PLANTING SEEDS OF FAITH IN REBELLIOUS SOIL

I think that it is imperative that I offer a disclaimer at the beginning of this blog. Parents cannot always be held fully responsible for the choices their children make as adults. My wife and I did our best to raise our children in the faith. We took them to church, read the Bible with them, prayed with them, and continually prayed for them. Sadly, when they became adults, all three chose paths that, at times, led them away from the life we had taught them to live.

The Bible instructs us to “train up a child in the way he (she) should go,” with the assurance that “when he (she) is old, he (she) will not depart from it.” I continue to believe that promise. Although each of my children has experienced divorce, some more than once, and has followed the ways of the world at various times of life, none of them has forgotten what the Bible teaches.

Parents can provide instruction, model faithfulness, pray diligently, and establish a strong spiritual foundation. But adult children possess free will and must ultimately make their own decisions. The lessons planted during childhood may seem dormant for a time, but that does not mean they have disappeared. I continue to trust that the seeds planted years ago can still bear godly fruit.

The story of Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, is one of the Bible’s more sobering warnings about spiritual leadership, parental responsibility, and the danger of tolerating sin within one’s own family. Hophni and Phinehas served as priests, but Scripture says that they “knew not the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:12). They treated the offerings of God with contempt, abused their authority, and committed sexual sin with women who served near the entrance of the tabernacle.

Their behavior resembled the corrupt religious practices of the Canaanite peoples whom God had subjected to Israel and driven from the land. Pagan worship at the high places was associated with fertility beliefs, sexual immorality, and devotion to deities such as Ashtoreth. God had commanded Israel to reject these practices and destroy the places where they occurred.

Hophni and Phinehas did not need to visit a pagan high place to participate in its spirit. They brought corruption into the tabernacle itself. The place that was supposed to represent God’s holiness began to resemble the places God had condemned.

Their corruption also appeared in the way they handled the sacrifices. According to the law, certain portions belonged to the priests, while the fat was to be burned upon the altar as the Lord’s portion. Hophni and Phinehas refused to wait for the proper procedure. They demanded raw meat before the fat had been offered to God. They were not merely stealing from the people. They were taking what belonged to the Lord.

Eli heard reports about his sons and rebuked them, but his response went no further than words. He did not remove them from service, restrain them effectively, or protect the people from their abuse. God’s message to Eli was direct: “Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering…and honourest thy sons above me?” (1 Samuel 2:29). The wording is important. God did not address the wrongdoing only as the sin of Eli’s sons. He asked Eli, “Why do you kick at my sacrifice?” The plural language included Eli in the accusation.

God then said that Eli and his household had made themselves fat with the best portions of Israel’s offerings. This raises a troubling possibility. Although Scripture does not explicitly describe Eli standing beside his sons and forcibly taking the meat, it suggests that he may have benefited from what they took. At a minimum, he allowed the practice to continue while his household enjoyed the results.

His participation may not have looked exactly like theirs. Hophni and Phinehas used threats and force, while Eli appears to have sinned through tolerance, misplaced loyalty, failure to act, and possibly accepting the benefits of their corruption. He condemned their behavior with his mouth but did not separate himself from what their behavior provided. Later, when Eli heard that the ark of God had been captured, he fell backward from his seat, broke his neck, and died. Scripture adds a striking detail: “for he was an old man, and heavy” (1 Samuel 4:18).

We should be careful not to claim more than the Bible states. Scripture does not directly say that Eli’s physical weight resulted from eating stolen sacrificial meat. However, the earlier statement that Eli’s household had made itself fat from the best offerings makes the later description difficult to overlook. The connection is circumstantial, but it is spiritually sobering.

Eli’s physical heaviness may serve as a visible picture of a deeper spiritual burden. For years, he carried the weight of neglected responsibility. He knew what his sons were doing. He warned them, but he did not stop them. He heard the complaints of the people yet permitted his sons to remain in their priestly positions.

Eli may have loved his sons, but his love lacked the courage to confront them decisively. God said that Eli honored his sons above Him. Family loyalty had become a form of disobedience.

Parents naturally desire to protect their children, but protection can become participation when it shields them from accountability. The same principle applies to churches, ministries, workplaces, and families. When maintaining peace becomes more important than protecting people, silence can support wrongdoing. When preserving a reputation becomes more important than honoring God, tolerance becomes complicity.

God saw beyond Eli’s verbal rebuke. He saw that Eli had the authority to restrain his sons and did not do so. He saw the suffering of the worshipers, the dishonoring of the sacrifices, and the corruption occurring around the tabernacle.

True love does not excuse destructive behavior. It confronts sin, protects the vulnerable, establishes boundaries, and accepts the pain of doing what is right. Honoring God may sometimes require us to oppose the conduct of those we love most. We called it “tough love” when our children were young.

Eli’s story invites each of us to ask difficult questions: Am I overlooking wrongdoing because the person involved is close to me? Am I offering words of disapproval while refusing to act? Am I benefiting from something I know is wrong? Have I allowed loyalty to family, position, or reputation to become greater than my loyalty to God? What we refuse to confront today may eventually become the weight beneath which we fall.

I want to look briefly at the woman with the issue of blood. Of course, I know her issue was a physical one. But let me use a play on words. Look at it from the perspective of a woman who had an issue of blood in the family sense. How many times have family issues come up in the church where a parent became upset over something dealing with their child? Consider doing what this woman did. Bring your issue of blood or family to Jesus and let Him heal it.

The lesson is clear: never honor anyone, even our own flesh and blood, above the Lord.

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