Scripture Daily

Context No. 3691 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 2:22-26: in context

22Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how that they slept with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 23He said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. 24No, my sons; for it is not a good report that I hear! You make the LORD’s people disobey. 25If one man sins against another, God will judge him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?” Notwithstanding, they didn’t listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD intended to kill them. 26The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with the LORD and also with men.

Old Eli hears of his sons' grievous sins as priests, and he rebukes them, but weakly, too late and without real correction. He asks a searching question: if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him? It hangs in the air, a question the whole Old Testament longs to answer, and the answer, we now know, is Christ, the one Mediator.

But his sons do not listen. And then, quietly, comes the contrast: the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with people. Right beside the corruption of Eli's sons, God was raising up a faithful servant. There is both warning and hope here. The warning: Eli's failure to discipline his sons, and their refusal to hear, brought ruin on his house. The hope: even amid the failure of one generation, God quietly raises up the faithful. That same phrase, growing in favor with God and man, would one day describe the boy Jesus. God is always at work raising up faithfulness, even where others fail.

Am I growing in favor with God and with people through faithfulness, and do I trust that God raises up the faithful even amid the failures around me?

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