Repent For Your Sake and the Sake of Your Children

# 44 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 2:33 'But any of your men whom I do not cut off from My altar shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart. And all the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age. 34 'Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them.” This judgment against the house of Eli would come to complete fruition during the reign of Solomon. We read about it in 1Ki 2:27 So Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, that he might fulfill the word of the LORD which He spoke concerning the house of Eli at Shiloh. None of Eli's descendants would experience ripe old age, and to prove it to Eli, these two sons of his who were abusing their God-given office of priest would both be taken from him in one day. Two sons in one day! Eli will be experiencing much emotional pain due to his own compromise and his refusal to discipline his sons. “His eyes would be consumed in tears” and his heart will be greatly grieved. This is a stunning piece of Scripture. It serves as a reminder to all about the consequences of laxity in following Jesus. When we let our guard down and allow compromise into our faith, and when we refuse to take the biblical steps necessary for discipline, we impact the generations that follow! God IS merciful, but our own refusal to repent, can lead to serious consequences for our posterity. Ex 34:7 "keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation." May this prophecy concerning Eli and his posterity bring us to fresh repentance for our sake and the sake of our children. For the Lord says in Eze 33:11, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'