Daily Devotional for Monday, June 5

Eli's Sons Are Guilty of Irreverence

“Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord." 1 Samuel 2:12

Our God is unapproachable except through the Gospel plan that He laid out through His Son Jesus Christ.  He is Holy, Righteous, and truly beyond our comprehension in every way.  As such, the proper approach to God and to the service of God is humility.  If we don’t come on bended knee physically, we at least need to approach God with a contrite heart and humble spirit. 

Eli’s sons had been involved in the service of God since they were children. Perhaps they had been inoculated with the gospel.  They were familiar enough with the service of God and the buildings of God that they had come to handle them with irreverence.  The offerings, the rituals, the ceremonies were all designed to be pictures of things to come, Heavenly things of the highest order.  Even in the form of these representative shadows, the objects and service of God were due an enormous sense of reverence. But, the sons of Eli did not know the LORD, and so they underestimated how seriously God would look upon their actions.

There seems to be one overriding factor that caused God to take great notice of their sin.  This was that their irreverence caused other men to be disgusted with the offering of the LORD.  No longer did the people want to come joyfully to the service of God.  No longer did the people desire to bring the best of what God had given them with thankful hearts.  Just the thought of dealing with these two ministers and those that served them, turned men’s hearts and stomachs.   It’s no wonder that God inspired the writer of 1^st Samuel to call the sons of Belial or worthless sons.

THOUGHT: Does the way you conduct yourself while doing God’s business produce or cause a turn off to other believers and those who seek to come to Christ?

David Thompson