BIG IDEA: What a dishonorable dad looks like.

I. WHAT A DISHONORABLE DAD LOOKS LIKE (1 Samuel 2:22-29).

I) Eli gently rebuked his sons, and only when word spread abroad of their wickedness (1 Samuel 2:22-25a). “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. No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading abroad. If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?”

(i) A Dishonorable Dad holds off correcting his children until their wickedness has become great.

(ii) A Dishonorable Dad only gently rebukes his children, even when their case warrants severe discipline. Proverbs 23:13: “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.”

II) Eli’s rebuke was too little and too late, because the Lord had already decided to put his sons to death (1 Samuel 2:25b). “But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.”

(i) Dishonorable dads often find themselves with damned sons and daughters, because God’s ordinary means of grace normally travels from parents to their children. Psalm 78:5-7: “he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments…”

(ii) If you hold off correcting your children until their sin becomes great, your correction may be too little too late. Proverbs 22:15: “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.”

By the way, the godly child Samuel is again contrasted with the worthless sons of Eli (1 Samuel 2:26). “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.”

III) The LORD rebuked Eli like Eli should have done to his sons (1 Samuel 2:27-28). “And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.”

(i) Dishonorable dads will eventually find themselves rebuked by the Lord for their leniency and lack of instruction given to their children. Maybe in this life, maybe in the next.

IV) The LORD held Eli responsible for the sins of his sons, because he did not reprove and remove them from their office (1 Samuel 2:29). “Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ In addition, verse 30 implies Eli dishonored and despised the LORD in favor of leniency toward his sons.

(i) Dishonorable dads honor their children above the Lord God.

(ii) Dishonorable dads are held responsible for the sins that grow in their children when they are due to their lack of discipline, training, and instruction.

II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF ELI’S DISHONORABLE PATRIARCHY (1 Samuel 2:30-36).

I) The LORD promised to cut off the strength of Eli’s family (1 Samuel 2:30-33). “Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men.”

II) The LORD promised Eli his sons would be executed on the same day (1 Samuel 2:34). “And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day.”

III) The LORD promised Eli He will raise up a High Priest to replace him and his family (1 Samuel 2:35-36). “And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, “Please put me in one of the priests' places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”

TWO CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

I) See how seriously the LORD takes the treatment of his sacrifice (1 Samuel 2:29; Hebrews 10:28-31). Hebrews 10:28-31: “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

II) See how seriously the LORD takes those offices that are to reflect His gospel (Father; High Priest).

(i) The LORD takes serious how father discipline and instruct their children, because they are meant to reflect God the Father in their parenting. The good news is, in Christ, we have a better Father than Eli; one who is not afraid to rebuke and discipline us for our good. Hebrews 12:7-8, 11: “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. . . . [God the Father] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

(ii) The LORD takes seriously how the High Priest and his subservient priests serve in the Temple, because they are meant to reflect God the Son in their service. The good news is, in Christ, we have a better Priest than Eli; one who will not kick at the Lord’s sacrifice but became the Lord’s sacrifice to rescue us from our sin and misery. Hebrews 9:24-26: “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”