Somehow this morning, I collided with Eli. I couldn’t stop my
tears falling as I read about a man who served the Lord and yet at the end of
it all, his generation was wiped out. Where and how did he wrong God?
Eli was a man with many responsibilities; in his day, he was the
High Priest of God. His job description was exclusive – he had the
responsibility of presenting the people to God. He was the one permitted to
enter the Holy place and make sacrifices on behalf of the people. He was a
very, very important man. He must have been a very very busy man too!
Just Like you!
Eli was a man with many responsibilities; he was a father – he
had 2 sons the bible says – Hophni & Phineas. He was responsible for
teaching them the ministry of priesthood so that at his demise his sons would
carry on in ministry as appointed for the Levites. That was God’s laid out plan
– that the fathers would teach their sons His way, so that when the sons grew
older they would understand the protocol of ministry.
Exactly like you!
It’s in your job description – to train up a child in the way that he should go,
so that when he is old, he would not depart from it (Proverbs 22 verse 6).
So where did Eli go wrong?
It is very clear to me that Eli loved the Lord. Reading about
him, I realized he was constantly in the temple. He was there when Hannah came
to cry before God for a child; he rebuked her when he thought she was a drunken
woman and blessed her when he realized she wasn’t. In 1 Samuel 2: 20, Eli would
bless Elkanah and his wife, saying ‘May the Lord give you
children by this woman to take the place of this one she prayed for and gave to
the Lord’. Hannah went on to have more children.
Eli, heard God – he could recognize God’s voice. The night God
called Samuel, it was Eli who, in recognition of God’s call, told Samuel to
answer ‘speak Lord for your servant hears’.
When the ark was captured in battle, Eli was heartbroken and fell
and died. The bible records in 1 Samuel 4 verse 18 – then it happened, when he made mention of the ark of God,
that Eli fell off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck was
broken and he died…’
The interactions between Eli and his sons were briefly told in
the scriptures. In 1 Samuel 2 verse 22, we read of him rebuking his sons
because the bible said they were wicked men. The bible also says that his sons
did not listen to him.
So what did Eli do wrong?
When God spoke to Samuel in 1 Samuel 3 verses 11 – 13, He
outlined Eli’s wrong. He said ‘Behold I will do something in Israel at which both ears of
everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day, I will perform against Eli all
that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told
him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows,
because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them.
From this scripture, we see that:
v
God had previously and severally spoken to
Eli about his children’s behavior
v
God had warned Eli of judgement to come
v Eli did not restrain his children
And herein lies Eli’s wrong doing! He did not hold back his children, he didn’t
limit them, he didn’t set them boundaries. Therefore God wiped out Eli
alongside his children who had grown up to be vile men.
Embedded in that word – restrain – is yet another powerful word –
Train.
Not too long ago, Pastor KO sent me a mail in which he wrote – Training a child is a very deliberate process…
Did Eli know this and just chose to ignore it? Am I ignoring it
too? Are you?
The dictionary defines deliberate as studied, intentional and in
my own words, ‘something that was planned for, not left to chance or
happenstance’. Process is defined as a series of actions or steps taken to
achieve an end. Note series, note steps, note the implication of continuity…
that’s what process is. A deliberate process is one that is well thought out,
planned for and studiously implemented. A deliberate process is consistent,
continuous, and persistent.
Have we been training our children deliberately? Or are they just
growing on food and air, like weeds with no boundaries? Is there a vision for
where they are headed? Are there plans in place? Are those plans God’s plans or
my plans? Have the plans been well thought out, prayed over? Is there a budget
for those plans? Have we consciously allocated resources to achieving these
plans? Do we consistently and continuously check that they are within the plan?
Do we persistently mirror God’s personality to them so they can copy us? Are we
suitable mentors for our children? Are they priority amidst the myriad of plans
jostling for attention in our minds?
A wise son makes a glad father and a foolish son is a grief to
his father, the scriptures say. O that our sons and daughters would grow up
wise I pray. But a proper child doesn’t
just happen, the deliberateness of training a child is what makes for great
parenting.
