Honoring God, despising God

It’s a tale of two kinds of people in this passage. Two honor God (Hannah and Samuel), while three don’t (Eli and his sons).

Hannah starts out the chapter by worshiping God for what he had done.

Throughout, she talks about how God lifts the downtrodden and honors those who follow him. And she praises God, saying,

There is no one holy like the Lord;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God. (1 Samuel 2:2)

But she also says,

Do not keep talking so proudly
or let your mouth speak such arrogance,
for the Lord is a God who knows,
and by him deeds are weighed. (3)

And arrogance was certainly a problem with Eli’s sons.

They stole from God, taking the fat of the meat that was to be offered to him, they bullied the worshipers who wanted to do things God’s way and burn off the fat, and they slept with the women who worked in the temple, defiling the women and themselves.

Maybe they thought God didn’t know. More likely, they just didn’t care. They refused to honor God as holy. But God did know their deeds, he weighed them, and then he judged them.

Eli’s problem was that he honored his sons over God. He knew what they were doing. But all he did was give them a weak chastisement. He did nothing else to stop them.

Why? I don’t know. At the very least, he should have stripped their priesthood from them. But he refused to do so, and so he too was judged by God.

In contrast to all this corruption was Samuel, who despite all this, honored God and was himself honored by God and men. It says in verse 26,

And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.

So what do we get from this? Several things.

God is holy. He is righteous.

When we refuse to acknowledge that, and we just do whatever we want regardless of how God feels, we are despising him. And God will not let that kind of behavior go on forever. He will judge it.

But if we honor God, he will honor us. The prophet that confronted Eli said this,

Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. (30)

How about you? Do you honor God, not only with your words, but with your actions? Do you take to heart the words God has spoken and obey them?

Or do you behave as if God doesn’t take notice? Do you honor other people or other things over God?

God does notice what you do. He then weighs your actions. And ultimately, he will judge you for what you’ve done.

What does God see in your life? A person who honors him? Or a person who disdains him?