Something is rotten in Shiloh - 1 Samuel 2:11-26

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Good morning. We are glad to be here and to be able to worship together this morning. I'm going to begin with a word of prayer, and then we'll spend a few moments reading God's word together. So join me, if you would, for prayer. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus, and I thank you for grace, and I thank you for hope. I thank you that we can come together and to worship and to spend time with one another, to encourage one another. I thank you that we can open your word and be encouraged by it. I thank you that we can gather together around the table and to direct our hearts toward Jesus. May our hearts be encouraged and strengthened and nourished. So be with us this morning as we worship. We just thank you so much for your goodness. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

In just a moment, we'll read from the 96th Psalm, verses 4 through 6, but one of the things that has been so helpful to me, as I've spent more and more time in the Psalms over the years, is that oftentimes the Psalms will answer the question that I have in regard to what they're saying. For example, the 96th Psalm starts with, "O sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth." And it continues to talk about this. It talks about singing and declaring, and there are days when I wake up that I'm not necessarily super excited to be singing, right? My kids, they can wake up singing full of energy, but sometimes it takes me a cup of coffee or two before my heart is in the mindset of being able to sing.

And one of the things that I love about how the Psalms interact with our hearts and with our minds is that we have this call to sing and to worship. And the Psalmist doesn't just say, "Do this," but then he tells us why we do it. He begins to extol the greatness of God. So as we prepare to sing this morning, as we prepare to worship, I want us to read together the Psalmist's reasons for singing. So stand with me, if you will, and we're going to begin reading here in verse 4. So if you'd read together with me. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols. But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. This is the word of the Lord. We're going to start by singing, "This is our God."

Remember those wars that we called sin and shame? They were like prisons that we couldn't escape. But He came, and He died, and He rose. Those wars are rubble now.

Remember those giants we called death and grave? They were like mountains that stood in our way. But He came, and He died, and He rose. Those giants are dead now.

This is our God. This is who He is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what He does. He saves us. He bore the cross, beat the grave. Let heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God, King Jesus. Remember that fear that took our breath away? Faith so weak that we could barely pray. But He heard every word, every whisper. Now those altars in the wilderness tell the story of His faithfulness. Never once did He fail, and He never will. This is our God, this is who He is, He loves us. This is our God, this is what He does, He saves us. Pour the cross, feed the grave, let heaven and earth proclaim, this is our God, King Jesus. Who pulled me out of that pit? He did, He did. Who paid for all of our sin? Nobody but Jesus.

Who rescued me from that grave? Yahweh, Yahweh. Who gets the glory and praise? Nobody but Jesus. Who rescued me from that grave? Yahweh, Yahweh. Who gets the glory and praise? Nobody but Jesus. Who rescued me from that grave? Yahweh, Yahweh. Who gets the glory and praise? Nobody but Jesus.

This is our God. This is who He is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what He does. He saves us. He bore the cross, beat the grave. Let heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God, King Jesus. He bore the cross, beat the grave. Let heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God, King Jesus. This is our God, King Jesus.

The splendor of the King. The holy majesty. Let all the earth rejoice. All the earth rejoice. He lapsed himself in light. His darkness tries to hide. He trembles at his voice. He trembles at his voice. How great is our God. Sing with me how great is our God. All you see how great, how great is our God. And page to page he stands. And time is in his hands. Beginning and the end. Beginning and the end. Where God had given one. The Father, Spirit, Son. The Lion and the Lamb. The Lion and the Lamb. How great is Algo. Sing with me. How great is Algo. The poor to see. How great. How great is Algo. How great is Algo. May the love of all names. How great is Algo. May the love of all names. May the love of all names. May the love of all names.

How great is Algo. May the love of all names. of all names, worthy of all grace. My heart will sing how great is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me how great is our God. All will see how great, how great is our God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For more information, visit www.fema.org. For more information, visit www.fema.org. For more information, visit www.fema.org. www.fema.org. www.fema.org. www.fema.org. For more information, visit www.fema.org. For more information, visit www.fema.org. For more information, visit www.fema.org.

As we prepare to come together around the table, nourished and refreshed in the good news of the Gospel, we're going to sing in just a moment, "I Set My Hope." And as we sing through this, this was a song very intentionally written to direct us to hope. You'll notice the verses each contain an obstacle to hope that we're asking God to help us overcome from the trials and difficulties and sorrows to our war with sin in verse 2 and the temptation and distractions of the world that surrounds us. We want to sing about our hope. We want to see in Scripture how God restores and brings hope, and then we will celebrate together in the Lord's Supper that this hope is not just some sort of ethereal idea for us, but it is real and it is solid. So let's sing "I Set My Hope."

When this life of trials test my faith, I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus. For the deepest wounds the time won't heal. There's a joy that runs still deeper. There's a truth that's more than all I feel. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. Who set his heart upon me first? I set my hope on Jesus. Though I falter in this war with sin, I set my hope on Jesus. When I feel the fight and sink within, I set my hope on Jesus. Though the shame would drown me in its sea, and I drain the wave of justice, I will cast my life on Calvary. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My God, my only trust. You set His heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus.

I set my hope on Jesus. Though the world call me to leave my Lord, I set my hope on Jesus. Though it offer all its vain rewards, I set my hope on Jesus. Though this heart of mine is prone to strain, give me grace enough to finish. Till I worship on that final day, I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My life, my only trust. You set His heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My life, my only trust. You set His heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus.

Frequently, when we use the word hope, we could probably just exchange it with the word wish. I hope it will be cooler tomorrow, and I wish it would be cooler tomorrow. For many of us, hope and wish are synonymous. Biblical hope, however, is different because it is not secured by chance or good fortune or things lining up as we hope they will. It is secured by the Almighty God who has created all things, who watches over all things, and upholds all things. And so when we think of hope in a biblical sense, we aren't simply thinking of maybe or might be, but we are thinking of promises that have been assured by God's greatness and made in His goodness. And so as we come to remember hope, to be nourished by hope, and strengthened by hope for the future, I want to read from 1 Peter 2.

It says this of Jesus, that He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten. But He continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. And speaking about Jesus, it says this, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For we were straying like sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and the overseer of our souls." And as we partake of this bread and this cup in just a moment, we turn our eyes to Jesus, who bears our sins, who bore our sins in His body on the cross, that no longer will we be slaves to sin, but through His grace and through His sacrifice, we might live righteously.

So as we partake, let's turn our eyes toward this hope. Father in heaven, we thank you that your promises are secure, that salvation for those who follow you is assured, that there is strength beyond what we can do. There is truth that goes to the deepest parts of our souls. It's bigger than all of those things that we feel and that we seek to chase. So draw us this morning to the truth of the sacrifice of Jesus, to the good news of the gospel that sin's price has been paid, that death has been defeated, and for God's people, there is victory and there is hope. So be with us as we partake of this bread and cup. May you nourish us and refresh us. May you strengthen our faith. May you give courage in our weakness. May you bring repentance from our sins.

I just thank you for Jesus. I ask that you bless this bread and this cup. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, take the bread with me as Jesus shared with His disciples, and let's eat together in remembrance of Him. And in the same way, let's take the cup together as Jesus shared with His disciples, that cup picturing redemption, and let's remember Jesus. And we want to, as we partake of this meal, and as in all things, whether we sing or reading Scripture, whether we're praying together, we want to declare God's goodness and direct glory to Him. We are going to be in 2 Samuel. We're spending the summer with Samuel. We are not going through the entire book. I don't think I have... ...know that we even have enough time to undertake that task. We're just going through the first seven chapters. It's going to take us through to the end of the summer.

We have walked through the beginning, seen this humble family that has been filled with hurt and brokenness and how God moves into the middle of that. We looked last week at Hannah's song of joy, which so beautifully is once again reflected in Mary's song of joy. In just a moment, I'm going to read from 2 Samuel 2, beginning in verse 11 down through verse 16. If you'd like to follow along in your Bible, you can do. There's a handout with some notes as well. There are also Bibles in some of the seats there. You're welcome to grab one of those and follow along as we read. If you don't have one and would like a Bible, just take that with you when we go. Before we do that, though, I want to talk a little bit about this text because as we come into it,

we've just come from this remarkable prayer of joy, the power of worship, seeing the greatness of God. And this text this morning takes a real hard right turn into some really dark places. And one of the things as we hear this read, the question at least that is raised in my mind is, how does this help me living, you know, 2,350 or 80 years later? You know, how does this help me several thousand years later in my walk with God? So just would share with you what Paul says about the Old Testament in Romans. He says, "For whatever was written in our former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." And so as I read this lengthy section, a part of this is written to teach us.

It's written to help keep us going. It's written to help bring us to hope. Additionally, in 1 Corinthians, Paul says, "Now these things," speaking of the Israelites in the wilderness, but also I think of the Old Testament and the testimony of God's people, "These things took place as an example for us that we might not desire evil as they did." And you'll see in a minute as we read through that that is exceptionally true of our text this morning about not desiring evil. Probably the most familiar verse about the Old Testament in the New Testament is in 2 Timothy 3. All Scripture is breathed out by God, and what that is saying is that what we believe about the Bible is that it's given to us by God that the things we read in here are intentional, and it brings about good in our life.

It is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. So I'm going to read our text this morning, and then we will dive into it. I'm going to pick it up in verse 11, a little bit of where we left off last week. It says, "Then Elkanah," that's Samuel's dad, "went home to Ramah, and the boy was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest. Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the priest with the people was that when a man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come, and while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand, he would thrust it into the pan or the kettle

or the cauldron or the pot, and all that fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man that was sacrificing, "Give meat for the priest to roast. He will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw. 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 to me by now, and if not, I will take it by force." Thus the sin of the young man was great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with a linen ephod,

and his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year. And when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice, then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, "May the Lord give you children by this woman." For the petition she asked of the Lord, and they would return home. Indeed, the Lord visited Hannah and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters, and the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord. Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And he said to them, "Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people.

Know, my sons, it is no good the report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. For if someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him. If someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?" But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death. Now Samuel continued to grow in both stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man. This is the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, help us this morning as we move through this text. Help us to see your righteousness. And as we are confronted by your justice, may we see that even in those dark, difficult places in life, that you are working, that you bring light into our darkness,

you bring hope into our oppression, and that even in the midst of our sin and rebellion against you, you call us to yourself. So help us to see Jesus this morning. It's in His name we pray. Amen. So this was about 15 years ago. It was me and several of the guys at church, and we were helping some folks move. And it was about this time of year, which if you're considering moving, this is a terrible time. Everything is hot. Everything is warm. Everything is sweaty. And this was one of probably the worst moves that I've ever helped somebody move. If you've seen the TV show Hoarders, you probably get a glimpse of what we were going through. And it was either June or July, an incredibly hot summer day in the midst of all of this.

It was one of the worst singular experiences, and I've helped a lot of people move, of my life moving. And one of the things, we finally made it to the kitchen. It was late in the day. Everybody was tired. I was ready to take my clothes home and burn them. And we get to the kitchen, and I open up the refrigerator and said, "All right, somebody bring me a trash bag so I can clean out the refrigerator." And we're not talking about, like, typical, you're getting ready to move, and so you've got, like, an empty ketchup bottle and some mustard in the fridge. This was like all of the groceries, right? There's, like, vegetables, there's eggs, there's milk, there's meat. And they look at me, and they say, "You know what? We'll just throw a ratchet strap around that

and just put it in the truck, and we'll clean it out when we get to where we're going." And I was like, "In Tennessee? And you're planning to put all of this in storage?" And I was like, you know, at this point, it's like, "All right, whatever we're going to do." So that's what we did. We ratchet strapped that fridge closed with all the food, put it into the back of a moving truck to end up in a storage unit somewhere much further south than where we lived. And if you look at our text this morning, that just about sums it up. All right, we've been seeing how God works in this little family, and now the view is going to expand out to the religious life and eventually the national life of Israel. And it's almost like what I imagine happened when they get to that storage unit,

they pop that ratchet strap off, and you open the fridge, and I can't even begin to imagine how awful that was. If it had been me, we'd just take it straight to the dump. And as you open this text this morning, it's even wrapped up like a fridge. Look at how this first section begins. It begins like this, "Now the sons of Eli were worthless men, and they did not know the Lord." And the second part where we close the door on the mess that is happening in Shiloh by the house of God in Israel is this, "Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt." And if you want to picture sort of a container just full of absolute rottenness, it's this text in the book of Samuel.

And we come to Shiloh, and there is something that is just rotten at the core surrounding the tabernacle of God. And as we read through this just a few minutes ago, you might look at the behavior of Eli's son with the offering and with the meat, and you might just think, why is this such a big deal? Right? So priests in that day took their living, part of their living, from the offerings that were brought before the Lord. And in Numbers and in Leviticus, God lays out a process for that. That you bring the offering before the Lord, that you burn the fat of the offering as a savory aroma before God, and then the priests were allowed and allotted certain portions that they used to feed themselves and to feed their families. And what you find in verses 13 and 14 is that the custom of the priests receiving the meat from the sacrifices has already departed from what God has laid out for his people in the book of Leviticus.

And so whatever kind of container that it was, a pot or a pan or a cauldron, right? Scripture gives us four options. The priests would come along with a three-pronged fork. Interestingly enough, they've found forks of similar design in this area in archaeological finds, and it's sort of like a steak claw machine, right? You come along with your fork, and you try to hit the piece of steak that you want, and you pull it out, and the priest goes, "Whatever the fork brings up, that's mine." And so they've already departed from what God has called them to do, and you may still be saying, "Why does this matter? Why is this a big deal? Why, in 2024, does it matter that these priests are doing a steak claw machine in the worship of God?" What we find is that's just the beginning of the deviation from God's plan, right?

From there, they stopped trying to stab the food with the fork. Now they don't want it cooked. They want to pick the best cuts, and they don't care what God has to say about it, right? It's almost a shakedown. In verse 15, it said, "The servants of the priests." So these priests are like the boss. They have servants that are like thugs, and you show up with your offering. Before you've even brought it to God, they're saying, "We want this bit, this bit, and that bit." And when the worshiper said, "That's not what God has said," they said, "Give it to us, or there will be violence." And so they have moved from trying to sort of cheat the system to now just stealing from the people. And the problem here is far deeper than simply how the priests are getting their groceries.

God has given clear instructions about this meat and how it should be divided. And what you find is their actions here, it's more than a mistake or an accident, right? This is intentional disobedience. I remember one time our dog Rigby, she had stolen something she wasn't supposed to have, and she knew she wasn't supposed to have it, and she runs off with it, and I go, "Rigby, spit that out." And she just looks me dead in the eyes and just starts chewing, right? It wasn't even, there was no apology, there was no shame, it was just like, looks me straight in the eyes and goes, "Oh, this is delicious." These guys and their disobedience, they aren't just, it's not just about groceries. God has called them to serve His people, and here they are, and they're just staring God in the eyes going, "What are you going to do about it?"

This is not just about the meat. There's a difference between doing something wrong and doing something wrong intentionally. Don't get so stuck on the meat that we don't see what runs deeper. They have abandoned their priestly purpose. In Hebrews, we read this about the priest. Every high priest is chosen among men and is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. And he can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward since he himself is beset with weaknesses. And now here's what's happening. They aren't standing between the people and God. They're not offering sacrifices for sins. They aren't dealing gently with the ignorant and the wayward. They are literally abusing God's people. And once again, not accidental. Not, "Oh, we got busy and we didn't know. I'm sorry. It was a communication mix-up."

This is absolute rebellion against God, not just in how they offer sacrifices, but how they treat his people. And they are actively sinning against God's people. If someone objected to the custom, of the priests, they would threaten, "I will take it by force." And if you go a little further down, if you sort of step outside, some of the smell from this fridge has emanated down in verse 22. It says, "The sons of Eli," right, they're not just stealing, but they're laying with the women who served in the temple. These ministering women. And number six in Exodus 38 talk about how women would come, how women would come in numbers and fulfill their Nazarite vow. And in Exodus, it talks about how the mirrors were given by these women who served in the temple. And here are men in a high place of religious authority, and there are women who are serving at the gates.

And I don't think this is necessarily a romantic kind of union. I think this is very much feeding an appetite by taking what they deserve. This is a dark section of Israel's history. And what's interesting is that in the midst of this darkness, we begin to get a glimpse of God's justice. And when we talk about justice, what we're talking about is that things are made right, or that things are as they should be. And we can identify oftentimes when injustice is committed against us. Years and years ago, Rachel had a friend and became my friend, and she had gotten a ticket in a town she didn't live in, a town she hadn't traveled to. In fact, she was at work, and it was one of those tickets from a camera, right? Really hard to fight that kind of ticket.

And I don't know if I was just having a bad day or a lot of stuff going on at home or in the office, but I got real mad about this. I said, "Let me write the letter." And so I wrote this very angry letter outlining in very clear terms all the evidence that was laid out, and I sent it off, and I felt a great, great feeling of relief because I was going to bring about justice. And it turns out it actually worked because when they sent the image of the license plate, their reader, it wasn't even close to the license plate on the car that she had. And I'm feeling vindicated, and even now I can feel myself getting angry. You take a picture of the license plate, it's the wrong license plate, send a ticket to somebody with all of these threats and money, and I just get mad about it.

Still fired up about it. It's kind of one of those moments where, "Sir, this is a Wendy's." And so what we have here is injustice. And it's very easy oftentimes for us to view injustice when it happens to us or somebody close to us. But when it comes to God's justice, this is a topic we can struggle with. God's very character is righteousness. And justice is the application of that righteousness. That God will make things right. That wrongs will be punished. And this means that when we say that God is just, it's not just that He enacts justice, but that He is justice. He is the standard by which all things are measured by. And it can be so easy for us to talk about this in an intellectual way. But when we see real justice applied, it gets uncomfortable very quickly.

In fact, let's take a look at 1 Samuel 2:25. If someone, this is Eli speaking. If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? And here's where we get a glimpse of God's justice. But they, the sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas, they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death. And that gets dark very, very quickly. And we read verses like this, verses that display God's justice clearly. It makes us uncomfortable. And so I want to take just a moment and deal with two objections that oftentimes we feel or think in regard to the justice of God. In general, there's two big ones. First of all, is this really justice?

To hear about what is happening there at Shiloh, and hear this, that it was the will of the Lord to put them to death as a result of what had happened. But also, right, the objection that some will make to texts like this, and to God in general, is how can a loving God do something like this? And the implication is that God's justice and His love are somehow incompatible. So I want to take just a minute and try to answer both of those objections. First of all, is this truly justice? And maybe a better way of saying it is, does the punishment truly fit the crime? And this objection, the idea of saying, is God just in saying this? It was the will of the Lord to put them to death. Does that fit the crime they have brought out?

And this objection for us stems from our own desires to try to minimize the severity of their rebellion, right? It's easy to say, well, it's not so bad, right? All they did was take some meat. All they do is have some ladies over after church, and now God wants to kill them, right? It can be very easy for us to try to frame their behavior in such a way that we limit the severity of what they are really doing. So first of all, I would say it's not simply stealing. It's not simply a romantic entanglement. They are taking what they want by force to feed their appetites of hunger and sex. God has been very clear in His instructions. And these guys, when it comes especially to the offerings, they are not ignorant of God's commands, nor are they ignorant with how God has dealt with this in the past.

They have been repeatedly warned by God's law, by His people. The people that are oppressing in verse 16 are like, "Yeah, take whatever you want, but let us follow the law of God first by their Father." So they know by instruction. They know through warning. They are well aware of what is happening. And in their rebellion, they've refused to listen. They've refused to understand. And I don't know if you've ever met anybody that's refused to listen or to understand, but it is infuriating. A few weeks ago, a guy showed up at our house, and it always happens at the worst time. Rachel wasn't here, so I had the kids inside. He shows up, and it was late enough that you know it's never going to be anything easy enough to deal with. And he was looking for some help, and when possible, like, we want to help people.

But this was a guy who, from even his own words, didn't really need help. He just wanted something from the church. In fact, when I talked to him about a hotel, he said, "Holiday Inn Express or better. I will accept nothing else." And I was like, "Well, it's good that the seats in your car fold back." And so we went through this, back and forth, and finally I gave him directions to a place. And the directions, he goes, "All right, so I just go down this road straight." And I said, "Absolutely not." Right? I told you where to go. And he goes, "Yeah, so I just keep on straight on this road." I said, "No, go to the address that I gave you." And he goes, "I'm really good at maps, just so I stay straight on this road."

And we went on like this for five minutes where I was trying to give him instructions, and he was intentionally ignoring where I told him to go. Finally I said, "Dude, I just told you where to go. I gave you the address. You said you're good at maps." He's like, "I know, but I just stay straight on this road." And at that point I was like, "You're on your own, man. I'm going to check on the kids." Right? It was like, you just couldn't listen or wouldn't listen to anything that anybody would say. That's what's happening here with Eli's sons. God has said. God has warned. God has watched over them.