Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Samuel 2:27-36 - Godly Leadership Needed

Please turn with me in your Bibles today to 1 Samuel 2. As you’re doing so, I ask you: Why should we concern ourselves with events that took place more than 3,000 years ago?

Why does it matter that a barren woman named Hannah bore a son?

What is that to me?

So Eli turned out to mostly be a good guy himself but a poor example of parenting?…

but he was a priest before God in Israel… with some pretty serious consequences for lazy parenting… not sure how that applies to me.

May God grant us eyes to see and ears to hear that the same God who dealt with Eli and whom Samuel served is the God who has the power to take our hearts and make them his own, to teach us to honor him above all else.

Let’s review some verses and then pray together:

At the end of the period of the Judges, “there was a certain man... whose name was Elkanah.”

After she had weaned the child, Hannah and Elkanah brought the child to Eli at Shiloh.

And Hannah shared a psalm of prayer and praise to God:

But Eli’s sons continued treating worship offerings to God with contempt, as well as committing adultery with the young women who served at the tabernacle.

Finally, and we don’t really know why, Eli is prompted to rebuke them.

PRAY

From Passive Parenting to Godly Leadership

Last time we observed in Eli an example of Failed Leadership - Passive Parenting: How Even Good Men Fail as Fathers

There’s a definite contrast in the text between what was going on with Eli’s worthless sons, who were disobeying and dishonoring God while they were in fact supposed to be guides and helpers for the people to worship… but were instead a detriment and distraction.

Contrasting that with Samuel, who was just a boy, but was honoring God with his simple service.

- Samuel was a Son of Prayer, he was Dressed to Serve, and… last but certainly not least… he was in God’s favor.

So the contrast really becomes btwn Eli’s passive parenting and the effective parental leadership of Hannah and Elkanah, despite their limited time with their son.

- I mean, they weren’t perfect parents.

Look, Elkanah had two wives… you know THAT was a hurdle.

But these people feared and honored God and aimed to make sure their son did the same.

- But with Eli, even when he rebuked his sons, it was ultimately weak and pointless bc the scolding lacked accountability.

And of course then there is a great contrast btwn God’s blessing on the one and judgment on the other.

So we saw in our discussion of that section a lot of what we should not do and perhaps by extension a little of what we should do.

Bc since I didn’t get to it last time, please allow me to share with you a short summary list of what we should do:

Instead of Passive Parenting, What Should We Do?

Praise

Pray

Instruct

Discipline

Enjoy

Praise God for them in their presence, Pray with them and for them, Instruct them in truth (openly and often - Show them the way to personal faith in Christ.

Teach them the ways of God and to have a reverence for God and the things of God.) & Train them to serve, Discipline and correct them for destructive attitudes and behaviors, and enjoy watching them grow in favor with God and man.

{This doesn’t have to apply only to parents…] Praise God for his revelation in your life, Pray daily (and more) for God to have his way in your heart, Devote yourself to knowing God from His word… & Be trained in service, Accept discipline and correction, and Be thankful and joyful in bearing fruit for the glory of God.

Now heading back towards our text for today, remember too we said last week:

The grievousness of the sins of Eli’s sons is matched only by the failed leadership of their father.

Parents… grandparents… believers one to another — you want a clear conscience before God that you are leading others toward him and not passively standing by while people in your circle stray from God while you do nothing.

So while there are no perfect parents, there are some demonstrating real faithfulness in commitment to discipling their children.

We should learn from them and team up with one another for accountability.

Today we will reinforce and further demonstrate: Every godly leader honors God before and beyond anything or anyone else.

In leadership, nothing else matters like honoring God.

Dads… nothing else matters like honoring God.

Mothers… Bosses and employees… Teachers, coaches, mentors… even boys and girls… When we lead, nothing else matters like honoring God.

Now in order to finish vv.

27-36, I want to emphasize something in v. 25 that we didn’t have time for last week.

V. 25 gives us:

God’s Justice on Display

God is a just God.

He doesn’t and he can’t just let sin slide.

Now it may often seem to us that such is the case (“while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse” 2 Tim.

3:13), but he promises that it is not.

The guilty will not go unpunished.

Our sin will reap payment in the end.

So…

God’s justice means we need mediation.

(v.

25a)

Because of God’s perfect justice, God the Son, became man in order that Jesus might die as an atoning sacrifice and propitiation for our sins:

We receive the benefit of that mediation, which he alone accomplished, by faith in Jesus.

God judicially hardens those who refuse to repent.

(v.

25b)

As with other places this takes place in the scriptures, it appears these people were so determined in their rebellion against God that God entered into the hardening process so that he could accomplish his purposes in spite of, and yet in and through, what was at first their own self-hardening.

It is God’s prerogative, as God, to do this (Rom.

9:18-21).

But that we are morally responsible for our condition is a theological given, and we are warned not to harden our hearts as they did:

So again, it is in this context of a perfectly just God that we find this response to Eli and his sons:

God’s Message to Eli

An unnamed prophet first declares (from the mouth of God) the kindness and faithfulness of God.

He then explains Eli’s wrongdoing, and states his decision.

Finally, he proclaims God’s plan for punishment and his plan to replace Eli’s house with a faithful priesthood.

And here Samuel becomes the foreshadowing of the promise’s fulfillment.

God reminds Eli of his faithfulness.

(vv.

27-28)

The obvious answer to the questions is, YES.

Yes, you did God.

Yes, you gave us a great privilege and responsibility.

“House of your father” - One of the sons of Aaron, Ithamar, is the direct ancestor of Eli.

Aaron’s other son was Eleazar, who was actually the oldest and became the next high priest after Aaron.

We actually don’t know how it transferred to Eli’s (Ithamar’s) side at some point, but we do know how it gets put back!

If you wonder about that list in v. 28, those are simply the three primary priestly responsibilities.

“I gave to the house of your father all offerings” - God had made provision for the tribe of Levi through the offerings.

But he had also given them instructions for HOW to do about it.

It is because of the goodness and faithfulness of God that we realize that for us, nothing else matters like honoring God.

God explains Eli’s sin.

(v.

29)

How is Eli culpable, responsible?

- Interestingly, God uses a question to give this answer!

Here’s the crux of it: “honoring your sons above me” - Eli isn’t directly responsible for their misconduct (although he may be indirectly responsible for passive parenting), but they themselves are culpable for their sins.

Rather, Eli “is condemned for his own sin—honoring his sons more than the Lord.” - Bergen, R. D. (1996).

1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 82).

Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Honor - to be heavy, weighty

IN contrast to honor is scorn (to look down on with disdain, conceived of as kicking someone - to treat something with such contempt so as to kick at it, tread, or trample)

Do you honor God in service to him or do you scorn the role he has given you? - Whatever he has given us to do, nothing else matters like honoring God.

God declares his decision.

(v.

30)

Which is always based on his character.

“I promised… Far be it from me” - Is God going back on his word?