Cooking

How many of you enjoy cooking? Do you have certain things that you love to make? This is the time of year that I start to get more excited about it, because it’s soup season!

Do you have things you don’t like to cook? For me, that’s always been steak, mainly because it’s too expensive to mess up!

Do you know the difference between select, choice, and prime meat? It’s the marbling, which is a polite way of saying fat. Intramuscular fat, and the more fat the better (can I get an amen?!)

Here’s why I bring that up: In the Old Testament sacrificial system, when a family would come and give an offering, and in particular a fellowship or peace offering of praise, certain portions of the meat were to be sacrificed to the Lord, another portion to the priests, and the rest was for the family and friends to have this great meal in celebration of what God had done. It’s like the original potluck!

The portion that belonged to the Lord was the fat. Leviticus 3 says that it was to be burned as “a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” Some of your mouths might be watering right now, that just shows that you’re made in the image of God!

Recap

Miraculous birth of baby Samuel.

Hannah came to the point of surrendering her idea of what her life should look like to God’s plan.

She kept him at home until he was weaned (2-3 years), then took him to live at the temple (tabernacle) with Eli at Shiloh.

1 Samuel 2:1-10 is this amazing, prophetic song of praise Hannah sings. It covers the major themes of the book.

In 2:12, the focus shifts to life at the temple, the environment they’ve now left this little boy Samuel in… and it’s not a pretty sight.

The boy Samuel served the Lord in Eli’s presence.
In those days the word of the Lord was rare and
prophetic visions were not widespread.

1 Samuel 3:1

Eli had two sons, we got their names in chapter 1: Hophni and Phinehas. Hophni means “tadpole”, and Phinehas “the dark-skinned one”. These guys are no good.

Eli’s sons were wicked men; they did not respect the Lord or the priests’ share of the sacrifices from the people.

1 Samuel 2:12–13

If you’re reading NIV, says they’re scoundrels, and the ESV is
even worse—it says they were “worthless men”!

When anyone would come to worship and offer a sacrifice to the Lord, they’d send one of their henchmen with a big three-pronged meat fork, and take whatever meat they got, including the fat.

These jokers were skimming off the top, quite literally. They were tired of rump roast all the time (that’s one of the parts given to priests). They wanted filet or some brisket, and they were gonna get it.

Now as worshippers of God, you know this isn’t right,
so what if you protested what they were doing?

If that person said to him, “The fat must be burned first; then you can take whatever you want for yourself,” the servant would reply, “No, I insist that you hand it over right now. If you don’t, I’ll take it by force!” So the servants’ sin was very severe in the presence of the Lord, because the men treated the Lord’s offering with contempt.

1 Samuel 2:16–17

They will have the best, the people can take what’s left, and leave God the scraps.

But wait, that’s not all, it gets worse.

Now Eli was very old. He heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

1 Samuel 2:22

So Tadpole and Dark-Skin are…

Failing Ministries Today

As long as there’s been ministry, there’s been grifters and hucksters, gluttons and perverts

Environment does not determine holiness. Holy places provide convenient cover for unholy ambitions—they always have,
and they always will.

Eugene Peterson

How are we to respond?

Eli scolds them, but that’s about it. He doesn’t even name what they’re doing, just “I’m hearing bad reports”, “people are saying”. And worse yet, there aren’t any real consequences for their actions. He doesn’t actually do anything to stop them, he doesn’t kick them out of the priesthood. So they just ignore him and go about their underhanded business.

And God holds Eli accountable for his passivity.
In His message to Eli via Samuel in chapter 3:

I told him that I am going to judge his family forever because
of the iniquity he knows about: his sons are cursing God,
and he has not stopped them.

1 Samuel 3:13

Because Eli knew what was going on and did nothing, he was included in God’s judment. He was to be the spiritual leader of the nation, but he wasn’t even the spiritual leader of his own household.

It wasn’t that Eli was taking the meat himself. He wasn’t abusing his power so that he could hook up with the ladies on the hospitality team at the temple. But he knew what was going on, and he didn’t do anything about it.

I wouldn’t be suprised if Eli thought some of the same things we hear today as excuses for non-action:

Spiritual abuse is deadly serious, and so is silence.

J.D. Greear

I’m intensely aware that most likely some of you watching right now don’t have to be told about the reality of spiritual abuse, because it’s your reality—you’ve lived it. Talking about it may be causing you to relive it a tiny bit right now.

They are very few wounds in life that hurt as much as those that come from a place where you were supposed to find healing.

And often that hurt is multiplied in the response of the leadership of the church and the rest of the members.

I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that. You deserved better. We should expect better. Your spiritual leaders are supposed to protect the sheep from wolves, not protect the wolves from the sheep who see them for what they are.

Wolves in sheep’s clothing can absolutely tear a flock apart. They do an astronomical amount of damage, because they blend in, incognito. But they’d do a lot less damage if when we went by the phrase I’m sure you’ve heard, if you see something, say something.

We should say with unqualified certainty, we will not tolerate any version of Eli that seeks to protect family, protect the institution, rather than call out sin for what it is, and take concrete steps to deal with it properly.

Our hope, and the promise of this passage, is that they won’t be able to hide forever. And when they’re exposed, as painful as it may be, it’s actually God’s grace, sparing more people from having their lives ripped to shreds.

By God’s spirit, we can protecting each other. And we can be sure, God will sort them out one day.

And God has had enough, both of the boys evil activity and Eli’s evil passivity.

He sends an anonymous prophet to proclaim judgment on them:

Why, then, do all of you despise my sacrifices and offerings that I require at the place of worship? You have honored your sons more than me, by making yourselves fat with the best part of all of the offerings of my people Israel.’

“Therefore, this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘I did say that your family and your forefather’s family would walk before me forever. But now,’ this is the Lord’s declaration, ‘no longer! For those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disgraced.

1 Samuel 2:29–30

Which brings us back to verse 1 of chapter 3:

The boy Samuel served the Lord in Eli’s presence. In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.

One day Eli, whose eyesight was failing, was lying in his usual place. Before the lamp of God had gone out, Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was located.

1 Samuel 3:1–3

Ark of the Covenant gold box containing Ten Commandments. You’ve seen Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. We’ll talk more about that next week.

Might be scary, but that’s a good night light, the lamp of God.

It’s a dark time, but the lamp has not burned out. In fact, because of what God is doing with Samuel, it’s going to shine brighter than ever before.

Then the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“I didn’t call,” Eli replied. “Go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

1 Samuel 3:4–5

Parents, you know what this is like.
“You’re mom’s right there.”

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Once again, for the third time, the Lord called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling the boy. He told Samuel, “Go and lie down. If he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The Lord came, stood there, and called as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel responded, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

1 Samuel 3:7–10

After the third time, Eli figures out what’s going on, tells Samuel what to say. And he does.

Beautiful, childlike story. God’s message, not so much. He basically Samuel’s scared to tell Eli, can you blame him?

“What was the message he gave you?” Eli asked. “Don’t hide it from me. May God punish you and do so severely if you hide anything from me that he told you.”

So Samuel told him everything and did not hide anything from him. Eli responded, “He is the Lord. Let him do what he thinks is good.”

1 Samuel 3:17–18

Still, a passive response.

1. We hear God’s voice when we’re expecting it.

…or maybe more accurately, we realize it’s Him when we’re expecting to hear His voice.

God called Samuel three times, but he didn’t recognize it as God’s voice until he was expecting it. Until he was taught to.

Parents, we should be training, discipling our kids to listen for the Holy Spirit’s voice. Go through life expecting Him to lead.

How many times do you read Scripture, get advice from a friend, hear a message like this one, a song on the radio, and then later—usually after it’s too late and you’ve missed it/messed up—realize that it was God speaking to you?

Are you listening to God’s voice?

2. We honor God’s presence in His temple.

Tadpole and Dark Skin thought that God couldn’t see or wouldn’t care. They were wrong.

Eli was passive, thought, “What can I do about it?” He put family unity over godly leadership. “It’s not my sin, so God’s won’t judge me.” He was wrong.

Contrast that with Samuel: every time he’s mentioned in chapter 2, it’s in relation to the Lord’s presence. It’s even more true of us than it was of him.

Where’s the temple, God’s dwelling place today? Our hearts.

Is God pleased with what you’re doing in His temple?

For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? …

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:26–29

3. We hunger for God’s word to be known.

This chapter’s a milestone in the history of God’s people.

In those days the word of the Lord was rare
and prophetic visions were not widespread.

1 Samuel 3:1

Samuel grew. The Lord was with him, and he fulfilled everything Samuel prophesied. All Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a confirmed prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear in Shiloh, because there he revealed himself to Samuel by his word. And Samuel’s words came to all Israel.

1 Samuel 3:19–21

God’s word was rare, but not anymore. God is up to something.

Now God’s people could hear from Him. Now they could worship without being ripped off. God’s Word had come through this young prophet, Samuel.

God has a calling on your life, too. Different than Samuel’s, but not that different. It will take different forms for all of us, but at the end, it’s the same. To make God’s word, His truth, the Good News known from the north/south, east/west.

Samuel wasn’t perfect, but God called him, used him, and he’ll do the same with us if we’ll listen for Him and answer His call.

He points us forward to David, and even more to the Son of David that would come one day.

“‘Then I will raise up a faithful priest for myself. He will do whatever is in my heart and mind. I will establish a lasting dynasty for him, and he will walk before my anointed one for all time.”

1 Samuel 2:35

Samuel was a prophet, a fill-in priest, who anointed the King.

Jesus was the greatest prophet, our Great High Priest, and the King of Kings.

When we surrender to Him, honor his presence in our hearts, and live our lives expecting to hear his voice, He will use us to make His Word known the world over. We just have to say with Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”