Week One CRS SS2 Second Term

WEEK ONE:
REVISION OF LAST TERM’S WORK:
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Parental Responsibilities are the duties or obligations for which parents perform in the lives of their children and are held accountable for. Being a parent is more than just providing food and other basic requirement for a child, it also entails providing guidance, spiritual direction and also helping them to fit in properly with the society. God hold parents accountable for the failures of parental values in the lives of their children.

ELI AND SAMUEL
i. The irresponsible behaviour of the sons of Eli and Samuel (1Samuel 2:12-25; 8:1-9)
In 1Samuel 2:12-25, the bible records the worthless attitudes of Eli’s son and how they had no regard for the Lord. They treated the sacrifice of God with contempt and disrespect breaking recklessly the custom of the priest because of their greed and selfishness. In total disregard, they would approach the people sacrificing and demand for the priest share raw and if they were not obliged, they take the meat by force. Eli’s sons also sleep with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Eli failed to take stern measures against his sons and this made the Lord to be angry with him. In 1 Samuel 2:23 – 25, “And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father; for it was the will of the Lord to slay them.”

Samuel on the other hand was ministering before the Lord after his mother has donated him to the service of God under the leadership of Eli. Samuel on the other hand grew up and also failed in his parental responsibilities towards his children. In 1 Samuel 8: 1- 9, the Bible records Samuel’s failure to give his children proper guidance in order to fit into leadership role in Israel effectively. When he became old, he made his sons, Joel and Abijah, judges over Israel in Beer-sheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice. This made the elders of Israel rejected them as leaders and rather ask for a king to govern them like other nations. This angered God as they have not rejected Samuel but it means they rejected the rulership of God. God directed him to warn them about the kind of king that would rule over them.

ii. God’s pronouncement of judgment on Eli and his sons (1Samuel 2:27-36; 3:1-18)
While Eli’s sons were parading themselves in such an ungodly manner, God sent a man of God to Eli recounting all He had done for him but he failed to guide his sons accordingly but honoured them more than he honoured the Lord as they have fattening themselves with the choicest parts of every offering of the people. Because of this God, withdrew the promises He made with the house of Eli and said, ‘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 honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming, when;
(a) 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.
(b) Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity which shall be bestowed upon Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house for ever.
(c) The man of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart;
(d) all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men.
(e) your two sons, Hophni and Phin′ehas, shall die on the same day.
(f) 36 And every one who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and shall say, “Put me, I pray you, in one of the priest’s places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”
And God said, He will raise up for Himself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in His heart and in His mind; and He will build Him a sure house, and He shall go in and out before my anointed forever.”

Also in 1Samuel 3:1-18, God appeared to Samuel at that time, there was no frequent vision because the word of God has become rare. Samuel was lying down within the temple of the Lord while the lamp of God has not gone out, when he heard the Lord called him. Out of inexperience, he went to Eli thinking it was Eli who called him. When it happened the third time, Eli perceived that it was God that was calling Samuel so he instructed him to say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.” When God called again, Samuel replied and said, “Speak, for thy servant hears” just as Eli had instructed him. It was then the Lord spoke to Samuel and said, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel, at which the two ears of every one that hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfil against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I tell him that I am about to punish his house for ever, for the iniquity which 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 expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”

Samuel became afraid even to tell Eli what God told him. However he eventually did after Eli had persuaded him.

iii. Fulfillment of God’s judgment on Eli and his family (1Samuel 4:10-22)
The Bible in 1Samuel 4:10-22, recorded the event that took the lives of Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phineas. There was a battle between the Philistines and the Israelites. Israel was defeated and a lot of their soldiers were killed up to thirty thousand. Hophni and Phineas were among the slain. They also captured the Ark of God. A man who escaped from the battle ran back to Shiloh with his cloth torn and sand all over him. He told the news about the battle and the whole Israel cried out loud. Eli, who was already ninety eight years old, was sitting by when he heard the cry and he inquired what that was. The young man told him what happened and how his sons too were killed. He also told him that the Ark of god had been captured. When Eli heard that, fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.

Phinehas wife was about to give birth when the news came. When she heard all that happened to her husband and father-in-law, she was deeply sorrowed and great pain came upon her. Although she gave birth, she died. Before she died, she named the child, Ichabod, which means, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.