They had no regard for the Lord

“Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord.” (1 Samuel 2:12)

 

God accepted Hannah’s prayer and gave Samuel as her son, and made Samuel the judge for Israel. Eli is the priest who took care of Samuel as a guardian during Samuel’s growth in the temple. Eli had two sons and they also were priests but not people of right faith. Seeing the ruin of Eli’s family, we can’t help but think about how important the faith in the Lord is. Samuel also had sons, but they didn’t live keeping up with his father’s excellence. There might be any problems with parental education too, but even children find that they cannot go parents’ own way.

 

Of course, God governs all of human life, but also relationships between people and changes of situation interact in every time of life. So all one has to do is only man to learn and follow God’s will and live it wisely in a given relationship and situation. Then, you would be able to see the progress of God’s providence one by one. For Samuel’s life and work, his mother Hannah and the priest Eli were mobilized. Even Hannah’s infertility before, acted eventually as an important factor for Samuel’s birth and role. If Hannah had born a few children without any problems, she might not have prayed so earnestly. The pain of reality rather hung on to God and made her pray. That’s what the important principle of man’s life is all about. I wish you have a blessed life that realizes the providence of God the Lord that leads to Christ for you.

 

Eli was a priest but it’s not shown clear in the Bible how his faith was. When Hannah prayed, Eli’s attitude, which he thought was her murmuring drunk, without understanding Hannah’s anxious feelings, shows that his sense of faith was not earnest. Even also looking at his sons who were consistent with committing an unfaithful molestation, but he did not put them from wrongdoing strongly. If search a positive point from Eli, when young Samuel heard God’s voice in the temple and ran to him, it is he taught Samuel that it was God’s call. And when he heard through Samuel about God’s curse on his home, he admitted, “The Lord will do as He pleases.” It seems that Eli had a so passive and insincere faith.

 

When we look at the wrong appearances of Samuel’s sons, we can’t help but wonder. Samuel, who had stayed in the temple from an early age, had heard God’s voice directly and activated excellently as an Israelite judge, but his sons showed attitudes of unjust judgments according to own interests, differently to the Father’s case, as the written in 1 Samuel 3:3. Even though not like Eli’s sons but Samuel’s sons weren’t also righteous. Every matter in the world seems don’t work out the way oneself wish it to. Even your own children are, if you don’t teach them properly at young, wrong deeds has to be appeared later. No matter much you pray or anxious you do for someone, it may be almost impossible for you to see him changing. However, it is my responsibility to pray, and I believe one day my prayer will be fulfilled in God’s providence.

 

Bad behavior is for anyone obviously a big problem. Therefore, it is so important to point out and correct the bad behavior immediately. But the more important than that, make those who do evil know who Jehovah is. The fatal problem with Eli’s sons is the point that they did not know Jehovah who is. Jehovah is the Lord God who makes and rules all things. And also He’s Jesus Christ, the Lord of Salvation. People seem to think difficult in understanding that. Although they often think that they believe in God, as the lyrics say, as “God blesses us,” they regard Christ as if a separate being. But the mystery of God’s existence is a theory nothing strange in fact. Jehovah is the God who exists on His own, and God the Trinity is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And Christ is the holy Son of God, Jesus.

 

Through the commandments of the Old Testament, we learn about God and the promise of salvation. And, through the New Testament, we can meet God, that is, Christ, by faith, who came to the world in order to fulfill the promise of salvation. We have to learn and follow how much Jesus Christ loves people. Then we can evade from the vain life, different to what Eli’s sons did. To know that attending church or taking on church duties like Eli or his sons does not mean that you enjoy the happiness of salvation.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on July 23rd 2023)