Eli's Sonsby Lisa Kennedy | More from this Blogger 05 Aug 2006 08:03 PM Throughout the Bible God speaks of the importance of parents raising their children to obey the Lord. In the first few chapters of 1st Samuel the Bible speaks of a priest named Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Eli's sons were wicked in the sight of God, disobeying their father Eli, and the Lord. Here are some of the words or phrases used to describe the sons of Eli:
In 1st Samuel 3:11-14, in a vision to the child Samuel, the Lord tells Samuel that Eli's house will be punished: "Then the LORD said to Samuel, "Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that 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 atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever." To me one of the saddest parts of this passage is that Eli knew his sons were disobeying the Lord, yet he did not stop them from their sin. Parents have a very important responsibility to discipline their children. Children must be taught to obey their parents as well as the Lord. As Ephesians 6:4 states: "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." It is vital that children are taught to obey the Lord, for if they are not, they could depart from the Lord like Eli's sons. Relevantchristian tags User Comments  KeeperAtHome (675) 23 Jan 2007 09:48 AMHi, Lisa! The story of Eli and his sons has always intrigued me. We know that Eli was held responsible for his childrens' disobedience. The "hang up" I've had in the past is that Eli's sons were most likely adults and therefore "disciplining" them per se would have been dificult for Eli. I think the key is for us to raise our kids for the Lord from the time they are in diapers and hopefully that will avoid the issue Eli faced. That, and LOTS of prayer! I totally agree that we must discipline our children. I tell my son that I want him to obey me, so that when he is older he will obey and submit to the LORD. I enjoyed your post!  Dale Harcombe (10321) 18 Mar 2008 04:58 PMThat's excatly it. Seems Eli was not diligent in training his sons when they were children and they grew up thinking they could do as they liked. I've used this example in http://christian.families.com/blog/laziness-part-2-in-parenting Community Tags children, discipline, laziness, Obey, obedience, parenting, Samuel, spoiling, training Discuss this article
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