Study from God’s Word…1st Samuel, Chapters 1 and 2 … Passage for Reflection: 1st Samuel 2: 29 … NIV 29 ‘ … Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?'
My Journal for Today: These words, in today’s highlight passage, spoken by God to Eli, a Priest concerning Eli’s sons are a tragic rebuke and God goes on to say [in verse 30], “Those who honor Me I will honor, but those who despise Me will be disdained” And so it was, as Eli’s sons were sacrificed by God on the same day because they had dishonored their father, but more so, God, by the way they made a selfish travesty of the priestly handling of the people’s sacrifices to God. And here we have a drastic lesson about parenting … that the sins of the sons are like apples which don’t fall far from the tree where they were raised.
Eli, God’s Priest, had raised two sons who heard one thing from their father but saw him condoning – from them – something different. It was the classic scenario of a parent saying one thing but allowing another; and the inconsistency played out in the lives of Eli’s sons, ultimately to their doom and tragic deaths. How many times in our world do we see the sins of the fathers, or parents, being played out in the lives of their children?
How can a parent be a smoker and then be believed telling his child that smoking is dangerous to that young one? But this was the scenario being played out in the lives of Eli and his sons; and as one might expect, it ultimately caught up with these two boys, tragically leading to their deaths. If you’re a parent reading this, I hope it’s not too late for you; but in my case, I’m a grandparent; and now my only influence would be to help our kids to do the right thing by their children, our grandchildren.
Actually, we are blessed to have two daughters, each of whom has had two daughters (and one add-on son); and thus far our kids have done an excellent job raising our grandkids with consistent and careful parenting. Now, of course, we’ll do all we can to help our kids in their parenting; but I pray that others reading this can see their kids raising their grandchildren with consistent and Godly parenting so as to yield children who honor God by falling close to the trees of God honoring parenting.
May all parents learn a solid lesson in Godly parenting from the life of Eli, raising their kids to honor God by doing not only what they heard, but what they saw being lived out in the lives of their parents.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, thank You for having given us parents who consistently showed us how to live so as to honor You with our lives. Amen
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