DEVOTIONAL
“He said, What is the word that He spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me.” 1 Samuel 3:17 NASB
The position that held the highest honor under the old covenant was to be born of the priestly line of Aaron. The priests were set apart by God Himself to bring forth instruction concerning the eternal laws that defined His very own character. They were to represent the Holy One, who stood in unapproachable light, to all the people, offering up sacrifices for the entire nation for the forgiveness of sins. This was the position Eli held. But as time went by, what formerly were priestly acts of worship, only became duties of religion. His heart became calloused, his conscience seared by worldly thoughts, and he began to tolerate what the Lord had forbidden. Because of his tolerance of sin, the priesthood became corrupt. Eli’s heart had become so hardened from neglecting the truth, he didn’t heed the warnings the Lord sent him. So, the Lord sent Samuel, a child, to bear the terrible tidings and stern rebuke. He had spared the rod of rebuke, and therefore the axe of judgment fell on his house. Eli was a man of God, I do not doubt, and he accepted the judgement that come from young Samuels mouth. Though he died in the Lord, he brought dishonor on his own name.
What a great privilege it is Christian to be adopted as an heir into the kingdom of God. To be awakened to the depravity of your own heart by The Holy Spirit, knowing at that moment you are hopelessly condemned under God’s perfect law, and yet His perfect love arrested you. Although you were dead in your transgressions and given completely over to the wickedness of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him. He forgave you of all your sins and canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees that stood against you, which sentenced you to everlasting hell. He has taken your sin out of the way by nailing it to the cross. God the Father crucified Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, for you my beloved.
My brothers and sisters in Christ consider your ways. Did He not call you to a holy calling? Was not His blood poured out for your sins? Why then do you seek to entertain things that clearly defy His holy commandments? Rest assured my beloved, a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. If you take off your garments of warfare for one moment, to gratify your fleshy pleasures, your conscience will become weakened, and you will slip deeper into sin’s web of deceit. Eventually, your moral senses will become so dull to divine truth, your conscience no longer responds to it. It becomes seared as with a hot iron, and the very things you once detested, you once again begin to entertain. It is as if the old nature that is crucified with Christ sticks his hand back up through the grave and fixes his grip back upon you. My beloved this should not be so, shall you sing with the symphony of heaven on Sundays and then be led by your lust to the devil’s playground the other days of the week? Oh, how this grieves the Holy Spirit Who jealously yearns for you. Shall your Father in heaven weep over your discontentment after He sacrificed His beloved Son on the cross for you?
Concerning this subject Charles Spurgeon pinned, “O ye saints, who live upon familiar terms with the Lord, take heed of sin, lest you lose your close communion, your favored fellowship, and stand in a second place! God will speak to you; but it will be in warning, and in a roundabout way, and not face to face, with his lip to your ear, as he has been wanting to do while you have pleased him. God will not cast you off; but he may set you aside for a time.” Lord, God of heaven, may we repent of all of the things that we have freely entertained, knowing they do not bring you glory, that are clearly forbidden in of your perfect law, before the chastening of your rod brings deep furrows upon our conscience.