sacrifice

There’s an interesting contrast at the start of 1 Samuel.

The first few chapters of this book are about God’s provision of a faithful priest for his people. Chapter 1 tells of Hannah and Elkanah, two faithful Israelites doing their best to follow God even as they wonder about his plan for them. Chapter 2 is about the family of Eli, priests all, who could care less about God’s plan.

We see the contrast in how they treated the sacrifice. God’s law gave careful instructions about how the sacrifice must first be presented in the temple, and only after that certain parts of it could be shared by the people.

First, we read of Elkanah’s sacrifices, in 1 Samuel 1:4-5: “Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.”

One short chapter later, we read of this about the priests in the temple, in 1 Samuel 2:12-16: “Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord. Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, ‘Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.’ If the person said to him, ‘Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,’ the servant would answer, ‘No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.’”

Nothing could demonstrate better the need for a man of God in God’s temple than this contemptuous, self-centered treatment of the holy sacrifice by Eli’s sons. And nothing could explain better why God turned to Hannah and Elkanah to fill the lack than Elkanah’s loving, selfless following of sacrificial law in a way that showed tenderness to his sorrowing wife.

Not all of the leaders in God’s house please him. And some of the best followers of God are those we consider followers in our church. These are facts worth remembering as we choose who to honor.