and you're fattening yourselves." Interestingly, he's talking to Eli here and he says, "Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves?" He doesn't say "themselves." So it implies that somehow Eli is getting some of the take here on the choice parts of every offering made by my people. It's not just some offering, not just once in a while. He's not saying, "The budget was tight that month, the kids were hungry, the social security check didn't come in yet, it's the 29th of the month, we've got to make it two more days, we'll take a little bit of this offering." David took some bread from the most holy place because they were hungry and they needed it, and it was not a problem. But here was a problem. They were doing this all the time.

Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: "I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before me forever." But now the Lord declares: "Far be it from me. Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be despised." The priestly line here is going to move out of Eli's house. It's going to be passed on to someone else who will honor God.

Look over at Matthew chapter 10, verses 32 and 33: "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." Now the Lord is saying here basically, "You've disowned me. I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before me forever. I promised that. I told you that would be the case. You guys will always minister before me, but why would I want to do that now? Far be it from me. Why would I want to do that for you now? Those who honor me I will honor, those who despise me will be despised." God's principle still applies today. If you're not going to walk with me, I'm going to find someone else who will. Kind of like that scripture that says, "Here I am Lord, send me." The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the land looking for someone to send. Who will go for the Lord? Those who honor him will be honored, those who despise him are going to be despised, disdained.

Verse 31: "The 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. And 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." He's saying here your house and your family are going to be cut short, and Israel's going to go okay. Israel's going to benefit. Good things are going to happen in Israel there, but you are never going to see an old man in your house because of this. Everyone 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.

This is what they could expect in the future. Anyone in your family who gets spared is going to be so that you can have something to cry about later, so that you can have tears and grieve with your hearts and all your descendants will die in the prime of life. What a shame. This guy here, God said to him, "You had this great position of honor and prestige and power and authority and you could have, if you played your cards right, such a deal. Nobody else, very few people offered such a thing. And instead you blew it." And the Lord said, "Why would I want to honor you? Why would I want to have your descendants continue to treat me this way? What purpose would that serve? Why would it be?"

Verse 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." That happens a few chapters from now, maybe in chapter four or something. "I 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. Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a crust of bread and plead, 'Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat.'"

The Lord says, "I'm going to raise up a new priest in the future." Well, it's going to be Samuel in the short term. When Eli passes off the scenes and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, Samuel's going to be the guy who takes over in the short term. But later on when Solomon is king, Zadok is going to take over as priest and he was descended from Aaron also, but not from the same line as Eli. Eli's line died off, cut off.

But ultimately, the great high priest of all is Jesus. He's the one that's going to be firmly established and has been firmly established forever and reigns now and is seated now at the right hand of God and will reign forever. He's the one that's going to rule forever. Eli's family, on the other hand, reduced to begging. What a shameful end for a family tree that could have done great things for the Lord. They could have been contenders. They could have been doing great things for the Lord and He would have used them in a mighty way, but they chose instead the things of this world as more important to them than the things of the Lord. They gave it all up for nothing.

And we can make such a decision today. We can decide if we're going to focus on the things of the world or the things of the Lord, because every one of us is a priest before God. We have no need for the Old Testament priesthood. That has ended. Now it's the priesthood of the believer. You're a believer, you're a priest. The priest was an intermediary. The intermediary went to God on your behalf. You don't need an intermediary anymore. You can go to God yourself. You can go to the Lord yourself into His presence. You're your own priest nowadays if we serve the Lord and if we follow Him, if we do the work of the Lord, which is to believe in Him.

Eli, he's out of chances, but we today are not out of chances. Maybe Eli would have had a different outcome even at this late point if he had repented. Maybe if he had said, "You know Lord, I really messed up here and I'm going to take some decisive action today." But even after telling his kids that they were doing the wrong thing, he did nothing about it. And even after this prophet came and chastised him, he still did nothing about it. He didn't lift a finger. It doesn't really say if he felt sorry or not. Maybe he did, but he didn't take any action. And action, as we all know, speaks louder than words.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann's study of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org or download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find podcasts.

If you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton, where Bill serves as pastor, we'd love to have you. Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10:00. We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You can also livestream from home when you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon.

Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you, share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us from our website, ccmarlton.org, or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come from Bill's study of 1 Samuel and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.