An attitude of Obedience

 1 Samuel 3:10-18

I often wonder what is the take away from the many Bible Studies that are taught all over the country?  Do the ones attending those studies come with an attitude of obedience, have they set a standard of I will obey and apply the application God shows me in my own life?  If not why go, I believe it is dangerous to do so if you have no resolve to apply the teaching to your life.  For years and even today I fall short of obedience in all season of life, but my goal and desire is application.

Do you recall Jesus sharing this information in Matthew 7:1-3?  “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure, you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” 

Last Sunday morning on my way to church a white pick-up passed us and I noticed the driver was a man somewhere around my age.  You know the hair was long, had a bandana on his head and a large floating device in the back of the pick-up, I was sure he was heading to the river for a day of drinking and relaxing.  As I was making my judgment of what the man intended to do that day and not worship the Lord, I had one word come into my mind; Pharisee!  And who was the Pharisee, it was me the Holy Spirit was addressing?  I had been to that Scripture often but had not applied it to my life, I was making a judgment on the observed, but I had no understanding of the man’s heart, I was guilty of seeing the speck, but not removing the log from my own eye.

The people informed Eli of the evil his sons were doing and yet he did little about it.  God sends a prophet to confront Eli in this manner, and still, little action was taken, and now God has spoken to Samuel and as the saying goes, “the fat lady has sung, and the party is over.”  No more warning, no time to correct the sons who are now men, for the period of training has long passed, now it is judgment time.

It is clear that Samuel does not want to share the message because he was afraid of the Priest and Judge of Israel and what God had spoken to him on this matter.  Now, this is why Eli’s house is going to judgment, and it is found in verses 12-14, “On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

After Samuel had told him all the LORD had said, Eli said; “It is the LORD.  Let him do what seems good to him.”  That takes me back to my private thoughts in the car, I had not voiced what I was thinking, but my thoughts were not hidden from the Holy Spirit, and He announced a judgment, I was not acting like Jesus, I was acting like a religious Pharisee.  I shared this with you not to once more declare publicly of what a mess I am, but in the hope that we the followers of Christ will apply the Scripture we have read to our daily lives.  For like the house of Eli, we will bring judgment on our families if we do not.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice