Cold or Hot or Something Else: Daily Thoughts from 1 Samuel (1 Samuel 2:12-26)

God exalts the humble and abases the proud. But what if you’re in-between? Can you be halfway humble or only somewhat proud? You can, but how does God respond to that?

The author of 1 and 2 Samuel is at pains to show us God’s response as seen in the lives of Hannah and Samuel versus Eli and his sons.

Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.” And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish,” he would say, “No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.” Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD, for the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt.

Samuel was ministering before the LORD, a boy clothed with a linen ephod. And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May the LORD give you children by this woman for the petition she asked of the LORD.” So then they would return to their home.

Indeed the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD.

Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading abroad. If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death.

Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and also with man. (1 Samuel 2:12-26, ESV)

Here is a study in contrast between the unfaithful servants of God and the faithful servant.  Eli’s sons, the priests who serve at the Tabernacle, are worthless men, taking portions of the sacrifice that are not specified by God’s law, threatening violence, and committing immoral acts with women who served at the Tabernacle.  The priests are supposed to maintain the sanctity of the sanctuary and teach the people how to approach Yahweh, but instead these men are being rebuked by the people, who know better than they how to properly do sacrifice.

Samuel, on the other hand, is ministering before Yahweh faithfully.  Eli blesses his family and his mother is granted more children.  Samuel grows in the presence of Yahweh, growing in favor with Yahweh and with the people, as was said many generations later of Jesus (Luke 2:52).

Eli, on the other hand, stands in the middle, making a feeble attempt to rein his sons in, which they ignore.  He has honor for Yahweh and His Tabernacle but not enough to depose his sons from doing “such things”, such “evil doings.”  And we are told that they will not listen to their father because Yahweh had already determined to judge them.  This is similar to Yahweh hardening Pharaoh’s heart because he deserved judgment.

We are either guilty of sin as Eli’s sons were, or walking in holiness as Samuel was, or standing in the middle, as Eli was, but only one of those positions is right. It is not enough to be lukewarm.

Parents, we are particularly accountable to live hotly passionate lives for Jesus, daring not to lead our children in a lukewarm faith.