I was reading some of 1 Samuel this morning in preparation for a little thing called READ.HEAR.PRAY.GROW and came across a section I found very interesting. The Lord tells Eli, the priest at the time, that his family basically is in shambles. His sons dishonor the sacrifices, and in 2:30 the Bible says (with regard the the unending priesthood of his family) "Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: 'Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
All of the definitions I found for esteem were positive. So even when we're being disrespectful, and God knows and disapproves of it, He still cares about us...still "lightly esteems" us because of His unconditional love. Things that we do still have consequence, but that is all part of the picture of God's love that He gives us. Love is not just affection, but also correction, as it was said a few verses prior in 2:25 where it reads "they would not listen to the voice of their father [Samuel], for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death." The 20/20 hindsight of the writing says that it was God's will, because it eventually happened as the book progresses and since God is in control of the bigger picture, nothing happens that He doesn't use for the good of His plan.
Joshua
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
this entry made me curious, so i looked up strong's. the original language seems to mean despised or accursed (but, literally, "trifling, trivial"). in this context, next to the word "honor," i would think it would be a contrast of these guys will be great, honored men and you'll be nobodies.
Post a Comment