Title: Successful Mothers and Failed Fathers
Contents 1 Samuel 2:12-17
1 Samuel 2 can be divided into two parts. Verses 1-11 record Hannah praising Jehovah God for giving Samuel. Verses 12-36 repeatedly introduce two sharply contrasting assumptions. It contrasts the image of Eli's family, who was once a brilliant high priest's family, but lost and abandoned by God, and Samuel, the child of a woman who lived with sighs and tears, appeared like the rising sun with God's blessing. How did the high priest Eli's family fall today? We would like to share the grace of Hannah's son Samuel by looking at how he was blessed.
The sons of high priest Eli were perfectly qualified with the first priority to succeed their father, but why were they forsaken by God?
(1) It is written that Eli's sons were wicked and did not know the Lord (verse 12). There are two kinds of atheists in this world, one outside the church and the other inside the church. Hophni and Phinehas were atheists in the church who knew God with their heads but did not know God with their hearts. Do Our Children Know Jehovah? Otherwise, it's only a matter of time before your family's downfall.
(2) They first ate the most fatty meat and sacrifice offered to God (verses 14-17). To God, we should give first things that are not blemish, good things, and eat the rest, but they ate the good things first. They even took the sacrifices offered to God by force and ate them (verse 16). God, the Lord of the universe, does not ask for much. He wants the first thing, the set apart, and the most precious thing.
(3) Hophni and Phinehas committed blasphemy by profaning the fidelity of women who often came to the temple (verse 17). They committed sexual offenses in public. Our bodies are the temple of God. You are not yours, but you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body. Because the temple was bought with the blood of Jesus.
(4) The reason Hophni and Phinehas were rejected by God is that “they did not listen to their father” (verse 25). Proverbs says, “The eyes of those who ridicule their fathers and refuse to obey their mothers will be pecked out by ravens of the valley, and eaten by eagles” (Proverbs 30:17).
We pray that our beloved children will also be raised through prayer in the temple and become a beautiful family where God's blessings overflow until the day the Lord comes.