Replaced Destiny III

Text: 1 Sam. 3:11-19
MORE LESSONS: Lk. 2:40-52
Bible Reading in one Year: Psalms 13-15

I have asked myself on many occasions that when God was picking Samuel, where were Eli's children? They were adults and Samuel was only a child; perhaps they were even bullying Samuel, hitting him on the head saying that is not how to carry the ephod, sit down, that is not how to wear the minister's clothe, put your tie well, and possibly spank him for not doing things right in the temple. Yet God chose that little boy instead of them.

It pleased the Lord to attend to and prefer that boy above them; why? It is because they refused parental teaching. Eli did not handle his children in such a way that they could look like Samuel in the temple, so God sent a message through Samuel to tell him that He would strike Eli and his children in one day and they would die.

Each time I read some scriptures, I shiver. Look at one of them, In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end: 1 Sam. 3: 12. That is terrible, God said He would not spare but would do to Eli as He warned that He would judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he brought, which he knew, because his sons made themselves vile and he did not restrain them. Parents should not let their children go free when they do something wrong saying they are only children.

Because Eli did not restrain his children, he jeopardised their destiny and generations after him. In 1 Sam. 4:19 –21, his daughter-in-law delivered a child and named the child Ichabod, saying the glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father- in- law and her husband, from whom the glory departed and the destiny of the family was replaced. It is good for children to obey their parents in the Lord for the sake of their own destinies. Though Eli was not very strict about his instructions to his children, if the children were wise enough to yield to their father's words, they would have saved the destiny of their family.

Children can be the saviour of their family. Samuel was weaned early by his mother, yet he did not derail from his mother’s teachings even in the midst of the sons of Belial. Daniel was a young man also in Babylon but he purposed in his heart not to defile himself (Dan. 1:8). Even in the absence of your parents, you can still please the Lord and your destiny will not be replaced.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for children that Heaven and earth will be proud of.
* Pray against any child’s wrong doing that could wipe away God’s favour from the entire family .
* Ask God to send more godly children to the earth through all waiting mothers in church.

Like and Share