Thanks very much Gary and Band. Good evening everyone, really good to have you with us this evening as we come together and continue looking at the book of 1 Samuel.
I've called tonight's talk Honor or Horror, Honor or Horror.
And as we read the passage, you might look out for examples of where people honour God or are honoured by God,
and also things that you find horrifying or shocking, either in what people do or in the judgment that comes on them.
So we're going to read from 1 Samuel and chapter 2 to begin with.
1 Samuel chapter 2 and we'll be reading from verse 12.
1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 12.
And it says this, Eli's sons were scoundrels. They had no regard for the Lord.
Now it was the practice of the priests that whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice,
the priest's servant would come with a three-pound fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled.
And would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot.
Whatever the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself.
This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.
But even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the people who were sacrificing,
Give the priest some meat to roast. He won't accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.
If the person said to him, Let the fat be burned up first and then take whatever you want,
the servant would then answer, No, hand it over now.
If you don't, I'll take it by force.
The sin of the young men was very great in the Lord's sight,
for they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt.
But Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod.
Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband
to offer the annual sacrifice.
Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying,
May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.
Then they would go home.
And the Lord was gracious to Hannah.
She gave birth to three sons and two daughters.
Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.
Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel,
and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
So he said to them,
Why do you do such things?
I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours.
No, my sons,
the report I hear spreading among the Lord's people is not good.
If one person sins against another,
God may mediate for the offender.
But if anyone sins against the Lord,
who will intercede for them?
His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke,
for it was the Lord's will to put them to death.
And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people.
Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him,
This is what the Lord says,
Did I not clearly reveal myself to your ancestors' family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?
I chose your ancestors out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest,
to go up to my altar,
to burn incense,
and to wear an ephod in my presence.
I also gave your ancestors' family all the food offerings presented by the Israelites.
Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling?
Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?
Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel declares,
I promise that members of your family would minister before me forever.
But now the Lord declares,
Far be it from me.
Those who honor me I will honor,
but those who despise me will be disdained.
The time is coming when I will cut short your strength
and the strength of your priestly house,
so that no one in it will reach old age.
And you will see distress in my dwelling.
Although good will be done to Israel,
no one in your family line will ever reach old age.
Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar,
I will spare only to destroy your sight and stop your strength,
and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
And what happens to your two sons,
Hophni and Phinehas, will be assigned to you?
They will both die on the same day.
I will raise up for myself a faithful priest
who will do according to what is in my heart and mind.
I will firmly establish his priestly house
and they will minister before my anointed one always.
Then everyone left in your family line
will come and bow down before him
for a piece of silver and loaf of bread and plead,
Appoint to me some priestly office
so I can have food to eat.
I'm sure God will bless his word as we consider it together.
Let's just take a second to pray together.
Our Father, we thank you that this is your word,
that it is therefore useful to us,
whether this is in teaching, in rebuking,
in helping us to understand better your ways.
I would say that you will speak to us this evening.
Help us to understand what is relevant to us today
and which should affect the way we live our lives
as we seek to honour and glorify the Lord Jesus.
We pray that your voice will be heard,
that the things which are of yourself will be remembered
and that you will help us to draw closer to you
as we consider your word.
We ask for your presence in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
There's a couple on the screen.
Our Horst and Herland Kasner.
Kasner was a Lutheran pastor
who did something very unusual in 1954.
He moved with his wife and their four-month-old daughter
from West Germany to East Germany.
Now that was at a time when many people
were moving in the other direction.
East Germany, a very oppressive communist regime.
West Germany, of course,
a democracy and one which was recovering
from the Second World War.
But Pastor Kasner moved with his wife
and daughter to East Germany.
And so the young girl grew up
in that oppressive communist regime.
In a slightly unusual situation
in that all around her,
she could see the things that were happening
and the things in many ways would be quite horrifying.
And yet at the same time,
she was growing up in a Christian family,
in a Christian environment,
and learning something of the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Indeed, the area where they were,
as well as having this house where they lived,
right next door to them,
there was a centre for disabled people
which Christians in that area were helping with.
1989, and there was the fall of the Berlin Wall.
And that young girl,
that baby, when she moved to East Germany,
by then obviously had grown to be a woman.
She was quite a successful chemist.
And at that point,
she decided she wanted to go into politics.
And we know her today
as perhaps the most successful female politician
in the world.
It is Angela Merkel,
who is the leader of the German state.
And she is still very much influenced
by the way in which she grew up,
by the strange juxtaposition of,
on the one hand,
growing up in a Christian environment
and being taught God's ways,
and the other hand,
observing around her all the evils
that were associated with that communist state.
And she was very much shaped by that.
For example,
the way in which she received the refugees
from the Middle East a few years ago,
I believe was very much influenced
by the way she grew up
and by the things she saw
and by the compassion from that,
that she developed.
And she is,
today she belongs to an evangelical church
and she would say
that she still has a strong Christian faith.
And I think the story of Angela Merkel
resonates as we think about 1 Samuel 2.
Because here we have a situation
where the state,
those who are in leadership,
in this case the priests,
are utterly corrupt
and are oppressing the people.
And yet we have a young boy
who is growing up quietly in the temple
and is learning God's ways
and would go on to be a great leader
of his nation.
I'm talking about Samuel, of course.
And we have this dual thing
which is what I've called
the talk honour or horror.
We have this dual thing going on.
On the one hand,
we have the horrors
of what the priests are doing
to the people
and in disobedience to God.
And on the other hand,
we have Samuel and his family
who are honouring God
and being honoured by him.
So what we're going to do this evening,
very simple,
is we're going to look at three people,
three groups of people.
We're going to look at Hophni and Phinehas,
the sons of Eli.
We're going to look at Eli.
And then we're going to look at Samuel
and a little bit about his family as well.
And hopefully learn some lessons from that
about how we should honour God
and about some of the horrors
that can happen
when people don't honour God,
have no knowledge of him.
So let's start with the two sons,
Hophni and Phinehas.
I've called this section extreme evil.
I don't think that's putting it too highly.
Here were two men
who had no knowledge of God.
Verse 12 says,
Eli's sons were scoundrels.
They had no regard for the Lord.
If you translate it literally,
it says they didn't know God.
And both translations are probably fine.
They didn't know God.
They had no personal relationship with God.
And they certainly had no concern
for God or for obeying him.
This despite them being in positions of leadership,
of religious leadership in the land,
and those who the people should have been able
to look up to and respect
and to copy their example.
These young men had no regard for the Lord
and similarly no regard for the people.
Let's look briefly at what was going wrong.
In the first place,
there was religious abuse.
And that's in the first part of the passage.
And this was seemed to us
rather strange account
of what happened to the meat for the sacrifices.
So let me just explain a little bit
about what should have happened
and then we'll talk about what did happen
and why that was so wrong.
All of the sacrifices the people brought to God,
except for the burnt offering,
which had to be totally burnt,
part of it was devoted to God,
part of it was given to the priest,
and part of it was available
to the person making the offering
that they could enjoy
part of the sacrifice themselves.
So to be specific,
the fat had to be burnt off
and had to be devoted to God.
The priests were entitled
to the breast and the right thigh,
so they got two good bits
of the animal for themselves
because the priest needed something to live on
and that was what their due was.
And the rest of the offering,
the individual making the sacrifice,
could share with their family
in the way appointed by God.
Now here the priests were doing two things
that were not in the law.
The first was as well as taking their portion,
presumably, it doesn't say,
but presumably they were taking
what they were due to get from the law,
they were taking extra.
They were able to take potluck
and to dip their three-point fork
into the pot
and to take whatever came out of it
for themselves.
So in that sense,
they were robbing the people
who were making the sacrifice
of something which they should have had.
The priests were taking more
than their share.
And that was bad.
But what was much worse
was that they also wanted
to take something
before the meat was boiled.
So they were saying,
we don't really like boiled meat that much.
It's not so much of a treat.
What we really want is a roast meal.
We want roast meat.
That is much more tasty.
That is much more enjoyable for us.
And so they would take the meat
from the people by force if necessary
before the fat had been burnt off.
And so they were taking
not just part of what was due
to the person making the sacrifice.
They were also taking part
that should have been devoted to God,
which was evidence of the individual's
devotion to God
and desire to do what was right before him.
In other words,
as well as being greedy for themselves
and taking what they weren't entitled to,
they were also at the same time
leading the people into sin
in that they weren't able to give God
what they knew God was entitled to,
what the law had demanded from them.
There was religious abuse of the worst kind.
Then a little bit later down in the passage,
we see moral depravity.
So as well as this taking by force
what wasn't right for them,
the priests in that day,
they were also sleeping with the woman
who were responsible for looking after
the temple courts.
Very much in the nature of what religions
round about would have done.
Very much against the law of God
and what as God's people
they should have been doing.
I have a question about that.
Not expecting you to answer out loud,
but think about it.
Which of these abuses
horrifies you more?
Which do you find more shocking?
I think for most of us
it's the sexual abuse
that we find more shocking to begin with.
We look at it and perhaps we say,
well this is an old ritual,
it's not really relevant in our day
because we don't have to make
these kind of sacrifices,
but we understand more about
what was happening in the second sin
and that is really, really shocking to us.
And so it should be.
But I'd suggest
the first sin should be no less shocking.
Because what the people were doing here,
what the priests were doing here,
was deliberately disobeying God
and the commands that he had given
and more than that,
they were encouraging the people
to disobey God
and forcing them to do it
if they weren't willing to.
Not content just to get
what didn't belong to them.
They were taking from God
and actually taking from
the religious exercise
of the people who came to the temple.
And that is absolutely shocking.
And I would say,
as we start with the religious abuse,
perhaps it's almost inevitable
what follows next.
That if we get things wrong
in our relationship with God
and what we give to God
and the way we deal with God,
then it is a slippery slope
and that moral depravity
is something
which is very likely to follow.
So I would say
we should be shocked
at both the sins
of these priests of Hophni and Phinehas
and their associates.
Both of them are utterly unacceptable
and should be a real warning to us.
Now hopefully none of us
are engaged directly,
at least in either of these sins.
But there are a couple of lessons,
I think, from it
that I would take.
Two groups of people,
I think, need to be very careful
to make sure we don't fall
into this kind of sin.
Now I belong to both groups,
so I'm talking to myself
on both occasions as well,
no doubt to many of you.
The first group is those of us
who have grown up
in Christian homes,
who have grown up in environments
where there was a love of the Lord Jesus
and a desire to serve Him
and to live for Him.
Now we know, I'm sure,
that growing up in a Christian home
isn't a guarantee
that we'll come to faith
in the Lord Jesus.
Faith is a personal thing
and we need to put our trust
in the Lord Jesus
and believe individually
that He died for our sins
and that we can have forgiveness
through Him.
But even having done that,
there's a danger, I think,
for quite a lot of us
that this is something
we've known all our life,
we're very familiar with
and perhaps we don't treat it
as seriously as we should.
That obeying God,
serving Him,
seeking to bring others to Him
and seeking in particular
not to trip others up
in their Christian faith
or to do things
that would draw them away from God,
these can easily become
too low priorities for us
if our faith becomes too familiar
and if we lose that burning desire
to serve God
and to live for Him
and to draw others to Him.
And those of us
who have been in a Christian environment
all our life,
we need to be very careful.
We don't take it for granted.
It is an enormous privilege
to have godly parents
and to be able to follow their example,
but we need to make sure
we are following that example,
that we are devoted to the Lord Jesus,
that we are living for Him.
The second group is Christian leaders,
practically those
who are in some kind of full-time Christian work,
but all those who are leaders of God's people.
And the real warning here is,
am I doing anything
that would distract people
or would draw them away
from their love for the Lord Jesus?
As they look at me
or as I talk to them,
and as they expect
for someone who is in a position
of leadership within a church
to get a good example
and good teaching,
is there anything I am doing
that could draw others away from Christ
that could make them stumble
in their faith?
Again, probably not as dramatically
as in the case of Hophni and Phinehas
for most of us,
but nevertheless a real danger
that as Christian leaders,
as those who are supposed
to be setting an example
that actually we set the wrong example
and we cause people
to stumble in their faith.
So two possibilities.
Some of you may not fall into neither good,
some of us fall into both,
but let's examine ourselves
if either of these applies to us.
But let's look at the second horror
that I think there is
in the case of Hophni and Phinehas.
Eli eventually,
eventually starts to plead with them
and points out to them
what is wrong
and what they are doing
and asks them to discontinue it.
But the writer who records,
they didn't listen to their father's rebuke,
for it was the Lord's will
to put them to death.
It was the Lord's will
to put them to death.
Now I think that in some ways
is quite shocking for us as well.
Doesn't God want everyone to be saved?
Isn't grace available
to all those who will receive it?
Absolutely yes.
And yet we can't receive God's grace
without the working of God's Spirit
in our lives.
And it appears from Scripture,
another example would be Pharaoh in Exodus,
it appears from Scripture
that there are those
who get so far down
into their sin
and their antipathy to God
and their absolute unwillingness
to be obedient to God
that God almost says,
well, you have decided,
you have resolved to be this way.
And the Spirit stops striving with them
and pricking their conscience
and seeking to draw them to God.
I put that out slightly tentatively,
but I think that is the implication
of what's said here.
But let me do it with two caveats.
The first thing is,
we can never make a judgment
that someone is beyond God's grace.
As far as we are concerned,
everyone who is a sinner before God,
if they will come to God,
then they will receive his grace.
They will receive the mercy
that he is willing to give.
And if they come in faith to the Lord Jesus,
they will receive forgiveness for sins.
And we are not able to say whether someone's heart is so hard
that they're never going to do that.
Our job is to constantly witness to them
and seek to show them God's grace
and to bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the second thing I would say is that none of us individually
should ever think that we are beyond God's grace.
Indeed, if we're having these thoughts,
it probably means that we're not,
that we still have some conscience.
The Spirit is still working in our lives.
However far we may sink,
however great our sin may be,
however much we may feel that we have failed God,
for all of us,
if we come to him,
there is grace
and he is willing to receive us
and to heap that grace on us
and to wonderfully bless us
as we repent for our sins.
So don't let the passage about hard hearts,
about God's will,
as in this passage,
don't let them put you off
seeking to win others for the Lord Jesus
and don't let them put you off
coming to Jesus for mercy
and for forgiveness
for all the wrong that you've done.
But two horrors,
the horror of what the sons of Eli did
and the horror of the fact
that ultimately they were beyond redemption,
that God had decreed
that they must be punished for their wrong.
Let's move on and look at Eli.
Eli, like many characters in scriptures,
is a bit of a conundrum
because you look at Eli in one hand
and you say,
here's a good man.
Here's a man who knew God,
who honoured God
and who had respect for God's word.
And then you look at this chapter
and you look at God's verdict on Eli
where he says,
why do you honour your sons more than me?
So I suggest that Eli was fundamentally a good man,
but he had this fatal flaw
that he endowed his sons,
that he didn't discipline them as they should
and ultimately that led to his downfall before God.
But let's look at the good side first.
As we look at Eli's dealings with Samuel
and with his family,
apart from his initial mistake
in thinking what Hannah was doing
when she was praying,
they thought she was drunk.
Apart from that,
Eli was a man who sought to bring Samuel
and his family closer to God.
He recognised in Hannah and Elkanah
a couple who were devoted to the Lord,
who wanted to live for him
and who wanted to do what was right.
And indeed,
who so much wanted to do what was right
that they were willing to give their son
to work in the temple
to devote him to the Lord's service.
And as they come to the temple,
year after year,
Eli is there.
He's there to meet them.
He's there to bless them.
He's there to pray for them.
As Samuel ministers day to day in the temple,
it appears that Eli was there
similarly to be a father figure to him.
In many ways,
I'm sure to show a good example,
one of those in chapter three,
when God speaks to Samuel,
it's Eli who ultimately identifies
that it's God speaking
and Eli accepts even the judgment
that's made against him
and against his family,
recognising the sovereignty of God.
Eli was a man who knew God,
a man who had great respect for God,
and in many ways,
a man who sought to do what was right.
But he had this one fatal flaw
that he managed to ignore completely
the sins of his sons.
In fact, it may be a bit worse than that.
When Eli condemns his sons,
when he talks to them,
gives them the kind of father's warning talk,
he very much focuses on their immorality,
and he talks about the fact
that they're sinning against God,
and there's this thing about
if you're sinning against someone else,
God may intercede.
Who's going to intercede
if you're sinning against God?
He doesn't really address
their abuse of their priestly office.
And there's some suggestion, I think,
in what God says to Eli
through the man of God
that actually Eli was enjoying
what his sons were getting
wrongly from the people.
If we jump forward to chapter 4
and the death of Eli,
it records that Eli was a rather fat man.
He was rather big,
and that was partly what contributed
to his death.
And perhaps that obesity
was partly from all these roast meals
that his sons were taking
and were giving to him.
Now, Eli, it doesn't look like
he was actively involved in this,
but perhaps he was complicit
in that he ignored
what his sons were doing
and he accepted
the results of their sin
even though he wasn't actively involved
in it himself.
One way or another,
Eli got this badly wrong.
He should have looked at his sons
and at the very least,
he should have said
they weren't fit
for priestly office.
Now, if you look at the law,
he should have probably done
quite a lot more to that
in tending them away,
perhaps even getting them
put to death.
But at the very least,
he should have made sure
that they didn't have
the authority of being priests,
that they were stripped
of that duty,
of that privilege before God.
Eli, up to the point
when he remonstrates with them,
it appears had done
absolutely nothing.
He was a man
who was leading the people,
who was in some ways
it appears leading the people
quite well,
and yet he couldn't lead
his own family,
and he didn't have the courage
to discipline his sons
when he should have.
Great warning there
to those of us
who are parents,
that we need to make sure
in our dealing
with our children,
that we give them
a good example,
but also when they go wrong,
that we are willing
to rebuke them
and to seek to bring them back
into God's ways.
Too often, I suspect,
many of us are a bit like Eli,
and we don't have
these hard conversations
when we really should.
But that is what
we're called to do.
We cannot ignore sin,
whoever it is
who is committing it.
Whether it's sins
in our family,
whether it's sins
in the church,
whether it's sins
of our nation,
then we should be
standing against them
and making sure
that people know
what our position is
and what is right
before God.
God.
It's a wonderful example
of that, isn't there?
In the New Testament,
the Lord Jesus,
he goes into the temple
and as he sees
the money changers.
Now for many of us,
we might have looked
and we thought,
this is terrible,
how are they getting away
with doing what
they're doing there?
The Lord Jesus
didn't do that.
He went in,
he overturned their tables
and he made it clear
exactly what their sin was.
They turned his father's house
into a house of thieves.
And we need similarly
to have that horror of sin
and desire to see it put right.
But Eli didn't
and so Eli comes under
God's judgment.
And the latter part
of the chapter
is this man of God
who comes to Eli.
A man of God coming to you
is usually a bad sign
in the Old Testament.
It means you've done
something wrong
and God's going to
rebuke you for it.
It is that here,
the man of God comes
and he condemns Eli
because he has failed
to control his sons
and because,
says God,
he has honoured his sons
more than he honoured God.
And so the judgment
comes on Eli
that ultimately
his family
are going to lose
priestly office.
Now we scroll
just very briefly forward
in the books of Samuel
and we see
in the next chapter
the death of Hophni and Phinehas
on the same day
they're called
as a heart of the covenant
is taken by their enemies.
Eli hears the news
and he falls off the bench
where he's sitting
and he breaks his neck
so he dies on the same day
as well.
Later in 1 Samuel
we have an incident
where Saul thinks
that Eli's family
are supporting David
and he has most of them
put to death.
And then in 2 Samuel
the one who escapes,
the only one who escapes
from Saul's slaughter
is himself caught up
in the battle
that follows David's death
and Solomon removes him
from priestly office.
And that is the end
of the house of Eli
as a priestly office.
And instead it passes over
to the descendants
of Eliezer,
one of the oldest sons
of Abraham
and when it talks here
about the priest
who will be raised up,
the faithful priest,
the priest forever,
it is almost certainly
talking about Zadok
who was the priest
under Solomon
having served alongside
Abiathar,
Eli's descendant
under David.
Zadok is the faithful priest
and it is his household
from then on
who have the priesthood.
Of course when we look
at the eternal priest
we probably also think
about the Lord Jesus
but I'm not sure
that in this passage
particularly
that is the main
interpretation of it
but of course
the Lord Jesus
is a priest forever
as well
and we can think
about that.
But the judgment
comes on Eli's house
and over a period
in Saul's reign
and David's reign
and Solomon's reign
Eli's house
is taken away
from the priesthood
and is passed on
to a different group
of people
also descendants
of Aaron.
That in a sense
isn't that important
just a bit of history
but it is important
that Eli
comes under
God's judgment.
And even though
as I've said
Eli was
in many ways
fundamentally
a good man
God couldn't
ignore his sin
and the effects
of his sin
therefore affected
future generations.
In the same way
as David's sin
with Bathsheba
and all things
joined to that
that's a devastating
effect also
on David's family.
And even if we are
people of God
even if we know
the Lord Jesus
and love him ourselves
our sins
can also have
a devastating effect
on others.
Not that God
is unwilling
to forgive us
as he forgave
David
and yet our sins
do have consequences
we need to be aware
of these.
But a fundamental lesson
I think for many of us
is we can't
just look at ourselves
and try through
our personal devotions
to please God.
If we are in
positions of any
kind of authority
whether as leaders
as parents
or whatever
we need to have
this concept
of being willing
to tackle
the difficult issues
and the things
that would drag
other people down
and to seek
to correct them
and to see them
one for the Lord Jesus.
Let's finish
more positively.
Samuel.
I've called Samuel
growing in grace.
I think that's probably
quite a good description
of what it is here.
Samuel 2.29
Samuel continues
to grow in stature
and favour
with the Lord
and with people.
When it says
you go down the chapter
that several times
interspersed with all
the sins of Eli's family
you have these brief
comments on Samuel.
We have one
we didn't read
tonight
it was really part of
last week's passage
in verse 11
about Samuel
serving before God.
We have it again
as Eli's sons
evil is described
in verse 18
Samuel was ministering
before the Lord
then description
of what Samuel's
parents did.
Verse 26
the boy Samuel
continued to go
in stature
and favour
with the Lord
and with people.
And then if we read
over into the first
verse of chapter 3
it says the boy Samuel
ministered
before the Lord
under Eli.
In other words
in all this chaos
that was created
by Eli's sons
in all their sinfulness
and despising God
in all Eli's weakness
in dealing with
the sins
of his family
we have this bright ray
that we have Samuel
who is growing
and is maturing
and is coming
to faith in God
and who ultimately
will take over
much of the role
that was previously Eli
who would become
the prophet
and the judge
of Israel.
So two things
about the honour
that we can see
for Samuel.
And the first is
Samuel's family.
It is
Hannah
and Elkanah.
This couple
from Ramah
who had previously
been childless
though Elkanah
had children
by his other wife
previously been childless
and Hannah
promises
that if God
gives her a son
that son
will be devoted
to her
and will serve
in the temple.
The son
comes along
Hannah
keeps her words
and she hands
Samuel over
to be devoted
to God.
They weren't that far away
so I suspect
they visited him
quite often
but he was devoted
to serving God
and every year
it says
they came back
as they came
to do give
their sacrifice
and they brought
Samuel
a new robe.
It was because
he was getting bigger
as time went on.
Every year
a sign of their love
for Samuel
there was this robe
that they brought
along.
And every year
as I've said
they met with Eli
and Eli
as he saw
this lovely family
he wanted
to bless them
and to pray
for them
and God
honoured them.
He honoured Hannah
who had previously
been barren
she had another
five children
three sons
and two daughters.
A lovely family
devoted to God
keeping their promises
living for him.
Good if we can have
families like that
rather than the family
of Eli
that we have families
where God's name
is honoured
and where we seek
to serve him
and to devote
our lives
and our family life
to him.
And then we have Samuel.
Samuel is being prepared.
It says in chapter 3
that Samuel
didn't yet know God.
I think that means
particularly Samuel
never had the personal
experience of God
speaking to him.
and yet in chapter 2
Samuel is being prepared
for his service
in chapter 3
and beyond.
And these little reports
about Samuel
are kind of progress reports
on how he was getting on
in the temple.
So to begin with
he was just helping Eli.
He ministered before the Lord
under Eli.
Then Eli kind of goes
out of the picture
in verse 18
it just says
Samuel was ministering
before the Lord.
Perhaps Samuel
by this stage
become a bit more
independent
a bit more personal faith
and a bit more
knowing what it was
that God's will was
for him.
Verse 26
Samuel continued
to go in stature
and favour
with the Lord
and with people.
As he learned from Eli
as he served God
in the temple
so he grew
he matured
he developed
and he became
a good servant of God
that people could look at
and they could say
here is a good example
where Eli's sons
are very bad examples.
And then in chapter 3
God starts speaking
to Samuel
and everything
that God says
to Samuel
comes about
and the people
recognise
there is
a great prophet
here.
We again
if we are parents
or indeed as a church
when we have so many
young children
among us
we need to really
care for
and nurture
our young
people.
We need to show
them an example
of what it is
to live for God
we need to teach
them God's word
simply
and faithfully
and seek to
encourage them
to serve
and to follow
and to grow
in their knowledge
of the Lord
Jesus.
Children must
never be seen
as a bit of an extra
a bit of a nuisance
in church
something that we
yes it's good
whether there's
good to have a bit
of life around
the church
but not really
that important.
Our children
are the future
of the church
they are those
who knows
who may have
gone to be
like Samuel
and to serve
God in similar
kind of ways
and to be great
men and women
of faith
and we need
as a church
to value them
and to look
after them
and to teach
them faithfully
the word
of God
to show them
that we care
for them
because God
cares for them
and we want
what is best
for them
from God
and then perhaps
it can be said
of them
that they grow
in stature
and favour
with the Lord
and his people
reminder here
I think isn't there
of the Lord Jesus
end of Luke's gospel
we know
we know very little
about Jesus' childhood
but one thing
we do know
the last verse
of Luke 2
the evangelist
records
Jesus grew
in wisdom
and stature
and in favour
with God
and man
very much
a reflection
of the same
kind of thing
as with Samuel
grew in wisdom
and stature
in favour
with God
and man
may our prayer
be that our
young people
in this church
may come to know
the Lord Jesus
for themselves
and may then
grow in wisdom
and stature
and in favour
with God
and man
let's pray
for them
let's
encourage
them
and so
we have
God
honoured
through Samuel
and his
family
let's finish
with Eric Liddow
Eric Liddow
centre just
around the corner
in Morningside
that's named
after
Eric Liddow
of course
was a very
famous athlete
also an
international rugby
player
but best known
as an athlete
and through
the film
Chariots of Fire
Eric Liddow
won the 400 metres
at the 1924
Olympics
in Paris
and there's a story
that says
Eric Liddow
is preparing
to go to the track
for his 400 metres
final
that one of the
American masseurs
passed him a note
and that note says
in the old book
it says
he who honours me
I will honour
in other words
a quotation
from 1 Samuel
chapter 2
and that American
although on
an opposing side
in terms of
the Olympics
he recognised
that Eric Liddow
was someone
who loved God
who knew him
and who honoured him
in that particular
context of course
it was that Eric Liddow
had refused to
run on a Sunday
so he'd given up
on his favourite event
the 100 metres
and had gone instead
for the event
the 400 metres
and indeed you could say
that God honoured him
as he won that event
and as he broke
the world record
but of course
Eric Liddow's story
didn't end there
after Eric Liddow
had been to the Olympics
he did what he'd
always intended to do
and he followed his parents
to the mission field
he went to China
and he served there
faithfully
for a good number
of years
and in the end
he ended up
in an internment camp
where he died
at quite a young age
for Eric Liddow
athletics running
was important
it was something
he believed
God had gifted him in
and that because of that
that he should honour
God through it
but he wasn't looking
for glory
for himself
and it wasn't so important
that having won
in 1924
he was thinking
well I need to come back
in 1928
or to go to some
other championships
and make a bigger
career of myself
as an athlete
Eric Liddow
wanted to put
God first
and to honour
God
in all he did
and so it was more
important
than running
in the race
where he was felt
to have the best
chance
of winning
it was more important
than pursuing
a career in this country
and perhaps having
even greater success
in athletics
or in rugby
or perhaps even
in a different sport
for Eric Liddow
the most important
thing
was that in his life
he should
honour
God
and that's where
we should be
as well
that it's not
about the greed
of Hophni and Phinehas
it's certainly
not about
ignoring God's
will
and his way
and of bringing
others down
in their faith
rather like
Samuel
like Eric Liddow
like the Lord
Jesus
our greatest desire
should be
that God's name
is glorified
and that we serve
him
and that we live
for him
and that for me
is the challenge
of 1 Samuel 2
in my life
do I really
honour God
do I put God
first
or are there
lots of other
things that I put
ahead of them
that are to do
with my selfishness
and my ambition
for myself
and I challenge
all of us
as we go away
tonight
to think about
am I honouring
God
or are there
things that bring
horror to God's
heart
I would bring
horror to the
heart of others
if they knew
about them
about the sin
in my life
if there are
things that are
holding us back
let's confess
them before God
and let's go
ahead and live
for him
and serve him
and honour him
let's pray together
Father we thank you
for your word
we thank you
that even those
passages
where there is
judgment
where there is
evil
where there is
apparent darkness
yet we can see
you at work
and there are
things that we
can learn from
them
and we thank you
even in the
darkest days
even the most
difficult times
as was the case
as Samuel was
growing up
that you are
at work
often quietly
often unseen
at that point
but yet you are
raising up people
to serve you
and to live for you
we bid you help
each of us
to be true
servants
of you
and of our
Lord
that we may
honour you
and so we know
that we are
never
you are never
any man's
debtor
and as we
seek to honour
you
that we will
receive back
much much more
than we could
ever give
to you
we thank you
for the great
grace that we've
received through
the Lord Jesus
and for the
daily grace
that we receive
from you
help us never
to take it
for granted
help us in our
lives to seek
to honour you
and to serve you
we thank you
for this time
together this evening
we thank you
for your word
and we pray
to you
bless it
to our hearts
and help us
to live for you
for our Lord
Jesus this week
we ask in his name
Amen