Good morning. I invite you to open with me to the book of 1 Samuel as we continue our study through this book. I want to say by way of introduction that please feel comfortable to bring up any questions or comments or observations you guys have about this text as we walk through. So please do not hesitate. I know we have a large group I would so love to have any participation or thoughts that you guys have. So please feel comfortable to bring those up. Well, if you do a lot of traveling, one of the things you'll notice is that there are two types of places that you can go to when you travel. One is you can go to the touristy places. the places where all the tourists are lining up to see and they've, you know, you can always spot a tourist, can't you? You know, they've got their their camera, they've got their maps, you know, they've got their phone out trying to figure out where they are. So you've got the touristy type places and they're busy and there's gift shops and, you know, lots of people around and busyness and commotion. And then there's the non-tourist places, right? The places that are kind of out of the way and that only the locals know about. And a lot of times, it's really actually, as a tourist, the latter sorts of places that you want to go. It's those kind of restaurants you want to eat at. It's those kind of places you want to stay. The book of 1 Samuel is, in a lot of ways, a non-tourist destination for a lot of Bible readers. It's out of the way, and a lot of people don't know about it, but there are hidden treasures here. And indeed, I think a lot of Old Testament narrative is that way. We have to do a little bit more work to really see what's going on here. We have to do more work historically to understand what it was that's going on. Who is Zephaniah? Who are the Amalekites? What is a high priest? Why is it so bad to have roasted meat instead of boiled meat? Those sorts of things are difficult questions for us to answer, but there are treasures here, rich, rich treasures. And so I encourage you as we're going through this to learn here this art, not only of seeing the truths of 1 Samuel, but even to take a step back farther and see how it is that God speaks through the narrative of the Old Testament. There are riches here that God has chosen to speak through narrative form that comprise a huge part of the Bible. The Old Testament, if we include the New Testament references for the Old Testament, it is well over 70%, almost 80% of the Bible is Old Testament. Just a huge proportion that is there. And so we have rich treasures here, and so we're going to take a step out of the normal tourist destinations and see what the Lord has to say. One of the challenges, I think, especially in preaching through this sort of narrative is to know exactly what to read. You know, you can't just read one verse. In fact, a lot of these stories, you have to read two, three, even four chapters sometimes to even get a glimpse of what's going on. And so I encourage you as we go through this, even to be reading alongside of it, the passage that we're looking at today, you could probably read the first really three chapters of this in probably 15 or 20 minutes and get a glimpse of what's going on. So I encourage you to spend some time, even if it's just a few minutes on a lunch break or before you go to bed at night, reading through this book to get an idea of where we are. What I want to do this morning is to read chapter two, verses 12 through 26 together, and then we'll reference the other parts as we walk through. So first Samuel chapter two, beginning in verse 12. Now the sons of Eli, you remember from last week, Eli is the high priest here. He's over the temple. And his sons were introduced to us last week in chapter one. His sons are Hophni and Phinehas. So now the sons of Eli, the sons of the high priest, who would also be priests sacrificing at this time, were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the priest was with the people, was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw. And if the man said to him, let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish, he would say, no, you must give it now. And if not, I will take it by force. Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with a linen ephod. And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, may the Lord give you children by this woman for the petition she asked of the Lord, so then they would return to their home. Indeed, the Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the young man Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord. Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And he said to them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons, it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death. Now the young man Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with men. And then one more verse I want to look at in chapter 3, verse 13. This is speaking of Eli. It says, the Lord says about Eli, and I declared to him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them. Last week we left off with Hannah leaving her son, her only son at that time, Samuel, at the temple. And if you'll remember, she had been praying and interceding to the Lord for a son. And there was a certain amount of poetic justice we saw in this text, because it was the wicked woman, Penina, who was prospering, and it was the righteous woman, Hannah, who was suffering. And so Hannah cries out to the Lord and says, Lord, grant me a son. If you will but grant me a son, he will be yours forever in service to your temple. And so faithful to her word, she brings her son Samuel after three years of weaning her own child and leaves him there at the temple only to see him once a year when her family would travel there. And you would expect a mother who had made this deep sort of sacrifice to be in a state of mourning and of sadness. But chapter 2 begins with quite the opposite. Hannah prays a prayer of exaltation. My heart exalts in the Lord, verse 1 says. My strength is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. And so, quite the opposite. response that we would imagine from a woman who has just sacrificed that which the earthly treasure which like was most dear to her her only son she was rejoicing in the lord because he who is holy had given her this gift of a son and so she observes and actually interestingly uh this song of Hannah provides a lens through which we can read the rest of 1 Samuel and indeed in a lot of ways the rest of the Old Testament. Because she says God is a God who takes those people and those things which are most weak and chooses to use them for his purposes. And indeed Hannah counts it a blessing that she could be made so much weaker than her enemies so that it was the Lord who gave her strength and infused her weak body to have a child. so that he could get the glory for what was done. And so, Hannah sees this as a great cause for joy, and she rejoices in the fact that God has given her a son that can go and be of service here in the temple. And indeed, as we saw last week in verse 10, there is even a pointing forward in Hannah's prayer. Hannah knows that this is not the final blessing. that there is coming another one, an anointed one. In the Hebrew this is the word Messiah. It's translated for us in English, but that's what the Hebrew word is. There is coming a Messiah, another reigning king, and he will do far more than my son will do. He will bring his people out of their slavery to sin. And so here we have Hanaf The Lord using this song of praise to pronounce a prophecy that in the future there would be another boy who would come under the most miraculous of circumstances and save his people from their sins. And so the boy is ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest. Great rejoicing. A great example of a woman who was praising God in a great sacrifice gave her only son to the service of the Lord. And the contrast between the story of Hannah and her faithfulness and Samuel and what we'll find out is his faithfulness The contrast between that and Eli and Hophni and Phinehas could not be any greater. We have a boy here, Samuel, who was dropped off, who was faithful in his service, as we'll see. But we have the sons of Eli. And you notice there are two descriptors about the sons of Eli. They are worthless men. Does anyone have a different translation there than worthless? Corrupt? Anybody else? Yeah, so they're worthless and they are corrupt men. So, they are worthless. They're corrupt men. They are sons of the devil. They are the ones of whom Jesus says in John 8. You remember when the Jewish leaders came and they said, we're sons of Abraham. You remember what Jesus says to them? Uh-uh. You're sons of the devil. You see, you may have a certain sort of physical lineage. The Pharisees and the high priests and the Sadducees in Jesus' day certainly did. They were from Abraham. The chosen people. But Jesus says, no, no, that may be true, but your actions betray the fact that you are actually sons of the devil. You are being controlled by him. And in John 3, John the Baptist comes on the scene. You remember this as well. This even precedes Jesus' statement there. And he says, do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. The ax is at the root of the tree. ready to chop down those who are not faithful to God. And so there is a perennial temptation that we face to imagine that because we come from a faithful family or a faithful lineage that we ourselves will have favor in the eyes of God. And indeed we see that the sons of Eli, their actions betrayed the fact that they had become In a certain sense, we could say fat and happy in their position of service to the Lord. You know, I have a friend who works for a particular bank in Birmingham and he made this observation to me. He's very thankful for his job and he has a good job and I think very likely may stay with that job for a long time. He's about my age. But he made this observation to me that the people in this bank are what he called fat and happy. You know, they're really, they're not really concerned about gaining new business for their bank or are not concerned about new advertising or new public relations or new plans or campaigns or whatever it is that you can do to make a bank grow, you guys should know more than I would. He said these people really just want to draw a check at this point, you know, they're close to retirement, and they've lost that sort of creative push and innovation to get more business and garner more for their company. They're just sitting there in their offices drawing a paycheck. That's kind of the picture we get here of the sons of Elijah. They really are unconcerned about these things of the Lord that have been entrusted to them. And you imagine that if you had grown up with your father as a priest in the temple, and if you had grown up Seeing what he does, and had grown up in a society where this was so commonplace, to see animals brought in, and people slaughter the animals, and sing a song of praise to God, and see the meat burn. You know, after a while, I think it could be a temptation to become fat and happy in this sort of position. But the sin runs much, much deeper than just that. Because of that next descriptor, that they were worthless men, they were corrupt men, they were sons of the devil, they did not know the Lord. You see, this picture of Hannah that we get, especially in chapter 2, the song of praise that we have of Hannah, shows us this fact, that there was a fuel under the fire of sacrifice that she offered. This sacrifice didn't pop out of nowhere. It was fueled by a heart that knew and delighted in God. She was a woman who took her son and treasured him greatly and highly. But there was an even greater treasure in her mind than her son, and that was her Savior, her God. And so, because she worshipped God much more highly than she worshipped her son, because her joy and her delight were found in God such that the giving of her son would be reason or cause for great praise to God, because that was the fuel, that delight in God, that knowing God, that gave this poor woman who was living out in an out-of-the-way family that no one had ever heard of, the opportunity to praise God. She knew God. And yet here we have men of a very different sort of character. And the author here is very clear to tell us that the reason why they were engaging in such atrocious acts before God is that they had not the foundation of joy and delight in knowing God that Hannah did. And so, when we read this story, we are challenged to behold the danger of serving God apart from knowing God. You know this is in a certain sense a lived out, a prolonged picture of the Mary and Martha danger. You remember that story where Mary came and sat at the feet of Jesus and delighted to learn from Him and listened to His teaching and Martha was in the kitchen preparing and Martha scolded Mary and indeed implicitly I think we can say scolded Jesus. Jesus, she's wasting her time. We've got stuff to do in here. We've got to get going. We've got service. He says, no, no. She has chosen the better portion. There is great danger in serving God without knowing God. Even in doing certain things that maybe God has even commanded and yet not having the foundation that Hannah had. And so this is the commentary that we get on these sons of Eli. They were worthless men because they knew not God. And so we see how this was played out. The custom. You notice there that what is so despicable about this is that it wasn't just a one-time act. It was a custom. It was a habit. It was a way of life. It was a perspective that marked and characterized these people. One of the biggest indictments of this time period, again flowing straight out of the judges into this time, was this. That not only were the people profaning God with their lives, but here at the temple, the very place where God had instituted worship for Himself, There was profanity happening there, too. It had run deep into the spiritual soul of the people of Israel. And there were two grievous errors they were doing. The first was with regard to the sacrifices. Now, one common, I think I can say, misperception about the Old Testament sacrifices was this, that when you had your animal, let's say you had an ox and you were taking him in or a lamb, and you were taking them in to sacrifice, there's a common misperception that you would just drop it off there at the altar and walk away, you know? And know that you have made your contribution to the temple service. That was not at all the way it worked. You brought it in and the priest would help you, but you as the sacrificer would slay the animal yourself. And you as the sacrificer would be involved in the whole process. except for those parts which the priest alone could perform, you were right there doing it all yourself. And so the people here knew what they were supposed to do, and they knew what the priests were supposed to do. And the indictment is this, that the people knew far better than the priests themselves did what they were to do. Kind of like when you go into Walmart, you know, when you go and ask an associate if you're looking for something, the associate says, you know, I really have no idea. I don't know if that's ever happened to you guys before, but there comes a point at Walmart where the customer knows it a lot better than the associates do. That was what was happening here. The people who were coming and were offering these sacrifices knew it far better than the priests themselves did. And so it was not only ignorance, though. It says that they would take a three-pronged fork. You get this picture of the priest going in and taking meat for themselves. Now, there was some meat in the sacrifices that was to be reserved for the priest. That was true. They had a certain portion. That was how they, that was how the priest ate, was they would eat. There was a certain portion that was designated for them out of the sacrifices that the people would bring. But that was not enough for the priest. You see, the priest weren't content with the hamburger, so to speak. They wanted the ribeye steak. They wanted the best part for themselves. And so they would go in. And remember, who was the best part of it supposed to go to? It was directly to the Lord. directly to be sacrificed to the Lord. And so the priest took some certain blessings that the Lord had given for their provision while commanding the best part of the sacrifice for themselves. And they said, no, no, the Lord can get the leftovers. We're taking the best parts. It was a sort of selfishness and greed that was despicable on the part of the priests. And so not only did they take meat that they weren't supposed to, but they completely ignored God's clear instructions. to boil. Before it was boiled, he said, give meat for the priest to roast. We like it. You know, it tastes better if we can roast it. And in verse 16, it says, Not only that, but if not, I will take it by force. They were threatening the sacrificers who wanted with pure hearts to follow God's instructions. They said, if you follow God's instructions and do it the way God told you to do, we're going to steal it from you and take it directly by force. Despicable actions on the part of the priests. And yet, there is in the narrative structure here of this part of Samuel a pattern that we see. We see a descriptor of Eli, excuse me, a descriptor of Samuel, Hophni and Phinehas. Samuel, Hophni and Phinehas. Samuel, Hophni and Phinehas. They are interspersed throughout. And in that structure, he's telling us something here. You know, he could have just set it up, everything about Hophni and Phinehas and then everything about Samuel. You know, chapter 2, chapter 3. But He doesn't do that. And I think the reason is this, that there is an implicit truth here. That God, even in the midst of such wickedness, is raising up for Himself a faithful priest. God is not, God's plans are not subject to Hophni and Phinehas' sins. Was their sin real? Absolutely. Was it displeasing to God? Absolutely. But even as we see it unfolding, we see God's plan that is trumping their lack of faithfulness. It was God who, seeing such great wickedness, said, I will raise up for myself another priest. And indeed, that's exactly what he does. And so that's why we see these pictures of Samuel interspersed throughout this story. Samuel was ministering before the Lord and He was a boy clothed with a linen ephod. Even the language there, who was it that wore these linen ephods? The priest. And so we see already what he's saying here in very clear language is this. These men are not priests, Hophni and Phinehas. They are not acting the way that God has instructed. The people themselves know better than they do and are doing better than they do in offering sacrifices to the Lord. But here's a little boy. He's wearing a linen ephod. There was another generation, it was even the child among them, among the adults, whose actions condemned those of the adults who should have known better. The Lord here was raising up a boy, another generation of faithful priests who would start here with Samuel and go on. I think there's a lesson for us in that. Be faithful, brothers and sisters, to raise up the young people around you. Samuel was a product of parents and specifically a mother who had saturated this boy in prayer since far before he was born. And we see here that it was Samuel who would come up. Hophni and Phinehas, you know that God's plan here was not just to get rid of Hophni and Phinehas, it was to raise up a replacement for him. The work that we do, brothers and sisters, as families and as a church to raise up young people will be the work that ensures that the faithfulness of God's service endures to the next generation. There is an intergenerational picture here that says that these young people who likely the sacrificers coming in and out of the temple all the time would have neglected. Oh, that's just a little boy cleaning up afterwards. That was the one God had chosen. And so just like what we'll see later, you remember when Samuel went in to minister to David, excuse me, to anoint David as king. He goes in, he takes the oldest son of Jesse, he's tall, he's strong, and he's older, and he says, oh, this has got to be the one. God says, no, no, not them. So they line all of them up. God says, it's none of these. It's the little boy out keeping the sheep that I want to be my king. This is a running theme throughout the book of 1 Samuel. It is those weakest of vessels that God uses to make His strength most clear, so that it can be shown that the strength lies not in the vessels themselves, but that those vessels are jars of clay carrying the power of the gospel in them. This is the same picture here with this boy Samuel. Do not forsake, brothers and sisters, the opportunities we have to raise up another generation of faithful children. That is one of the most important responsibilities incumbent upon us as families and as churches. I don't know if you noticed, but on Wednesday night, You know, we've got the three rows of tables there. And on either side, there were the adults. But in that middle row, did you guys notice, it was almost exclusively children. It was 12 and under. There was one that was just barely above 12, Mr. Shera. The other ones weren't. Everyone else there was, you know, 12 or under. We have a great privilege and responsibility to care for those children. And so we see here that it is, I pray that we will have in that group of children sitting in that middle realm Wednesday nights, men and women like Samuel who will come and be faithful in the next generation. Please join me in that sort of prayer for our church. We see also the sorts of menial tasks that often such support looks like. You know, you imagine that if you're Hannah and you just gave your son to service at the temple, that there's a certain part of you that may say, well, I've done what God has called me to do. I'm done with that. I'll look forward to seeing him each year. She doesn't do that. She's bringing him the robes each year. She is caring for, in very small, very practical ways, this little boy who God has entrusted to her. And so, often, I want to say that, too, that often the support of the next generation looks very menial. It looks like doing the sort of tasks that no one wants to do, but they are essential, brothers and sisters, to seeing the next generation raised up. Well, we see the Lord's blessing of Hannah. Indeed, He continues to bless Hannah with more children, three sons and two daughters. And this young man, Samuel, is growing in the presence of the Lord. And so, great contrast. Hannah's faithfulness, Samuel's faithfulness, Hophni and Phineas' great wickedness. But it gets even worse. Look what happens next. It says, He heard all that his sons were doing to Israel and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting. They were fornicating, and we don't know exactly where, but very possibly in the tent of meeting with the other servants of the temple. What great scorn to the house of God that they would take a tent of meeting that was designed. You remember in the book of Exodus, God spends, what, 15, 20 chapters laying out how he wants this tent of meeting to look and what all the intricate details and designs that went into this to represent God and the sacrifices that He was having, that He would have the Israelites bring to them. You remember the sort of detail that He gave about what the priests were to wear, and who was to come, and what they were to bring when they came, and who could go into the holy place and the Holy of Holies. All of these great details. And here we have Hophni and Phinehas. fornicating within that very tent of meeting. And there's another player here who, even as Samuel was supported by her parent Hannah, the evil that we see in Hophni and Phinehas is perpetrated by a man named Eli. There was a title of a sermon on this text called, Good but Weak. And I think that's a pretty apt descriptor of Eli. A good man, from all accounts. I think we have every reason to believe he loved the Lord. He's a righteous man. Certainly, Eli was not doing these sorts of things. But they went on under his watch. And so the Lord condemns, as we read earlier in chapter 3, He condemns Eli because it says his sons were blaspheming God and He did not restrain them. There was a permissive evil under which Eli allowed such sins to continue. You even notice the way in which Eli hears. Verse 22, it says, He kept hearing all that his sons were doing. Eli himself was not even paying attention to what was going on. He had to listen to second-hand reports. And indeed, there's this language of, he kept hearing. And so, people were coming to him, and coming to him, and coming to him, bringing report after report after report of the sort of deep profanity that was happening in the temple under his watch until he would do something about it. He was a good man, but his leadership was weak. His ability to encourage and challenge his sons to follow in the ways of the Lord was missing. He was a sort of permissive and passive leader that we ourselves have to be on guard against as well, lest these sorts of things happen. And so we see in Hannah a picture of great initiative, of great vision and foresight. We see in Eli great permissiveness and passivity. And so, Eli is rebuked not because of his participation in it directly, but because of his allowance of it and his refusal to stand in the gap and say, men, this cannot happen. And so he finally goes to his sons and challenges them, but it is, in a true sense of the word, too late for his sons. The sort of lifestyle that happened and then the sort of great profanity was so deeply ingrained in his sons that there was no changing it now. We have this interesting verse in 25 in a couple of senses. If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? And without going into too much detail, it seems that the thrust of this verse is this, that these sins are not just the sorts of day-to-day sins that the law talks about. These were not men who had gone out and stolen their neighbor's calf. They were not men who had gone and, you know, refused to be generous to the poor and leave a certain part of their field for the poor to come harvest on. It was not that sort of sin. It was a sin in which they took the presence of God and utterly blasphemed it, revealing a heart that was completely, completely against the Lord's design. I think what we have here in this distinction is very similar, I think, although not exactly the same, but very similar perhaps exactly the same as what John describes as the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. You know, it's a sort of blasphemy there that says, that completely rejects Jesus Christ and the way of salvation there. That's a sin that God can't forgive. And here also we see that Hockey and Phineas have committed sins which reveal and betray a heart that does not know God and has no interest in knowing God. And because of that heart, they are utterly condemned. The second part that is really interesting to read and potentially confusing is, "...but they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death." Huh. The will of the Lord to put them to death. They wouldn't listen to the voice of their father. I think what we have here is the Lord's judgment poured out on unbelievers. We know that the Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked. It is the Lord's will, as Paul writes of Timothy, that all repent and come to knowledge of God. We know these things to be true. But we also know this truth that for those who will not repent and who persist in wrongdoing and spurn the gospel and turn away from God, that there lies and remains upon them God's judgment. And so what we have here is an example of that latter case. Those who would not listen to God and would not listen to the authority over them and their father and therefore were put to death. So whose fault was it? Was it Eli's fault? Or was it Hophni and Phinehas' fault? It was both. Eli sinned. He did not restrain the sort of evil on him. It is the responsibility of parents to restrain evil while a child is in their house. To give them at least the common grace to turn away from the sort of evil that is there. And it is the responsibility of a minister of God to restrain evil that is happening under his watch in the house of God. And Eli failed in both of those. And yet, it was Hophni and Phinehas who were committing such atrocious acts against God. And so, when we see this picture, how the period of the judges came, in which the judges lived in a time where the people of Israel were spurning God constantly. And then we see that further illustrated in how the priests of God, in the service of God, were spurning God. The situation could not look any more bleak except for one character, whose name was Samuel. And so it is yet again in verse 26 that we have this description of Samuel. Now the young man Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man. What does that remind you of? Remember that Luke 2.52? And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. The author here is pointing us to a man who God raised up in such a time as this, when wickedness pervaded not just the time and the popular culture of the people of Israel called by God, but even in the temple of God, where there was utter profanity happening with regard to the sacrifices and the sacrificers. God raised up Samuel. And he is pushing us forward to the day in which he would raise up another great high priest who, not like Samuel, who would soon die. and leave the kingdom to Saul and David and Solomon and many others, but a high priest who has conquered death and who stands forever, Jesus Christ. And so he's pushing us toward that. There's a picture here of how, in the midst of wickedness, there was a little boy who grew up in faithfulness to God, and that is pointing us to the picture of Jesus Christ, who, as a little boy, grew up in faithfulness to God. Well, this chapter ends with a prophecy in verses 27-36. The rejection of Eli's priesthood. Look with me in verse 30. This is an unnamed prophet who comes and so I think we can see even in the fact that there's an unnamed prophet here that the Lord is being faithful to raise up a remnant and indeed always will be faithful to raise up a remnant of those who are faithful to him as Romans 9 talks about. Verse 30, therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares, I promise that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever. That was a promised Eli. You're going to be a priest. Your household is going to be a priest. You're going to go in and out before me. But now the Lord declares, verse 30, far be it from me for those who honor me I will honor and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed." This word despise and we find this word a lot with regard to the sacrificial system in the book of Malachi. You remember there that it was the same sort of thing happening in Malachi's day. They were bringing profane sacrifices to the Lord. It was a In fear, you're sacrificed. The Lord commanded spotless and unblemished animals. They were bringing their leftover animals that no one wanted out of their cattle and saying, oh, the Lord can have that. And it was that same word, the same indictment there. They despised the Lord. Literally, it means to lightly esteem, to treat something as not all that important. That's how they were treating God. And so the Lord cut off that house and said, this sort of thing cannot remain. I will raise up for myself another line. And there is a condemnation here on Eli. Look at verse 32. Then in distress you will look with an envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. Your people, your house will not even live very long anymore. There is such a deep judgment that is coming to you. And in verse 34, And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you. Both of them shall die on the same day. And 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 will go in and out before my anointed forever. And so in the midst of the wickedness of Hophni and Phinehas, there is a promise of a faithful priest. Well, what do we do with this lesson? What sorts of ways could this be applied to us? I think a number of ways. Number one, I think we must see here the need to serve God in fear of God, in reverence to God, and of knowledge of God. Hophie and Phineas were in the temple and they were doing things, you know, they were taking in sacrifices and they had the fire going and yet they were not doing it in the fear and reverence of God. And they were doing it apart from the lifeblood of Hannah's sacrifice, knowing God and delighting in God. I think there's also in this passage a call to trust God. You know, our day is not much different than the day of the judges, is it? A day which can be extremely discouraging. We live in a landscape of moral decline, of scoffing at Christianity. A day and age in which even those who claim the name of Christ show themselves to be completely atrocious in God's sight by profaning Him, by preaching false gospels, prosperity gospels, and cults like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. We live in a sad time. even as the Lord was faithful to raise up Samuel here. The Lord has been faithful to raise up a faithful high priest and indeed as Romans 9 teaches us the Lord will be faithful to raise up a remnant until the day of his return. And so do not lose hope in seeing the wickedness that inundates our culture. Instead, let that drive you to look forward to the day in which the Lord will come and establish the new heavens and new earth forever, and in which we will reign in service to our great High Priest Jesus Christ. And let it be a warning, lest we cling too tightly to the things of this world." Well, what do you guys think? What other ways should this impact us? What other applications? truths here. You know I'm not a parent. Oh, go ahead. Just to take strong comfort in God defends His own honor, His own glory, and those who honor Him. He does it in His time and in His way, and we can take great comfort in that. So, even though today is very difficult for those who call Christ Lord and Savior, remember the promises that are ours and ahead of us, and do not be discouraged. Amen. Amen. I think there's a call here to discipleship, as well, as we observed before. It was Eli's abdication of his responsibilities there over Hophni and Phinehas. The Lord did here, by his own hand, what Eli should have done, and that is remove Hophni and Phinehas from this sort of atrocious action. But Eli, let it continue. There is incumbent upon the church and upon the family to see another generation of faithful worshipers raised up. You know, this is a requirement even in 1 Timothy 3 we see of elders, you know, and of deacons. It talks about the sort of family responsibilities. You remember what it says in 1 Timothy 3 that he must He must be a faithful manager of his own household, for if he doesn't manage his own household well, how could he manage the house of God? It is a sign that the home is a testing ground and a training ground for the discipleship abilities of parents. And so I think what we want to say very clearly is, and you guys can probably think of ample examples of this, that there are very godly children who come from very awful homes. And there are very godly homes from which very wicked children can come. So there are plenty of counterexamples on both sides. Nevertheless, we have before us here a picture that the home is to be the place where children are discipled and nurtured in the ways of the Lord. What other applications? Yes. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, that's right. And it is, you know, we observed in verse 13, it was, it was not just a one or two time action of the priest, it was a custom of the priest. to engage in this sort of sin and I think what we're seeing in our society is it is becoming customary to engage in sin. Well we have to look to the Lord for our hope and strength in these wicked days even as Samuel was raised up the Lord will raise up, has raised up a faithful high priest and will raise up more and more faithful remnants. in service to him. Let's pray and ask for the Lord's blessing on our church in these ways and ask for his blessing on the service. Father, we see in ourselves so much of the disregard for serving you in fear and reverence. And we confess before you that we are often, even like Hophni and Phineas, taking these holy things of service to you and regarding them with scorn and contempt and apathy. Forgive us, Lord, for that. Father, we pray that you would teach us to be as Hannah, whose joy and delight in you drives us to sacrifice to you those things in the world even that are most valuable. We pray that you would protect us, Lord, from the from the greed and the selfishness of Hophni and Phineas who took these things which were intended to be yours, the best part of the sacrifice, and ate of them themselves. And we pray that you would protect us also from the sort of passive and weak leadership which Eli exercised over his sons Hophni and Phineas. Lord, we need your help in these ways and so we pray for your protection in these areas. Lord we pray that you would teach us to trust and hope in you in a time and an age in which it's easy to despair. Lord we ask you that you would teach us the fear and reverence of you and knowing that you have raised up a faithful high priest over your house forever who is Jesus Christ. And we pray that our hope may be cast on him when we see the wickedness of the world around us. And Lord, we pray for your return. We pray that you would return and come back so that you may establish your house forever with us in service to you. We pray your blessing on our church, Anderson Bible Church. I pray that you would continue to raves up another generation, even of the kids who are here. So many children, Lord, we pray that you may grant us the strength to disciple them well so that they may go out and be as arrows which we shoot in the midst of such darkness. And we pray that you would bless even our service now, bless the singing and the worship of you and giving and in communion. And then we pray finally for your blessing on the sermon that you would Use your word to build up our church in conformity to your son. And we pray these things in his name. Amen.