1 Samuel 2:27 And there came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, Thus said the LORD, Did I plainly appear to the house of your father… That was a terrible speech to make to an old man whose life was all behind him, who was now tottering on the last edge! Ministers of God are required to come up to this point of faithfulness, now and again; to have to say these words, terrible as lightning at midnight, right to an old man, when nobody else is there to hear — to thunder to one man — to shake the universe round one poor old man! It is nothing to preach to a crowd. But when the man of God comes and talks to one auditor — and when that auditor feels, by reason of his solitude, that every syllable is meant for him alone — you go far to test the strength of a man's character and the extent of a man's moral capacity. Eli was a priest, the speaker was a man of God. Man first, priest second; life original, office secondary. Eli was high priest, and the man who confronted him was a man of God. There is something deeper in the human than the sacerdotal. Let us have faith in people, in humanity; not in ephods and mitres and staves of office — but in that divine, living, imperishable spirit which God has put into redeemed and sanctified beings. Surely this message was enough for one day. Who can bear such thunder from the morning even until the evening? The next messenger that came was a little child. This is how God educates us, by putting tutors on both sides, behind and before. You hear a man who tells you what to you may be evil tidings — sharp, startling messages to your judgment and to your conscience — and you say, "The man is a fanatic." You walk away, and before you have got a mile further a little child gets up and smiles at you the same message — says it in smiles, in tender looks, in trembling child-like tone — and you begin to think there is something in it. You go further, and the atmosphere seems to be charged with Divine reproaches and Divine messages. So you go on, until the oldest, best., and stateliest men tremble under subtle, impalpable, all-encompassing, irresistible influences. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? |
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