Well, it seems that the last few passages that I have preached from have been heavy. This is no exception. It’s a little intense. It deals with rebellion and contempt and immorality and judgment, and yet there is also a thread of God’s kindness and hope. I pray that we will be able to see both, that we will be convicted and encouraged.

This chapter presents us with contrast, some striking contrasts. There’s contrast between taking and serving, between cursing and blessing, worship and self-gratifying immorality, between faithless priests and a promised faithful priest. At first glance, this could most obviously be applied to the leaders the church, which is actually quite fitting since we have an ordination and installation in just a few minutes.

But as you will see, I think it touches all of us, and we need the meal that this passage has for us.

So if you would, please turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 2, and we’re actually going to pick it up at verse 11. I don’t often approach a sermon like I will this morning, but today the way I’m going to do this is read and then stop quite a few times along the way as we go through the passage, so you’ll want to keep your Bibles open, ’cause we’ll be talking and then reading and then talking and reading, and if you have your Bibles starting at verse 11, and the story picks up just after Hannah sings her song, a Magnificat of sorts.

Verse 11.

“Then Elkanah went home to Ramah. And the boy was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest.”

It’s that wonderful? Aren’t you just, parents, aren’t you just, just so glad when your child gets a job in the church? Oh, good, he’ll be working around good folks. And then you get to see how the sausage is made. [laughter]

“Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.”

They didn’t regard the Lord. They didn’t look to Him. They didn’t consider Him. They had no working relationship with their Creator and proved that every man was walking according to what was right in his own eyes.

Verse 13.

“The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand.”

Well, first of all, notice that the priests had their henchmen do the deed: “You go out there and you do the stealing.” But they didn’t send them with just like one little shish kebab stick, not a two-pronged fork, but a three-pronged fork. The better it is to steal more of your food, my dear.

And then they “would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot.”

It didn’t matter what they were cooking in, they were going to get some.

“All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.” And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish…”

We’ll finish that sentence in a moment, but just notice, the henchman would come and then the people would remind him, “No, no, the Levitical saw says we do it differently.” He said, “No, the priests want what they want,” and they wanted the best fat portions raw.

I couldn’t help but think of another Lord of the Rings example, when Samwise Gamgee asks Gollum to try his nicely seasoned, cooked food, and he says, “Even you couldn’t say no to that,” and Gollum says, “Oh, yes, we could spoiling nice fish. Give it to us raw and wriggling.”