Sermon Central
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Bad Choices In The Tabernacle
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Oct 28, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: We hear much today about self-proclaimed preachers who seem to care little about the Lord and His Holy Word but seem to care a great deal about their wealth and popularity. Phinehas and Hophni were not so concerned about popularity but they certainly cared about their creature comforts!
Bad Choices In The Tabernacle
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you in the same way.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse(s) is(are):
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Today we will once again be reading from 1 Samuel 3
Last week we took a look at only the first verse of 1 Samuel 3 where it says, “The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.”
This lack of hearing from God was due to the sin in the ranks of the priesthood, specifically, Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and, Eli’s failure to reign them in.
We also saw that Samuel, even as a youth was being trained by Eli to minister before the Lord in order to prepare him to replace both Eli and his rebellious sons.
This is something we as believers in Jesus Christ will all experience if we try to live with sin in our lives. We will find the Word of God to be tasteless in our mouths and our prayers to be dry. Times of reading the Bible and prayer will become only forced rituals or will cease to take place altogether, and the only message we will receive from the Lord will be repent, stop your sinning and follow Me. Then you will find delight in the Lord otherwise there will be consequences that will result from constant, willful disobedience.
Today we will take a look at parts of chapters 2, 3 and 4.
Please join me in your Bibles as we read: 1 Samuel 3
(Prayer for help)
Before we go on it is important to notice that the end of verse 1 says, “In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.”
It says the “word of the LORD was rare”, not nonexistent.
In chapter 2 we see a word from the LORD being spoken in verses 27-36 where it says,
Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to your ancestor’s family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? I chose your ancestor out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in My presence. I also gave your ancestor’s family all the food offerings presented by the Israelites. Why do you scorn My sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for My dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by My people Israel?’
“Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that members of your family would minister before Me forever.’ But now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from Me! Those who honor Me I will honor, but those who despise Me will be disdained. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your priestly house, so that no one in it will reach old age, and you will see distress in My dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will ever reach old age. Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at My altar I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
“‘And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you - they will both die on the same day. I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in My heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before My anointed One always. Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread and plead, “Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat.”’”
That sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it?
Often we don’t understand the magnitude of our sin because do not understand the magnitude of our God and His perfect Holiness.
