Let’s look at a word that God gives Eli, one of his priests, about the man’s sons. “…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 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.’” (1 Samuel 2:30-31, ESV).
Wow! Why did God say this about Eli’s sons? Because they profaned God’s house; they did sacrilegious stuff there like using their power to abuse the women in the temple, and Eli knew about it but didn’t restrain them.
God is a God of grace, but he’s also a God of judgment. This wasn’t just an Old Testament thing either. It happened in the New Testament too (see Acts 5:1-11). A man and his wife lied to the Holy Spirit, and they both dropped dead in church.
When you’re involved in sacred things and you have access to a lot of light, God takes it seriously when you know something evil is going on and you let it go. You turn a blind eye. “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48). That’s what Eli was judged for, and all his future descendants were cut out of the priesthood. You know God spoke to Eli’s conscience before this, and people came to Eli about what his sons were doing. God’s judgment didn’t come out of the blue.
We live in a day where anything can be justified if we’re a victim of our circumstances, but God doesn’t look at it that way. If God’s given us warnings and we have light through his Word, God will judge us accordingly. We need to watch out to make sure we don’t turn a blind eye to evil just because its our family or race or denomination. God hates dishonest scales. If we have the ability to stop something evil that’s going on, let’s do our utmost to stop it.
“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).
Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.