Monday, May 17, 2010

Treating the Lord's offering with contempt

“This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.” 1 Samuel 2:17
The tricks of ripping off God’s people are not new. Eli’s sons were doing it in Israel at the end of the time of the judges. Instead of allowing the people to make their offerings to the Lord, they insisted on taking the best cuts of meat for themselves and ‘giving’ God the rest. It was supposed to be the other way around.
They were exploiting their position as being in religious authority. God declares that their sin was “very great”. It could cause a stumbling-block to the people – arriving with their animals for sacrifice, simply wanting to worship God according to the Law, but then these greedy priests step in to take the best part for themselves. It would be a natural reaction to not want to bring offerings any more.
The Pharisees were also guilty of this: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matt. 23:13). Paul also writes of the “constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain” (1 Tim. 6:5).
What is the answer to this problem, both back then and in Christian circles today? I don’t know. But we should rest assured that God will bring those to justice who are doing this.

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