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March 24 - Morning
"Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord. Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.
But even before the fat was burned,
the priest’s servant would come and say
to the person who was sacrificing,
'Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.'
If the person said to him,
'Let the fat be burned first,
and then take whatever you want,'
the servant would answer,
'No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.'
This sin of the young men was very great
in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt."
- First Samuel 2:12-17 |
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| When the Priests Do Not Know the Lord |
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Various portions of a sacrifice at the tabernacle were to be set aside for total dedication by fire to the Lord. According to Leviticus 3:16 the priest were to burn the fat on the altar as a pleasing aroma to the Lord (Lev. 3:5). Fat and blood were forbidden for eating (Lev. 3:17; 7:33; Ezekiel 39:19; 44:7, 15). The priests, Hophni and Phinehas, used the three pronged fork, designed to adjust the offerings while they were burning on the altar, and to select their portion of the meat. They would plunge the three pronged fork into the meat to get what they wanted for themselves before portions could be dedicated to the Lord and before the fat had been burned off on the altar as an aroma before the Lord.
The phrase “had no regard for” the Lord is lo yade u in Hebrew, which literally says “they did not know.” These two priests, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of the High Priest Eli, did not know the Lord. This means that, not only did these men fail to know the Lord and did not have a relationship with him, but they were incapable of honoring the Lord and could not regard his word and his truth as worthy of being believed and obeyed. The only way Hophni and Phinehas could respond to the Lord is to disregard his Law, and create their own version of regulations which were, no doubt, influenced by the Philistines.
The priests where were the experts in the Law. They were to lead the people in worship of the Lord and in living honorable lives before him. But, instead, Hophni and Phinehas behaved in such unlawful, unholy and unbiblical ways that even the common Israelites living during the corrupt period of the Judges were shocked by their behavior. |
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“Remember that the past fifty years has been the age of the Big Bang cosmology. We have learnt to see all reality as a slow-motion explosion, as pouring itself out and passing away, as dissemination. We live in a postmodern epoch in which there is nothing absolute, nothing permanent and nothing substantial.”
- Don Cupitt,
Theology's Strange Return |
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Reasons God Worked Salvation For Us
1. Demonstration of his Character of Love – Jn.3:16; Rm.5:8
2. Eternal display of his grace – Ep.2:7
3. Create people able to do acceptable good works – Ep.1:10 |
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| Reps & Sets is a daily Bible devotional for Christians from Generation Word Bible Teaching used each morning and evening. |
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