The Era of the Judges and the Kingdom of God (9) The Life of God’s Kingdom People: Loving and Honoring God

The Bible passage God is giving us today is from 1 Samuel 2 verses 27-34. Let’s read it in turn and the last verse together. 
(2:27) Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Did I not clearly reveal myself to your ancestor’s family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?
(2:28) I chose your ancestor out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your ancestor’s family all the food offerings presented by the Israelites.
(2:29) Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?
(2:30) Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that members of your family would minister before me forever.’ But now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.
(2:31) The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your priestly house, so that no one in it will reach old age,
(2:32) and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will ever reach old age.
(2:33) Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
(2:34) And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you—they will both die on the same day.
 
Review
We’ve been talking about the kingdom of God through the period of the Judges. Since last week, we’ve begun to explore, what it means to live as the people of God’s kingdom through the Book of 1 Samuel.
Chapters 1 through 7 of 1 Samuel describe the situation just before Saul was anointed as the first king of Israel. The main figures in this section are Eli and his two sons, with Samuel appearing as a contrasting figure.
Last time, we talked about Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. God had chosen them as priests and set them apart as holy. At that time, Israel had no king, so the priests carried significant power and authority. God gave them this power and authority so that they could reveal His will to His people and help the people offer true worship to Him.
However, Hophni and Phinehas didn’t use the priestly office, nor the authority and power given to them, for God’s purposes. Instead, they used it to satisfy their own desires. When people came to offer sacrifices, they seized portions of the meat inappropriately  to fill their own stomachs. They even threatened those who objected. In doing so, they despised the sacrifices, the worship, and ultimately, the God to whom all things belonged. Furthermore, they had sexual relations with the women serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
Thus, they failed to fulfill their role as priests and boldly did what priests shouldn’t do in the very tabernacle that God had chosen to set His name.
So, what led them to such a place, where they had no fear of God and openly despised Him? We find the answer 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 regard” in Hebrew comes from the word yada, which means “to know.” This word implies a depth of intimacy far beyond simply knowing about God with the mind. The knowledge that yada describes extends to the closeness found even between a husband and wife. It’s not merely knowing facts about someone externally, but having a personal and intimate relationship with that person.
This is what Hophni and Phinehas lacked. As priests, they likely studied knowledge about God, but that knowledge remained in their heads and in the realm of theory. They didn’t know God experientially.
As a result, they reduced the worship directed toward the living God to nothing more than a religious ritual. They treated the sacrifices for God as mere food for themselves. They treated the women serving at the tabernacle as instruments for satisfying their own desires. This was because they didn’t know God. Had they truly known God personally and experientially, they wouldn’t have treated Him in such a contemptuous manner.
This is what can happen in our own lives when we neglect knowing God. No matter how faithfully we come to church every Sunday to worship and hear God’s Word, if we don’t personally experience God through that Word, if our knowledge stays only in our heads and doesn’t touch our hearts, we can unknowingly end up despising God like Hophni and Phinehas.
Weekly worship can become just another task to get through rather than a time of encounter and fellowship with the living God. Daily fellowship with God through His Word and prayer can feel burdensome instead of eagerly anticipated, and it may even start to feel like holy chores. Worship breaks down, our love for God grows cold, and the purpose and mission God has given us can be forgotten.
That’s why we must strive above all else to know God. Not just intellectually, but personally and experientially. We need to draw near to Him every day, seeking to encounter Him. Just as Paul prayed for the believers in the Colossian church, we should ask to grow in the deep knowledge of God, filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding. God delights in revealing Himself to those who earnestly seek Him this way. Those who seek God daily will meet Him, truly come to know who He is, and that knowledge will transform their lives completely.
God says in Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.” (Prov. 8:17)
God has done everything possible to come to us and to make His grace known to us. He’s revealed His will to us through His Word, forgiven our sins and made us His children through Jesus Christ, and guided us into truth through the Holy Spirit, giving us the wisdom and power to live according to His will. There’s nothing lacking in what God has done for us. So what remains is our response.
God desires that we come to know Him more deeply. But He doesn’t force it. How could a relationship be built by force? How could a relationship stay healthy if only one side made all the effort? That’s why God, after doing everything He possibly can, waits and longs for our response. When we seek Him to know Him, when we read His Word to hear His voice, and when we pray to converse with Him, God delights greatly, revealing Himself to us and allowing us to experience Him even more deeply.
As we live each day in this deep fellowship with God, we’ll come to know Him more personally and experientially. And in that knowledge, we’ll grow into His holy image, reflecting His character more and more. That is God’s will for us.
 
Priest Eli
Today, we’re going to continue exploring what it means to live as people of the kingdom of God through 1 Samuel. We’ll focus on two figures: one is Priest Eli, and the other is Samuel. Both of them were set apart to serve God in His tabernacle with the same purpose and office, yet their attitudes toward that office were very different.
First, Eli the priest was the father of Hophni and Phinehas. Of course, we can’t simply criticize him for being the father of sons who did evil in the tabernacle. Many times, people raised in good families grow up well, but that’s not always the case. Even Samuel, who was an exceptional man of God, ultimately failed in raising children, giving the Israelites the opportunity to demand a king, which we’ll see next Sunday.
So, what the Bible emphasizes about Eli isn’t just that his sons committed evil in the temple, or that he failed in raising them, but rather the attitude he showed toward their wrongdoing.
Of course, he did rebuke his two sons as a father and a priest. 1 Samuel 2:22-24 says, “Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the LORD’s people is not good.” (1 Sam. 2:22-24)
 
Eli said to his sons, “Why are you doing these things… don’t do this…” but the tone is not severe. Their sins were extremely serious. So as a father and priest, he had the responsibility to rebuke and punish them rigorously. Yet he didn’t. He treated them as if they had only made minor mistakes, like correcting a stubborn child gently.
We can see why Eli treated his sons this way in the next passage. A man of God came to Eli and spoke to him.
“‘Did I not reveal myself to your ancestors when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? Did I not choose your family from all the tribes of Israel to serve me as priests, to burn incense on my altar and wear the ephod before me? Did I not give your family all the offerings presented by the Israelites? Why do you honor your sons above me by letting them have your way with my offerings and your rule over the people of Israel? Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: I promised that your house and your ancestors’ house would serve me forever, but now I say that I will not honor you. Those who honor me, I will honor; those who despise me, I will treat with contempt.’” (1 Sam. 2:27–30)
Here, we see why Eli didn’t severely rebuke or punish Hophni and Phinehas despite their unforgivable sins in the tabernacle. He valued his sons more than God. The most important value in Eli’s life wasn’t God. In other words, God wasn’t the king of his life. He loved and treasured his sons more than God. He “honored” them above God, and in matters concerning his sons, he chose to disregard God. In this sense, his sons had become almost like idols to him.
But, what Eli didn’t realize was that loving his sons more than God and treating them gently this way would ultimately ruin them.
When God first appeared to Samuel, He spoke to him about Eli and his sons: “I will fulfill everything I said about Eli’s family, from beginning to end. I warned that I would judge his family forever because of the sins he knew about--he didn’t restrain his sons even though they brought judgment upon themselves. Therefore I swear that the sins of Eli’s family will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.” (1 Sam. 3:12–14)
What Eli’s sons did in the tabernacle was essentially bringing a curse upon themselves. It was clearly against God’s will and brought His judgment. Yet Eli didn’t restrain them because he loved them more than God. This misplaced order of love ultimately brought destruction to his life and his sons’ lives.
This is what happens when we don’t live with God as the King of our lives. From Eli’s life, we learn that living with God as our King means first, valuing Him as the most important; second, loving Him the most; and third, honoring Him above all. When we place God first in our lives, making our relationship with Him the highest priority, and recognizing and respecting Him in everything, God honors us and blesses us as the King of our lives.
But when we love something else more than God—even things we should love, like our parents, spouse, siblings, or children—it brings tragedy. Even our acts of love can bring a curse upon ourselves and those we love if God is not first.
So, we should keep in mind that love always requires proper order. Loving our neighbors, no matter who they are, must never come before our love for God. Our love for others must always operate under the proper order of our love for God. Only then can we love the people God has placed around us rightly, and guide them in His ways. This is the lesson we can learn from Eli’s life.
This is a very real and practical struggle in our lives. To love God above all and to honor Him above all is not as easy as it sounds. When we love God most, there will be times when it might feel like we are going against the ones we love the most. When we honor God above all, it may sometimes mean that we are not honoring the desires of those we deeply respect. This will certainly bring conflict and struggle into our lives. But what happens if we try to avoid that conflict because we don’t like it? In the short term, the relationship with that person might seem better. Yet, in doing so, we risk damaging our relationship with God, and even the relationship between that person and God.
So this is a very real struggle. To love God above all and to honor Him above all means seeking God’s will as the highest priority in every situation, every circumstance, and every relationship—even if doing so brings conflict or opposition from those we love and respect. But we also know this: God is the God of peace. While following His will may bring friction and disagreement now, He will ultimately bring peace from it.
Which life will you choose to live? Will you live like Eli, who loved and honored his children more than God, ultimately destroying both their lives and his own? Or will you live a life that prioritizes God’s will above all, loving and honoring Him most, even if it causes division or tension in your relationships? May our lives not mirror Eli’s life, and may our relationship with God never resemble the strained relationship Eli had with Him.
 
The Life of God’s People: Loving and Honoring God Above All
From today’s passage, what we learn about the life of God’s people is that we are called to love God above all. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40,
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
Here, we see the great commandment given to God’s people. It is love. Loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves is the greatest command given to Christians.
But, as we’ve said earlier, the order matters. Loving our neighbor is important, but it must never come before loving God. Our love for others must always be based on our love for God. Again, this is not easy. Loving God above all can inevitably bring conflict in our relationships with others.
Jesus also said in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matt. 6:24)
It would be ideal if love for God and love for others could coexist. But that is not always the case. Sometimes we must choose. We must decide whether to continue loving and honoring God above all, even if it means that we are rejecting or dishonoring those we love, or to prioritize love for our loved ones above love and honor for God.
Jesus further emphasized this in Matthew 10:34-37: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matt. 10:34-37)
Jesus doesn’t promise that loving Him will bring peace in all relationships. In fact, He warns that our love for Him may bring conflict—even with those we love the most. Loving God first may sometimes make us feel opposed to our own family members.
Of course, this does not mean that because we love the Lord, we are allowed to hate our family members. Here, “hatred” does not refer to literal hatred, but to the degree of love. The kind of love the Lord desires from us is so great that it may appear, in comparison, as “hatred” toward even the family members we love most.
Only those who love and follow Him with such devotion can endure opposition and trials while still remaining faithful. And only by loving God above all can we guide those we love—family, friends, and neighbors—toward Him, salvation, and eternal life. This is the cross we must bear, and the true shape of the love we are called to live. Let’s pray.
 
[Prayer]
Heavenly Father, we come before You today with humble hearts, grateful for Your Word and the lessons You have revealed to us  today. Lord, we confess that too often we place other things, even the people we love, above You. Forgive us for the times we have honored our desires, our relationships, or our comforts more than we have honored You.
Father, teach us to love You above all, to honor You above all, and to seek Your will as the highest priority in every area of our lives. Help us to understand that following You may bring conflict or opposition, even with those we cherish most, but that in You there is ultimate peace and reconciliation.
Lord, give us the courage to place You first in every relationship, every decision, and every desire. Fill our hearts with a love so deep that it aligns with Your will, a love that guides us to live faithfully as Your people, even when it is difficult.
Empower us through Your Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect Your glory, to love rightly, and to lead those around us toward You with wisdom and grace. May our lives be a testimony of Your sovereignty, Your mercy, and Your perfect love.
We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. In your daily life, what or who tends to take the highest place in your heart? God, family, career, or something else? Are there areas where you may be honoring someone or something more than God?
 
2.  Have you ever experienced tension or conflict because you chose to follow God’s will rather than give in to the desires of others? How did you respond? How do you discern the proper order of love in relationships, ensuring God is first?
 
3. What practical steps can you take this week to honor God above all in your relationships and daily decisions? How can you cultivate a deeper love for God that guides your love for others in the right order?