Bible In One Year-Day 105 (Tuesday, April 15, 2014)

Commentary: 1Sam4-6. Chapter3 of this book is what every minister and worker of God should prayerfully read for precaution while doing the work of God. Two great things that the people needed were not available while Eli was a priest; the word of God and revelation. Eli was doing the priestly duty without these things. He was working for God without God’s hand in it. No wonder it is written that Samuel did not know God even though he was ministering to God;

1 Samuel 3:7 “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.”

He couldn’t differentiate between Eli’s voice and another voice. All he knew was that the voice he heard was a voice of an elderly person and Eli was the only person that fitted that thought of his. You could imagine the number of people in this category then. Was Eli inconsistence in the way he spoke then or what? God despised Eli and every adult around and went for a small boy too young to be his grandson; this is ridiculous. This is Peter’s word, Acts 10:34 “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:”

God does not need any permission from Bishop A to call Pastor B. Bishop A could, however, call anybody, it is not the same as he whom God has called or chosen. Bishop A only needs information from God to know if God actually called whoever. We, as workers in the vineyard, need to respect one another. Moses loved Joshua, but he still had to ask God who He had chosen to succeed him, Numbers 27:15-18 “… And the LORD said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him;”

When you look into God’s economy in Moses-Joshua relationship and Eli-Samuel relationship, you will realize that God honored one before his subordinate and ridiculed the other before his subordinate. Until Moses died, God was still talking to Joshua through the mouth of Moses while He went straight to Samuel despising Eli, an old man. You could imagine Eli, the priest, asking Samuel (a small boy who should still be in the present daycare) what God said. As at this time, Samuel’s parents were still packing his needs in his backpack, 1Sam2:19, just as they do in the present daycare. If we refuse to humble ourselves, this is how God humbles us. I was with a friend and his son of three years who was with us in the living room, and pressed, ran to the bathroom, turned on the light, lifted the toilet seat and ran back to us in the living room, holding his pant restlessly, and said “ daddy, I want to pee”. Instead of easing himself out in the toilet, he came back to the father to tell him he wanted to pee. That was the level of Samuel’s thinking then compared to the age of Eli. He came to Eli three times “Here I am, for you called me” If God said He wanted to do a new thing, He starts from nothing to something new. Humility is the ladder to greatness;

James 4:10 “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” Jesus also emphasized that greatness in His kingdom is given to those with the garment of humility;

Matthew 18:4 “Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

The young, the old, man and woman should desire the cloth of humility. There is no grace for the proud;

1 Peter 5:5 “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves to the elder. Yes, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

The humiliation of Eli did not end there, the invasion of the Philistines in chapter4 took the life of his two sons and the Ark of the Lord was taken away. A priest in Israel was nothing without the ark of the Lord. The life of Eli was miserable at old age. The word of God against Eli came to pass fiercely, which became a concern for the daughter-in-law. This led to her early labor. The later end of Eli lost the glory of God. The last chapter of his ministry was titled ICHABOD. May God have mercy on us in the name of Jesus. Workers in the vineyard of God must be conscious of Eli’s predicament and be conscientious in their attitude towards God’s assignment; He will not change His project but, rather, change persons. The Apostles were almost distracted but they quickly realized the importance of prayer (through which revelations come) and the ministry of the word.

Acts 6:4 “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”

Whatever, no matter how innocent it looks, that steals these two cogent ministry elements (prayer and the ministry of the word) from you, should be cast away, otherwise, it will eventually cast one out of God’s presence. What remains afterwards is Mr. Flesh. Anything done without God’s Spirit cannot be right or accepted by God; i.e. it is not true. Whatever we do for God must be done in Spirit and in truth. Postings and readings, for instance, on Facebook could look innocent and good, but if it steals our time from praying, reading and studying the word of God, it could be demonic. Whatever we have to post should be as revealed after prayers. The frequency of checks for responses could subtly get us addicted to facebook unaware. Many ministers of God are becoming victims of demonic oppressions, possession and under serious attacks through these social media nowadays without knowing it. The gift of the grace of God should so much be cherished as to allow anything to steal it from us. Our next reading is 1Sam7-9. Keep the fire burning and alive. Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”

Job 28:28 “And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”