1 Samuel 2:12-17
12 Now the sons of Eli were useless men; they did not know the Lord.
13 And this was the custom of the priests with the people: when anyone was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was cooking, with a three-pronged fork in his hand.
14 And he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; everything that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. They did so in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
15 Also, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat for roasting, as he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw.”
16 And if the man said to him, “They must burn the fat first, then take as much as you desire,” then he would say, “No, but you must give it to me now; and if not, I am taking it by force!”
17 And so the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully.
The Sins of Eli’s Sons
Useless men
The sons of Eli, the priest, were causing problems. Although they were priests, they did not know the Lord. This means that they were not spiritually reborn and lacked a personal relationship with the Lord. Eli’s responsibility as a father is in question here. The Bible refers to them as “useless men.” They were not performing their priestly duties according to the Lord’s Law. They acted selfishly, and as the customs they created on their own had been practiced for so long, these bad practices had begun to hold as much value as the Law itself. The following were their sins. (1) According to the Law, the priests were entitled to receive the breast and the thigh from the peace offerings as their portion from the Lord (ref. Lev. 7:28–34). However, they were not satisfied with this and sent their servants to take more meat with a three-pronged fork while it was still cooking. (2) The Law taught that the fat was to be burned to create smoke. However, the servants of the priests came before the fat was burned and demanded raw meat instead of cooked meat. They did this because roasted meat tasted better than boiled meat. (3) In this way, they committed a great sin before the Lord.
The great sin
Regarding the sins of Eli’s sons, the Bible states that “for the men treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully.” (1) The offering was given by God as a means of grace for sinners to restore their relationship with God. To scorn the means of grace for the forgiveness of sins means that no way remains for those sins to be forgiven. (2) This is a sin of the same nature as rejecting and blaspheming the Holy Spirit, who leads sinners to repentance. For a person, who commits such sin, no way remains to obtain forgiveness. Their problem lay in the fact that they had not experienced spiritual rebirth. This is akin to someone who has not been born again, taking on the work of a pastor or an evangelist, which is a very unfortunate situation. Today, let’s give thanks to the Lord for our own spiritual rebirth and pray to know Him more.
Today's prayer
Holy God, please change me so that my heart may become one with You. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.