James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
1 Samuel 2:12-26
‘LOOK ON THIS PICTURE AND ON THAT’
‘Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.… And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and also with men.’
The sacred historian dwells with evident pleasure on the beautiful, holy boyhood of the child who served before the Lord, wearing a linen ephod, and who in the visitations of the night, thrilling to the Divine voice which called him by his name, answered fearlessly, ‘Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.’ Yet from the same Tabernacle, from the same tutelage, from the same influences, came forth also the sons of Eli; and ‘the sons of Eli were men of Belial; they knew not the Lord.’
I. The training the same, the product how different; the school the same, the boys whom it educated so fearfully contrasted.—Such contrasts seem strange, but they are in reality matters of daily experience. Daily from the same home we see boys go forth, some to live noble, self-denying lives, others to live lives that come to nothing, and do deeds as well undone. So too, often, from happy conditions come base characters, from degraded environments strong, sweet natures struggle into the light.
II. Our inference from this is, that the personal devotion of the heart, the personal surrender of the individual will, can alone save a man or make him holy.—A man’s life may be influenced, but it is not determined, by the circumstances. No aid, save that which comes from above to every man, can help him to climb the mountain-path of life, or enter the wicket-gate of righteousness. Nor, on the other hand, can any will or power except his own retard his ascent or forbid his ingress. On ourselves, on the conscious exercise of our own free will, depends our eternal salvation or ruin.
Dean Farrar.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Many men can only see the things which are palpable to their outward eyes. The eyes of their understanding are darkened by sin. They have no vision of God, no consciousness of another world, no sense of the Divine meaning and purpose of life. God could never speak to His people through such foul-living men as Eli’s sons. Spiritually blinded by their iniquity, they had no discernment of the things of God. It is a melancholy thing when the ministers of God are “blind leaders of the blind.” ’
(2) ‘What a contrast between the sweet God-appointed child priest, and the priest of title and descent! On the one God’s favour rested, giving him favour with man; but the others had already committed the sin concerning which it is impossible to utter the prayer of faith (v. 25 R.V., 1 John 5:16). And God did more than Hannah had asked or thought.’
(3) ‘So natural is the connection between reverence and faith that the only wonder is how any one can for a moment imagine he has faith in God, and yet allow himself to be irreverent towards Him. Hence even heathen religions have considered faith and reverence identical. Those who have separated from the Church of Christ have in this respect fallen into greater than pagan error. They have learned to be familiar and free with sacred things, as it were, on principle. They have considered awe to be superstition and reverence to be slavery.’