[0:00] Well, there's one pastor who said that the strongest man in the Bible fell into sin.! The godliest man in the Bible fell into sin.
[0:12] For me to think I'm above falling into sin is to think that I'm wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson, and godlier than King David.
[0:25] And so our question this morning is Eli's question. In the second half of verse 25, if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?
[0:40] Or who will mediate for them? Or who will be the go-between between the person and God? Or who will help them? And as we reflect on that question, we need to realize that the problem in chapter 2 is not so much the sins of the people, but the sins of the leadership.
[1:02] And so not only is this question pertinent to us, or relevant to us, but it is also relevant in the sense of when we have been hurt or wronged or sinned against, who can help?
[1:16] And so we want to ask that question, who can help? When, first of all, when bad leaders ruin good systems. Who can help when bad leaders ruin good systems?
[1:28] God had given the people a good system. We see it in verse 13. The people offered a sacrifice. And in this case, it was a peace offering. So the people would bring an animal to the priest, and the animal would be put to death, and they would have essentially a little feast, where the person ate some of the food, the priest ate some of the food, and then some of the food was burned, symbolically being offered to God.
[1:53] And so it was like this little feast between the person and God. And like many feasts, there was a sense of joy, a sense of connection, a sense of celebration, because this was a peace offering.
[2:08] It was reflecting on the fact that you had peace with God. And so you left feeling good. You left feeling a sense of wholeness and flourishing, living under God's rule in his place with his people.
[2:26] That was a good system, but there was bad leaders. In verse 12, Eli's sons were scoundrels. They were scoundrels. They were meant to represent the people to God, and they were provided for in this system, but they were taking more than they should.
[2:45] In verse 13, 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-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was boiling, and plunge the fork into the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot, wherever he could find meat.
[3:02] Whatever the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. So he was taking more than his due, and he was taking the best. In verse 15, even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say, give the priests some meat.
[3:16] Now, fat has a kind of a bad reputation in our culture of excess, but at a time when it wasn't a culture of excess, the fat was the best bit. You think of steak with a nice bit of marbling in it, or pork with a nice bit of crackling on it.
[3:33] They would take the best for themselves, and they would take it by force if necessary. Verse 16, Now hand it over. And if you don't, I'll take it by force.
[3:44] And so you could see they had no respect for the people, no respect for the offering. As we see in verse 17, they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt. They had no respect for God.
[3:56] In verse 12, it said they had no regard for the Lord. In other words, they did not know the Lord. They were using their God-given power, their God-given authority, their God-given position for their own gain, for their own pleasure, for their own greed.
[4:12] And instead of reflecting God to the people, they were not. And this is very serious. Verse 17, This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord's sight.
[4:25] And you can imagine if you were a person caught up in that system, you can imagine what it must have been like. You bring your peace offering to the priest. And instead of going away feeling whole and celebratory and connected to God, you go away feeling confused.
[4:47] This man was supposed to be representing God to me. And this is how he acted. He took what was God's for himself. You would feel confused at best and abused at worst.
[5:02] Where can we find help when bad leaders ruin a good system? And we've seen that in our country, in the religious structures in our country.
[5:13] Much good had been done or has been done in sport and education and so on in some of the religious structures we saw in our country. But much evil has been done as well by some.
[5:25] I don't need to recount it for you. And of course, it isn't just a Catholic thing. It isn't just an Irish thing that bad leaders ruin good systems.
[5:38] This is a quote from another country in another context. Many are turning away from the church because they can no longer stand the schemes of pastors who set up churches in their garages just to make money from the donations of the faithful.
[5:54] That's in another country in another context. And of course, it isn't just a religious thing. It's a human thing, isn't it? It is a human problem that bad leaders ruin good systems.
[6:08] If you're following the news over the last little while as the hopes of one presidential candidate fell apart and he withdrew from the race, you might have picked up on this quote.
[6:20] So this is a quote from somebody within the party. So this isn't my reflection on it. This is somebody within the system, within the party. They said they felt like a mushroom. Why did they feel like a mushroom?
[6:32] Because they were kept in the dark and covered in muck. That's not the opposition party. That's the person within the party themselves.
[6:44] And you realize this isn't just a religious leader problem. This isn't just a political leader problem. This is a human problem. The bad leaders ruin good systems and people get hurt under bad leadership.
[6:57] And so a question for us is what do we do with that? What do we do with that? The temptation is for us to point the finger and say, ah, look at them.
[7:09] Look at that system. Look at that structure. But I think what we need to do with this is to guard ourselves as best we can against bad leadership.
[7:20] Especially as a local church who is independent and seeking to follow God's word in leadership structures.
[7:30] Praise the Lord that the elders in Corp Baptist Church know the Lord and have regard for the Lord. Love the Lord and love his people. And that is a testimony to the congregation's care and diligence over the years to appoint people to roles of leadership who know the Lord.
[7:50] That is an essential. And as we look to the future, if we are to add to our elders what we need to keep in mind that somebody might be a great businessman, they might be a great entrepreneur, they might be great marketing, they might be great at design.
[8:06] And if they are, great. But for those in roles of leadership in the church among God's people, they must know the Lord.
[8:18] They must love the Lord. Because if they don't, what happens is people get hurt. So who can help when bad leaders ruin good systems?
[8:30] It kind of leaves us in a place of despair. Who can help when bad leaders can't be stopped? You see, these sons of Eli weren't just breaking a good thing, a good system.
[8:42] They were indulging a bad thing. We see that in verse 22. Eli heard about everything his sons were doing and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
[8:55] They won't stop. Eli says it to them. And in verse 25, his sons did not listen. They are unwilling to stop this.
[9:05] They continue to sin against the people as we see in verse 23. I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds. They continue to sin against God as Eli highlights in verse 25.
[9:18] If anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them? They have a chance to turn back to God as Eli speaks to them. But they won't stop.
[9:28] They can't stop, in fact. In verse 25, it says, his sons did not listen to their father's rebuke for it was the Lord's will to put them to death.
[9:46] We need to read that carefully because it's not saying that their not listening to their father was the reason for God's judgment on them.
[9:58] It's saying that they're not listening to their father was the result of God's judgment on them. They had continued in this pattern of sin for so long and were unwilling to turn back from it.
[10:17] They have been confirmed in it. They had not sought the Lord while he may be found. And as we hear this, that they did not listen for it was the Lord's will to put them to death.
[10:34] As one author says, it is not our place to question or to comprehend the logic here, but to tremble before a God who can justly make sinners death to the very call to repentance.
[10:53] Maybe you have felt this a little bit in your own heart at times where you continue in a particular way, a particular pattern, and you suddenly realize I'm not actually bothered about this anymore.
[11:07] That is a frightening place to be. And with Eli's sons, we realize it can get to the point where they are unable and unwilling to stop.
[11:20] We are to seek the Lord when he may be found. They won't stop. They can't stop. They can't be stopped. Eli is the priest, as we see in verse 11.
[11:33] This one who is due respect. He is very old in verse 22. In other words, he has a lot of life experience. Learn from him.
[11:44] Listen to him. He's their dad, verse 22. All these reasons why he should be listened to and shown respect, and they won't. And as you're looking on at this, because most people are not in the position of Eli's sons, most people are in the position of the people of Israel at this time, looking on at this, well aware of it.
[12:06] And they think if they won't listen to their own father who is a priest who has all this experience, who will they listen to? Who can stop this?
[12:19] What hope do we have? What help do we have when those who could stop it don't stop it or won't stop it? Back in 2018, Pope Francis visited Dublin Castle.
[12:35] And he said this, the failure of ecclesiastical authorities, bishops, religious superiors, priests and others, adequately to address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.
[12:56] And he said, I myself share these sentiments. Now the Pope doesn't always get it right, but he got it right on that occasion. You see how he refers to the repugnant crimes, but he also highlights how those in ecclesiastical authority did not address it.
[13:15] And for those in that community, the sense of pain and shame as a result. And again, it's not just a Catholic thing. It's not just an Irish thing.
[13:27] It is a human thing. A different context, a different country. This man writes a book and here's what he says. I wrote this book because I'm hearing every day from evangelical Christians who are exhausted and almost in despair over the state of Christianity in our country.
[13:45] They know something has gone terribly wrong, but they are losing hope that anything could be different. And so we're left with this question, who will help when bad leaders ruin good systems and seem to not be stoppable?
[14:00] Who will help? But praise the Lord that God will help. Who will help? God will. God will remove the bad leaders in due time, in due course.
[14:15] In verse 27, a man of God came to Eli. We're not told anything about this guy, but that he is a man of God. But we're told plenty about his message.
[14:27] And here's where his message starts. God has been so gracious. God has been so kind. Look at what God has done for you, Eli. Verse 27, did I not clearly reveal myself to your ancestors' family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?
[14:43] God took the initiative and made himself known to them. Not only did he make himself known to them, he chose them for this role and responsibility.
[14:54] In verse 28, I chose your ancestor out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest. Not only did he choose them, he gives them all that they could ever want. Verse 28, I gave your ancestors' family all the food offerings presented by the Israelites.
[15:10] All this kindness and undeserving grace towards Eli's family over the generations, God has been so gracious.
[15:25] And it is against that bright backdrop that this dark sin is committed. And isn't it interesting that God draws attention to the sins of greed and corruption and self-indulgence.
[15:43] So the sexual sin is bad. But what God draws attention to is the greed and the corruption and the self-indulgence. My sacrifice, verse 29. My dwelling, verse 29.
[15:55] My people. They had everything they could ever have wanted and they wanted more. They took more to serve themselves.
[16:07] And God makes it very clear he will cut off the bad leaders. Verse 31, 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.
[16:22] Isn't that ominous when Eli is there as a man who is in old age? Verse 33, Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar, I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
[16:42] This is what Hannah had said would happen. The wicked will be cut off and as you hear that, the hairs go up on the back of your neck. But if you were one of the people who had brought your peace offering to the Lord and this was how it had been dealt with, do you know what you would feel when you hear this?
[17:05] You would feel relief. Praise the Lord that he is going to remove these men from these positions. You would feel rejoicing. You would feel happy that this is going to be done.
[17:21] This is another quote from another context, another country, somebody who had suffered at the hands of a pastor. She said, Everything I thought I knew about God, church, holiness and God's servants crashed in my mind.
[17:39] She would rejoice if God had said this about the leader that she had experienced this from. And we need to pray.
[17:50] We need to pray that God would remove people from positions of power where they are using that power for their own self-serving desires. leaders. And we need to do that even as we pursue justice through human means.
[18:06] Who will help? Well, God will help. He will remove the bad leaders and he will raise up a perfect leader. He will raise up this perfect leader who knows God.
[18:20] In verse 35, I will raise up for myself a faithful priest. In other words, a priest who knows the Lord and has regard for the Lord and against the dark backdrop you praise the Lord that God is going to do this because this is what they are crying out for and longing for and need.
[18:39] Not just a leader who knows the Lord but a leader who reflects the Lord to the people. Verse 35, He will do according to what is in my heart and my mind.
[18:52] Imagine a leader who reflects God so closely that to know Him in one sense is to know God's heart and God's mind.
[19:05] And here's the amazing thing. It will be forever. God had promised Eli that his house would be forever but this faithful priest that God is speaking about here, he will be forever.
[19:21] Verse 35, they will minister before my anointed one always, forever. And you just get a little hint, a glimmer of who this is pointing to.
[19:35] But before we get ahead of ourselves we need to realize that as we read this we can be overwhelmed by the darkness, we can be overwhelmed by the sin but there has been a thread that God has been weaving through this darkness, a golden thread.
[19:51] You see it in verse 1 of chapter 3, the boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. And that may sound familiar because back in verse 11 it says, the boy ministered before the Lord under Eli.
[20:07] And down in verse 18 it says, Samuel was ministering before the Lord wearing a linen ephod. And down in verse 26 it says, the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and favor with the Lord.
[20:19] And you realize that against the darkness there's this gold thread that God has been weaving and it doesn't look like much. But correctly understood this is beautiful.
[20:33] Because Samuel technically wasn't the faithful priest that God was speaking about. But he was more priest-like than the priests themselves. His mother made him a little linen ephod that she brought to him in verse 19 every year as she came up and as he grew.
[20:51] And you can imagine that by the time she got the new ephod to him the old one had shortened in the sleeve and up around his ankles. And the significance of the linen ephod is this is what priests wore.
[21:05] This is what priests wore. But God has been quietly weaving this golden thread through the darkness. And it's a remarkable thing that in the midst of this darkness that God keeps Samuel.
[21:25] Samuel was ministering with Eli. You can imagine that he saw what was going on with Eli's sons. And amazingly God keeps Samuel.
[21:37] God can do what he has promised that he will do that he will raise up a faithful priest. And with this thread there goes this blessing in verse 21.
[21:51] The Lord was gracious to Hannah. She gave birth to three sons and two daughters. You find the thread and you find this blessing that God is bringing through the prayers of Hannah.
[22:03] As you hear that it may be hard for you to hear it and even hurtful for you to hear it if you have prayed Hannah's prayer but not received the answer that Hannah has received.
[22:20] It can be hard and it can be hurtful to hear this. And it can be hard not to despair if you've been on the receiving end of some of the corruption that we see in these verses.
[22:35] If you have been hurt by it and it has left wounds in your life. And the thread that God is weaving through these verses it doesn't answer all our hurts.
[22:48] It doesn't make all the hard things go away. It doesn't answer all our prayers in the way that we would like. But what we see in these verses is that God doesn't downplay or deny the hurts and the heartaches of his people but he also wants us not to miss what he is doing.
[23:12] To not lose sight of what he is doing because this little golden thread that he is weaving when we follow it closely we realize that it brings us to Jesus. That it brings us to this faithful priest who will do according to what that is in God's heart and mind that his house will be established firmly and he will minister forever.
[23:38] We realize in Jesus that we have this faithful perfect forever leader. He is the head of the church. Praise the Lord that in Cork Baptist Church we have a faithful perfect leader and it is not me and it is not the elders it is Jesus.
[23:58] Here is the good leader the good system the perfect leader the perfect system he laid down his life for his sheep. We can trust him like nobody else.
[24:15] And though he was faithful and though he did what was according to God's heart and God's mind he was yet cut off. His strength was sapped.
[24:25] He received what the sons of Eli were warned. He himself is not only the perfect priest but he is the perfect peace offering.
[24:41] So that all who turn to him whether they are leaders who have sinned badly whether they have people who have been hurt by bad leaders whether they are people whose prayers are unanswered in the way that they would have wanted and whose life has not unfolded the way they would have expected all of us are pointed to this great Jesus.
[25:05] And as we realize that he is the perfect priest and the perfect peace offering we know this peace will grow in our lives that we have sins forgiven before God and that if we have been sinned against we can trust him to bring about justice even as we may pursue justice through other means we realize that Jesus will bring about justice and that helps with the hurt that helps with the heartache and we can trust him to bring about joy where there is heartache.
[25:44] He is the good leader that we've been longing for. he is the perfect peace offering that we need and his cross is the perfect system to call it that.
[25:57] It is done it is finished we have peace with God through what Jesus has done and so let's pray and ask him to impress this on our hearts and our minds.
[26:09] Father we rejoice because as we look at the darkness we also see what you are doing and we pray you'd help us Lord in the days ahead to see what you have done in Christ and Lord help us as well to see what you continue to do in your people through your church.
[26:27] Lord help us to have eyes to see the little glimpses of gold that you bring about through the blessing of Jesus. Father we praise you for him.
[26:37] Amen.