The Era of the Judges and the Kingdom of God (8) The Life of God’s Kingdom People: Knowing God

“Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the LORD. This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’s sight, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt" (1 Sam. 2:12, 17)
 
Review
We’ve been talking about what it means to live as God’s kingdom people through the period of the Judges. There are two books that correspond to this period: the Book of Judges and the Book of Ruth.
The tone of Judges is quite grim. A summary of the entire book is found in its final verse: "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit." (Judg. 21:25)
The era of the judges can be described in one phrase as “a time when God’s kingship was rejected.” The people depicted in Judges—ranging from ordinary Israelites to Levites, priests, judges, and even entire tribes—each lived according to their own thoughts rather than submitting to God’s rule.
This rejection of God’s kingship was expressed in both ignorance and disobedience to His Word, and the result was always chaos and tragedy. The author of Judges openly reveals what happens when God is not acknowledged as King. By revealing the outcomes of such a life, the book of Judges invites its readers to learn from these examples, to avoid following their ways, and instead to live under God’s sovereign rule.
In contrast, the Book of Ruth has a very different character from Judges. While Judges focuses on the negative consequences of a life that does not acknowledge God as King, Ruth highlights the beauty and blessings of a life that does.
We see this life exemplified in the person of Boaz. He was a man who knew God’s Word in depth and sought to live fully in obedience to it. When Ruth came to glean in his fields, he didn’t drive her away; instead, he welcomed her warmly and made sure she could gather even more grain. In doing so, he was faithfully following the laws regarding harvest found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, laws that commanded care for neighbors, especially the poor and the marginalized.
One night, when Ruth quietly approached and lay down near him, Boaz was attracted to her but didn’t sleep with her. In this, he obeyed God’s command not to commit adultery.
Boaz was also faithful in his role as a guardian-redeemer. Although he knew that, as a relative of Ruth’s deceased father-in-law Elimelek, he was entitled to redeem Ruth, he didn’t act hastily. He first called together ten elders at the city gate and approached the relative who had a closer claim to see if he wished to marry Ruth. Only when that man formally declined by removing his sandal did Boaz take Ruth as his wife.
This demonstrates that Boaz fully understood and faithfully followed the regulations concerning the guardian-redeemer and the levirate marriage law.
In this way, Boaz devoted himself to knowing God’s Word and strove to obey it in every area of his life. His life was marked by a beautiful order under God’s will, and he lived within the blessings that God provided.
Moreover, Boaz married Ruth and had a son named Obed, who would become the grandfather of David, Israel’s greatest king. Ultimately, Jesus Christ would come into the world through this lineage. This was the blessing God bestowed upon Boaz, a man who lived with God as his King.
This is the life we are called to live as God’s kingdom people. In truth, it is not complicated. It is actually very simple: to keep God’s Word close to us each day and to obey it as it is written. But, of course Of course, this is not as easy as it sounds. It requires daily decisions and ongoing commitment.
Yet what we must remember is that this is truly a blessed life. When we live according to our own understanding rather than God’s Word, our lives will gradually drift further from His will, and chaos and confusion will follow. But when we confess God as our King and live each day guided by His Word, our lives will fall into divine order. Our lives will shine more brightly, reflecting the beauty and goodness shaped by God’s will, and glorifying Him in all we do.
 
1 Samuel
All right. We are now approaching the final stage of the period of the Judges. We will be exploring the final part of the period of the Judges over today and next week.
As I mentioned earlier, the books that correspond to this era are Judges and Ruth. However, there is another book that also speaks to this time period: the Book of 1 Samuel. The Bible we have today is divided into 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, but in the original Hebrew Scriptures, it was a single book without such a division.
While the figure of Samuel plays an important role in the first book, they are not primarily books about Samuel. 1 Samuel focuses mainly on the story of Saul, Israel’s first king, while 2 Samuel primarily tells the story of David, who became king after Saul’s death. We will begin to explore these narratives in more detail later.
Our focus today covers the period immediately before Saul became Israel’s king. This section spans 1 Samuel chapters 1 through 7, a time when Israel had no king and therefore is still considered part of the period of the Judges.
In these chapters, there are two key figures: Eli and Samuel. When Eli served as priest, the tabernacle was located at Shiloh. According to Joshua 18:1, after the conquest of Canaan and the division of the land, Joshua set up the tabernacle at Shiloh. So, the people of Israel would come there each year to offer sacrifices during the appointed festivals.
Shiloh was, at that time, the most important place in Israel for offering sacrifices and worship, chosen by God as the place for His name to dwell. It was there that Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, carried out their duties as priests.
 
Hophni and Phinehas
At that time, because Israel had no king, the priests held significant power. With this authority came responsibility and holiness. The priests served as mediators between God and His people. They helped the Israelites approach God in prayer, worship, and sacrifice, and they were responsible for teaching God’s Word to the people.
However, Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, used the priesthood God had given them to satisfy their own desires. The text in 1 Samuel 2:12–17 shows their behavior:
"Now Eli’s sons were scoundrels [ ˈskaʊndrəl ]; they had no regard for the Lord. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was being boiled with a three-pronged fork in his hand. He would thrust it into the pot, the kettle, or the caldron, and whatever the 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 servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, 'Give the priest some meat to roast; he will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw.' If the man said to him, 'Let the fat be burned first, then take whatever you want,' the servant would answer, 'No, hand it over now, or 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." (1 Sam. 2:12–17)
Here we see how Hophni and Phinehas disregarded the sacrifices offered to God. They first desecrated the offerings. Although God had designated certain portions for the priests, they seized even what was meant for God. They used the authority God had given them not to glorify Him, but to satisfy their own appetites.
Many people recognized this was wrong but felt powerless to oppose them. Some, however, did attempt to correct them, insisting that the fat must be burned first before taking their portion. For the priests to be corrected by ordinary people was a shameful situation, yet Hophni and Phinehas did not feel ashamed. Instead, they threatened those who confronted them, saying “Give it to me now, or I’ll take it by force.”
In doing this, they showed contempt for God’s sacrifices—which was, in effect, contempt for God Himself.
But their sins did not stop there. Even more shocking, they committed sexual immorality with the women who served at the entrance to the tabernacle. They used the privileges and authority given to them as priests to exploit God-fearing women. And yet, in the midst of these grave sins, they showed no fear of God. Their consciences were completely hardened.
 
To Know God
Their spiritual condition is summarized succinctly in 1 Samuel 2:12:
"Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord." (1 Sam. 2:12)
Here, the phrase “had no regard” in Hebrew comes from the word yada (יַדְעוּ), which literally means “to know.” So we see why Hophni and Phinehas, despite being priests, committed such grievous sins. That’s because they didn’t truly know God.
This doesn’t mean that they had no knowledge of God at all. As priests, they would have received instruction in the Law and religious education. They would have been taught about God’s commands and His ways. But what they lacked was a genuine experiential knowledge of God. They never sought to truly know Him, nor did they live under His kingship.
As a result, they lived according to their own desires, satisfying their selfish cravings regardless of God’s calling or purpose for them. God’s name and the sacred duties entrusted to them became little more than tools for fulfilling their own ambitions.
There are times when we too can fall into similar patterns. No matter how diligently we read the Bible each day, attend church every week, or participate in religious activities, if we don’t earnestly seek to truly know God and cultivate a personal, relational experience with Him, we can’t live according to His will. Everything we do in God’s name risks becoming mere religious activity.
What should deeply concern us is that it is possible to call upon God’s name while living a life completely contrary to His will. This happens when our knowledge of God remains only in our heads, never experienced in our daily lives. This is a grave danger we must guard against.
We must remember that religious activity alone doesn’t save us. Attending church once a week is not synonymous with having genuine faith in God. True faith should be revealed through a personal, relational, and experiential relationship with the living God. It is proven by living a life that truly acknowledges Him as King.
To do this, we must diligently strive to “know” God—not just as knowledge stored in our minds, but as a God we encounter and experience in every moment of our lives. Otherwise, like Hophni and Phinehas, we may one day discover that we have crumbled in our spiritual walk. Before that happens, we must repent and return to the Lord without delay.
What God desires for us is that we grow in a true knowledge of Him. The Apostle Paul prayed this for the believers in the church at Colossae:
"We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God." (Col. 1:9–10)
Paul prayed that they would be filled with wisdom and understanding from the Spirit, and the result would be that they would live a life worthy of the Lord, please Him in every way, bear fruit in every good work, and grow in the knowledge of God. The word translated as "knowledge" here in Greek is epignosis, which comes from the word gnosis, meaning general knowledge, with the prefix epi, indicating a deeper, fuller understanding.
In other words, Paul desired for the Colossians a life that grows from a deep, experiential knowledge of God—not merely knowledge in the mind, but a personal and relational knowing of Him. This is similar to the meaning of the Hebrew word yada, which we saw earlier. The true knowledge of God is essential for a Christian life because it enables us to grow into the fullness of Jesus Christ.
 
Let’s read Ephesians 4:13–15 together.
"[Let us] all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So that we may no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." (Eph. 4:13–15)
This passage is also the verse we use as the motto for our Sunday School. Here, Paul presents two paths for us to reach the fullness of Christ. The first, found in verse 13, is to become united in “faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.” The second, in verse 15, is to “speak the truth in love.” The first emphasizes the importance of community in knowing God, while the second points to the commitment required to grow into Christlikeness in every aspect of our lives.
To truly know someone and enter into an intimate relationship with them, commitment is necessary. We can’t claim to know someone without spending time with them, conversing with them, and sharing life together. The same is true for our relationship with God. To truly know Him, we must spend time with Him. In the love God has for us and through our love for Him, we must set aside time each day to be close to Him in His Word and in prayer. That time and that commitment draw us closer to Him, allow us to experience Him more fully, and help us grow into His likeness in every area of life.
Yet, as mentioned before, maintaining this commitment is not easy. That is why God calls us not as individuals, but as a community. In Christ, the Head, we are called to be one body, one family, one building, one temple, centered on Him as the cornerstone. In this community, we encourage, challenge, and exhort one another, growing together in Christ.
I believe this is God’s will for our Cherry Hill Young Adult community. As we unite in faith and in the knowledge of God, and as we pursue what is true in love together, we will experience God, know Him more deeply, and grow in every way into Christ, the Head.
As we strive to know God and grow in Him, we will no longer be shaken by deceit, temptation, or our own desires. Children are easily deceived because they don’t know what is true. They are also easily led into temptation because they lack the strength for self-control. These are the characteristics of immature children. As Christians, we must move beyond such immature faith and grow in the true knowledge of God.
I pray that we all may live this kind of life—not a faith that remains merely a set of religious activities, not a faith measured by merely attending church once a week, and not a faith in which knowledge of God stays only in our heads. Rather, I pray that we may truly know God, spending each day in His Word and in prayer, seeking to know Him, experiencing Him, and growing in a relationship with Him. This is the life we are called to live as citizens of God’s kingdom.
Now, Let’s read Hosea 6:3 together and take a moment to pray.
"Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." (Hos. 6:3) Amen.
 
As we remember the Word God has given us today, let us pray together. Today, we reflected on the lives of Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli the priest, to understand what it means to live as God’s people. They were priests set apart by God. Yet, even as they called on God’s name in His sanctuary, they used the authority given to them not for God’s will and glory but to satisfy their own desires.
The Bible tells us that the root of all their immorality was that they didn’t truly know the LORD. They had knowledge of God, but they failed to connect that knowledge to their lives. Their understanding remained in their heads. They didn’t seek to know God personally and, consequently, didn’t live acknowledging Him as King.
At this moment, let us reflect: Is our own life and faith in any way like theirs? Ask yourself these questions: “Do I truly know God?” “Do I sincerely desire and long to know Him?”
Knowing God is essential for living as His people. This doesn’t simply mean possessing knowledge about Him. The deep knowledge God desires for us is the knowledge gained through personally meeting and experiencing Him in our daily lives. It is this knowledge that allows us to grow spiritually and become more like Him.
So, if your faith has been reduced to mere religious activity—if attending church once a week is all that marks your devotion, and the rest of your life is lived apart from fellowship with Him—then now is the time to return to the Lord. As the prophet Hosea called, let us turn back to a life of “pressing on to know the LORD.”
So, let us lift this prayer. “Lord, I desire to know You more. I long to know and love You more deeply than anything or anyone else. Grant us a spiritual thirst and longing to seek You, so that we may pursue You with all our hearts. Open the eyes of our hearts, guide us with the wisdom and understanding of Your Spirit, and draw us closer to You each day. Help us to live in a way that pleases You and to grow to be more like You in every aspect of our lives.”
Let us pray this prayer together.
 
[Prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of Your Word, and for the lessons You have taught us today. Lord, we confess how easily we can fall into living by our own desires rather than seeking to know You and follow Your will.
We ask that You would continue to speak to us through Your Word and Your Spirit. Open our hearts to receive Your truth fully, guide our minds with Your wisdom, and strengthen our faith to live lives that honor You in every way. May we not remain in mere knowledge of You but grow in a deep, personal, and experiential knowledge of Your presence in our daily lives.
Lord, as we go from this place, walk with us, teach us, and shape us according to Your will. Let our lives bear fruit that reflects Your glory, love, and righteousness. May we live as true citizens of Your kingdom, shining brightly with the character of Christ, and may all that we say, do, and think bring glory to Your name alone.
We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1.   In light of today’s message, how do you currently know God? Is your knowledge of Him only intellectual, or do you know Him experientially in a deeper sense?
 
2. Are you growing in your knowledge of God, or has your spiritual growth stalled? What habits or commitments will you begin to truly experience God, know Him deeply, and grow toward the fullness of Christ?