Sam Taylor - Class 1: The Tragedy of the House of Ithamar

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   And with that, I'll call out Brother Sam to give his class entitled The Tragedy of the House of Ithamar. Brother Sam. Well, good morning, or good evening, rather, my beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ and dear young people. I bring with me the loving greetings of the Paris Avenue Ecclesia in Ohio.

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   And I just want to say how thankful I am to be here to be able to speak with you this evening and during the course of this weekend about Zadok, the faithful priest, who, as we'll see over the course of this weekend, is going to be the subject of his prophecy from 1 Samuel 2, verse 35, where it says, I will raise me up a faithful priest who shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind.

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   But brothers and sisters, one thing you'll notice in Scripture is that God, when he's presenting the promises, when he's presenting the beacon of his righteousness, it's often done through contrast. And this contrast is necessary to appreciate God working in our lives. Some examples in Scripture to consider. When we look at the example of David, the shepherd, caring for his sheep, we can appreciate that, but we appreciate it greater when we consider that who came before him, but Saul, who he met searching for his father's lost donkeys.

4. 1:43

   And how can we appreciate the righteousness of the judges who led Israel out of their backsliding ways if we don't consider first those who did what was right in their own eyes that made that deliverance necessary? And how, brothers and sisters, can we truly fathom the triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ over sin and death were it not for the fall of Adam in the garden which made that sacrifice necessary?

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   And it's in that vein, brothers and sisters, that we'll consider the house of Ithamar because they will serve as a foil to Zadok, the faithful priest, by their contempt of God, by their contempt of his holiness. And as we look at this class tonight, brothers and sisters, as we look at this family, let us take this opportunity also to examine our former or possibly our current way of life against the ideal that God has for us.

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   Now, before we go too much farther into the study, brothers and sisters, I want to address a peculiarity in the scripture because we saw here in 1 Samuel chapter 2 that Eli was the priest in Shiloh. But come with me, if you will, over to Numbers chapter 25.

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   It says here in Numbers 25, we're going to read a familiar story to us. of a priest who was zealous for God's things and what he did in the face of wickedness.

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   In Numbers 25, looking through verses 6 through 13, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. When Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand.

9. 3:42

   And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. And Yahweh spoke unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel while he was zealous for my sake among them that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

10. 4:06

    Wherefore I say, behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace and he shall have it and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel. And it's within that context of an everlasting priesthood, brothers and sisters, I want to address that peculiarity because in this incident here in Numbers 25 at Baal Peor, Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, he was given the covenant of peace and an everlasting priesthood.

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    Yet the next high priest in the biblical record that we read is of Eli, the house of Ithamar. And now, whereas the genealogy of Eliezer going to Zadok is pretty straightforward, I have here on the slide a fairly abridged genealogy. You'll notice how the genealogy of the sons of Ithamar is somewhat complicated.

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    We have Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who we met in 1 Samuel chapter 1 and we read about their wickedness in the chapter we read for us this evening in 1 Samuel chapter 2. If you go on a little bit later in the story of King Saul, you read about Ahitub, who were not told is of the family of Ithamar, but he is the brother of Ichabod.

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    And we had to find out about Ichabod as being the son that was born to the wife of Phinehas while she died in childbirth at the death of Hophni and Phinehas. And it's there that we read later on about Abimelech and Abiah as being priests.

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    And just to prove, brothers and sisters, that this is in fact about the house of Ithamar, take a look with me over in 1 Chronicles 24 with me very briefly. We'll take a look here in verse 3.

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    Because in the reign of King David, he worked very actively with the Levites. And in verse 3 of 1 Chronicles 24, we read, and David distributed them both Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar. Now, I want to address that the Ahimelech that's mentioned here in 1 Chronicles 24, verse 3, is not the same Ahimelech that you see on the narrate of the slide here from 1 Samuel 22, verse 9.

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    The reason being that Ahimelech was one of the priests that was slaughtered at the order of Saul by Doeg the Edomite. So what likely happened is that Abiathar, his son, the only remaining priest from that massacre, took on that name as a second name. And that shows up here in 1 Chronicles 24, verse 3.

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    And that man, Ahimelech, also named Abiathar, was of the sons of Ithamar. And through this, we can see that Eli was the high priest, but he was not the son of Eleazar. He did not descend from Phinehas, the one who was granted an eternal priesthood. And you might be asking, well, it's all well and good, but what's the practical import of this information?

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    That's a fair question. We don't want to just dive into academics for the sake of it. The point here is, brothers and sisters, that at a certain point, the lineage of the high priesthood changed from the sons of Eleazar to the sons of Ithamar. We're not told why. Historians have theories such as civil war, interference from oppressed nations.

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    But at the end of the day, brothers and sisters, what's important is not how we got there. What's important is that God approved of the transfer. The man of God in 1 Samuel 2 addressed Eli as the priest. And this transfer was approved until a change was necessary. And that's where we come to our story in 1 Samuel 2.

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    Because this is the point when God decided something needed to be done. His priesthood had spiraled out of control and was not portraying His holiness. Something had to be done. And so what I'd like to do this evening, brothers and sisters, I'd like to consider not the successes, but the failings of Eli and his sons to examine our own spiritual health.

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    Oftentimes, when we look at the examples of those in Scripture, we look at the spiritual heroes, it's very easy to say that they can be out of reach sometimes. We look at the heroism of David, the faith of Daniel. We look at these wonderful, staggering displays of faith. And it's almost as if we look at them and we say, how can we ever aspire to that?

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    But sometimes, when we look at these flawed characters, these flawed figures of Scripture, it's almost as if we're looking into the mirror. we see our own flaws within them and we realize that as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, you don't need to turn here, but in 1 Corinthians 10, we're told that these things serve as an example to us.

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    They are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. And what's the warning that he gives? Wherefore, let him that thinketh he stand, take heed lest he fall. Because how often, brothers and sisters, have we looked at the example of the faithless children of Israel in the wilderness and wondered, how could they be so faithless despite seeing God's hand?

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    Well, how can we? How can we sometimes be so faithless when we see God actively working in the nations all around us? And so this example tonight, brothers and sisters, will be our means of looking in the mirror, not to pick out their flaws to cast pure condemnation down, but as a means of self-examination to see where we stand and how we need to change in our walk before Almighty God.

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    And so with that, brothers and sisters, let's take a look at 1 Samuel chapter 1. It's here we're introduced to the record of Eli and his two sons. And it's in this context we also see a spiritual woman, a barren woman named Hannah, desperate for a child to bring up to Yahweh.

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    Let's take a look at verse 9, brothers and sisters, because what we want to look at here is Eli, how the scripture introduces us to Eli, the priest. So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli, the priest, sat upon a seat by a post at a temple of Yahweh.

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    And I want you to notice that, brothers and sisters. Eli, the priest, sat upon a seat. What's so bad about sitting? Well, what does the Bible have to say about the priests? What was their role? That role for us is told for us over in Deuteronomy chapter 10. Look at what it says about the priests and the Levites in Deuteronomy chapter 10.

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    At that time, Yahweh separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to stand before Yahweh to minister unto him and to bless in his name unto this day. The Levites served as a microcosm, the ideal of what Israel was supposed to be. Back in Exodus 19, Moses approached the people with the covenant and said, if you would heed the word of God, you will be a kingdom of priests.

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    But they failed in that regard. They failed at the incident of the golden calf. And the Levites were the ones who stood up and consecrated themselves. And they became the ones who God called out as the priests.

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    So they were supposed to be a microcosm of Israel. And the high priest especially so. The high priest was the true Israelite. It was a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ and the atoning work that he would do. But how he stood. Holiness unto Yahweh was the gold plate that rested on his head.

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    All of his actions, all of his conduct was holiness unto Yahweh. As the high priest was to do, so was all of Israel. But we meet Eli sitting, doing exactly opposite of what was told the Levites were supposed to do in Deuteronomy chapter 10. And one has to ask, why were priests commanded to stand?

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    And it's a very straightforward answer, isn't it? Because when you're standing, you're ready to work. When God tells you to move, you're ready to move. When you're sitting down, you first have to get up the energy to move, to decide, okay, I'm going to get up. I guess I'll get to work. But when you're standing at attendance and God says to move, you're ready to move.

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    And that's what the Levites were supposed to be. That's what all Israel is supposed to be, brothers and sisters. And that's what we're called to do, to stand.

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    Consider this example in Zechariah chapter 3. Because it's here in Zechariah chapter 3 that we see a vision of Zechariah. And who does he see? Joshua the priest.

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    But in his vision, what does Yahweh say about how this priest should act? And what is the ideal? Well, we're told in verse 7. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, if thou wilt walk in my ways, if thou wilt keep my charge, and thou shalt also judge my house and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.

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    And who is he referring to that time but Michael the archangel who is contending against the figurative Satan in that passage. And here's the truth, brothers and sisters. If we wish to be equal to the angels in the age to come, like Gabriel who said, I stand in the presence of Yahweh, like those who stand by, we must stand ready to do God's will in our lives today.

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    Our families, our ecclesias, our lives, they all represent, they're all a training ground for the kingdom age. And God's word, it should prick our conscience to stand in attendance, to be ready to act. And we can't, we can't be found sitting idly in God's house.

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    Because there's only one. There's only one who has earned the right to sit. And that was the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 10, verse 11 through 13, we're given another summary of how the priests should act. And then we compare that to the great high priest, the priest after the order of Melchizedek, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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    In Hebrews 10, verse 11 through 13, where we're told, and every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,

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    sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. And there's a lot bound up in that word till, isn't there, in verse 13. Derived from Psalm 110, verse 1, Yahweh said unto my Lord, sit thou in my right hand until, until I make thine enemies my footstool.

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    Christ will not sit forever. Because what does it say in Zechariah 14? That one day he, on the day of Yahweh, he will stand on the Mount of Olives. Just because Christ is sitting now, his work is not done. And if his work is not done, our work is certainly not done, brothers and sisters.

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    And we can't wait until that day to decide we're going to stand ready. We can't wait until the day when Yahweh is going to act through his son to destroy the nations that wish to destroy Israel. We can't wait until then to decide, okay, we're going to get up now. We'll get moving.

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    It has to be today. Today. And in case you think I'm being a little hard on Eli and how scripture describes him in 1 Samuel 1 verse 9, I just want you to consider this. We meet him in 1 Samuel 1 verse 9 as a man who is sitting. If you were to go over a couple of chapters later, in chapter 4 verse 18, you don't need to turn there, but how does he die?

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    He dies because he heard the ark was taken. And he was sitting. When he made mention of the ark of God that Eli fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate and his neck breaking, he died. We meet him sitting. He died sitting. That's how God saw him as the priest who sat in comparison to the priests, how we should all be standing in attendance, ready to serve in whatever God would move us to do.

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    And you have to ask yourselves, brothers and sisters, what if your names were written in this book? What if your names were written in this book? How would God describe your actions to others?

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    Would you be the Christadelphians that sat? Or would you be the Christadelphians that stood up, ready to serve, eager to support your brothers and sisters in the work of the truth?

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    You're making that choice now. Choose to stand. Now, as we move a little bit farther on in 1 Samuel, we finally come to the portion that we read for us in 1 Samuel chapter 2. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

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    And how are we introduced in this section to Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas? Well, we're told they're sons of Belial. They're worthless men. They knew not Yahweh. Yet, what a contrast because one chapter before, they're called the priests of Yahweh.

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    The ultimate job of a priest was not purely to kill animals, to offer sacrifices. It was to be spiritual doctors, to be teachers of the law, to educate those in what our God's ways are so they might help others to keep his charge, to judge rightly, to discern between holy and unholy, clean and unclean in their own lives, not just with sacrifices but with the inner matters of the heart.

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    To know God, to not know God, yet to teach others, it's really a textbook example of the blind leading the blind. And it's not unique to the priesthood, is it? It happens today.

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    We can carry the name Christadelphian. We can carry that name and we can be indistinguishable from anyone else by our conduct. Yet, there might be someone looking up to us that can think that because we bear the name Christadelphian and we're acting the way that we act, that the conduct that we're acting in is approved by God.

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    That's the blind leading the blind also. They look to us for examples. We can teach God's word without ever stepping foot on the podium.

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    And God had harsh words for that, didn't he? Take a look with me real quick over Malachi chapter 2. Because here in Malachi chapter 2, the whole book of Malachi is really a condemnation of the priesthood, how they get slid into apathy once again.

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    It's not a one-time battle, brothers and sisters. It happens with every generation. And it happened here again during the time of the exiles. In Malachi 2, we read from verses 5 through 9, my covenant was with him of life and peace. And I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name.

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    The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and did not turn away and did turn many away from the iniquity. But a priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law in his mouth. for he is the messenger of Yahweh of armies.

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    But ye are departed out of the way. Ye have caused many to stumble at the law. Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Yahweh of hosts.

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    Now God made that covenant with one priest, Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron. When we fail, when we fail to be messengers of God in word and in deed, when we cause others to stumble by carrying the appearance of God, of knowing God, but with none of the behaviors to match, we stand opposed to the covenant of peace that God made not only with Phinehas, but with all aspiring king priests in the kingdom to come.

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    So it's critical. It's critical that we're aware of the actions and the conduct that we uphold in our lives because somebody is watching and you don't need to be behind a microphone standing at a podium to teach because you do it with your actions. And these worthless men, Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, well, they had one particular sin which was abhorred by God.

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    We read that in verses 13 through 17. And the priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servants came while the flesh was in seething with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand and he struck it in the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot, all that the flesh hook brought up the priest took for himself.

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    So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. And before, before they burned the fat, the priest's servants came and said to man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest for he will not have Sodom flesh of thee but raw. And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently and then take as much as thy soul desireth, then he would answer him, Nay, but thou shalt give it me now and if not, I will take it by force.

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    And the key to this passage, brothers and sisters, is the fat of the sacrifice. Now, when I'm talking about the fat of the sacrifice, I'm not talking about excess fat like the kind I'm lugging around here. I'm talking about protective fat, the fat that protects the most vital organs, your heart and your kidneys.

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    In Leviticus, God says that all the fat belongs to Yahweh because the fat protects the inner, the prized parts of ourselves. God doesn't want external displays of religion. God wants the best of our hearts and of our minds. In fact, oftentimes, when you're looking at passages that mention hearts and minds, if you look up the Hebrew, that word minds is often the Hebrew word for kidneys.

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    Like in Jeremiah 17, verse 10, where he says, I, Yahweh, try the reins. That word reins is kidneys. And why does he try them? He tries them because it represents the inner parts that he desires for his own. He wants us to give the best parts of ourselves to him, to hold nothing back.

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    He doesn't want what's left over. He wants what we have. But what did Eli's sons do? Eli's sons not only didn't give theirs, they interfered with others who would. They took for themselves what was meant for God. Now, we don't deal with sacrifices, do we? We don't deal with animals. We don't deal with chopping them up.

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    So how do we steal the fat? How do we steal the best of what's meant for God? Well, I have a suggestion and it's over in Romans chapter 16. At the end of Romans, when Paul was giving his farewell greetings, he has this particular warning. towards the ecclesia. In Romans 16, verses 17 through 18,

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    read what he has to say here this morning. Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, their own appetites. And by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

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    evil. So, Eli's sons stole the fat that was meant for God, the best part of the offering for God, because they wanted to satisfy their own appetites. And in today's age, how do we do this? We cause division for personal gain. We set stumbling blocks for our brothers and sisters. We use smooth talk and flattery to get what we want.

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    all of these are ways that we not only take the fat from our own offerings, but we exploit others and take what they're offering to God for ourselves.

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    And these behaviors prove, when we do this, that we aren't serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but we're serving our own worldly appetites. And in doing so, we treat God's sacrifices with contempt.

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    Now, you have to ask yourself, well, where did they learn this behavior? I'll tell you where they learned it from. They learned it from their father.

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    Back in 1 Samuel chapter 2 in verse 29, the man of God says, Wherefore, kick ye at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitations, and honor thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat. with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel, my people. In this condemnation, the man of God doesn't exclude Eli from making fat with the sacrifices, but he includes him in it.

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    And what happens here, brothers and sisters, is that spiritual apathy, when we find ourselves sitting down, it takes hold on us, and it causes us to kick, and that word for kick in Hebrew is the word trampled down. It causes us to trample on God's principles, and it starts by not appreciating God's goodness.

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    We seek our own gain through exploiting others. Our hearts become hardened, we forget all that the rock of our salvation has done for us. And this leads to what I would say is probably the crucial failure of Eli's house, the house of Ithamar.

74. 30:07

    He turned a blind eye to his son's behavior. And unfortunately, he did this not only figuratively, but he did it literally too, because in his old age, we read that he went blind. His blindness was a representation of his spiritual blindness that he had gone through. If you take a look at where his spiritual mind was at, look no further than verse 22 of the same chapter in 1 Samuel.

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    Because in verse 22, it says, Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did unto Israel. And then in verse 23, he said unto them, Why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil dealings by all his people. He found us out secondhand. Eli, the priest, was found day in and day out sitting at the temple, sitting outside the tabernacle.

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    But yet, he didn't see this wicked behavior that was going on. He had to find out about it secondhand. He may have been physically there, but spiritually his head was not in it.

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    The role of the priest, brothers and sisters, is to do two things. The priest is to represent God's holiness to man, and then to represent man to God. It's a two-way street of representation which the priest must follow. And representing God, it doesn't mean just loving what he loves. It's one thing when we love what God loves.

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    Do we love peace? Do we love fraternity? The brotherhood? God hates but do we hate what God hates? Do we hate a lying tongue? Do we hate hands eager to shed blood? Do we hate unjust weights and unjust measures? Do we hate those who would oppress and exploit for their own personal gain?

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    Eli was able to do the first. Eli was able to love what God loved because he died when he heard about the ark. He loved what God loved but he couldn't bring himself to hate what God hated. And what God hated at this time was Eli's own son's wicked behavior.

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    And back in the golden calf, we mentioned it a little earlier, that's how the Levites were consecrated. They were consecrated by taking up swords. and slaying every man their brother and their neighbor.

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    And even when you look at the example of Aaron, when his sons Nadab and Abihu, they were killed before God for offering strange incense by worshiping wrongly. And God through Moses tells Aaron to not shed a tear. You represent me. And if you cry over this, if you mourn over this, you show that I approve of what they did.

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    But Eli couldn't bring himself to do that. All he could do was offer a meek word. And brothers and sisters, when you read of that, as a matter of fact, let's go over to Exodus 32 real quick, just to consider one facet of the consecration of the Levites here.

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    Take a look with me over at verses 25 through 29. Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on Yahweh's side? Let him come unto me. Now, let him come unto me.

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    You might notice that those words, let him come, they're in italics. They're not an original text. This incident wasn't just a casual come unto me. This was a life and death situation. Here's how the text should really read. Who is on Yahweh's side? Unto me. This is life and death. Swift action is necessary, required in order to save life.

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    And that's how the Levites were rewarded. They were rewarded by God for swift action, for impartiality, for willing to stand up for what God stood for, even if the ones that were doing wrong were their own brothers and sisters. But what about Eli? Eli was inactive. He showed partiality. We read in verse 12 of how Eli's sons were judged by God to be called sons of Belial.

86. 35:07

    Yet in Hannah's prayer, if you were to look at that, Eli judged her to be a drunk. And she had to defend herself by saying, call me not a daughter of Belial. He was willing to judge harshly to those that were in his own family. But he wasn't willing to offer that same judgment to his own sons.

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    His family ties clouded his judgment. And it cost them the priesthood and it cost them their lives. And we have to ask ourselves, are we taking that swift action when we see our brothers, our sisters, our friends in a meeting? Are we taking that swift action to prevent them from falling into spiritual harm?

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    Are we guilty of partiality by being lax toward our friends, yet harsh toward others? We're not striving to be cruel, but we're striving to be consistent in how we represent God in our conduct.

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    And these failings of Eli, of his two sons, they stand in stark contrast with the zeal of Phinehas. Consider the table here between Numbers 25 and 1 Samuel 2. They dealt with similar situations. Israel joined themselves in the Baal Peor, undergoing sexual immorality. Eli's sons were looking to take the best of the sacrifices.

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    There was a Midianite-ish woman who went with a man of Israel at the door of the tabernacle. And in 1 Samuel 2, verse 22, we read that Eli's sons laid with the women, assembled at the door of the tabernacle for service. And their rewards couldn't be any different from the situations that they were in.

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    Because Phinehas stood up, took action, and saved Israel from a great plague. Eli sat at the door of the temple. Eli took no effective action. God and I want you to take a look at the rewards here. These two priests, they had two drastically different rewards for them. For Phinehas, if you take a look over at Psalm 106, because here in Psalm 106, we see the divine commentary of the wilderness wanderings.

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    Take a look at what God has to say about Phinehas in verses 30 and 31 of Psalm 106. Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment, and so the plague was stayed, and that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations forevermore.

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    Counted unto him for righteousness. But what about Eli's reward? You might notice on the slide that Eli's reward is mentioned, one of the passages mentioned is Exodus 34. And if you're familiar with Exodus 34, you recognize it as being part of the character of God. And the character of God in particular we're talking about here in Exodus 34, it's not the mercy, it's not the slow to anger, but will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

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    And if we go back to that slide that we considered earlier in this class, take a look at how many generations at the house of Eli goes.

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    Abiathar is the fourth generation away from Eli. And we're going to see in our Sunday school how Abiathar and his wickedness had the whole priesthood removed from him entirely. God does not forget the gears may grind exceeding slow, but they grind exceeding fine.

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    And if we were to look without examination, brothers and sisters, all of these would seem to be senseless tragedies, because all of these dealt with some tragedy in one form or another. Eli, at the shock of hearing about the ark of God being taken, fell and broke his neck. Hophni and Phinehas, they died in battle.

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    What about Ichabod and Ahitub? Well, on that same day they became orphans. And Abimelech, what of Abimelech, slaughtered by the order of King Saul?

98. 40:14

    This might all seem like senseless tragedy, brothers and sisters, but the tragedy of the house of Ithamar was not the fate that befell them. No. The tragedy of the house of Ithamar was their faithlessness and their apathy towards God's holy things that led to their demise.

99. 40:36

    And it's that faithlessness which they exhibited which necessitated the contrast, the promise that God would offer that we're going to be considering over the course of this entire weekend. In 1 Samuel 2 verse 35, where he says, I will raise me up a faithful priest. And if you look at this verse, brothers and sisters, every section of this one verse, of this one promise, stands in contrast to the mentality of Eli's family, of the house of Ithamar.

100. 41:07

     Let's break it down and consider in verse 35. I will raise me up. To I will raise, God says that this answer to a spiritual crisis is not going to be from the flesh. It's going to be divine intervention. I will raise me up. This wasn't for the benefit of the priests. This was for the benefit of God.

101. 41:33

     This was for God's glory. And the priesthood forgot that by pursuing their own gain. And it's a faithful priest. We talked about being consistent about how we represent God to others. Well, faithful means to be reliable, trustworthy, consistent. and this faithful priest, that shall do. This is a priest of action compared to the Eli, the priest that sat.

102. 42:07

     According to that which is in my heart and in my mind, well, to do what's in God's heart and God's mind, we have to know what's in God's heart and what's in God's mind. It stands in stark contrast to Hophni and Phinehas, sons of Belial, who knew not Yahweh, yet were considered priests of Yahweh.

103. 42:30

     And he will build them a sure house. For the sure house, it would stand in contrast to the house of Eli, doomed to fall.

104. 42:43

     And we'll look at this a little bit more in depth tomorrow, brothers and sisters, but a critical point is that the word sure in Hebrew is the same Hebrew word as faithful in the same verse.

105. 42:57

     The coming priest would be consistent even as God is consistent. If God's heart and mind do not change, then as aspiring priests, ours shouldn't also.

106. 43:12

     Turn with me over to one last passage over in Hebrews 10, because here we have encouragement from the author of Hebrews of how we ought to act, of how we ought to uphold our promises.

107. 43:30

     Consider Hebrews 10, verse 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Why? For he is faithful, that promised. To be without wavering is to hold fast, to remain steady and consistent, and our God is a faithful God. He is consistent. That which he has said, he will perform. This is God manifestation in a nutshell.

108. 44:05

     That we must remain faithful because God is faithful. And brothers and sisters, you might be asking, well, who is this priest to come? And it sounds like it's going to be the Lord Jesus Christ, and it does, and in Hebrews, we do read that the Lord Jesus Christ was made a merciful and high priest unto us.

109. 44:28

     But, but what is it saying in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 35? It says, I will build him a sure house, and he should walk before my anointed forever.

110. 44:43

     He walks before the Messiah, but he's not called it. It's a peculiarity that I hope to address in our memorial service on Sunday, brothers and sisters. sisters.

111. 44:56

     And to summarize the tragedy of the house of Ithamar, we need to look in the mirror to see the shortcomings in ourselves. We need to avoid being idle in God's house. We need to strive to be active. We have to seek to understand God's word, that we represent him properly, that we not be considered sons of Belial that know him not.

112. 45:21

     We have to give our best to God, to hold nothing back, and we have to encourage others to give the best of what they have, too. We can't be stealing God's sacrifices, the efforts that we put into the ecclesia, and we can't detract others from giving as well. And we have to care for our brothers and sisters.

113. 45:41

     We have to be impartial in loving them in a godly manner. So, brothers and sisters, over the course of this weekend, I hope that we have an opportunity to examine how Zadok the priest stands as a shining beacon in contrast to the wickedness and the faithlessness of Eli and his house. And I hope to see, brothers and sisters, how all of us, God willing, can take this time to understand and recognize how we, too, can be faithful priests and how God, in time, in the kingdom to come, will set us up a sure house that will not fall like the house of Eli did, but will stand forever in the kingdom to come.

114. 46:17

     Amen. к