Sin in the Temple: Eli - 1 Samuel - with Phil Whittall

Welcome to the Grace Church Weekly Podcast. We're an international church right

in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden.

Each week, we share a message that's rooted in the faithful teaching of God's

Word and open to the vibrant work of the Holy Spirit among His people.

Here's this week's message.

So we started a series on one Samuel. And so if you have a Bible with you,

I encourage you to open it to 1 Samuel chapter 2.

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

We'll be working, looking in between 1 Samuel chapter 2 and 1 Samuel chapter 4.

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention 1 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

There'll be bits from between the whole section. We're not reading all of it,

but we're going to be working from it.

And so last week, we kicked off the series with a story of Hannah.

Hannah is the sort of Bible story that we like.

God works a miracle, helps a woman who's in real emotional pain,

and the story has a happy ending.

Halfway through chapter two, the story moves on from Hannah.

Hannah and her husband leave little Samuel in Eli's care.

And so Samuel's home now is going to be the temple.

Samuel's life is going to be in service to God. and we love happy endings because

we hope our own story will have a happy ending.

Life isn't always like that. It's not always as easy. It's not always as straightforward.

The miracles don't always happen when and the way we think they should.

And the Bible is honest enough with us to point out that not for everyone is

the story a good or happy one.

And we do ourselves no favors if we skip the stories in the Bible that are like

that and just have all the happy, nice ones.

So we haven't skipped it. We're looking at it because the second story is on Eli.

And Eli's story is a very different story. It starts badly.

It gets steadily worse. And it ends in tragedy, failure, disgrace,

and death. Happy Sunday.

What a lovely story for us to spend some time thinking about.

But there are lessons in here. All of Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching.

In some cases, we learn from the mistakes of others, rebuking.

Oh, maybe I am like that and I shouldn't be.

So in so many different ways, Scripture teaches us. So we have to look at these things.

So when we meet Eli in the story, he's already an old man.

His eyesight is failing, which maybe explains his mistaking in Hannah's story,

why he mistook her prayers for drunken babbling.

Maybe he just couldn't see as well as hear probably because he's old.

By the end of his life, Eli will have judged Israel for 40 years.

And a judge was not like a king. It was, well, what it sounded like.

He was a traveling or not so much by the time he was old.

A traveling Supreme Court, Eli would judge between disputes between different

people, different tribes, different clans and families.

And it was his job to bring the judge.

What does the law say in this matter and in this matter? And it was Eli's judge

to do that. Eli's job to do that.

And if anyone could call all the tribes of Israel together for a purpose,

it would probably be Eli who was both priest and judge.

And Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. And they were also priests.

And then we get this verse. Oh, there we are, this verse.

1 Samuel 2.12, which is one of the most damning verses in the Bible.

The sons of Eli were worthless men.

They did not know the Lord. and whatever translation you choose the sons of

Eli were scoundrels Eli's sons were wicked the sons of Eli were corrupt Eli's

own sons were nothing but trouble,

They did not know God. It's a horrific parenting outcome.

Your children are worthless, wicked, corrupt scoundrels.

That's the judgment in history forever on your parenting. That's what it is.

And they were corrupt. And they'd corrupted the worship at Shining,

which is where the tabernacle is, where all these stories are happening in a

place called Shiloh in Israel.

And worship had become a public scandal and a joke.

And God had had enough.

Then you look into the reason why God has had enough.

And to modern ears, it is, is God getting upset about meat fat?

Is that what God is so bothered about?

Meat is this like a butchery question what's

what's going on here but then when

you read this is why we have to pay attention to

all the scripture because if you just look at it and you go it does look like

god is being upset about meat what's the big deal then when you read the laws

in leviticus chapter 3 you realize it's it's this is not a minor thing this

Leviticus 3 · chapter mention

is a major thing. And let's look at why.

The priests came from one of Israel's 12 tribes, the Levites.

And unlike the others, the Levites had no crops and herds and land themselves.

Their livelihood came from the offering of God's people.

The priests were allowed some of the meat that was given a sacrifice.

And so you would sacrifice and then some of what you were sacrificing,

the priests would have that.

To live. And at Shiloh, they had a little bit of a lucky dip process.

So they had, it says, a three-pronged fork. I didn't have a three-pronged fork,

but I got this one, which I use in barbecuing.

And the priest would come along and stick his fork. Sorry.

Sorry, who's Gouditar, James? Sorry, didn't see that. Moving that over there.

Getting excited. Stick his fork into the cold room.

And whatever would come out, the priest could have.

So if you got a really good bit of meat, God has favored you.

If you got a little bit or nothing came out at all, God was not smiling on you.

And so there's this lucky dip process.

But what the sons of Eli were doing, you're paying more attention now that I've got this, right?

What the sons of Eli would do is they'd send a servant to the people who are sacrificing.

And they would say, hey, before you start cooking it and cooking the fat off

this, give us some of the meat now.

And if they met resistance, they would just take it by force.

It was like us putting the offering basket around, but the people handing the

offering basket around are the local mafia.

And you're like, give generously, freely.

You can give whatever you like but you know it's the mafia who are handing the

baskets around it's corrupt.

Corruption is setting in. Everyone knows the priests are taking what does not belong to them.

And in our day of lean meats and healthy diets, it might sound weird to us that

God would be upset by them taking the fat.

But in their day, fat was the most valuable part.

It was the most important part. it was used for cooking oil and trade it was

monetary value more important than the meat and so when they gave god the fat

it was a symbol of them giving god their first and their best,

and that's a good principle give god your first and your best don't give him

leftovers of your time and talents and resources.

But Hophni and Phinehas, the scoundrel sons, they're not just withholding from

God, they're stealing from God.

They're not just not giving what God deserves, they're taking from him what he is due.

They're taking from God what other people should be worshipping him with.

And it says 1 Samuel 2 verse 17, they treated the offering of the Lord with content.

1 Samuel 2:17

And as the story in the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira,

if you know that story in the book of Acts, it shows us that this issue of how

God responds to people taking the offering of the Lord with contempt,

he takes it pretty seriously.

Friends, giving to this church is optional.

We don't send thugs around to check your giving.

But giving to God for a Christian follower is not optional.

It's as baked into the life of faith and discipleship as prayer,

reading your Bible, hospitality, sharing your faith, giving to God as a part of it.

It's a way that you invest in the worship of the Lord and for the Lord.

It's a way of acknowledging to God all the many blessings that we've received.

It's one of the ways that we care for the community that God has put us in and the needy within it.

And it's one of the ways in which we invest in the mission of God and his church.

And so, friends, don't treat that aspect of your following of Christ with content.

Don't let it be an afterthought or a shallow thought or a knopsel.

These married men, these two married men, sons of Eli, were sleeping with women

who served at the entrance to the Tamalec.

As an aside, in this story, sexual immorality gets a single line.

Their corruption of and hypocrisy in the worship of God in this story is the

more serious of the charges that God is bringing against them.

Now, don't get me wrong. Sexual sin is still, of any kind, is still sexual sin.

But in this story it's not the sin that

is the most it's not the one that's the most problematic here

sometimes people think the church only cares about sexual sins that's not true

care about all kinds of sin that god would forgive us and that god would redeem

us but in this story the story is of deepest concern is worship that honors god,

And Romans 1 paints this picture clearly.

When people stop acknowledging God, everything decays.

Greed, deceit, lust, pride, cruelty.

That's the sons of Eli. Sexually immoral, financially dishonest,

and spiritually bankrupt.

The sons of Eli were worthless men.

They did not know. the Lord.

Knowing the Lord reshapes your moral compass.

Your money, your body, your life is now to be aligned with his will.

Our identity is fundamentally different.

The old has gone, the new has come. We are not who we once were.

So everything changes once we know the Lord.

Eli may be old, but he's no fool.

He knows what's going on. And to his credit, he speaks to his sons.

We had that in the reading. But to his shame, they do not listen.

But why would they not listen? And here we've got one of these really uncomfortable

verses in scripture that has a way of expressing things that can get us all tied up in knots.

There's the uncomfortable truth, next one, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.

Like Pharaoh, Hophni and Phinehas have hardened their hearts in rebellion to

God, and now God is showing them what that means.

They are hard towards God, and now God has hardened them in that place.

Yahweh will uphold the law of Israel because Israel will not.

And God is consistent throughout scripture. The wages of sin is death.

Eli knows what's at stake. Eli knows this. He's not a foolish priest.

Might not be a good priest, He's not a foolish priest. And he asks his sons

one of the most piercing questions in Scripture.

If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him.

But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? That's Eli's question.

Our sacrifices might sort out the sins that you do against me and I do against

you. But if we're sinning against God, who's sorting that out for us?

And it's a question that gets answered by Jesus.

The sacrifices gave Israel a very visible reminder of the cost of sin and the

way in which God said reconciliation happens and forgiveness happens.

But if you're sinning against God himself, who can reconcile you then?

Into the story comes an unknown man. We don't know who he is.

We don't know where he came from. We don't know his name. We don't know where he goes.

But unlike Eli's sons he's just described as a man of God and he brings a message from God to Eli,

God is going to judge the house of Eli and the way that Eli will know there

is the judgment of God and not just some unhappy fatal coincidence is because

both his sons will die on the very same day.

And we might understand, okay, we get why God is judging the sons,

but why is God also blaming Eli?

It says Eli is complicit too.

His sons might not be listening to him, but Eli is judge and chief priest in Israel.

He has authority, but hasn't used it.

He might not be able to stop his sons from sinning, But he can stop his sons

from sinning as priests.

The question, verse 29 comes, says, in the mail of God says to Eli,

why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my

dwelling and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest

parts of every offering of my people Israel?

We learn one thing we learn about Eli is that he's overweight.

Perhaps he's been enjoying the meat that his sons have been bringing him.

Has he grown rich and comfortable off their corruption?

Not only has Eli failed to uphold the standards of the covenant,

but he's given a free pass to sin at the doors of Israel's holiest place.

Sin brings its own reward but it comes at a price and that price is the dulled

conscience towards god suddenly the things that we used to care about we care

they're not so big a deal any longer we become till it becomes something that

we we we don't see anymore.

Churches, too, should not expect God to look kindly on giving sin a free pass in our ranks.

We're called to encourage one another to pick up our cross and to follow Christ,

to crucify the sinful flesh and put sin to death.

That's what, put sin to death. Don't entertain it. We're not to invite it into our homes for dinner.

We're not to have it as dinner, in Eli's case.

What shall we say then Paul asks are we to continue in sin the grace may abound by no means.

The fate of Eli and his sons has been sealed but there is hope for Israel true

worship will be restored,

1 Samuel 2.35 I will raise up for myself a faithful priest,

who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind,

and I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.

God will build his house, and the gates of hell will not prevail,

even when they are dressed as pastors and priests. In this case,

the work of the enemy comes in clothes of priests.

But God has already been moving his solution to Israel's corrupt leadership

in place because Samuel is in the house of the Lord now.

And through young Samuel, God confirms his judgment on the house of Eli.

A famous story about Samuel. If you probably know any story about Samuel,

you probably know this one of when he was a small boy and he hears God and he

mistakes it and goes to Eli and says, I'm listening until Eli suddenly figures

out there's God speaking to Samuel and tells,

and God gives this message to Samuel.

We know this little bit of the story. What we often forget is the message that

God gave to Samuel, which is a message of confirming his judgment on Eli,

which little Samuel has to tell his mentor, to tell the man who's been caring

for him, oh yes, the thing that I heard God say to me in the night is that he's

going to end you and your house forever.

And Eli hears this it says through young Samuel God says this for the iniquity

that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain,

he did not restrain.

He knew that they were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain.

And Eli hears this judgment for the second time and says, It is the Lord.

Let him do what seems good to him.

It sounds humble, maybe.

And it seems maybe Eli is accepting God's verdict.

But he's certainly not repenting. There's no evidence that Eli is repenting.

When David is caught in sin and his judgment is on him, David throws himself

at the massive God and says, maybe God will relent.

We don't see any of this in this story about Eli.

In a couple of weeks' time, we'll take a look at the ark. The ark of the covenant

of God will be one of our characters in the story that we look at.

This is a symbol of the presence of God.

And it gets misused.

Israel and its priests do not know what they're doing anymore.

And God uses their foolishness as the means by which he brings about the fulfillment of his word.

They're having a battle against their arch rivals, the Philistines, and they're losing.

So Eli's sons go and take the ark to help them win they're using God again without knowing God.

People, we can do that. We cannot know God, but we try and use him to manipulate him for our own ins.

But they end up losing even more in this battle.

And the ark is captured and the two sons of Eli are killed.

And I warned you, the story of Eli starts badly, gets steadily worse,

and ends in tragedy and failure.

And so Eli is 98 years old and now totally blind he hears the cry of the city

as news of the defeat spreads he hears the battle report he hears that both

his sons have died on the same day,

and then he hears,

that the enemies of Israel have captured the ark of God,

the symbol of God's presence with his people,

the thing that he has been entrusted all his life to care for and minister over

he let his sons take and it's now gone.

In his shock he falls over backwards and because he's heavy he breaks his neck and dies,

and that's a tragic ending all by itself but the story has another tragic element to it.

His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, she hears this news and the shock sends her into labor.

And as she's giving birth, she is also dying. And she, in her dying breath,

names her son Ichabod, which means the glory has left.

The glory has left.

And that's the end of the house of Eli.

As we read this story and the corruption of worship at Shiloh,

we should come to a slightly different conclusion.

The woman said, the glory has left.

The glory didn't leave because the ark was captured.

The ark was captured because the glory had already left,

God had already departed he was already not with his people because of their

sin and this is one of the darkest moments in Israel's history,

and it seems to be an ending but there's a glimmer of hope because we're told at the end of this story,

the Lord appeared again at Shiloh.

For the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

There's hope for a new beginning because God is revealing himself,

not through the ark, but through a person, through a faithful priest.

So what can we learn from this sad and

sobering story three things

firstly let's resolve

to give god our best if there's any risk that we might be taking the offering

of the lord with contempt let's resolve in our hearts to give to god without

taking him for granted without asking for blessing while ignoring the word and the ways of God.

Friends, let's not do that, but let's freely and joyfully and gladly give to God.

Secondly, is there a risk that we're complicit in a sin?

Have we compromised and let sin take root?

Have we failed to speak up when we should have done? Failed to act when we could have done?

You know, sin thrives in silence and secrecy.

Holiness grows in community.

We forgive unendingly because Jesus taught us so. This is how many times we forgive.

But we will not be led into evil because that's how Jesus taught us to pray.

Lord, lead us not into evil.

Keep us away from it. We don't want to have anything to do with it.

When churches tolerate sin, the presence of the Lord departs.

And all we will be left with is the outward show, the empty rituals and the ropes.

Living in days as this was When the word of the Lord was rare,

Rather we want to be Church's Emmanuel God with us Not Ichabod The glory is gone.

Three,

Eli asked the question, who will intercede for us when we sin against God?

And the gospel answers, God will.

He will intercede through Jesus Christ, his son.

And Jesus Christ is the faithful priest who shall do according to what is in

my heart and mind. That's who Jesus is.

And Jesus is the fulfillment to this promise. Hebrews 8, 26, next slide.

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest,

holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily,

first for his own sins and then for those of his people, since he did this once

for all when he offered up himself.

He goes on to say, as a result,

Jesus, this high priest, is able to save to the uttermost those who dream near

to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Who will intercede for us before God?

His faithful high priest. Who is his faithful high priest that he has promised?

His own son, Jesus Christ. And what was the offering he made? it was himself.

Jesus is the one who knows the heart and mind of the Father.

Jesus is the one who intercedes, and it is through Jesus through whom God has

reconciled us to himself.

Jesus is an unstained and incorruptible priest who goes in and out of the presence

of God forever and offers the perfect sacrifice, who doesn't just take but gives fully of himself.

Jesus is the one who wipes away the curse of Ichabod, And if we are with him,

it is through him that we will see face to face the glory of our God.

Jesus is everything Eli and his sons failed to be.

A faithful priest who draws his people near to their God.

So the third application is this. Your faithful priest, your perfect judge,

your living intercessor is Jesus.

And he is the one of whom you can say, truly say, as Eli said, it is the Lord.

Let him do what seems good to him. We can trust ourselves to Jesus Christ.

We can come to him. He is our faithful priest.

Can I have Dan and James back up? Let's pray.

Some stories inspire us some

stories warn us and this

is a warning story but there are things that

are good for us to heed the warning and learn

and we still see jesus revealing himself in a way which encourages us i hope

and stirs our hearts to thank god for the for the provision the full and complete

and only provision we will ever need. Jesus Christ.

We hope that this sermon has encouraged you. If you'd like to learn more about

us, visit us online at gracechurch.se.

Thanks for listening.