“In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.” [1]
At one point in my progress toward pastoral service, I was hired to manage a Christian book store in California. The store was the only Bible bookstore serving a population of several million people. The owner wanted to make the store profitable, but he expressed his concern that the store must be biblically sound, operating as a ministry for the churches of that great region. Soon after assuming my position, I noted a number of books and pamphlets promoting teachings that were not merely aberrant, but which were unquestionably heretical.
I pointed out to the owner of the store that these materials were detrimental to the spiritual health of those who purchased them and read them. He assured me that he would take care of the matter. A week passed, and then two, and the materials were still available for sale in the book store. When I again spoke to the owner, he agreed that he was concerned that the store had those materials available, and he promised that he would dispose of them shortly.
More time passed, and some of the other counter help admitted that they had sold many of these materials at various times in the weeks that had passed. I spoke once more to the owner, and expressing genuine concern, he said that he really wanted to do something with those materials. When I came in the following Monday morning, I did something about the materials. I put them all in the dumpster just before trash pickup that morning.
When the owner discovered what I had done, he was extremely agitated. He informed me that they were worth a lot of money and that my actions would cost him dearly. I reminded him that these materials were clearly heretical and detrimental to the spiritual health of people who read them. He again agreed with me, but stated that it would cost him money. I had one of my final conversations with that store owner that morning, because he fired me later that morning. However, one of my final statements to Ralph was to remind him of Jesus’ warning, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” [MATTHEW 6:24].
In the text that serves as the focus of our study this day, you will note that Azariah when he came to the throne, Azariah acted honourably with one glaring exception—the high places were not taken away. The people were making sacrifices and offerings on the high places.
Did you ever wonder what these “high places” were? Throughout the history of Israel we witness the Word of God speaking of “high places.” Why does God take such pains to speak of the “high places?” Aren’t the people worshipping? They are clearly said to be making sacrifices and offerings at those “high places.” Shouldn’t God be pleased that the people were religious? And yet, it is obvious that the LORD was not pleased that these “high places” were found throughout the land, nor was He pleased that people attended these “high places.”
Here is some essential background meant to bring us all to level ground in our understanding. A high place was a localized or regional worship center dedicated to a god. Worship at these local shrines often included making sacrifices, burning incense and holding feasts or festivals. Some of these high places contained altars, images meant to represent the god or gods worshipped there, and shrines. The Canaanites, who worshiped Baal as their chief deity, were known to have used high places.
What is interesting is to note that until a temple to the Lord GOD was built, the Israelites primarily worshiped the LORD at a local center of worship, a practice that was not condemned. Samuel, God’s prophet, blessed sacrifices that were offered at high places, and Solomon sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings on the altars in Gibeon. We read in 1 KINGS 3:2, “The people [of Israel] were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD.” Thus, these high places were permitted to serve Israel’s worshipping needs for a period of time, “because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.”
However, the Temple, built in Jerusalem by Solomon, ushered in a new period of Israelite worship, bringing the 12 tribes together as one people to worship God in one place. The LORD took up residency in His temple and the need for other centers of worship became obsolete, as becomes obvious when the Word informs us, “The LORD said to [Solomon], ‘I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time” [1 KINGS 9:3]. However, despite the presence of the Temple dedicated to the worship of the Living God, God’s people were still found worshipping at high places.
Ironically, one of the first references to the continued presence of high places is found in the narrative introducing Solomon, the very king who built the Temple. Solomon taints this new era of collective worship by building high places for Chemosh, Molech and all of his wives’ foreign gods. “Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods” [1 KINGS 11:6-8].
There were dire consequences to these actions taken by Solomon, whom we generally recognise for his wisdom. In the verses following, we read, “The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded” [1 KINGS 11:9-10].
Perhaps worshipping at the high places despite the presence of the Temple which God had consecrated doesn’t shock us because we don’t really understand what it meant for [Solomon] to “go after” these various gods. Perhaps this is because we don’t have any mental pictures of what his actions meant. Ashtoreth, whom Solomon worshipped [see 1 KINGS 11:5], was the Canaanite goddess of sensual love and fertility. To go after this goddess meant that Solomon likely went to the high places to have sexual relations out in the open with temple prostitutes. Molech, or Milcom, the national god of the Ammonites, was worshipped through child sacrifice; so it is natural for us to assume that perhaps Solomon lowered himself to throwing one of his children into the fire to appease this false god out of desperation to please some Ammonite wife. The important point is to understand that because Solomon, whom the LORD had blessed with wisdom and understanding, attempted to mix worship of the Living God with worship of false deities, the people had no difficulty in worshipping these same false deities.
It appears as if the people of Israel were attempting to cover all the bases, not unlike many of our neighbours living about us, or perhaps not unlike even some of our own families! The actions of those individuals who were worshipping at the high places remind me of a cartoon that I found especially amusing many years ago. Perhaps it was the religious imagery that made the cartoon stand out in my memory. Nevertheless, I found the cartoon quite funny.
In the cartoon, entitled “Tumbleweeds,” the town drunk, Soppy Sopwell, is appearing before the judge. The little drunk is charged with public drunkenness. Standing before the bench, the drunk is obviously inebriated, and the judge is clearly disgusted with the drunk’s appearance. The judge says to the defendant, “Sopwell, you are an incorrigible bacchanalian.”
To this, the little drunk protests, “I am not! I’ll have you know that I am a First Seventh Latter Day Roman Baptist.”
The judge, taken aback by this response, responds while exhibiting a quizzical mien, “I’m not familiar with that sect. What do they believe?”
The drunk immediately responds, “Taking no chances.”
That little drunk sounds like many of the adults that make up contemporary society. People are ever so careful to avoid taking any chances. It is almost as if people go into a religious service, saying, “I’ll take three dollars worth of religion. I want just enough to make me feel good about myself, but not so much that it requires anything of me. I want enough religion to keep those pesky evangelical nuts away from me, but not so much that I need to be forever going to a church service.” Our contemporaries are trained to take no chances.
DOING RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD, AND YET SINNING — “In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places” [2 KINGS 15:1-4].
Incomplete obedience is disobedience. Let that concept sink in. Underscore the thought in your mind. To partially obey is to fully disobey. Azariah was a good king; in fact, his reign is considered one of the better reigns in Israel’s history. If the name Azariah is not familiar to you, perhaps the name Uzziah will be more familiar. Azariah is also known as Uzziah, one of Israel’s greater kings. However, his failure to obey fully permitted the people to continue in disobedience, adding to the sin of the nation. Recognizing that high places are not the way the LORD desired to be worshiped, some kings, like Hezekiah and Josiah, tore them down. Other kings, though they are identified as righteous, kings such as Jehoshaphat, Jehoash, Azariah, and Jothan, never destroyed the high places. Sometimes this effort at what appears as syncretism was due to ignorance, as was the case with Josiah, but in most cases it was flagrant disobedience.
Like Amaziah and Joash before him, Azariah is said to have done what is “right in the eyes of the LORD.” However, the King does not remove the high places. Despite being commended, this was a serious failure. Jotham, Azariah’s son, displayed spiritual commitments similar to those of his father, indicating, not surprisingly, that he was influenced to a great degree by his father. During his sixteen years on the throne, ten of which appear to have been while serving as co-regent with Azariah, the king whom God struck with leprosy, Jotham worshiped the Lord, but he did not use his position of authority to remove the high places. Once more a king failed to understand the nature of true worship. Nothing less than obedience to the revealed will of the Lord GOD could save Judah and guarantee the people a reasonably secure future.
It is a common misperception that worship consists of what is done. I must caution you that one can perform with icy precision every act of the rituals commonly imagined as defining worship, and yet that person can fail to worship. If I get across nothing other than this one singular thought, I consider that the message will be a success. And that thought that we must seize is that worship consists of Who we meet! Underscore this thought in your mind; do not allow this concept to slip past you. Worship consists of Who we meet! If you come into the house of the Lord and you perform the familiar rituals of singing, of reciting prayers, of listening to the sermon, and you fail to meet the Risen Christ, you will not have worshipped. If you share in the Communion Meal, eating the bread and sipping the wine, and yet fail to meet the Living Son of God, you have not worshipped. You will have performed a ritual, and however meaningful you imagine that ritual to be, however good that ritual makes you feel, you will not have worshipped if you did not meet the Risen Saviour.
And here is a stunning truth: you will not meet the Lord in worship if you are corrupt. Do you recall the Psalmist saying,
“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
[PSALM 24:3-5]
The Psalm mirrors what is written in another of the Psalms of David. The Psalmist has written,
“O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
“He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the LORD;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.”
[PSALM 15:1-5]
Who I am determines whether I shall meet the Saviour, receiving His blessing because I have honoured Him, or whether I merely go through a ritual, missing the opportunity to worship. Much of what we call worship is performance art since we are unprepared to meet the Saviour. We say the words and perform the acts we believe are required, but we never meet the Lord.
We Christians living in this modern era tread a fine line that demands that we differentiate between what honours the Saviour and what disgraces His Name. Tragically, we have become adept at excusing our own sinful choices as mere foibles; and yet we are reluctant to allow others the same grace concerning what we identify as their sins when we are offended. We are adamant that lying is wrong, though we are often quite willing to excuse what we call a white lie rather than admit our own sinful behaviour. We want to be forgiven when we have inadvertently wronged someone, but too often we who name the Name of Christ are hesitant to extend the same courtesy to another when we are offended in their action. We want to hold tightly to our irritation toward those who have offended us. They should have known better! We are enraged when we discover an employer has shorted us on our paycheque, but we are not nearly as eager to ensure that we give that employer our full measure of labour by scrupulously avoiding extending our coffee breaks beyond what is allotted or by leaving work before our day is finished. My point is simply this—we are prepared to demand that others give what benefits us, though we are less scrupulous in providing what we owe.
Going to church doesn’t make up for sinning against the One Whom we call Lord. Giving generously of our time or of our moneys does not excuse us when we sin against our fellow worshippers and refuse to make things right. Participating in the ordinances of the church will not remove our guilt when we have dishonoured the Master by refusing to forgive others. This is evident when we hear Jesus cautioning those who claim to follow Him, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” [MATTHEW 6:14-15].
DOING RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD, ACTING COURAGEOUSLY — Not every courageous act can be said to be right in the sight of the Lord. However, every act that is right in the sight of the Lord is courageous. Ponder that thought for just a moment. At a time when society exalts lies as reality, telling the truth can be a courageous act. When wickedness is embraced as normal, living a godly, holy life can be the most courageous thing that one can do.
There are brave people, bold people, people who act to protect life or who act to make life better, but sometimes their boldness can be a detriment to the advance of God’s work or to the welfare of the people. Don’t misunderstand. I believe we should strive to be courageous, determined to stand for what is right and encourage those who are fearful. Recall how the Apostle has taught us as followers of Christ, “Admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all” [1 THESSALONIANS 5:14].
In order for us to do what is right in the sight of the Lord, we will need to know the will of God. It is at this juncture that many of the professed saints of the Most High God prove markedly deficient. We are not familiar with what is written in the Word of God, and thus we tend to rely on what we imagine to be the will of God without knowledge of His will. I suspect that we preachers have not taught with sufficient clarity the importance of the written Word. When we are ignorant of the Word which God has given, we are at the mercy of our imagination. And the problem with depending upon our imagination for moral or ethical guidance is that we always choose what is easiest for us and what makes us feel good about ourselves.
Without doubt, the new convert, Saul of Tarsus, was proving to be a bold spokesman for the Faith. He boldly proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, the very synagogues which once haled his prowess as a brilliant Talmudic scholar. We read, “For some days [Saul] was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ And all who heard him were amazed” [ACTS 9:19b-21a].
However, his boldness lacked consideration for the problems created—and he was creating problems for the saints. There is the issue of presenting the claim of Christ on the hearts of lost people, and there is the issue of getting in the face of those opposed to Christ, daring them to do something about it. Paul was choosing the latter path rather than the former, and it was creating trouble for all followers of Christ. So, in the earliest days of his life as a disciple of the Lord Jesus, Paul seems always to have been fleeing for his life because he created a stir.
We read in the account Doctor Luke has provided, “When [Saul] had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus” [ACTS 9:26-30].
Take special note of VERSE THIRTY-ONE, which speaks of the life of the Christians after Saul had been sent away. Doctor Luke writes, “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied” [ACTS 9:31]. Saul meant well. He no doubt felt good about what he was doing. However, his actions were creating trouble for the churches. You see, Saul was not seeking peace, but promoting confrontation.
I do not want anyone to imagine that I am advocating that we should seek peace at any cost, neglecting obedience to the command of the Master to stand firm in the Faith or to boldly declare the message of life to those who are perishing. There seems a greater danger that Christian leaders, and those who follow in the steps of those who lead, will focus so much on not offending that they never do anything of consequence. I am speaking of deliberately seeking a confrontation in the mistaken thought that this is a way in which we can honour the Lord. Such acts do not honour the Lord. There will be opposition when we live for Christ, but we need not go seeking confrontation. There will be offence taken when we teach the Word of God, but we need not deliberately act in such a way that we give offence. I am confident that the Spirit of Christ will give us wisdom to do what we are commanded without deliberately giving offence.
DOING RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD IN DAILY LIFE — So what does this story have to do with followers of Christ today? Moses has given an insightful commentary in the fifth book of the Pentateuch. The great Law Giver instructed the people of Israel, “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you” [DEUTERONOMY 12:1-7].
Earlier, you will recall that I commented that Israel continued worshipping at the high places for a time. However, according to the instructions that God gave, this was permitted only as a temporary situation. When the LORD had at last appointed where worship was to be conducted, there was to be no other location. Focus on the repeated commands the LORD gave. “You shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you” [DEUTERONOMY 12:4-7].
Israel was to go there, and no place else. There is where they were to meet the LORD. Just so, there is the place where you are to meet the LORD. There, and only there, is where you are to be if you will honour the LORD. Let me take a critical moment to say to Christians, to those who follow the Risen Saviour, that He has appointed a place that is identified as there, a place where He waits to meet us. It is not necessarily a physical place that we must seek out, but it is that spiritual place where we meet the Son of God. There is that place where you and I spend time in His presence before being consumed with caring for the immediate. It is that place where we commune with Him as we read His Word and look to Him in prayer.
Turing again to the point I have made, the LORD explicitly commands His people not just to avoid idolatry, but they are also commanded to demolish, to tear down, to dash in pieces, to burn, to chop down and to destroy even the names of those idols. For us, the word “idol” conjures up images of primitive people offering sacrifices to crude images carved from stone or wood, or perhaps more sophisticated people bowing down to a cleverly crafted image made to look like a man or some fanciful beast or even a demonic being. But we must never forget that an idol is anything we praise, celebrate, fixate on, and look to for help when that thing, that person, or that condition is not the true and Living God. Anything, or any person, or any condition that comes between us and the Risen Saviour has become an idol for us. A job, a hobby, our own desires, or even a beloved spouse or a child, can be transformed into an idol.
Jesus says we cannot serve both God and money. You do recall His warning? He said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” [MATTHEW 6:24]. We’re told that greed is idolatry when the Apostle writes, “Put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.” [COLOSSIANS 3:5 NET BIBLE]. Greed is idolatry in the same way that lust is adultery. The New Testament recognises figurative sorts of high places, where Christ’s people worship false gods instead of worshipping the One True God. Like Israel’s kings, we have the responsibility to topple all the idols in our own lives in order to ensure that Jesus is truly and fully Lord of our life. The fact that the kings of Israel didn’t use their power and authority to remove the high places and worship God alone should be a sobering reminder to us.
When the Apostle John wrote to Christ followers near the end of the first century, most of those reading his words would have had nothing to do with carved idols. Nevertheless, note that John’s final words to the followers of Christ reading what is written in the letter of 1 JOHN were, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” [1 JOHN 5:21]. The intent of John’s warning is eloquently captured when one modern translation renders this verse in the following manner: “Keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts” [1 JOHN 5:21 NLT]. Now, that is straight talk! There can be no misunderstanding in what John has written!
Let me say without hesitation that God must be first in your life if you will please Him. Any service you imagine you can offer the Living God is immediately negated if you attempt to add anything or anyone as equal to or greater than God. I know that there are professing Christians who love their family more than they love Christ. I say this because a child’s soccer game or a dance recital is more important than participating in the worship of the Risen Saviour. Staying home to entertain a visiting sister or a favoured aunt is justified because making them comfortable is judged to be more important than sharing in the service of the congregation to which God appointed you. Have we never read the words of the Master, Who cautions us, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” [MATTHEW 10:37].
We read that Eli, the Priest at Shiloh, had two worthless sons that became the cause of the downfall of that priest. Though the priest appears to have been a good man who performed his duties well, he appears to have loved his sons more than God. “Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, ‘Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.’ And if the man said to him, ‘Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish,’ he would say, ‘No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.’ Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD, for the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt” [1 SAMUEL 2:12-17].
Eli, their father, did not stop his sons from sinning against the LORD, he chose to remonstrate with them but never stopping them from dishonouring the Living God. At last, a man of God came to Eli. He carried a solemn message from the LORD. “Thus says the LORD, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honour your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, “Please put me in one of the priests’ places, that I may eat a morsel of bread”’” [1 SAMUEL 2:27-36].
But the LORD wasn’t finished with warning the old priest. After the child Samuel had been dedicated to serve God, the Lord spoke to the boy one night as he slept. Here is the account as given in the First Book of Samuel. “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
“At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.
“Then the LORD called Samuel, and he said, ‘Here I am!’ and ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’ So he went and lay down.
“And the LORD called again, ‘Samuel!’ and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call, my son; lie down again.’ Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
“And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant hears.”’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
“And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant hears.’ Then the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever’” [1 SAMUEL 3:1-14].
I am fully conscious of those awful times when I was not fully obedient to what I knew God called me to do. When the Spirit of Christ convicted my heart at such times, I was genuinely afraid, but I knew that there would be serious consequences to attempt to serve God in part rather than with my whole heart. It is a dreadfully hard thing to turn from the path that leads to destruction to find the path of the Lord and do what He commands. However, it will be far more difficult to ignore the Lord and attempt to make up for your disobedience. To imagine that you can sing a special number, or to think that you can give a monetary gift, or to think that you can recite a prayer and somehow avoid the disciple of the Lord is folly-wide-the-mark.
You must hear the Word of the Lord which encourages His people,
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.”
[PROVERBS 3:5]
Our Lord is merciful, and He urges those who stray from the path of righteousness and obedience, saying, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” [JEREMIAH 29:13]. I have no doubt that you have heard the Master instructing those who want to know what honours Him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” [MATTHEW 22:37-38]. My prayer for God’s people is that they will truly seek Him, that they will make themselves familiar with His will and that they will do what He demands of them at all times. I pray that God’s people will honour Him always, seeking Him in purity and with holy ardor. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
