Title: Sons of Eli (1 Samuel 02:12-17)
1. They blasphemed the offerings to the Lord. They took God's sacrifice and made it their own, and they satisfied their luxury. The sacrifices to be burned for offering to God and their share were clearly separated. Still, they were not satisfied with it. They did not serve the God of Israel, but only their own belly (Romans 16:18), and as the prophet Isaiah said, they were like “a greedy dog that never finds enough” in Isaiah 56:11: that is, the son of Eli. Their crime was in taking as their own anything other than their fair share of the sacrifice. Hophni and Phinehas were acquainted with the universal rules of their temple, but they violated them.
3. They came before God and even violated God's rights. Isaiah 7:13 says, “It was considered a small thing to harass people, but it was also a affliction to God.” Although the people were compelled to yield to their unreasonable demands, they were very concerned that the things of God should not be usurped. So verse 16 says, “Be sure to burn the oil first, and then take whatever you desire. The first thing you need to offer to the altar is that you must offer it. Because that's very important. They could not eat meat first until they gave oil to God. Eli's sons blasphemed the sacrifices offered to God, plundered those who offered sacrifices, and violated God's rights, making Eli's sacrifice unsatisfactory in God's eyes. The sacrifice was to please the greedy priests rather than to glorify God. Our sacrifices must also be replaced with those for God, not for humans.