Honour or Horror?

Thanks very much Gary and Band. Good evening everyone, really good to have you with us this evening as we come together and continue looking at the book of 1 Samuel.

I've called tonight's talk Honor or Horror, Honor or Horror.

And as we read the passage, you might look out for examples of where people honour God or are honoured by God,

and also things that you find horrifying or shocking, either in what people do or in the judgment that comes on them.

So we're going to read from 1 Samuel and chapter 2 to begin with.

1 Samuel chapter 2 and we'll be reading from verse 12.

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 12.

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

And it says this, Eli's sons were scoundrels. They had no regard for the Lord.

Now it was the practice of the priests that whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice,

the priest's servant would come with a three-pound fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled.

And would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot.

Whatever the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself.

This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.

But even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the people who were sacrificing,

Give the priest some meat to roast. He won't accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.

If the person said to him, Let the fat be burned up first 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.

The sin of the young men was very great in the Lord's sight,

for they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt.

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 gave birth to three sons and two daughters.

Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.

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,

the report I hear spreading among the Lord's people is not good.

If one person sins against another,

God may mediate for the offender.

But if anyone sins against the Lord,

who will intercede for them?

His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke,

for it was the Lord's will to put them to death.

And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people.

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 ancestors' family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?

I chose your ancestors 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 ancestors' family all the food offerings presented 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?

Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel declares,

I promise that members of your family 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 disdained.

The time is coming when I will cut short your strength

and the strength of your priestly house,

so that no one in it will reach old age.

And you will see distress in my dwelling.

Although good will be done to Israel,

no one in your family line will ever reach old age.

Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar,

I will spare only to destroy your sight and stop your strength,

and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.

And what happens to your two sons,

Hophni and Phinehas, will be assigned to you?

They will both die on the same day.

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 priestly house

and they 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 loaf of bread and plead,

Appoint to me some priestly office

so I can have food to eat.

I'm sure God will bless his word as we consider it together.

Let's just take a second to pray together.

Our Father, we thank you that this is your word,

that it is therefore useful to us,

whether this is in teaching, in rebuking,

in helping us to understand better your ways.

I would say that you will speak to us this evening.

Help us to understand what is relevant to us today

and which should affect the way we live our lives

as we seek to honour and glorify the Lord Jesus.

We pray that your voice will be heard,

that the things which are of yourself will be remembered

and that you will help us to draw closer to you

as we consider your word.

We ask for your presence in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Amen.

There's a couple on the screen.

Our Horst and Herland Kasner.

Kasner was a Lutheran pastor

who did something very unusual in 1954.

He moved with his wife and their four-month-old daughter

from West Germany to East Germany.

Now that was at a time when many people

were moving in the other direction.

East Germany, a very oppressive communist regime.

West Germany, of course,

a democracy and one which was recovering

from the Second World War.

But Pastor Kasner moved with his wife

and daughter to East Germany.

And so the young girl grew up

in that oppressive communist regime.

In a slightly unusual situation

in that all around her,

she could see the things that were happening

and the things in many ways would be quite horrifying.

And yet at the same time,

she was growing up in a Christian family,

in a Christian environment,

and learning something of the gospel of the Lord Jesus.

Indeed, the area where they were,

as well as having this house where they lived,

right next door to them,

there was a centre for disabled people

which Christians in that area were helping with.

1989, and there was the fall of the Berlin Wall.

And that young girl,

that baby, when she moved to East Germany,

by then obviously had grown to be a woman.

She was quite a successful chemist.

And at that point,

she decided she wanted to go into politics.

And we know her today

as perhaps the most successful female politician

in the world.

It is Angela Merkel,

who is the leader of the German state.

And she is still very much influenced

by the way in which she grew up,

by the strange juxtaposition of,

on the one hand,

growing up in a Christian environment

and being taught God's ways,

and the other hand,

observing around her all the evils

that were associated with that communist state.

And she was very much shaped by that.

For example,

the way in which she received the refugees

from the Middle East a few years ago,

I believe was very much influenced

by the way she grew up

and by the things she saw

and by the compassion from that,

that she developed.

And she is,

today she belongs to an evangelical church

and she would say

that she still has a strong Christian faith.

And I think the story of Angela Merkel

resonates as we think about 1 Samuel 2.

Because here we have a situation

where the state,

those who are in leadership,

in this case the priests,

are utterly corrupt

and are oppressing the people.

And yet we have a young boy

who is growing up quietly in the temple

and is learning God's ways

and would go on to be a great leader

of his nation.

I'm talking about Samuel, of course.

And we have this dual thing

which is what I've called

the talk honour or horror.

We have this dual thing going on.

On the one hand,

we have the horrors

of what the priests are doing

to the people

and in disobedience to God.

And on the other hand,

we have Samuel and his family

who are honouring God

and being honoured by him.

So what we're going to do this evening,

very simple,

is we're going to look at three people,

three groups of people.

We're going to look at Hophni and Phinehas,

the sons of Eli.

We're going to look at Eli.

And then we're going to look at Samuel

and a little bit about his family as well.

And hopefully learn some lessons from that

about how we should honour God

and about some of the horrors

that can happen

when people don't honour God,

have no knowledge of him.

So let's start with the two sons,

Hophni and Phinehas.

I've called this section extreme evil.

I don't think that's putting it too highly.

Here were two men

who had no knowledge of God.

Verse 12 says,

Eli's sons were scoundrels.

They had no regard for the Lord.

If you translate it literally,

it says they didn't know God.

And both translations are probably fine.

They didn't know God.

They had no personal relationship with God.

And they certainly had no concern

for God or for obeying him.

This despite them being in positions of leadership,

of religious leadership in the land,

and those who the people should have been able

to look up to and respect

and to copy their example.

These young men had no regard for the Lord

and similarly no regard for the people.

Let's look briefly at what was going wrong.

In the first place,

there was religious abuse.

And that's in the first part of the passage.

And this was seemed to us

rather strange account

of what happened to the meat for the sacrifices.

So let me just explain a little bit

about what should have happened

and then we'll talk about what did happen

and why that was so wrong.

All of the sacrifices the people brought to God,

except for the burnt offering,

which had to be totally burnt,

part of it was devoted to God,

part of it was given to the priest,

and part of it was available

to the person making the offering

that they could enjoy

part of the sacrifice themselves.

So to be specific,

the fat had to be burnt off

and had to be devoted to God.

The priests were entitled

to the breast and the right thigh,

so they got two good bits

of the animal for themselves

because the priest needed something to live on

and that was what their due was.

And the rest of the offering,

the individual making the sacrifice,

could share with their family

in the way appointed by God.

Now here the priests were doing two things

that were not in the law.

The first was as well as taking their portion,

presumably, it doesn't say,

but presumably they were taking

what they were due to get from the law,

they were taking extra.

They were able to take potluck

and to dip their three-point fork

into the pot

and to take whatever came out of it

for themselves.

So in that sense,

they were robbing the people

who were making the sacrifice

of something which they should have had.

The priests were taking more

than their share.

And that was bad.

But what was much worse

was that they also wanted

to take something

before the meat was boiled.

So they were saying,

we don't really like boiled meat that much.

It's not so much of a treat.

What we really want is a roast meal.

We want roast meat.

That is much more tasty.

That is much more enjoyable for us.

And so they would take the meat

from the people by force if necessary

before the fat had been burnt off.

And so they were taking

not just part of what was due

to the person making the sacrifice.

They were also taking part

that should have been devoted to God,

which was evidence of the individual's

devotion to God

and desire to do what was right before him.

In other words,

as well as being greedy for themselves

and taking what they weren't entitled to,

they were also at the same time

leading the people into sin

in that they weren't able to give God

what they knew God was entitled to,

what the law had demanded from them.

There was religious abuse of the worst kind.

Then a little bit later down in the passage,

we see moral depravity.

So as well as this taking by force

what wasn't right for them,

the priests in that day,

they were also sleeping with the woman

who were responsible for looking after

the temple courts.

Very much in the nature of what religions

round about would have done.

Very much against the law of God

and what as God's people

they should have been doing.

I have a question about that.

Not expecting you to answer out loud,

but think about it.

Which of these abuses

horrifies you more?

Which do you find more shocking?

I think for most of us

it's the sexual abuse

that we find more shocking to begin with.

We look at it and perhaps we say,

well this is an old ritual,

it's not really relevant in our day

because we don't have to make

these kind of sacrifices,

but we understand more about

what was happening in the second sin

and that is really, really shocking to us.

And so it should be.

But I'd suggest

the first sin should be no less shocking.

Because what the people were doing here,

what the priests were doing here,

was deliberately disobeying God

and the commands that he had given

and more than that,

they were encouraging the people

to disobey God

and forcing them to do it

if they weren't willing to.

Not content just to get

what didn't belong to them.

They were taking from God

and actually taking from

the religious exercise

of the people who came to the temple.

And that is absolutely shocking.

And I would say,

as we start with the religious abuse,

perhaps it's almost inevitable

what follows next.

That if we get things wrong

in our relationship with God

and what we give to God

and the way we deal with God,

then it is a slippery slope

and that moral depravity

is something

which is very likely to follow.

So I would say

we should be shocked

at both the sins

of these priests of Hophni and Phinehas

and their associates.

Both of them are utterly unacceptable

and should be a real warning to us.

Now hopefully none of us

are engaged directly,

at least in either of these sins.

But there are a couple of lessons,

I think, from it

that I would take.

Two groups of people,

I think, need to be very careful

to make sure we don't fall

into this kind of sin.

Now I belong to both groups,

so I'm talking to myself

on both occasions as well,

no doubt to many of you.

The first group is those of us

who have grown up

in Christian homes,

who have grown up in environments

where there was a love of the Lord Jesus

and a desire to serve Him

and to live for Him.

Now we know, I'm sure,

that growing up in a Christian home

isn't a guarantee

that we'll come to faith

in the Lord Jesus.

Faith is a personal thing

and we need to put our trust

in the Lord Jesus

and believe individually

that He died for our sins

and that we can have forgiveness

through Him.

But even having done that,

there's a danger, I think,

for quite a lot of us

that this is something

we've known all our life,

we're very familiar with

and perhaps we don't treat it

as seriously as we should.

That obeying God,

serving Him,

seeking to bring others to Him

and seeking in particular

not to trip others up

in their Christian faith

or to do things

that would draw them away from God,

these can easily become

too low priorities for us

if our faith becomes too familiar

and if we lose that burning desire

to serve God

and to live for Him

and to draw others to Him.

And those of us

who have been in a Christian environment

all our life,

we need to be very careful.

We don't take it for granted.

It is an enormous privilege

to have godly parents

and to be able to follow their example,

but we need to make sure

we are following that example,

that we are devoted to the Lord Jesus,

that we are living for Him.

The second group is Christian leaders,

practically those

who are in some kind of full-time Christian work,

but all those who are leaders of God's people.

And the real warning here is,

am I doing anything

that would distract people

or would draw them away

from their love for the Lord Jesus?

As they look at me

or as I talk to them,

and as they expect

for someone who is in a position

of leadership within a church

to get a good example

and good teaching,

is there anything I am doing

that could draw others away from Christ

that could make them stumble

in their faith?

Again, probably not as dramatically

as in the case of Hophni and Phinehas

for most of us,

but nevertheless a real danger

that as Christian leaders,

as those who are supposed

to be setting an example

that actually we set the wrong example

and we cause people

to stumble in their faith.

So two possibilities.

Some of you may not fall into neither good,

some of us fall into both,

but let's examine ourselves

if either of these applies to us.

But let's look at the second horror

that I think there is

in the case of Hophni and Phinehas.

Eli eventually,

eventually starts to plead with them

and points out to them

what is wrong

and what they are doing

and asks them to discontinue it.

But the writer who records,

they didn't listen to their father's rebuke,

for it was the Lord's will

to put them to death.

It was the Lord's will

to put them to death.

Now I think that in some ways

is quite shocking for us as well.

Doesn't God want everyone to be saved?

Isn't grace available

to all those who will receive it?

Absolutely yes.

And yet we can't receive God's grace

without the working of God's Spirit

in our lives.

And it appears from Scripture,

another example would be Pharaoh in Exodus,

it appears from Scripture

that there are those

who get so far down

into their sin

and their antipathy to God

and their absolute unwillingness

to be obedient to God

that God almost says,

well, you have decided,

you have resolved to be this way.

And the Spirit stops striving with them

and pricking their conscience

and seeking to draw them to God.

I put that out slightly tentatively,

but I think that is the implication

of what's said here.

But let me do it with two caveats.

The first thing is,

we can never make a judgment

that someone is beyond God's grace.

As far as we are concerned,

everyone who is a sinner before God,

if they will come to God,

then they will receive his grace.

They will receive the mercy

that he is willing to give.

And if they come in faith to the Lord Jesus,

they will receive forgiveness for sins.

And we are not able to say whether someone's heart is so hard

that they're never going to do that.

Our job is to constantly witness to them

and seek to show them God's grace

and to bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the second thing I would say is that none of us individually

should ever think that we are beyond God's grace.

Indeed, if we're having these thoughts,

it probably means that we're not,

that we still have some conscience.

The Spirit is still working in our lives.

However far we may sink,

however great our sin may be,

however much we may feel that we have failed God,

for all of us,

if we come to him,

there is grace

and he is willing to receive us

and to heap that grace on us

and to wonderfully bless us

as we repent for our sins.

So don't let the passage about hard hearts,

about God's will,

as in this passage,

don't let them put you off

seeking to win others for the Lord Jesus

and don't let them put you off

coming to Jesus for mercy

and for forgiveness

for all the wrong that you've done.

But two horrors,

the horror of what the sons of Eli did

and the horror of the fact

that ultimately they were beyond redemption,

that God had decreed

that they must be punished for their wrong.

Let's move on and look at Eli.

Eli, like many characters in scriptures,

is a bit of a conundrum

because you look at Eli in one hand

and you say,

here's a good man.

Here's a man who knew God,

who honoured God

and who had respect for God's word.

And then you look at this chapter

and you look at God's verdict on Eli

where he says,

why do you honour your sons more than me?

So I suggest that Eli was fundamentally a good man,

but he had this fatal flaw

that he endowed his sons,

that he didn't discipline them as they should

and ultimately that led to his downfall before God.

But let's look at the good side first.

As we look at Eli's dealings with Samuel

and with his family,

apart from his initial mistake

in thinking what Hannah was doing

when she was praying,

they thought she was drunk.

Apart from that,

Eli was a man who sought to bring Samuel

and his family closer to God.

He recognised in Hannah and Elkanah

a couple who were devoted to the Lord,

who wanted to live for him

and who wanted to do what was right.

And indeed,

who so much wanted to do what was right

that they were willing to give their son

to work in the temple

to devote him to the Lord's service.

And as they come to the temple,

year after year,

Eli is there.

He's there to meet them.

He's there to bless them.

He's there to pray for them.

As Samuel ministers day to day in the temple,

it appears that Eli was there

similarly to be a father figure to him.

In many ways,

I'm sure to show a good example,

one of those in chapter three,

when God speaks to Samuel,

it's Eli who ultimately identifies

that it's God speaking

and Eli accepts even the judgment

that's made against him

and against his family,

recognising the sovereignty of God.

Eli was a man who knew God,

a man who had great respect for God,

and in many ways,

a man who sought to do what was right.

But he had this one fatal flaw

that he managed to ignore completely

the sins of his sons.

In fact, it may be a bit worse than that.

When Eli condemns his sons,

when he talks to them,

gives them the kind of father's warning talk,

he very much focuses on their immorality,

and he talks about the fact

that they're sinning against God,

and there's this thing about

if you're sinning against someone else,

God may intercede.

Who's going to intercede

if you're sinning against God?

He doesn't really address

their abuse of their priestly office.

And there's some suggestion, I think,

in what God says to Eli

through the man of God

that actually Eli was enjoying

what his sons were getting

wrongly from the people.

If we jump forward to chapter 4

and the death of Eli,

it records that Eli was a rather fat man.

He was rather big,

and that was partly what contributed

to his death.

And perhaps that obesity

was partly from all these roast meals

that his sons were taking

and were giving to him.

Now, Eli, it doesn't look like

he was actively involved in this,

but perhaps he was complicit

in that he ignored

what his sons were doing

and he accepted

the results of their sin

even though he wasn't actively involved

in it himself.

One way or another,

Eli got this badly wrong.

He should have looked at his sons

and at the very least,

he should have said

they weren't fit

for priestly office.

Now, if you look at the law,

he should have probably done

quite a lot more to that

in tending them away,

perhaps even getting them

put to death.

But at the very least,

he should have made sure

that they didn't have

the authority of being priests,

that they were stripped

of that duty,

of that privilege before God.

Eli, up to the point

when he remonstrates with them,

it appears had done

absolutely nothing.

He was a man

who was leading the people,

who was in some ways

it appears leading the people

quite well,

and yet he couldn't lead

his own family,

and he didn't have the courage

to discipline his sons

when he should have.

Great warning there

to those of us

who are parents,

that we need to make sure

in our dealing

with our children,

that we give them

a good example,

but also when they go wrong,

that we are willing

to rebuke them

and to seek to bring them back

into God's ways.

Too often, I suspect,

many of us are a bit like Eli,

and we don't have

these hard conversations

when we really should.

But that is what

we're called to do.

We cannot ignore sin,

whoever it is

who is committing it.

Whether it's sins

in our family,

whether it's sins

in the church,

whether it's sins

of our nation,

then we should be

standing against them

and making sure

that people know

what our position is

and what is right

before God.

God.

It's a wonderful example

of that, isn't there?

In the New Testament,

the Lord Jesus,

he goes into the temple

and as he sees

the money changers.

Now for many of us,

we might have looked

and we thought,

this is terrible,

how are they getting away

with doing what

they're doing there?

The Lord Jesus

didn't do that.

He went in,

he overturned their tables

and he made it clear

exactly what their sin was.

They turned his father's house

into a house of thieves.

And we need similarly

to have that horror of sin

and desire to see it put right.

But Eli didn't

and so Eli comes under

God's judgment.

And the latter part

of the chapter

is this man of God

who comes to Eli.

A man of God coming to you

is usually a bad sign

in the Old Testament.

It means you've done

something wrong

and God's going to

rebuke you for it.

It is that here,

the man of God comes

and he condemns Eli

because he has failed

to control his sons

and because,

says God,

he has honoured his sons

more than he honoured God.

And so the judgment

comes on Eli

that ultimately

his family

are going to lose

priestly office.

Now we scroll

just very briefly forward

in the books of Samuel

and we see

in the next chapter

the death of Hophni and Phinehas

on the same day

they're called

as a heart of the covenant

is taken by their enemies.

Eli hears the news

and he falls off the bench

where he's sitting

and he breaks his neck

so he dies on the same day

as well.

Later in 1 Samuel

we have an incident

where Saul thinks

that Eli's family

are supporting David

and he has most of them

put to death.

And then in 2 Samuel

the one who escapes,

the only one who escapes

from Saul's slaughter

is himself caught up

in the battle

that follows David's death

and Solomon removes him

from priestly office.

And that is the end

of the house of Eli

as a priestly office.

And instead it passes over

to the descendants

of Eliezer,

one of the oldest sons

of Abraham

and when it talks here

about the priest

who will be raised up,

the faithful priest,

the priest forever,

it is almost certainly

talking about Zadok

who was the priest

under Solomon

having served alongside

Abiathar,

Eli's descendant

under David.

Zadok is the faithful priest

and it is his household

from then on

who have the priesthood.

Of course when we look

at the eternal priest

we probably also think

about the Lord Jesus

but I'm not sure

that in this passage

particularly

that is the main

interpretation of it

but of course

the Lord Jesus

is a priest forever

as well

and we can think

about that.

But the judgment

comes on Eli's house

and over a period

in Saul's reign

and David's reign

and Solomon's reign

Eli's house

is taken away

from the priesthood

and is passed on

to a different group

of people

also descendants

of Aaron.

That in a sense

isn't that important

just a bit of history

but it is important

that Eli

comes under

God's judgment.

And even though

as I've said

Eli was

in many ways

fundamentally

a good man

God couldn't

ignore his sin

and the effects

of his sin

therefore affected

future generations.

In the same way

as David's sin

with Bathsheba

and all things

joined to that

that's a devastating

effect also

on David's family.

And even if we are

people of God

even if we know

the Lord Jesus

and love him ourselves

our sins

can also have

a devastating effect

on others.

Not that God

is unwilling

to forgive us

as he forgave

David

and yet our sins

do have consequences

we need to be aware

of these.

But a fundamental lesson

I think for many of us

is we can't

just look at ourselves

and try through

our personal devotions

to please God.

If we are in

positions of any

kind of authority

whether as leaders

as parents

or whatever

we need to have

this concept

of being willing

to tackle

the difficult issues

and the things

that would drag

other people down

and to seek

to correct them

and to see them

one for the Lord Jesus.

Let's finish

more positively.

Samuel.

I've called Samuel

growing in grace.

I think that's probably

quite a good description

of what it is here.

Samuel 2.29

Samuel continues

to grow in stature

and favour

with the Lord

and with people.

When it says

you go down the chapter

that several times

interspersed with all

the sins of Eli's family

you have these brief

comments on Samuel.

We have one

we didn't read

tonight

it was really part of

last week's passage

in verse 11

about Samuel

serving before God.

We have it again

as Eli's sons

evil is described

in verse 18

Samuel was ministering

before the Lord

then description

of what Samuel's

parents did.

Verse 26

the boy Samuel

continued to go

in stature

and favour

with the Lord

and with people.

And then if we read

over into the first

verse of chapter 3

it says the boy Samuel

ministered

before the Lord

under Eli.

In other words

in all this chaos

that was created

by Eli's sons

in all their sinfulness

and despising God

in all Eli's weakness

in dealing with

the sins

of his family

we have this bright ray

that we have Samuel

who is growing

and is maturing

and is coming

to faith in God

and who ultimately

will take over

much of the role

that was previously Eli

who would become

the prophet

and the judge

of Israel.

So two things

about the honour

that we can see

for Samuel.

And the first is

Samuel's family.

It is

Hannah

and Elkanah.

This couple

from Ramah

who had previously

been childless

though Elkanah

had children

by his other wife

previously been childless

and Hannah

promises

that if God

gives her a son

that son

will be devoted

to her

and will serve

in the temple.

The son

comes along

Hannah

keeps her words

and she hands

Samuel over

to be devoted

to God.

They weren't that far away

so I suspect

they visited him

quite often

but he was devoted

to serving God

and every year

it says

they came back

as they came

to do give

their sacrifice

and they brought

Samuel

a new robe.

It was because

he was getting bigger

as time went on.

Every year

a sign of their love

for Samuel

there was this robe

that they brought

along.

And every year

as I've said

they met with Eli

and Eli

as he saw

this lovely family

he wanted

to bless them

and to pray

for them

and God

honoured them.

He honoured Hannah

who had previously

been barren

she had another

five children

three sons

and two daughters.

A lovely family

devoted to God

keeping their promises

living for him.

Good if we can have

families like that

rather than the family

of Eli

that we have families

where God's name

is honoured

and where we seek

to serve him

and to devote

our lives

and our family life

to him.

And then we have Samuel.

Samuel is being prepared.

It says in chapter 3

that Samuel

didn't yet know God.

I think that means

particularly Samuel

never had the personal

experience of God

speaking to him.

and yet in chapter 2

Samuel is being prepared

for his service

in chapter 3

and beyond.

And these little reports

about Samuel

are kind of progress reports

on how he was getting on

in the temple.

So to begin with

he was just helping Eli.

He ministered before the Lord

under Eli.

Then Eli kind of goes

out of the picture

in verse 18

it just says

Samuel was ministering

before the Lord.

Perhaps Samuel

by this stage

become a bit more

independent

a bit more personal faith

and a bit more

knowing what it was

that God's will was

for him.

Verse 26

Samuel continued

to go in stature

and favour

with the Lord

and with people.

As he learned from Eli

as he served God

in the temple

so he grew

he matured

he developed

and he became

a good servant of God

that people could look at

and they could say

here is a good example

where Eli's sons

are very bad examples.

And then in chapter 3

God starts speaking

to Samuel

and everything

that God says

to Samuel

comes about

and the people

recognise

there is

a great prophet

here.

We again

if we are parents

or indeed as a church

when we have so many

young children

among us

we need to really

care for

and nurture

our young

people.

We need to show

them an example

of what it is

to live for God

we need to teach

them God's word

simply

and faithfully

and seek to

encourage them

to serve

and to follow

and to grow

in their knowledge

of the Lord

Jesus.

Children must

never be seen

as a bit of an extra

a bit of a nuisance

in church

something that we

yes it's good

whether there's

good to have a bit

of life around

the church

but not really

that important.

Our children

are the future

of the church

they are those

who knows

who may have

gone to be

like Samuel

and to serve

God in similar

kind of ways

and to be great

men and women

of faith

and we need

as a church

to value them

and to look

after them

and to teach

them faithfully

the word

of God

to show them

that we care

for them

because God

cares for them

and we want

what is best

for them

from God

and then perhaps

it can be said

of them

that they grow

in stature

and favour

with the Lord

and his people

reminder here

I think isn't there

of the Lord Jesus

end of Luke's gospel

we know

we know very little

about Jesus' childhood

but one thing

we do know

the last verse

of Luke 2

the evangelist

records

Jesus grew

in wisdom

and stature

and in favour

with God

and man

very much

a reflection

of the same

kind of thing

as with Samuel

grew in wisdom

and stature

in favour

with God

and man

may our prayer

be that our

young people

in this church

may come to know

the Lord Jesus

for themselves

and may then

grow in wisdom

and stature

and in favour

with God

and man

let's pray

for them

let's

encourage

them

and so

we have

God

honoured

through Samuel

and his

family

let's finish

with Eric Liddow

Eric Liddow

centre just

around the corner

in Morningside

that's named

after

Eric Liddow

of course

was a very

famous athlete

also an

international rugby

player

but best known

as an athlete

and through

the film

Chariots of Fire

Eric Liddow

won the 400 metres

at the 1924

Olympics

in Paris

and there's a story

that says

Eric Liddow

is preparing

to go to the track

for his 400 metres

final

that one of the

American masseurs

passed him a note

and that note says

in the old book

it says

he who honours me

I will honour

in other words

a quotation

from 1 Samuel

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2

and that American

although on

an opposing side

in terms of

the Olympics

he recognised

that Eric Liddow

was someone

who loved God

who knew him

and who honoured him

in that particular

context of course

it was that Eric Liddow

had refused to

run on a Sunday

so he'd given up

on his favourite event

the 100 metres

and had gone instead

for the event

the 400 metres

and indeed you could say

that God honoured him

as he won that event

and as he broke

the world record

but of course

Eric Liddow's story

didn't end there

after Eric Liddow

had been to the Olympics

he did what he'd

always intended to do

and he followed his parents

to the mission field

he went to China

and he served there

faithfully

for a good number

of years

and in the end

he ended up

in an internment camp

where he died

at quite a young age

for Eric Liddow

athletics running

was important

it was something

he believed

God had gifted him in

and that because of that

that he should honour

God through it

but he wasn't looking

for glory

for himself

and it wasn't so important

that having won

in 1924

he was thinking

well I need to come back

in 1928

or to go to some

other championships

and make a bigger

career of myself

as an athlete

Eric Liddow

wanted to put

God first

and to honour

God

in all he did

and so it was more

important

than running

in the race

where he was felt

to have the best

chance

of winning

it was more important

than pursuing

a career in this country

and perhaps having

even greater success

in athletics

or in rugby

or perhaps even

in a different sport

for Eric Liddow

the most important

thing

was that in his life

he should

honour

God

and that's where

we should be

as well

that it's not

about the greed

of Hophni and Phinehas

it's certainly

not about

ignoring God's

will

and his way

and of bringing

others down

in their faith

rather like

Samuel

like Eric Liddow

like the Lord

Jesus

our greatest desire

should be

that God's name

is glorified

and that we serve

him

and that we live

for him

and that for me

is the challenge

of 1 Samuel 2

in my life

do I really

honour God

do I put God

first

or are there

lots of other

things that I put

ahead of them

that are to do

with my selfishness

and my ambition

for myself

and I challenge

all of us

as we go away

tonight

to think about

am I honouring

God

or are there

things that bring

horror to God's

heart

I would bring

horror to the

heart of others

if they knew

about them

about the sin

in my life

if there are

things that are

holding us back

let's confess

them before God

and let's go

ahead and live

for him

and serve him

and honour him

let's pray together

Father we thank you

for your word

we thank you

that even those

passages

where there is

judgment

where there is

evil

where there is

apparent darkness

yet we can see

you at work

and there are

things that we

can learn from

them

and we thank you

even in the

darkest days

even the most

difficult times

as was the case

as Samuel was

growing up

that you are

at work

often quietly

often unseen

at that point

but yet you are

raising up people

to serve you

and to live for you

we bid you help

each of us

to be true

servants

of you

and of our

Lord

that we may

honour you

and so we know

that we are

never

you are never

any man's

debtor

and as we

seek to honour

you

that we will

receive back

much much more

than we could

ever give

to you

we thank you

for the great

grace that we've

received through

the Lord Jesus

and for the

daily grace

that we receive

from you

help us never

to take it

for granted

help us in our

lives to seek

to honour you

and to serve you

we thank you

for this time

together this evening

we thank you

for your word

and we pray

to you

bless it

to our hearts

and help us

to live for you

for our Lord

Jesus this week

we ask in his name

Amen