Okay, let's pray to God and ask him to come and be with us tonight in this short time. Loving Lord God in heaven, we thank you for your kindness to us this day already. Thank you for your kindness in bringing us here. Thank you, Lord, for granting us this place to meet, granting us the freedom in this country to meet, and granting us the desire, Lord, not of ourselves, but that you've placed in us to be here and to try to learn more about you, to strive for more holiness in our lives. Father, we pray that as we continue this series through Samuel, Lord, we pray that you would use this man and the things in this book, Lord, for us, and Lord, that they might make our walk with you more full and a closer walk with you. Lord, we pray that you would help us to learn what you have for us in this and not to miss anything. Lord, we pray for any mistakes that I may even make tonight, Lord, we pray that you would correct those and that you'd give us correct understanding. Lord, thank you for the Bible. Thank you, Lord, for giving us this as a map, as a book of signs for us, Lord, for our life. Lord, we pray that you'd forgive us, perhaps, Lord, for neglecting it so often. Lord, we pray that you would give us greater desire and burden, Lord, to see you in it and to want to. So, Father, we pray that you might come and speak to us tonight. Lord, we come now in Jesus' name. Amen. So, we're going to read from 1 Samuel, chapter 2, from verse 12 through to the end of the chapter. Right, from verse 12, 1 Samuel, chapter 2. Now the sons of Eli were corrupt. They did not know the Lord. And the priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged flesh hook in his hand while the meat was boiling. Then he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot, and the priest would take for himself all that the flesh hook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Just stop there briefly, we'll touch on this later, but this isn't the actual law. It's quite difficult to pick up from the first couple of verses there. This is what Eli's sons were doing. This isn't, they were doing wrong, okay? Verse 15, also, before they burned the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who sacrificed, give meat for roasting to the priest. He will not take boiled meat from you, but raw. And if the man said to him, they should really burn the fat first, then you may take as much as your heart desires. He would then answer him, no, but you must give it now. And if not, I will take it by force. Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, even as a child, wearing a linen ephod. Moreover, his mother used to make him a little robe and bring it to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, the Lord give you descendants from this woman for the loan that was given to the Lord. Then they would go to their own home. And the Lord visited Hannah so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the child Samuel grew before the Lord. Now Eli was very old, and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So he said to them, why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons, for it is not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people transgress. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him? Nevertheless, they did not heed the voice of their father, because the Lord desired to kill them. And the child Samuel grew in stature and in favour both with the Lord and men. Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, thus says the Lord, did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon my altar to burn incense and to wear an ephod before me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? Why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering, which I have commanded in my dwelling place, and honour your sons more than me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel, my people? Therefore the Lord God of Israel says, I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before me forever. But now, the Lord says, far be it from me, for those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming that I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. and you will see an enemy in my dwelling place, despite all the good which God does for Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. But any of your men whom I do not cut off from my altar shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age. Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons on Hophni and Phinehas. In one day they shall die, both of them. Then I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house and he shall walk before my anointed forever. and it shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread and say, please put me in one of the priestly positions that I may eat a piece of bread. Okay, it's quite a big section and on first reading it, my first thought was, wow, this is quite, negative and dark and dreary, what can we get out of this? But hopefully, by the time you come to the end of this, you'll see something out of it, which I have when I'm going through it. So, just very briefly, because I needed to remind myself, having not been at the other ones, a recap about where we've got to so far in Samuel. Okay, so in terms of our timeline, where are we? We are 1100 BC, before Christ. We are in a time when priests were very important people in the early church. They were people that were really highly valued and very trusted. We are in Israel, and specifically in what some books refer to as a place, the national religious hub, which is Shiloh. And it's, in Israel, a time of crisis because it was being drowned in sin. And what we're getting a little glimpse here into that through Eli's sons, that they're being drowned in sin. Does that sound familiar to a time we might be in now? Nothing new under the sun? So we are pre-Kings, okay, so not being a King yet, but the books of Samuel are scene-setting, the emergence of the Israelite monarchy. So they're setting the scene for the royal families that will come shortly as we enter Kings. In some of the early translations of the Bible, in some of the languages, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings are actually grouped together as one kind of, not one book, but one sort of section. because they really do hold together and come together. So we've been introduced to Samuel's parents, Hannah and Elkanah. Hannah being one of his two wives, but his preferred one, Elkanah's favorite of his two wives, and the one who he loved the most. And you might remember that she was one of the two that couldn't have children, which led to her prayer in front of Eli. We've learnt about Hannah's faith and how she didn't despair, well she did despair but she did the right thing and she went to God and she prayed and we've learnt about how that faith and faith in God and her commitment to her promise to give Samuel back and how she kept that promise. So we've learned about Hannah's faithfulness. And then through Hannah, we've been introduced to the priest Eli. So very quickly, that's where we've ended up with Eli and who Eli is and where he comes into the story. So tonight, what are we going to briefly cover? Tonight is all about contrasts. There's lots of references. We'll be looking at one thing here and then a different thing here. We're going to be looking at Eli's two sons, predominantly, and specifically the contrast between them and Samuel, and the contrast in those two people, the contrast between God's dealing with wickedness, Eli's sons, and with faithfulness, which is Samuel. Okay, so it's all about contrast tonight. I'm gonna walk through the passage literally as we've read it, but breaking it down into bite-sized chunks to try and leave us with something that we can remember at the end, okay? So I'll try, there's no, it's not like three P's or three S's, unfortunately, because I just couldn't quite make it work. But hopefully the sections will, you'll follow through the story and the sections will make sense. So, we're gonna start with verse 12 through to verse 17 of, oh. Yeah, 12 to 17, chapter 2, the first section there. It's entitled in our Bibles, The Wicked Sons of Eli. We could call this subsection, The Light of the World Becoming Part of the Darkness. I'll explain what I mean by that. The priests of Israel were God's temporary light in the world. We know that they weren't lasting and they couldn't offer lasting sacrifice. But they were God's temporary light in the world, or at least they were supposed to be that light in the world. And that's the point about this light becoming part of the darkness, because these priests that we're learning about were not very bright lights. They were supposed to be those who passed on and taught the people. about God and about his love and care for them and about the heritage that they had in his dealings with them already in the Israelites' lifetime. They were supposed to be ones that talked about God's law and about how the people should observe and respect that. enter Hophni and Phinehas to scupper what these priests were supposed to be doing. Not names you're ever likely to give to your children for reasons that we're about to see. Maybe Hophni and Phinehas would never be at the top of your list anyway, but probably definitely not when you get into what they're like. So these were Eli's sons, so they were also priests because they were from Aaron's line, the line chosen to be the priests. But verse 12 tells us that they did not know the Lord. And that no is literally they did not know the Lord in terms of they weren't believers. They didn't have faith in God. They weren't trusting in God. They were entirely relying on themselves and their own ways. They didn't love God. They didn't care about him. They didn't care about how he dealt with their ancestors, the Israelite people. and they certainly didn't care about the truth of God's righteous judgment or didn't care about any consequences of their actions or their sin. They were committing all sorts of wrong against God. We get a little glimpse into it here. It includes prostitution at the tabernacle, and literally stealing people's food. As priests, they were entitled to a select piece of the food that was offered. But they were basically taking the mickey, and as we read, sticking a fork into the pan, and whatever came out of the end of the fork, they kept. They were supposed to keep two bits, their right thigh. And then the fat was supposed to be offered to God. And then the rest was for the people making the sacrifice. So they were stealing from God because they failed to adhere to the Levitical law, which should have had this fat burning to God. Such was their evil, we read, that they actually made the Israelite people despise God. by their actions and make people turn away from God. So we've just looked at very briefly about how priests were supposed to be those that taught about the law of God and about people turning to God and why and the righteous judgment. But they were doing the complete opposite by their actions and actually turning people in completely the opposite direction. This kind of struck me and the note that I made at that point was take note of how our actions can affect those around us without faith. probably more than we realize. And what a challenge that is to me, and I'm sure to you, that our actions really do speak volumes of our life, especially to unbelievers around us. So we need to kind of learn from what happened here. I know it's slightly different because Eli's sons weren't believers, we're told, but it's a valid lesson to learn about how our actions can affect other people and either turn people to or away from God, potentially. So that's verse 12 to 17. The next section is a bit of relief. The title of verse 18 to 21. A little bit of relief amongst all of the darkness and dreariness, if you like, that we're covering so far. Verse 18 to 21. Amongst all of this bad news comes verse 18. But Samuel, starts verse 18. And what a welcome but that is. Because until this point in the reading, if we hadn't carried on all the way through to the end of the chapter, you could probably be forgiven for wondering how this could possibly end positively, this chapter, this story. How could these people living at this time ever come out of this situation positively? And then we get this contrast, but Samuel. There's several times through this chapter, and in chapter three, where Samuel just pops up interspersed amongst the other sections, and a lot of commentators, a lot of people that have written books think that that's very deliberate, that it's a pattern of, yeah, there's this bad guy, but Samuel. This is the judgment that's going to come upon Elias, but Samuel. And it's clear that that Samuel's being prepared for something very, very important and amazing. And it's nice that amongst all of this passage, we get this little reminder about Samuel. Even at this young age, before Samuel truly knew God, so that word comes up again, because he wasn't at that point, he didn't have faith, he wasn't a believer as a young, young child. Before he truly knew God, we see his faithfulness and obedience to Eli and to the path that his mother put him on. We don't read anywhere about him regret it or being disrespectful to his mum and the fact that she chose to put him on this path and give him back to God. We don't read that anywhere. So we see his obedience to the path that he was on. And we should also note the blessing that Hannah received as a direct result of her obedience. We read in verse 21, the Lord visited Hannah so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. So she had another five children, so six all together. And this is the woman that couldn't have children and was so upset about it. So we should see the blessing that Hannah received because of her obedience and because of her trust and her faith in God. So now everyone's going to be blessed with six children because of that. Okay, so that's a little bit of relief after the first section. Then into the next section, verse 22 to 25. And here we see Eli's somewhat weak attempt to change his evil sons. Verse 22 to 25, Eli's weak attempt to change his sons. Different books that I've looked at take slightly different stances on Eli and whether or not he should be praised for trying to take some action or whether or not he should be rebuked for not taking strong enough action. I think it's probably more like the latter actually because, we'll come onto it in a second, God actually really does hold Eli accountable for his actions or inaction or slightly inept action with his sons. In verse 23, he reminds his sons of God's judgment and the fact that they need God on their side because no one else will intercede for them. I'll read the verse again. Sorry, verse 25. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who is left? Who will intercede for him? Nevertheless, they did not heed the voice of their father. So Eli's failing here is that perhaps he, well he can't, obviously he can't change the hearts of his sons, that's God's work to do, but what he could have done and what he stopped short of doing was cutting their employment in the tabernacle out, which he could have done. He could have removed them from there, which would have then removed him from the place where he was doing the harm amongst the people of God and turning them in the opposite direction to where they should have been. We see in verse 29, what I was talking about Eli, you honour your sons more than me to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel. So Eli has knowingly benefited from their sin and from their crimes against God. So that's why God holds Eli accountable as well. An interesting contrast, that word again, another contrast between here and here. Another interesting contrast is, I believe, Eli's quickness in chapter one to rebuke Hannah. Do you remember when he thought that she was drunk and she was speaking with her lips moving but not actually saying anything? And he was very quick, wasn't he, to condemn her as being drunk. but now very, very slow and inept with his own sons. And that struck me as well as another little lesson to learn, especially for parents, thinking for myself, that there's a lesson for us parents to learn there as well, that, you know, with our own children, and sometimes we may be quick to look at other families and what they do, but actually, no, let's concentrate on ours and what God would have us do. Verse 25 and the second part of it is interesting as well, and this took me a little while to just sink in and get my head around this. Verse 25b, Roger Ellsworth, so Roger Ellsworth is the person that wrote the book that we're generally using as a basis of framework for going through this series on Samuel. He calls this judicial hardening. Okay, I'll read the verse again. Nevertheless, they did not heed the voice of their father because the Lord desired to kill them. That's a really hard one for me to understand and take in more. So Roger Ellsworth says that this is judicial hardening, which is basically God deliberately letting the two brothers further harden their hearts against God. So it was their choice to turn away from God, and God lets them further harden their hearts. And the reason for that, I'll read the quote. God judges those who harden their hearts against him by hardening their hearts even more, thus making his judgment even more just. That was quite helpful for me because just on reading the verse, I struggled for a minute to just sort of get around it. But when you read it like that, I'll read it again just in case it's helpful to you as well. God judges those who harden their hearts against him by hardening their hearts even more. thus making his judgment even more just. It was their choice to choose their path. We know, don't we, that we have a choice to make. And God is sovereign, but they made a choice and God basically let them harden their hearts even further. So there's an interesting principle to think through there in verse 25. And then we come to verse 26, which again, another contrast with Samuel, another bit of relief, as we're reminded about Samuel at the beginning of verse 26. Sorry. Yes, beginning verse 26. And the child Samuel grew in stature and in favour both with the Lord and men. That's important, the bit about and men. So the contrast here is Eli's sons were turning people against God and they were starting to really dislike them and dislike God because of them. And then you have this. Samuel grew in stature and in favour with the Lord and men. So we're reminded that Samuel is there and God was in his own time, in God's own time, readying Samuel for great things. So again, it's just this little drop in the middle of our chapter here that Samuel's here, Samuel's still here. It's like a whisper in the backdrop of this chapter. Samuel's still here. Samuel's coming. God's still here. God's using Samuel. God's preparing him. And that actually reminds us, doesn't it, of another baby boy who God raised up for great things to make a difference hundreds of years later. Who's the baby boy? Hundreds of years later? who was born God's son. Jesus was a baby boy born many years, hundreds of years later. So in the same way that God was using Samuel and was preparing him, just gives us a little pointer through to the New Testament about how God was going to do the same, obviously to a much greater and more eternal extent with the child, the baby Jesus. Okay, so now we come on to the punishment being passed out. So in verse 27 through to the end of the chapter, this is basically a whole section on the resultant, the effect, what was going to happen now because of Eli's and his son's sin. Now as far as I know, we don't know the name of this man of God. So verse 27, then a man of God came to Eli. I spent a little bit of time trying to see if I was missing something. I don't think we know the name of this man of God who visited Eli to rebuke him and to deliver the bad news of the punishment. But whoever he was, he certainly didn't hold back as we were going through. He wasn't afraid to tell Eli, you've done this, this is going to happen to you. So he was a man of God. He did what he was told. God gave him the punishment to hand down and he did it. So what was the punishment? Split into four sections, four neat sort of sections really. Firstly, Eli is reminded about how good God has been in the past to his family. He'd given that family line a really special role to be priests. Eli is reminded, so, thus says the Lord, did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when they're in Egypt? Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? So this man of God reminds Eli that you have been hugely, enormously blessed and privileged in the past. just reminds him of what he's been blessed with. Secondly then, Eli is rebuked for honouring his sons more than God, in verse 29, which is what we read earlier. And he's reminded that the people suffering weren't just any old people, they were his people, God's people. I don't know if you noticed that. To make yourself, the end of the verse 29, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel, my people. So this was, you could say this was personal. This is God's people. He would not tolerate what these boys, these men were doing. So that's the first two points. Thirdly, the punishment is then decreed as a result of these principles. And that punishment is that Eli's family line will cease, basically. They will no longer be the priestly line, their line will cease, and everyone going forward in the family will die prematurely. It talks about dying in the flower of their youth. And it also says, and your two sons, they're gonna be killed in the same day. Again, holds no punches. He doesn't, you know, he's not, I'm not sure I'd like to deliver some news like that, but this man of God passed on God's punishment to Eli and his family. So the fourth point, so the first was being reminded about God's goodness to him in the past. The second one is Eli being personally rebuked for honoring his sons more than God. Thirdly, the punishment about the family lion being no more. And then fourthly, Eli is told that God will choose a different priest from elsewhere. You're done. That's it. You're done, Eli. Your family line. Descendants from Aaron. I'm going to choose a priest from elsewhere. Just for your information, that was the guy called Zadok. In King David's time, so a little bit further on. Not too many years further on. Arranged by Solomon. So that was the next priest. And there's different books that also say that whilst the text sort of suggests that into earthly terms, that Zadok was coming, there's some writers that think that actually that points a bit further and a bit further, further forward to the great high priest that was coming and the fact that Eli, you've let God down, but God will never let his people down. And the culmination of that never letting his people down will be giving them a, high priest whose sacrifice will do everything it needs to do. In Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7 Paul wrote the words God cannot be mocked and Eli and his family have just found out the hard way that God is a holy God and he will not accept that mocking. Verse 36, there's a bit of irony in verse 36, the last verse, which I found quite, not funny, but quite humorous. In verse 36, the irony, Eli's family had done wrong by stealing all the food that they wanted and took no thought of the consequences, and they were gorging on all of that good food. And now in verse 36, they're told that they're going to have to go and beg for food. The people that are left in your family, Eli, will come and bow down to the new priest for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread and say, please put me in one of the priestly positions that I may eat a piece of bread. Again, contrast between what they had done and what they were now gonna endure, a little bit of irony. So that's chapter two to the end there. Just a few points of conclusion to try and tie it all together. It's good, I think, to remind us that the dark days that we find ourselves in today aren't new. It's quite easy sometimes to panic and get really down about those dark days. I was talking to Christine Gobbett when I ran to her house a few weeks ago about ISIS and I was getting a bit nervy and scared about it and she was very good and calming and said basically exactly that, that these aren't new days and God is sovereign and will still have his way. So look at Hophni and Phinehas in 1100 BC, many, many, many thousands of years ago. We're still in dark times now. It's not really any different. Look at Israel just before Christ's birth, after there'd been 400 years of silence from God, no prophecy. Once again, the people were bogged down in religious formalism. So the dark days we find ourselves in today are nothing new. They've been since day dark. But just like the problem and the dark days have been since the fall, the answer today is the same as it was then as well. God alone is able to save. God's judgment is a very real thing from which to be saved. These principles are no different from what they were at this point. And it's comforting, isn't it, to just think and remember that the same God, and there is the same God now, and cares about his people, us, the same now as he cared about his people then when he was dealing with this wickedness. Third point of conclusion, note the reminder that nothing is hidden from God's eyes. He sees and he knows everything. And that includes even a cold relationship with him. Strikes me sometimes that you maybe don't feel as close to God as you should be and you almost think, oh, that's okay, God doesn't know that. God knows and sees everything. So we need to just beware of ritual emotion when we come to God, that he knows whether or not we mean it. And the words worshipping in spirit and in truth just came back to me. How nice to remind ourselves then that Jesus Christ is the church leader who has never and will never let us down. That's not a slight on church leaders here present. It's more the fact that this leader that was put in place here let the people down. But Jesus came years later and never let his people down and will never let us, his people, down. I said earlier as well that Jesus is the ultimate high priest who could actually offer something lasting to God and that was his own pure life. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25 says Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. how grateful we must always remember to be because of that blood of Jesus which purifies us, continues purifying us from all of our sin. I'm just going to read you a quote to finish, last last thing, from this book, this Tim Chester book on 1 Samuel. Just along those lines, the point about remembering that Jesus' blood purifies us forevermore. It wasn't just sins in the past. Jesus' blood is forever good for us. To hide or minimize or excuse your sin is to live in the dark. But your priest beckons you into the light. There is no need to hide and no need to fear exposure because we have a priest forever. confession, because we have a priest forever, confession leads to forgiveness and freedom. Father, we do again thank you for your amazing kindness to us, your mercy to us, Lord, over so long in so many different situations, but Lord, we're not ashamed to ask you for more tonight. We're not ashamed, Lord, to ask you as the all-powerful God over the whole earth to pour out yet more mercy on this church. on this country. More blessing, Lord, on the efforts of this church, Lord, and of our local sister churches, Lord. We plead with you, Lord, to pour out yet more showers of blessing upon your work and your word, Lord, for your glory. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.