God is Not Mocked
Notes
Transcript
A. Rapport for the time
The passage we will be in this morning is really a continuation of the verse we looked at last week.
B. Reading of the text
Read the text at the opening and have Raymond read it and pray.
C. Review of the text
D. Relevance of the text
I. Preparation of Samuel
I. Preparation of Samuel
26 Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.
One thing that we did not talk about last Sunday together is that in the middle of Eli’s sons Samuel is raised up to honor the Lord. Understand your family tree or how you were raised can be used by God to make much out of himself. Samuel pursues God in the midst of what we would all say is not a good situation from an earthly perspective.
1 Samuel—Looking for a Leader But Samuel … (v. 26)
The message of the whole Bible teaches that God has acted not only in corrupt Israel long ago, but in this corrupt world, to provide the leadership needed.
Boy Samuel Grow---
Favor with the Lord
Favor with Man
God is working even if we can’t see all the details of what he is working on.
II. Promises of Grace
II. Promises of Grace
27 And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh?
28 Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.
Eli has fallen away from the leadership of the Lord so much that God sends a prophet to see him. (first prophet since Judges 6:8) How sad it is to know that Eli has fallen this far. Our relationship with God matters. The fact that you are a child of the King is extremely important and is your identity.
1 “Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests—Aaron and Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Work to be done by Priest
1 “You shall make an altar on which to burn incense; you shall make it of acacia wood.
2 A cubit shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth. It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.
3 You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and around its sides and its horns. And you shall make a molding of gold around it.
4 And you shall make two golden rings for it. Under its molding on two opposite sides of it you shall make them, and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it.
5 You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
6 And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you.
7 And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it,
8 and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations.
9 You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it.
10 Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”
40 to be a reminder to the people of Israel, so that no outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, should draw near to burn incense before the Lord, lest he become like Korah and his company—as the Lord said to him through Moses.
High Priests Ephod
1 From the blue and purple and scarlet yarns they made finely woven garments, for ministering in the Holy Place. They made the holy garments for Aaron, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
2 He made the ephod of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen.
3 And they hammered out gold leaf, and he cut it into threads to work into the blue and purple and the scarlet yarns, and into the fine twined linen, in skilled design.
4 They made for the ephod attaching shoulder pieces, joined to it at its two edges.
5 And the skillfully woven band on it was of one piece with it and made like it, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
6 They made the onyx stones, enclosed in settings of gold filigree, and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel.
7 And he set them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod to be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Lord provided for his priestly servants
14 “And this is the law of the grain offering. The sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord in front of the altar.
15 And one shall take from it a handful of the fine flour of the grain offering and its oil and all the frankincense that is on the grain offering and burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
16 And the rest of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. It shall be eaten unleavened in a holy place. In the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it.
17 It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as their portion of my food offerings. It is a thing most holy, like the sin offering and the guilt offering.
18 Every male among the children of Aaron may eat of it, as decreed forever throughout your generations, from the Lord’s food offerings. Whatever touches them shall become holy.”
III. Preferring Self
III. Preferring Self
29 Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’
Eli had made a choice of his own sons over God. Hophni and Phineas had not just done this one day but had made the choice to not believe and serve themselves. Eli had many options and the greatest one would have been removing them from there positions.
Scorn---contempt or disdain expressed openly, In Hebrew—To kick, kick at literal translation
Honor your sons—honor is the same word that can be translated glorify..
God is only one deserving of all honor and our entire way of worship gets out of line when we decide that honor will be given to someone else or something else. Eli is treating his sons with honor while at the same time telling them what they are doing is not acceptable to the Lord.
Choicest parts of offering was from last week:
15 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.”
16 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.”
---Looking at the heart—bible commentary
There is truth here even for the individual believer. This prophesy against Eli emphasizes they you can end up in grave sin by thinking it very important to be nice to people. How easy it is to practice a gutless niceness with love and thereby ignores God’s law and essentially despises his holiness. We do not necessarily seek God’s honor when we spare human feelings.
IV. Position set to Judgment
IV. Position set to Judgment
30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
31 Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.
32 Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.
33 The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men.
34 And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day.
35 And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.
36 And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, “Please put me in one of the priests’ places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.” ’ ”
therefore---because of all that we know about how Eli and his sons have given no honor to God this is what will happen in the days ahead.
1 Samuel—Looking for a Leader The Promise Forfeited (v. 30)
The truth of God’s sovereignty in revealing himself, choosing, and giving does not nullify but intensifies the demand for holiness in the recipients of his grace
2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
2 “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
vs. 31—literal..I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house.
vs 35-36 Fulfilled in Samuel but not perfectly as his sons will fail just like Eli’s
Zadok would come and fulfill the passage in David’s Kingdom on Earth
But this is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord.
19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
This passage leads us to ultimately think about our responsibilities to both pursue and be forever changing before our King.
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.