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1 Samuel 2:11-12  Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy [Samuel] ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest.  Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the LORD.

The Scriptures are replete with examples contrasting two ways to live: Abel and Cain; Abraham and Lot; Isaac and Ishmael; Jacob and Esau; David and Saul, and so on.  Here, at the very beginning of little Samuel’s life, we see it contrasted with Eli’s sons.  The latter were self-serving, greedy, dishonest, contemptuous, disobedient, etc, as we see throughout this chapter, whereas Samuel’s life was whole-heartedly committed to the LORD and serving and pleasing him in all things.

In verse 30, the LORD will rebuke Eli for his failure to admonish his ‘scoundrel’ sons with the words immortalised in the Eric Liddell fim ‘Chariots of Fire’: “Those who honour me I will honour, [but those who despise me will be disdained].”  Psalm 1 puts it all in perspective, contrasting the ‘blessedness’ of the one “who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night”, with the ‘wicked’ who ‘are not so’ but who are “like chaff that the wind blows away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment”.

It seems important that God really wants us to understand the lifetime (and eternal) importance of choosing the ‘right’ way to live!  This is why Joshua challenged the people of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land: “If serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)

Are we prepared to sing a song that was inspired by a comprehensive eighteenth century revival in Assam, India, a revival sparked when children, then their mothers, then their fathers were successively martyred as they persistently refused to renounce their new-found faith in Christ: “I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; no turning back; no turning back.  If no one joins me, still I will follow; … … no turning back; no turning back.  The cross before me, the world behind me; … … no turning back, no turning back.”

– Bruce Christian