"Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. "
James 1:22
ENFORCING THE TRUTH
Read It: I Samuel 2:22-25 How many times have you been in the grocery store or mall and heard a parent say to a screaming, obnoxious two-year-old who's hitting him or her and pitching a fit, "Now, now, don't do that, dear. Here, let's stop that"? Meanwhile, the kid is wreaking havoc. Well, I don't know if that's how Eli got started with little Hophni and Phinehas. We're not given any details of their childhood. What we have in 1 Samuel is the bottom line, which is this: Eli's sons were vile before the Lord, and he did absolutely nothing about it. Now it's true that he did speak to them. You probably just read it. Eli heard about the terrible things his sons were doing and said, "Now, boys, you ought not to do that. The Lord don't like ugly. No, no. Bad, bad." And the boys said, "Yes, Daddy," and then went right back to robbing the people who came to the temple and misusing the women. And from all indications, Eli just turned away from it. The issue was not that Eli didn't tell his children the right things. It's that he didn't enforce the right things he was telling them. I don't know any parents who go out and tell their kids, "Go rob a bank. Go find someone one to kill. Ten or twenty years in prison will do you good." I suspect you don't know any parents like that either. No, the parents we know probably say the right things.
A lot of prison inmates' parents said the right things too. But what is missing in so much well-intentioned parenting is enforcement. Eli was not enforcing the truth. He was only stating it. He didn't pull his boys from their posts and strip them of their privileged access to the temple and the people of Israel. He knew what they were doing, but he let them keep on doing it while telling them they ought not to do it. Discipline includes more than telling your children what they ought to do. You do not leave sinners to decide things for themselves because they will inevitably decide on sin! Think About It Parents have to be consistent in following through. Does it take more effort? Of course. Is it necessary? Ask Eli.
No Comments