Context No. 2714 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

1 Samuel 2:11-15: in context

11Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child served the LORD before Eli the priest. 12Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know the LORD. 13The custom of the priests with the people was that when anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the meat was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand; 14and he stabbed it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot. The priest took all that the fork brought up for himself. They did this to all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh. 15Yes, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, “Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw.”

The boy Samuel is left at Shiloh to serve the Lord, and the narrator immediately sets a contrast that will run through these chapters. Eli's own sons, the priests, are wicked men who do not know the Lord. Their corruption happens at the altar itself.

The custom had been that a priest received a fair portion of the sacrifice. Eli's sons send a servant with a three-pronged fork to stab into the pot and seize whatever it hauls up, and they go further, demanding raw meat before the fat is even burned to God. The sin here is not distant pagans but the men whose whole job is to bring people to God, treating the offering as their own plunder and helping themselves ahead of the Lord's due. All the while the child Samuel quietly ministers nearby.

In the places where I am trusted to serve God and others, do I quietly take my portion first, ahead of what is owed to God?

Sources

1 Samuel 2:17: "The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for the men despised the LORD's offering."
Malachi 2:7: "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts."
Mark 10:43: "Whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant."