The mere mention of the sanctuary at Shiloh gets you to think about the ark of the covenant, the place where Israel meets God and makes sacrifices to God. This is the holy place which became the the destination for religious pilgrimage.
But the sanctuary at Shiloh though housing the ark of the covenant was not free from the greedy and sexual immorality of the Prosperity Priests of their time. The sons of Eli turned the sanctuary at Shiloh into their own business where the law of God was ignored in order to satisfy their bottomless bellies of greedy and ungrateful appetite.
In this article I will focus on (1 Samuel 2:12-17,22) and will deal with;
(I) The Sons Of Eli As Sons Of Belial
(II) The Three Teeth Fork
(iii) Sexual Scandals At The Gates Of Shiloh
(IV) Eli's Soft Rebuke To His Sons
THE SONS OF ELI AS SONS OF BELIAL
The Preachers kids are often expected to be like their father. While Pastors ought to train their children in the paths of righteousness, it is not automatic that his kids will turn out fine.
The sons of Eli were sons of Belial which means they are sons of wickedness. To be born in a Christian family doesn't mean you are a Christian. Just like being born in the garage does not mean you are a BMW.
The Priest Eli was a good man devoted to God and his service at Shiloh. A man who raised them well and instructed them in the fear of God.
The sons of Eli are described as "they had no regard for God". They were born at Shiloh, lived at the sanctuary yet their hearts were far away from God.
While people traveled from far places to meet with God at Shiloh, Eli's sons lived and grew up at Shiloh but were ignorant of the saving grace of God.
They are born in the Priestly family taught how to conduct religious sacrifices yet they were son's of Belial.
I employ you brothers and sister to examine those who stand before us whether they are lead by God or they are moved by the spirit of Belial.
To parents raising children in the ways of God remember this; you as a parent are not the dispenser of God's saving grace. Saving grace is not hereditary. Saving grace is not in the bloodline.
Your children need to come to know God personally than simply following the God of their fathers. There is need for children who are born in Church to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
THE THREE TEETH FORK
"Now it was the practice of priests with the people that wherever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. He would plunge it into the pain or kettle or candron or pot, and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This was how they treated all Israelites who came to Shiloh" (1 Samuel 2:3)
Now the above practice was never initiated by God.
"From the fellowship offerings of the Israelites, I have taken the breast that is waved and thigh that is presented and given them to Aaron to the priest and his sons as their regular share from the Israelites" (Leviticus 7:34)
God's Sovereignly provided for the Priest Aaron and his sons. But the sons of Eli were not content with the parts of the meat God apportioned for them.
"They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain" (Isaiah 56:11)
This scripture speaks to shepherds even in our own context. These Shepherds use the gospel as a means to financial and material gains. They are not scared to take houses, farms, money from widows and orphans. They twist scripture and use it a three-pronged forks to pull money from their desperate followers.
They came up with the system of a three-pronged fork. But as times went by they again felt the fork system was not good enough.
Because sometimes the fork brought up a part of meat they didn't like.
Finally they began to demand raw meat by force. And when the worshipers says, Please allow me to boil the meat before you take whatever part you want the servant of the priest will take the raw meat by force for the sons of Eli to roast.
I reflect at this point how the sons of Eli resemble the modern day sons and daughters of Papa.
God through his word has provided means to support and sustain servants of God. But it's never enough for some ministers.
Tithes and offerings are not enough. They have devised their own forks to pull out more from their followers.
Planting monetary seeds is a common trend.
The system is corrupt because there is no system of accountability. The Priest does whatever he wants without feeling guilty or remorse.
When the Priest removed his jacket and demand that people put money on the jacket.
And after that no one is allowed to touch, count, record and account for that money. It is gone tax free.
This greedy, ungratefulness and not being content with the breast and thigh parts of the meat led them not to be content with the breasts and thighs of their wives, instead they began touching the forbidden breasts and thighs of women who were serving at the Gates of the Temple.
SEXUAL SCANDALS AT THE GATES OF SHILOH
"Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of meeting" (1 Samuel 2:22)
There is nothing new under the son. What the sons and daughters of Papas are doing is not new. The sons of Eli the Priests at Shiloh exploited the Israelites by demanding more meat than apportioned by God.
But this greedy for more didn't just end with the fellowship offering but extended to exploiting sexually the women who were there to worship God.
Why wouldn't Pastors go to brothels, on the streets where prostitutes parade freely to sell their bodies.
Why wouldn't Pastors get a concubine on the side?
While buying sex is wrong, and sex outside marriage is sin, the magnitude and gravity of clergy leading devoted mothers and daughters into the path of Sexual immorality is evil.
Nothing is as profane as using the sacred things like prophesy to lure woman into acts of Sexual gratification in the presence of God at Shiloh.
We have turned the sanctuary of God into our private nests for greedy & sensual gratification.
These women came seeking God. Instead of pulling them from the pit of their own sins, we are pushing them down the pit of hell and destruction while we adorn ourselves in priestly garments.
The Church is going through one scandal to another from money laundering to raping, to sleeping with marriage women who come to us for spiritual help.
When scripture says "the love of money is the root of all evil" it is the truth that cannot be disputed. Men of God ought to be content a virtue so great to spare us from greedy.
Show me a man who is greedy for money, I will show you are man who will never be content with one woman.
The love of money is the foundation of all kinds of evil including adultery.
These women were spiritual and they turned them into sexual objects like temple prostitutes.
Spirituality without depth in God's word puts most women in Churches as easy prey to be hunted and debauched by those who ought to instruct them in piousness.
If a man can't control his appetite for more money (meat) at any cost will also fail to control his sexual desires.
ELI'S SOFT REBUKE TO HIS SONS
The gravity of the sins committed by the sons of Eli deserved more than just a rebuke.
The punishment that should have restored the dignity and purity back to the sanctuary at Shiloh was to remove them from their priestly duties.
When our churches become our children's inheritance.
When the local church is about the legacy of the leading pastor and his children, fathers will not be strong to put their erring children because they are heir to the family church.
The wealthy of the local church is life insurance for his children. In the mind of the Priest Eli, his children represented continuity, but in the eyes of God the young boy Samuel is the next big thing about to happen in God's agenda.
The best time to bring correction is at the beginning. When they became greedy for more meat the father should have stopped it right there.
But he didn't until the sin grow from greedy for meat to sexual immorality.
Where are the fathers when their prophetic sons begin to prophesy lies to stop it?
Where are the fathers when their prophetic sons begin to charge money for prayer?
Where are the fathers when their prophetic sons begin to have one-on-one with marriage women and singles in hotel rooms and other private places?
If the fathers remain silent, the sons of Eli will turn the sanctuary of God into a filthy horrible place worse than the house of brothels.
There is hope however for everyone who runs to the cross with a genuine heart of repentance.
The gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable. Turn back to God today and be saved.
Eli failed to remove his wicked sons from priestly duty.
The consequence of this failure was his sons being removed from this earth altogether by God, and the second is the ark of the covenant removed from Shiloh.
The glory didn't depart when the ark was captured by the enemies.
The glory departed when the sons of Eli captured the sanctuary and turned the sacred vessels of honor and sacrifice into instruments of greedy and sexual immorality.
Lawrence Musunte
+27845517018
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