Two Brothers

It's fun to think about things like superhuman strength, the ability to fly, and teleportation. But as we've seen in virtually every superhero movie, special powers can easily be misused for evil instead of good. Sunday, we will examine a Scripture passage that illustrates this truth. God had given Eli's sons the extraordinary power or gift of serving His people as priests. But, instead of using their gifts and sacrificing for the sake of other people, they misused the powers they'd been given and squandered the opportunity to honor the Lord through serving others.

Verses 12-17 of chapter 2 tell us that the two brothers, Hophni and Phinehas were "scoundrels." They "had no regard for the Lord." This disregard for the Lord can be seen in how Hophni and Phinehas took advantage of their liturgical office for personal gain. They were abusing their priestly office and "treating the Lord's offering with contempt." Leviticus 10:1-11 records the seriousness with which the Lord takes priestly misconduct. A holy God would not allow this to go on without punishment.

The NLT describes Eli's sons this way: "scoundrels who had no respect for the Lord or their duties as priests." At the very same time, God was raising Samuel. In their duties as priests, Eli's sons—Hophni and Phineas—took more than they gave. They were stealing from the sacrifices of others. They should have been sacrificing themselves, but they were not. But Samuel did give sacrificially. God was raising an everyday hero.

These verses show that the violation of God's sacred trust by Hophni and Phinehas did not stop with liturgical sins. The brothers added moral sins to their catalog of priestly misconduct. Eli's sons were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tabernacle. It is difficult to say who these women were. They may have been volunteers doing menial chores (Ex. 38:8) or cultic prostitutes like those found at pagan shrines (see Hos. 4:14). If they were cultic prostitutes, then Hophni and Phinehas were guilty of filling the land with "depravity" (Lev. 19:29).

Eli tried to confront his sons and reason with them, but with little effort. Unfortunately, Hophni and Phinehas would not listen to their father. Since they committed capital offenses (Lev. 7:25; 22:9), they could only expect the death penalty to be brought against them. The divine judgment against Hophni and Phinehas directly resulted from their decision to reject God. They had hardened their hearts against God and rejected their father's pleas. They persisted in sins that were abominable to the Lord. This means their disregard for God was so complete that God's judgment was inevitable.

Any of us may fail. The good news is that God will forgive us when we are sincere and repentant (1 John 1:9). What we do for God and how we do it matters. Like Samuel, we are to grow in stature and favor with the Lord by serving Him faithfully, respectfully, and reverently. If we fail in the sacred trust God has given to us, He will find faithful servants to carry out His will.

The ultimate goal is for our kids to become independently dependent. Therefore, we must maintain enough authority to hold them accountable and keep enough influence to speak into their lives to remove them from our authority and allow them to yield to Christ's authority.