2026_10_04_I_Samuel

We sang, He will hold me fast, and this wasn't part of the plan, but it reminded me of the plan. but it reminded me of the verse, I'm confident, I am persuaded that Christ is able to keep that which I have delivered unto him against that day.

Now, why am I persuaded of that? And just as a preliminary to launching into these lessons in 1 Samuel, and especially, I struggle with, okay, how do I get a positive lesson out of the sons of Levi?

Eli, I'm sorry, thank you. But, he will hold me fast, I'm persuaded. Why am I persuaded?

And a few scriptures came to me. God's unfolding plan, recorded in His Word, is the scripture is God about God.

And most of the scripture is about God's dealing with man. And so, as we read this, look at the hope we have in the church.

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that, through perseverance and the encouragement of scriptures, we might have hope.

To Paul, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.

This in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory.

God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

We study God's unfolding plan so that we can rest securely in this present truth. And I'm grateful for that.

Because as we see God's work, even in the hard places like Eli and his sons, we see God's plan going forward, and we can have confidence that when He says, you're saved because you have trusted me for salvation, we have confidence in that.

And we can rest assured in it. I'm very thankful. Just a quickie on God's unfolding plan, and just arbitrarily, I started with Abraham. The Lord said to Abraham, Go forth from your country, from your relatives, to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation. I'll bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. Now Sarah, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.

So Sarah said to Abraham, Go, behold, the Lord has prevented me from having children. Please go into my maid. Perhaps I'll obtain children through her.

So Hagar bore Abraham a son, and Abraham called the name of his son Ishmael. Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before you.

And God said, No. God said, No. But Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name, help me, Isaac.

You shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

Later on, God said to Abraham, Don't be distressed because you have to send, you must send away Ishmael and Hagar, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.

Isaac married Rebekah, and Rebekah, when she had conceived twins by Isaac, so that God's purpose, according to his choice, would stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls.

It was said to her, The older will serve the younger. Esau will be subservient to Jacob. God determined that the promise was to be fulfilled through Jacob. And Jacob, when he's ready to die, he's in Egypt now.

Jacob, when he's getting ready to die, blesses his sons. Pardon me. And as he's blessing his sons, God says to, or through him, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes.

And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. By the way, as you continue reading in 1 Samuel, this is going to be important to remember, because the first king that God told Samuel to ordain was not of that tribe.

But it's in God's plan. And it's up to me to trust God, and to rest assured that as I see all this move through, that I know that I'm secure in Christ, because of what he has done on the cross.

So, we'll launch out now with 1 Samuel, chapter 2.

We're going to be beginning with verse 18. I will read from New American Standard. That's the one that'll be, if you pull the Bible from the seats, it'll be New American Standard.

You know enough to be able to read King James and get the meaning.

So, now, by the way, before I launch, Eli is serving as high priest, and we, you remember from your reading, in what has just come before, especially in verses 5 through 12.

Eli is serving as high priest, and his sons are serving as priests, Hophni and Phinehas. Phinehas, by the way, is named for a previous, an ancestor of his.

So, who will, by the way, come up a little bit. But, were they behaving themselves correctly? See, the Word of God said, we remember from last time, the Word of God says, that they did not know the Lord.

They're serving as priests, for crying out loud. But they did not know God. Nor did they know the, the, your, your scripture will say, the custom of the priests with the people.

That is, the ordinance that God had laid out for how the priests behave. They didn't know that either. So, they didn't know God. They didn't know his, word.

And, they, despised, the offering, of the Lord. That is, they, had no regard, for God.

God, because, they didn't know him. And, they didn't know his word. So, they had no respect, for God.

By the way, it's pretty hard, for me, to respect a God, that I form in my own mind. You, you don't have that problem.

But, some of us, have a temptation, to say, well, I think that God, would, well, God knows my heart. Yeah, that's why I need a savior.

Right? Because, the best day we ever lived, with the best intentions, I have ever had, do not, conform, to the glories of God.

All have, sin, and, do, fall, short, of the glories of God. So, I need a savior, because I'm never going to be good.

I, I may say I'm good, but that's not true. And, the Lord, though, is. And, that's what makes, grace, so amazing, that when, God, looks upon, the believer, he sees, the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's amazing grace. He sees, perfection, I don't see that, in the mirror, but the Lord sees it. Okay, let's go, let's begin reading.

Now, Samuel was ministering, before the Lord, as a boy, wearing an ephod, pardon me, a linen ephod, and his mother, would make him, a little robe, and bring it, to him, from year to year, when she would come up, with her husband, to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Then, Eli would bless Elkanah, and his wife, and say, may the Lord give you children, from this woman, in place of the one, she dedicated, to the Lord.

That would be Samuel. And, they went, to their own home, and the Lord, visited Hannah, and she conceived, and gave birth, to three sons, and two daughters.

And the boy, Samuel, grew, before the Lord. Now, Eli was very old, and he heard, all that his sons, were doing, in, to all Israel, and how they lay, with the women, who served, at the doorway, of the tent of meeting.

And he said to them, why do you do such things, the evil things, that I hear, from all these people? No, my sons, for the report, is not good, which I hear, the Lord's people circulating.

If one man, sins against another, God will mediate, for him. But if a man, sins against the Lord, who can intercede? But they would not, listen to the voice, of their father, for the Lord, desired to put them, to death.

Now, the boy, Samuel, was growing, in stature, and in favor, both with the Lord, and with men. Then a man of God, came to Eli, and said to him, thus says the Lord, did I not indeed, reveal myself, to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt, in bondage, to Pharaoh's house?

And did I not, choose them, from all the tribes of Israel, to be my priests, to go up, to my altar, to burn incense, and to carry an ephod, before me?

And did I not, give to the house, of your father, all the fire offerings, of the sons of Israel? Why do you, kick at my sacrifice, and at my offering, which I have commanded, in my dwelling, and honor your sons, above me, by making yourselves fat, with the choicest, of every offering, of my people Israel?

Therefore, the Lord, God of Israel, declares, I did indeed, say that your house, and the house of your father, should walk 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, I will be, will be lightly esteemed.

Behold, the days are coming, when I will break your strength, and the strength, of your father's house, so that there will not be, an old man in your house, and you will see, the distress of my dwelling, in spite of all, I do good for Israel, and an old man, will not be in your house, forever.

Yet, I will not cut off, every man of yours, from my altar, that your eyes may fail, from weeping, and your soul grieve, and that all the, but, or, but, and, all the increase, of your house, will die, in the prime of life.

And this will be, the sign to you, which shall come, concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, on the same day, both of them shall die. But I will raise up, for myself, a faithful priest, who will do, according to what is, in my heart, and in my soul, and I will build him, an enduring house, and he will walk, before my anointed always.

And it shall come about, that everyone, who is left, in your house, shall come down, and bow to him, for a piece of silver, or a loaf of bread, and say, please assign me, to one of the priest's offices, that I may eat, a piece of bread.

Now, concerning Samuel, it, we started out, in verse 18, with, Samuel, is serving at Shiloh, Samuel, Samuel was ministering, before the Lord, as a boy, and it says, what he was wearing, the ephod, is just an article, of clothing, that went over the robe.

So, and we also know, that he's a young boy, and we know that, because his mother, made a bigger suit, for him every year, and she'd bring it to him.

So he, this boy's pretty young. Now, why is he serving, so young? Do you remember? Well, he was dedicated, from birth, to the service, of the Lord.

Now, he is allowed, to serve in the tabernacle, because he's a Levite. So he is a member, of the tribe of Levi, but he is not, of the priestly order.

So he can serve, in the tabernacle, for some of the things, but he may not, be a priest. He can't, do the, all of the priestly functions. Now, Eli, is the high priest, and Eli, is, not only a descendant, of Levi, but he's a descendant, of Aaron.

So he is, of the priestly line, and his sons, are priests after him. We'll get there. Now, he's serving, in the tabernacle.

He's serving, as a boy. By the way, for, the young ones, who have come, to Christ. Remember, the apostle Paul, tells Timothy, as Paul is getting ready, to leave this life, and go home, to the Lord, he's getting Timothy ready.

Timothy's a young man, and Paul says, to Timothy, don't let anyone, look down upon you, because you're young. Now, he doesn't say, be arrogant.

He says, don't let any, because he qualifies it, by saying, but be you, an example, in love, and, speech, and your conduct, and your faith, and your purity.

And so, he tells, he tells the young believers, believers, don't let your youth, be an excuse, for bad behavior. He's saying, be an example.

Be a good example, by the way. Now, regarding, Samuel is serving, so he's doing, tabernacle service.

Now, we've already, gone through this, a little bit. Nathan has gone over it, from the pulpit, so we won't, belabor it too much, but, we know, that in the church, now, in this dispensation, we don't have, the tabernacle.

We don't have, the temple. We don't do, sacrifices. There is one, sacrifice, that has been, done, once for all. Who?

Christ Jesus. So, we have, the sacrifice. We have, the blood, permanently applied, and, in Hebrews, we read, that those, were, pictures, of, God, and God's work.

And, the ultimate sacrifice, has been made. And, now, we don't have, a priest anymore. We have, one mediator, between God, and man. The man, Christ Jesus.

So, there is only, one mediator. There's only, one priest. And, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, who, ever lives, and intercedes for us, says the word of God.

That's, pretty amazing grace. Now, we know, that we don't go, yearly for the sacrifice, and they, we don't do, the temple service, as he was doing.

However, that doesn't mean, that we don't, serve, the Lord. In Romans, I think, I'll, all of these will be from Romans.

But, you know the verses. If you, if you want them later, ask Sherry, and she'll, she'll get them from the notes. But, now, we have been released, from the law, having died, to that, by which we were bound.

That is the law. So, that now, we serve, in newness, in newness, of the spirit, and not, the oldness, of the letter.

The letter being, the Mosaic law. So, we know, that in the church now, we serve in the spirit, not in the letter, of the law. It's not by ritual, or by rule.

It's by, trusting, faith in Christ. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable, service.

And, the word reasonable there, if you're reading, your new American standard, I'm, I'm sorry, I, didn't read, from my new American standard, I, I sent the King James, in there, some, some of us, did most of our, learning from the scripture, from King James, and that creeps in anyway.

It doesn't change the meaning. The word there, the word there, reasonable, does mean that. It's logical. It's the same word, that is the basic word, for logos, or the word.

So, it is a reasonable service, to God. and, the body, a living sacrifice. By the way, one wag put it, the problem with a living sacrifice, is it keeps crawling off the altar.

I need to be careful of that. I do, that's a joke, but it's something for me, to pay attention to. Because, no one here, other than me, is ever tempted, to crawl off that altar.

No, he said, this is an ongoing thing. Let love, he says to the church, and this is directly, to the congregation. Let love, be without hypocrisy.

Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted, to one another, in brotherly love. Give preference, to one another, in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Later on in Romans, the apostle Paul, again, still to the congregation, for if, because of food, your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking, according to love.

Do not destroy, with your food, him, for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let, what is for you, a good thing, be spoken of as evil.

That is, we make, we make allowances, with our liberties, for the conscience, of our brethren, is what he's, getting at here.

For the kingdom of God, is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. He, who in, he, who in this way, serves Christ, is acceptable to God, and approved by men.

So then, this is what our service looks like. We pursue the things, which make for peace, and the building up, or the edification, of one another.

So, in verse 26, of, of, first Samuel, chapter two, because he's going, he goes in, he leaves Samuel, he goes to Eli, and then he's going back to Samuel.

So, in verse 26, we'll look at that. Samuel was growing, the boy Samuel, was growing in stature, and in favor, both, with the Lord, and men.

Does, hold up your hand, if that rings a bell, for any other person, you've read in the Bible. Oh, come on. Yeah. It had better, because, that comes from Luke, and it is said of, Jesus, the boy grew, in stature, and in favor, with God, and men.

So, here, it's said of Samuel. That was just an aside. Now, now we're going to Levi. Look at, verse 22, chapter two.

Eli, Eli, Eli, was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing, and he says to them, don't do that.

That's an evil report. What are you doing? Now, he knew what they were doing. He'd been here, and this isn't new, to Eli, because God's going to send a prophet here in a second.

This isn't new to Eli. He knew what his sons were doing. By the way, about this report, we've read what they were doing, and we've added one grievance to the list.

They didn't know God. They did not know God's word, that is, the custom of the priest with the people. They despised the worship of God, and they behaved lewdly, even in the tabernacle.

That's pretty grievous. That's pretty grievous. And, and now, Eli says, don't do that.

But they didn't listen to him. I'm going to take an aside, and talk about report. That is, how people view us, in life.

Now, the Christian, we know, and we're seeing it increasingly, and those with more ears, see, even greater differences, but we know that we are, as a people, counter-cultural, as a group.

The Christian does not view the world the same as your non-Christian neighbor views it. By the way, when the Apostle Paul mentions in Corinthians, he mentions it specifically to marriage, but it goes in all aspects of life, where he tells us, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Why? Because it, it tends to, wreck your reputation. It tends, the, the gloves get dirty, the dirt never gets glubby.

Bad company, because he says in the same scripture, bad company corrupts, ups, good manners, good morals. Your, your morals are, affected by those, who you're linked, to the closest.

That's what the church is for, by the way, in edification. And, conversely, Paul says, don't be unequally yoked, because it will affect.

Now, but, the, the, the, common culture, will look at the church, and say, yeah, you're, not only will they say, you're all wet, you're kind of weird, but now, the common culture, will say, you're kind of dangerous, because your thinking's, not in line, with ours.

You're not doing, what, you're supposed to be doing. You're not, you're not agreeing, with my perversion. In fact, you're not only, not tolerating, you're not blessing me, because of it.

You're not getting on my wagon, and shouting. Now, that's not really, an exaggeration. You know that, from hearing. So, we understand, that, having a good reputation, outside the church, does not always happen, if we're obeying, the Lord Jesus.

Because we are, as a people, counter-cultural. We don't think the same. We don't, hopefully, it makes a difference, in my actions, too.

But, literally, I do not, think the same, or should not, think the same. I've been enjoying, not to. But, let's hear, what he does say, to the church.

He, he does say, be of the same mind, that is an equal mind, one to another. Now, when he says, when the Apostle Paul, writes one to another, he's always talking, about the church.

He's never saying, be of the same mind, with your neighbor. That's not, what he's saying. He's saying, be of the same mind, within the church.

And, when he says, be of the same mind, he's not talking, about equal minded, or everybody thinking, the party line. He's saying, look at other people, the same as you look at yourself.

Look at your brethren, all, and the easiest thing, for me to see, or what I need, to be reminded of, is, who is not saved, by grace?

Who's saved, by works? Who's saved, by works? No one. So, do I need a savior, the same as, Joe needs a savior?

Yes. That's what he means, by equal thinking. We all, need, Jesus. And, without him, none of us, will stand, before God.

So, he's saying, be of the same mind, one to another, don't be haughty, but associate with the lowly, don't be wise, in your own estimation, never pay back evil, for evil, to anyone.

He is still talking, by the way, about the church. Respect, what is right, in the sight, and here he goes outside, of all men. So, he does say, pay attention, to your behavior, Roger, so that, you behave, so that, people outside the church, can respect that behavior.

There are some things, even if they disagree, that people will respect. They'll respect your integrity. integrity. They won't respect my hypocrisy, but they will respect integrity, even though they say they don't.

There'll be something in there, that does. If the apostle Paul will say, of elders, he has to have a good reputation, with those outside the church.

Now, all of us should, but if he's an elder, he must have. Otherwise, we, the church is not to, not to consider him.

Paul, for we, Paul says, and those with him, have regard for what is honorable, in the sight, not only in the sight of the Lord, but what is honorable, in the sight of all men.

And there he was talking about, how he was going to handle, the finances. He was telling the church, hey, you take up your collection, you assign men to go with me, we're not going to mess with the money, you assign men, that are going to see, that that money goes, where you intend it to go.

And, that's what he's saying, we respect what is, honorable, in the sight of all men. That's the context of it, at least. Now, and I'll stop with this.

Philippians, whatever's true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and anything worthy of praise, dwell, or that is, ponder, on these things.

The things you have learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, I'm going to reiterate this one, practice these things. So, what you've seen, if it's honorable, if it's right, if it's pure, if it's of good reputation, you ponder these things, and what you've seen me do, this is a big statement, by the way, folks, what you have seen in me, and heard from me, you put into practice.

And then he says, the God of peace will be with you. So, back to Eli's sons. Eli says, you've got a bad reputation.

This isn't a good report that I hear. Why are you doing this? Eli's sons, it says, would not listen to the voice of their father.

By the way, we know, we know the verse, almost all of us, know the verse, that says, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right.

Now, that's true. But Eli hasn't been teaching very well.

And by the way, if I use the revelation that Paul gave to the church, as though, as a metaphorical father to sons, I will go through especially those, and the reason we stress the Pauline epistles to the church is he's the apostle to the Gentiles of the gospel of the grace of God.

He, the marching orders for the church are found in the Pauline epistles. The marching orders for the kingdom are found in the gospels and before.

So, back to this, I will look at, if I look at Paul as a father, if you will, then I will see that, again, the things you have heard and learned and seen in me, practice this.

Don't act like you used to act, he'll say in Ephesians, because that's why the wrath of God is coming on people of disobedience. Instead, you didn't learn Christ that way, you lay aside the old self and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, put on the new self.

Now, the man of God comes to Eli.

The man of God is a prophet because he's going to say, thus says the Lord. Now, everybody who says, thus saith the Lord is not necessarily a prophet.

prophet, there are a couple of things that we know that are true of prophets, more than just a couple. One, if they're a real prophet, God spoke through them.

And if you want to test it, he told Israel, everything they say is going to happen if it's in future events.

He said, if anything fails, they're not a real prophet. And God gave most of them some signs. But, in this case, the man of God comes to Eli and he tells Eli, not just your sons are kicking at my sacrifice.

He says to Eli, why do you kick at it? You disrespect my sacrifice. You are not honoring me, he said. You have honored your sons above me.

That's a big deal. That's a big deal. And he will say, I did reveal myself to your father's house, to Aaron's house, that you would be my priests, that you would partake of the sacrifices, but you, he says in verse 29, kick at my sacrifice and my offering, and you honor your sons above me.

Eli was a high priest and he allowed his sons to continue in the priesthood, although he knew what they were doing. For some reason, and Eli, God's not done with Eli.

He's going, you read 1 Samuel, you'll see God is not finished with Eli yet, but God says, apparently, it's more important for Eli to, for his sons to continue in an important office than it is that they obey God and that they honor God.

God says, God says to Eli, that's on you. You honor your sons more than you honor me.

Now, your sons are important. Children are important, but they're not God. Your brothers and sisters in the Lord are very important, but they're not God.

There is only, how many gods are there? One. And God will say to Israel, I share my glory with no one.

See, God, one of the things God can't do is he cannot make a mistake. He cannot lie. He can't say something that is not accurate and he cannot deny himself.

God cannot pretend I'm as important as he is. It's impossible for him. He's God. He knows everything. He knows who, and unlike me, who may not know myself as well as I think I do, God knows himself thoroughly and he knows us thoroughly by the way.

He knows us better than we know ourselves. So, the man of God comes and he says, you, Eli, you're kicking at my sacrifice.

A turn of phrase there. That is, you are not respecting the service that I have laid down that should be happening. and you honor your sons more than you honor me.

Now, Eli apparently has failed to discipline them when discipline was easy.

Yeah, discipline, by the way, discipline, the small part of discipline is correction or punishment.

That's the small part. Discipline is all of the training. It's all of the nurture. The nurture and the admonition. So, it's all of the training.

But, if the training hasn't been there, if the discipline hasn't been there when the child is young, it's unlikely, even for the Christian, that the correction will come very well when they're old.

The twig is bent the best when the twig is green. It's pretty tough to straighten that tree when it has the growth on it.

I know that's a picture, but it works. And that is, Eli didn't train his sons, apparently, when he should have been training them.

And if he had and they left the training, it was still Eli's responsibility as the high priest to put them aside and put them out of the priesthood.

Because they were misbehaving. And that is a minor statement. They were doing gross things. Terrible things.

And he hadn't corrected it. And so the priest comes and he says, this is what's going, or the priest, I'm sorry, the prophet comes and says, this is what God says is going to happen.

Now, by the way, we know the verse that said, children, obey your parents. We also know the verse that says, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.

By the way, for me, when I was, I got angry when dad corrected me. That's not what this verse is saying. Well, Estel, if Roger gets angry, you shouldn't do that.

that's not what that verse says. Because children are going to get angry just because they don't get their way. I know that's news to everyone.

But, when he says, provoke not your children to wrath, the key word there is provoke. You don't do things, he says, father, that you intend to make them exasperated.

That is, I'm going to use an example that isn't really fitting, but it's an exaggeration for effect. You don't tell your two-year-old to pick up the 80-pound bag and carry it over.

Right? You don't exasperate, you don't ask them to do something that the child is incapable of doing. Conversely, you bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, you don't refrain from asking them to do the things that are expected.

And, by the way, we rarely rise morally or spiritually, we rarely rise beyond what our parents expect of us, just for what it's worth.

Now, again, if, for Eli and Eli's sons, if the, if it wasn't done in their youth, it's hard to correct it.

So, the prophecy is made now, you will not have an old man in your house. He's not going to cut off Eli's descendants from the priesthood.

You saw that, but I will not cut off every man. It's just that when they get in the prime of life, I'm going to take their lives.

They're going to, all your descendants, Eli, are going to die in the prime of life. That's what he told him. Now, by the way, Phineas is named for a, for one of his ancestors, and that's when God made the prophecy about your house serving as priests.

And it had to do, we won't go through it, but it had to do with their camp that shit them, and they played, they went whoring after the daughters of Moab, and the man brought a Midianite woman in in front of all the congregation and took her into the tent, and Phineas, the grandson of Aaron, killed them both.

And God said, you tell him that I'm going to bless his children after him and give them the priesthood. And here God says, yes, I did say that, however, they're all going to die young because of what you've done now.

So, how'd that play out? Well, we don't get that until Solomon, because you notice he says, I'll raise up a faithful priest.

first, you remember when David was old and ready to die, that he, that God had told him that Solomon would have the kingdom.

By the way, the grace of God at work and God's plan. Solomon was the son of David through whom?

Quickly. Bathsheba. Well, wait a minute, Lord. Don't you understand that that was an illicit relationship? I think God caught that.

I don't think he missed that. But it is a wonderful picture, if you will, of the grace of God and how he can redeem even wrong things.

And so, and David had sworn to Bathsheba that Solomon would be king. Well, Adonijah, another son of David, said, oh, dad's about ready to kick.

So, I know it's a rough paraphrase, but dad's about ready to go. I'm going to go out and declare myself king and have a big party, which is what he does.

And the priest, Abiathar, who had been with David through thick and thin, went with him and supported his insurrection.

And so, Solomon, after he had gotten rid of all the people who were trying to take the throne, called Abiathar before him and he said, listen, you deserve to die for what you did with Adonijah.

However, I'll tell you what, you go to your house and you don't leave it. And he took him out of the priesthood and installed Zadok as priest.

Now, Zadok is a descendant of Levi. He is Aaron's descendant, but he is not through the line of Eli. So, Zadok will, and the word of God will say in 1 Kings, he'll say in accordance with or that the word of God may be fulfilled where he said, I will raise up a faithful priest.

So, it was, God actually brought that about in the time of Solomon. And, our time is gone, so, just to remind myself, God's revelation of his unfolding plan gives me hope and peace and security in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And, we serve Christ in the church not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit, and we do it primarily, the service of Christ primarily, is in our lifestyle and in the way we relate one to another.

We pursue those things which lead to peace and those things which edify the body. build up the body, one another, every member providing.

And, in practice, we listen to our father, if you will, the proverbial father. father, we, we, if we want marching orders for the church, we look into the letters to the churches and we say, how should I be behaving?

What should I be doing? What should we be about? And so, I do that and practice the things that I find. I should put them into practice.

It's one thing to say, to say, yeah, I know what he says. It's quite another matter to actually do it. And, the last thing is, Eli did not, Eli honored his sons.

He did not honor God. and the church and individuals within, every individual Christian, seeks to honor God in our lives.

And, with that, we'll quit. And, I'm not going to lead you in the doxology. I love that, by the way. But, I like it when you sing it.

I'm not going to do that. But, if you would stand with me and we're going to listen to what Paul says to Timothy. Now, unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. Have a great week.