1Samuel 2:27-34
One day a prophet came to Eli and gave him this message from the Lord:
When your ancestors were slaves of the king of Egypt, I came and showed them who I am. Out of all the tribes of Israel, I chose your family to be my priests. I wanted them to offer sacrifices and burn incense to me and to find out from me what I want my people to do. I commanded everyone to bring their sacrifices here where I live, and I allowed you and your family to keep those that were not offered to me on the altar.
But you honor your sons instead of me! You don’t respect the sacrifices and offerings that are brought to me, and you’ve all grown fat from eating the best parts.
I am the Lord, the God of Israel. I promised to always let your family serve me as priests, but now I tell you that I cannot do this any longer! I honor anyone who honors me, but I put a curse on anyone who hates me. The time will come when I will kill you and everyone else in your family. Not one of you will live to an old age.
Your family will have a lot of trouble. I will be kind to Israel, but everyone in your family will die young. If I let anyone from your family be a priest, his[j] life will be full of sadness and sorrow. But most of the men in your family will die a violent death! o prove to you that I will do these things, your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will die on the same day.
Memory Verse: You cannot fool God, so don’t make a fool of yourself! You will harvest what you plant. Galatians 6:7.
Sometimes I wonder how the world and we the inhabitants of it relate to things of God. In a time when social media has taken over the world, it’s factually easy to not only lead people astray but people openly disregard God and lead others in the direction of disrespecting God, without even thinking much of it.
How do Christians who are children of God deal with things pertaining to God?
You hear statements like, it’s not that deep! God is not man and will be ok with what I’m doing, I am only human, and the rest alike. Most of these statements we make are not only disrespectful, but also goes a long way in showing just how and where we position God in our lives. Imagine as a parent, you do everything for your children but have certain house rules, how will you feel if you children intentionally break those house rules, disrespect you and continue to do so nonstop?
God has made it clear in more than one way scripturally that His honour is only reserved for those who honour Him and today we see from the reading, a major consequence of disrespecting God. King Solomon did exactly what the sons of Eli did, they all disrespected God and for this reason impacted their entire generation.
Do not think God is silent and can therefore be disrespected. Solomon’s generation saw the wrath of God. Solomon himself was spared but in the case of Hophni and Phinehas, the punishment’s started from them. Whatever the case may be, you may be destroying your generation by disrespecting God.
What legacy will you leave behind and how will your generation be impacted by your relationship with God? But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations. Do not misuse my name. I am the Lord your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name. Deuteronomy 20:6-7.
PRAYERS:
- Father I thank you for your love and mercy and grace
- Thank You for preserving my soul from death and my feet from falling
- Help me Lord not to disrepect you ever
- Help me not to get too familiar with your grace, your love and your mercy.
- Forgive my iniquities Lord and let your mercy prevail over judgement
- Thank you Father and in Jesus Name I Pray, Amen.
