The Lord Does See

1 Samuel 2:27-36 27 And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, "Thus the Lord has said, 'Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? 28 Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. 29 Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?' 30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: 'I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,' but now the Lord declares: 'Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 31 Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32 Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. 33 The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. 34 And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day. 35 And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. 36 And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, "Please put me in one of the priests' places, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"

I believe there are two important points that can be made from this section of scripture. And though they can be directed at pastors and leaders, they still can apply to everyone.

The first is that if a pastor is in a sinful lifestyle and the people are being hurt, God will take the man out. Eli´s sons were priests, but they were extorting Israel and stealing from God. God took care of them. Sometimes we forget about that God has His best interest for His children. We forget that He is the Almighty God. We forget that He is longsuffering, even with those He has placed in leadership. (Eli´s sons had a chance to turn when their father approached them.)

Why do I bring up our forgetfulness? Because we take it upon ourselves to take care of the situation. How many pastors have been ruined over a rumor? How many have been slandered over personality differences? How many have been ousted for preaching the truth?

I´m not forgetting the other side of this, there are those who have let the world in instead of the Word and have become corrupt. From greed to power to adultery, many have fallen. How can we be protected from the leaders who have tripped up? Use the Word, not your wisdom. Rely on the Holy Spirit, not your anger. Trust in the Lord.

Instead of relying on a rumor, how about approaching that leader personally? It´s going to have one of three outcomes: 1) The rumor was false in some fashion or form and things are straightened out. 2) There was some sort of iniquity, and the leader repents (the restoration I cannot touch upon - that is beyond the scope of this blog; it is all dependant on the church, the leaders, and the extent of the sin). 3) There was some sort of iniquity and the leader hardens his heart - now the chastisement is in God´s hands.

Note: this is a very delicate subject and I can only touch upon what I have gone through. I thank my God and King that He has put together a group of leaders within my church family that hold each other accountable and don´t fear approaching each other, even on the littlest infraction - in doing so, we don´t have large issues to deal with. If I have offended anybody with the simplicity of the solution, please accept my sincerest apologies. Contact me and I will keep your church body in prayer if you are in need. Remember, the God that pulled you from the pits of despair and separation and suffering is strong enough to heal a wounded body.

Wow. I went so long on that point that I almost forgot the second. Though Eli could not control his sons´ actions, he was still held responsible for allowing them the opportunity to continue to do so. God plainly put it that Eli honoured his sons more than God.

I could go more into this, but the application is pretty obvious - how often do you allow your children to engage in sinful, or questionable, or non-profitable activities because you fear that rebuking them will put a wedge between you? Isn´t this what Eli ultimately did? He questioned them about their activity, but never followed up. He had the power to take them out of their positions. You may question a TV show your child watches, but do you take away the controller?