1 Samuel 2:12-21 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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Growing before the Lord

1 Samuel 2:12-21

Not only were Eli's sons strangers to the power of religion in the heart, but they had gone to great lengths of profligacy. They had seized on a larger share of the offering than was prescribed, and their rapacity had made men abhor the sacred rites. It is an awful thing when the inconsistencies of professing Christians cause men to abhor the service of Christ. It will go very hard with them at the last. The Master says that it would have been better for a millstone to be hanged about their neck; and one cannot but think that great allowance will be made at the last for those who have fallen over these stumbling-blocks.

What love and prayer Hannah must have wrought into that little coat! Every stitch was put in with such motherly pride. It was hard to give the boy up, but at least she could do something for him. How nice he would look in it! How proud she was that every year's new one had to be larger! Thus parents still make the clothes that their children wear. The little ones almost unconsciously become arrayed in the character that is constantly being shown before their quick and inquisitive eyes.

Related Commentaries of 1 Samuel 2:12

1 Samuel 2:12-21

12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.

13 And the priests' custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand;

14 And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither.

15 Also before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.

16 And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently,b 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.

17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.

18 But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.

19 Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

20 And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The LORD give thee seed of this woman for the loanc which is lent to the LORD. And they went unto their own home.

21 And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the LORD.