In the 1830s, the South Fork Dam was part of a canal system near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and it stood for forty years, pretty much with no problems. Well, in the 1870s, Andrew Carnegie bought it for a hunting and fishing retreat. He modified the dam, removing the spillways and lowering it a little bit, but never fully renovated the dam for safety. Residents of the town, fourteen miles downstream, became very concerned about the dam. Issues were showing up, and nobody did anything about them. Finally, on May 30, 1889, around sixty years after it was built, a massive storm dumped several inches of rain and filled the lake to overflowing. Engineers came rushing in to clear the drains, and the whole dam was dangerously close to collapsing. They tried to warn the people downstream, but it was too late. The dam burst and sent a wall of water down the valley, obliterated the entire town, and killed more than 2,200 people. Now, for decades this dam had stood just fine, and it was like, “Someone had better do something about that. That dam could fail. What if we had a storm? What about these weak points? We should have this thing looked at.” But all those little warning signs were of no use. It is not that there were no signs; it is that they seemed too small to deal with. So it was not the storm that killed the people. It was the neglect of sixty years of maintenance.
Sixty Years of Neglect
We are going through our study of 1 Samuel chapter 2. This is our third video in the series, and we are up to verse 12, on through the rest of chapter 2. We read the first verse of a tragic story in Eli’s life. Verse 12 says, “Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.” Now, this is a sad place to be, because the sons of Eli were supposed to take over for him. This was sixty years of neglect in Eli’s life. This once-promising, once-godly man has come to this place of destruction, this place of misery and judgment, and it is like, “Man, you had such a wonderful opportunity to lead the people in the things of God.” Perhaps there are some who would relate to Eli in this story: “Boy, he really let that dam go. The maintenance really takes a lot of upkeep, and it is really difficult to follow the Lord for a long time, and I do not know if I can do that.” There are many people who come to church and do not really expect a whole lot of maintenance to happen in their lives. They do not really want to be challenged about eternity. They are not really expecting to change much. You might just be going through life, coasting along, but boy, you need to hear the warnings too, before it is too late. Sometimes God brings things into your life that are like, “Man, here is one more chance to wake up before the storm comes. Here are some areas in your life you need to shore up before something worse happens down the road. There are some changes that need to happen. You need to get back in line with God again.” I have seen it. Perhaps you have seen it too. Perhaps you have seen it in yourself: this coasting, this neglect, kind of like Eli. Just cruising through life, neglecting the maintenance, not really wanting to rock the boat, not trying, not pushing very hard, just constant neglect.
The Sins of Eli’s Sons
Well, verse 12, which we read, sets up that whole idea. Eli is high priest, and it says his sons are the sons of Belial. They are living like the devil. They knew not the LORD; they chose to ignore the Lord. The next verses just show all these terrible things that are happening. Verses 13 and 14: “And the priests’ custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand; And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither.” So the people are bringing their offerings, and that was right. Leviticus explains all the different types of offerings. Sometimes it was a burnt sacrifice, and we kind of think of offerings as though the whole animal went up onto the fire and was burned up, but that was only one of several types of offerings in the Old Testament. Many of them were offered so that the priests could survive. The people of Israel were to bring offerings to the altar, and anytime a lamb was slaughtered, the blood that was shed was supposed to be a sacrifice for the Lord. Even if they were out in the field hunting and shed blood out there, they would still pour that blood out to the Lord, as a signification that all blood shed in Israel is a sacrifice, a sacrifice of life so that I can live. But the system these priests had devised was this three-pronged hook they would put down into the pot. Whatever came up out of the pot would be theirs, and the rest would go back home with the people. That was not what God said. So people are despising this offering. Verse 15 says, “Also before they burnt the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.” There were some sacrifices where they would bring the raw flesh, but there were others where they would bring cooked flesh. So they are just saying, “No, we want the best cuts.” “And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth; then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.” These are terrible men, and here is where that got them: “Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.” Their sins were horrific. These people are crooked, and that is affecting a lot of people. The disobedience of these two sons of Eli is spreading to other people. People are supposed to be bringing offerings to the Lord, but they figure, “Well, why bother? I should not even mess with that.” I hate any kind of scandal in the news that causes people to turn away from God, because those news outlets will get hold of any religious scandal, and people will sometimes write off God entirely: “See, here are these people who are supposed to be protecting and helping people, and they are the ones committing the crimes.” And I guess it is no wonder people are disgusted by the hypocrisy. I get that. But not only are they turning the people away; verse 22, a little bit further down, says, “Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
A Glimmer of Light: Samuel
So in the middle of all this mess, we are reminded that there is evil going on. But there is a good part of the story too, because we also realize that right next to the evil sons of Eli is the story of Samuel. Not everyone is as evil and wicked as these false priests are. There are many good stories there. There are many times when evil things happen, and we see them in the news, but for every one of those stories, there are a lot of stories of people who are just trying to keep their heads down, just wanting to serve the Lord, to keep quiet and grow and serve and please God and help people. So couched in the middle of this story of the evil sons of Eli is this reminder of what this book is about, which is the main character, Samuel. Verses 18 through 20 say, “But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The LORD give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the LORD. And they went unto their own home.” So this is just another good reminder in the middle of this horrific scene. And even verse 26 is a reminder: “And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men.” I love realizing that God is still at work. Despite all the evils in this world, there are still little pockets of hope. Not everyone is sinning. Not everyone is going against God. There are people like Samuel all over the place. So before it gets too dark, God gives us this little glimmer of light: do not forget Samuel.
Too Little, Too Late
But the story goes on, and it goes back to Eli and his failure as a dad, because years go on like this. These years of neglect happen, and this section seems to happen years later. His sons would have already destroyed all the trust in the priesthood by this time, when he is very old. Verse 22 says, “Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did.” So he calls them in, and the next couple of verses are like this little slap on the wrist he gives them: “Oh, you should not have done that.” I mean, he says the right things, but it is way too late. Verses 23 through 25: “And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the LORD’s people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the LORD would slay them.” Now, this is a little too late. He has neglected the field for too long, and he is coming to the edge of the field now, and the weeds are six feet tall, with trunks as thick as trees. There is no salvaging that field now. He has ignored it for far too long. He has ignored the warning signs far too long, and now not only are their lives destroyed, but his life is destroyed too. A prophet comes up to Eli. Now, Eli is supposed to be the preacher. He is supposed to be the one who knows the law of God and teaches the people, but here comes a man of God with bad news for him. Verses 27 and 28: “And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?” Verse 29: “Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?” See, he is part of the problem here, and the man of God calls him out on that. He delivers the Word of God, calling him out. Verse 30: “Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” So this man of God comes to Eli and says, “It is time for the judgment of God to fall on you. You have been turning a blind eye. You have been liking the residual benefits. You have been making yourself fat on these offerings your sons have been stealing.” But we read in verse 30, “Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” We will come back to that idea in a little bit. The following verses, 31 through 36, pronounce the judgment of God on Eli’s house. He is going to be cut off, and we see all of this playing out in later books. We even see much later generations of Eli being set aside and Zadok taking over as priest. That is exactly what is prophesied here. This is exactly what God said would happen, and that is how it happened.
Set Aside
So we look at this failed life of Eli and go, “Man, what happened here?” You might go to your fifty-year high school reunion, and people might joke with you, “What happened to you?” We look at Eli and might say the same thing: “What happened, Eli?” And he might say, “Well, I just stopped working at it. I just let myself coast. I wanted to take it easy a little bit. I neglected some important things. I ignored the warning signs. I justified myself. I rationalized my sins away. I just figured I would deal with it later.” And you might say, “Well, now look at you. Your life is a mess, and you are being set aside.” Perhaps one of the greatest insults you can have is not getting yelled at; it is being set aside, just being ignored. One of the worst things is that you are no longer being coached. A coach will coach a player as long as he believes that player will improve, but the worst thing a coach can do is just move on to another player who will take the correction. It is like a coach who says, “I am not mad at how badly he is playing. I am just not going to give my attention to this guy who does not want it,” and just sets him aside. That is where Eli is right now. “Eli, you are done. Eli, you are being set aside. You have neglected God so long that now you are going to be neglected. You did not take things seriously enough. You have neglected too many important things. You have let the dam go too long. You did not honor God, so He will not honor you.” Is that not what verse 30 said? “Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” That word despise means to scorn, or just to prefer something else. In other words, it means to neglect. You held the Word of God in very trivial esteem, light esteem. Well, then that is how you will be held by God: “I am just not going to coach him anymore. I am done.”
The Curse of Neglect
That same root word there is the same word as for curse. We sometimes think of a curse as an evil stepmother pronouncing some kind of evil curse, some kind of pox put on you, some problem that is going to come your way: “Okay, I am going to make them feel like they have termites crawling inside their clothes at all times.” We think, “Okay, that is a curse.” Well, that is not really the curse of the Scriptures. Often the curse was just the removal of God’s protection. His hand was over them to keep them safe, and now it is gone. That same word for curse is here in “lightly esteemed.” Whereas all the focus was on “them that honour me I will honour,” God says, “Now let’s see how you live without My honor.” That is the curse. Man, that is a horrible place to be. It is not really receiving a direct smack from God; it is just allowing the world to smack you around a little bit. I had a little fire pit in my backyard, and we had those plastic chairs from Lowe’s seated in a circle around it. I was going back and forth, burning some scrap wood, cleaning up the yard a little bit, glancing at the fire every now and then to make sure it was not getting out of control. What I did not realize was that my chairs were just a little bit too close to the fire. My wife saw the fire, walked around to the fire pit, and said, “The chairs are melting!” And sure enough, I rushed over there, and the plastic itself was just dripping down the fronts of these chairs. So I guess now we have these really cool Halloween-style plastic drip decorations. Now, I did not intentionally throw those plastic chairs into the fire. I did not push them close to the fire so that I would destroy them. I was not hoping they would melt. I just left them. And if you leave something to the elements, it will automatically get destroyed. If you leave a tool outside, you are not purposely destroying it, but it rusts, it gums up, it just stops working, right? Just by neglect. So the Old Testament is written for our example; it is for our learning, the Bible says. I realize that we are not Jews, and this is not written directly to us, but the Bible is really, really clear on this as a principle for everyone: them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. We see examples of this removal of God’s protection in Galatians 6 and 1 Corinthians 5. In Galatians 6 the principle is, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” So we are going to the Old Testament for our example in 1 Samuel 2. We are not going to look at this as a passage about parenting. We can perhaps learn parenting lessons from it, but at its core, this is a passage about our relationship with God. And I am on firm New Testament theological ground when I say that if you ignore it today, you will have to own it tomorrow. The judgment of God may feel like a slow process, but it is a sure process. It may feel like only whispers of warning now. They may not feel very urgent: “I can take care of this problem another day. I can decide on that later.” But the truth is, later may never come. The day to get right with God is today.
A Faithful Priest
Verse 35 in our text talks about this: “And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever.” Now, that might have been talking about Samuel, but there is a really strong case to be made for this being a prophecy about Jesus Christ, with this idea of immortality, this forever kind of faithfulness. Samuel was a faithful priest, but the most faithful High Priest is the One who shed His own blood on the cross for you and for me. So for those of us who are already saved, I am not promoting some kind of works-based Christianity. If you come from a church background that makes you think, “I have to work hard, and then I will get the mercy of God, then I will get the honor of God,” no, that is not what we are talking about. As for being pleasing to God, we realize from Scripture that I cannot do any of the pleasing myself. I cannot make myself pleasing to God. God is pleased with the image of His Son in me. Galatians 1:15–16 says, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” Romans 8:29: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” So on my own, without Christ, even my righteousness is as filthy rags. It is Christ in you, according to Colossians 1:27, that is pleasing. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” So it is Christ in me who is pleasing to God. Any goodness I have does not come from myself. I just want to make that clear first: my acceptance is not based on my performance. I am fully accepted by God through Jesus Christ. Working for God will not make Him love me any more. Sinning will not make Him love me any less. This is not about the acceptance of God. This is not about becoming a child of God. We are eternally secure in God once we repent and turn to Christ. We have been fully adopted into God’s family. The Holy Spirit seals us with eternal life, and that eternal life starts the moment you are born again. Just as you do not make yourself saved, you do not keep yourself saved either. That is all by faith in Jesus Christ. Okay, so then why do we work? If our work is not making us accepted by God, if it does not make me God’s child, why should I serve God? “We love him, because he first loved us.” It basically is that simple. Faith without works is dead, James says. If you have supposedly been miraculously saved by faith, but it does nothing to you, perhaps you got a motivation. Maybe you felt some kind of inspiration. Maybe your heart started beating a little faster, but a TED talk or a scary movie can do that. That does not mean you are saved. It does not mean you are a Christian. A Christian who has been given new life will be given new desires, a new heart. I am not saying you have to be perfect, but there is a conviction that accompanies salvation. It is conviction over living a life of sin. I have to think God’s thoughts with Him; that is what confession is. That is what repentance is: a turning, a change of mind about my sin, and the grace, the grace to forgive my sin. The Bible says in Romans 6, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” So the message of 1 Samuel 2 is not that you can just go on living however you want to live. No, this is like a gracious warning from God to us: do not neglect your spiritual life. There is destruction coming at the end of a life of neglect.
I mentioned 1 Corinthians chapter 5. There was a man in the church there who was in great sin. The church knew all about it, and even though they knew all about it, they were doing nothing about it. The Apostle Paul hears about that sin, confronts them, and tells the church to purge out the leaven from among them and remove that evil. The Bible says it like this in 1 Corinthians 5:4–5: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” The curse of God, the lightly esteeming, is not necessarily a direct punishment of God on that man. It is more like the removal of his protection. Here is a Christian. He is protected by the fellowship of this church. He is protected by God from this realm of Satan. Well, instead of receiving all that from the church, he is removed from the church, and there is this world that is run by the devil and his angels, and it is like, “All right, we will send you out there and see how you like it.” The world is going to eat you up. That is God’s curse. Often the punishment of God just looks like this: “Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. You ignore Me, I will ignore you.” And one of us gets the worse end of that deal, and it is definitely not God.
The Slow, Sure Destruction of Neglect
So I believe 1 Samuel 2 is a warning, a gracious warning, a loving warning, but a warning nonetheless, that there is danger in neglecting God. I doubt there is anybody here who is trying to live in outright sin. I do not even think Eli was. I think he was just neglecting God, just coasting through life. I bet most people would be like that. Most professing Christians are probably not doing anything drastic. I think the majority of our viewers today would still claim to be Christians at this point in their lives, and probably in seven days you are still going to be a Christian. I doubt too many people will become devout atheist skeptics fighting against Christianity. Seven days from now, I doubt there are many viewers who will just disavow God, curse Him, stop believing in Him, and turn to some other religion, or careen into a life of destructive sin. There might be some people who do that, but within the next seven days, that is probably not going to be you. What is more likely, though, is a slow, steady decline, this decay of the soul through simple neglect. You miss the assembly times with your church, a midweek service, or a Sunday night if your church offers those. By the way, one of the reasons many churches do not even offer evening services is that most people just stopped coming. “Well, I missed church last week, but it was only one week.” Last time, it was only a few weeks here and there, and you turn around, and perhaps it has been week after week, and you are only attending two or three times a month, and then two or three times a year. I have watched that decline in people’s lives. Maybe you are like that in your Bible reading, in your personal life. Maybe you would not miss church, because that is outward, but something inward, like Bible reading, is like, “Ah, it is no big deal. I do not understand it. I missed a day here, I missed a day there, but I am still fine. I am not dead. I missed a day of prayer, and I am still fine. I only lied a little bit. It is only a little thought. It is only a little sin. It is only a little self-indulgence. I am working hard in these other areas. Can you not just notice the good I am doing?” Well, it is just a little series of these acts of neglect. “I used to be really active,” and they have allowed that to carry them through. We have a lot of used-to Christians, and they have just allowed a little bit of neglect in their lives. Man, that destruction comes so slowly, but the warning signs are there. If you ignore those things today, you will have to own it tomorrow. Eli ignored way too many of those warning signs, and boy, he owned it. Later on in his life it came down to the man of God just saying, “You are going to have to face the judgment. You are going to have to face the music.” Them that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. But them that honour me I will honour. I mean, that is the route of Samuel. He has grown up in a place of destruction and misery and no faithfulness, with this man Eli and his sons and these people rejecting God. That is what Samuel is growing up in. But instead of going down that same path, he realizes, “Man, I do not want that,” and he grows up as a godly young man. We get to see him more in chapter 3. I love studying the life of Samuel. But we are still looking at Eli and asking, “Where does this neglect lead? Well, it leads to destruction. I do not want to go there.” Charlie Munger says, “All I want to know is where I am going to die, so I will never go there.” That is pretty good advice. There is a background to a hymn that talks about a train bridge collapsing, just moments before the train was to arrive at the station. The train was pulling up, and the bridge collapsed, and, man, all this destruction happened. But it was not the first time a train had gone over that bridge. Hundreds of trains had crossed that bridge, hundreds of times. Engineers had pored over every detail of building that bridge. The builders were very, very careful at the time of the building. It could hold a train; there was no problem with that. It could hold the cargo over and over and over as it crossed that river. The train had been fine many, many times. It was not the first train that made the bridge collapse. It was not the second or third or fourth train that caused the bridge to collapse. It was daily trains rattling and shaking and creaking the timbers and loosening those bolts, and every day made it a little bit weaker, and no one ever checked on it. The destruction of neglect is so slow, but it is so sure. So I think the message of 1 Samuel chapter 2 is that we ought to honor God while we have the chance to do so. Do not neglect. Do not neglect. God bless you, and we will see you in the next video, as we go through our study in 1 Samuel chapter 3. Thank you for watching the video. I really pray that it can be a blessing to you and really help bring the Bible home. If it was a blessing and a help to you, would you consider liking the video and subscribing to our channel? We look forward to seeing you in the next video.
