God Will Honor Those Who Honor Him

Teach and discuss 1 Samuel 2:12–17, 22–25.

Hophni and Phinehas were sons of Eli, the high priest, and were priests themselves. However, they were wicked. When Israelites came to offer sacrifices at the tabernacle, Hophni and Phinehas forcibly took the flesh of the sacrificial animals before the fat portions had been burned on the altar. They also took some of the flesh that the offerer was boiling for the sacrificial meal (1 Samuel 2:12–17). These were serious transgressions of God’s laws, equivalent to robbing God. Eli’s sons also committed the extremely serious sin of seducing women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:22).

• What effect did the actions of Eli’s sons have on other people in Israel? (See 1 Samuel 2:17, 24.)

• What do the actions of Eli’s sons suggest about whom they chose to honor? (Uncover the first sketch or an actual mirror.) In what areas of our lives do we sometimes honor and please ourselves rather than the Lord? Class members may suggest areas such as the following:

  1. Entertainment

  2. Sabbath observance

  3. Dating and morality

  4. Fasting

  5. Church callings

• Why do you think we sometimes choose to please ourselves rather than God? What are the consequences of honoring ourselves more than God?

Teach and discuss 1 Samuel 2:27–36; 3:12–14.

• What responsibility did Eli have when he learned of the wickedness of his sons? What did he do? (See 1 Samuel 2:22–25.) What was their response? (See 1 Samuel 2:25.)

• After reprimanding his sons, Eli did nothing further to correct the terrible sins in his family and at the tabernacle. As a result, a man of God came and chastised him, telling him that he honored his sons more than God (1 Samuel 2:27–29). In what way had Eli honored his sons more than God? What did the man of God say would happen to the house of Eli? (See 1 Samuel 2:30–35.)

• In what ways do we sometimes honor other people more than God? (Uncover the second sketch or the object representing other people.) Class members may suggest ways such as the following:

  1. We allow our peers to persuade us to do something we know is wrong.

  2. We act dishonestly because we are afraid of what other people might think of us.

  3. We fail to correct family members or friends in their wrongdoing because we want to maintain good relations with them.

  President Joseph F. Smith taught: “There should [not] be any of us so unwisely indulgent, so thoughtless and so shallow in our affection for our children that we dare not check them in a wayward course, in wrong-doing and in their foolish love for the things of the world more than for the things of righteousness, for fear of offending them” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed. [1939], 286).

• How can parents fulfill their responsibility toward wayward children in a spirit of love? What is the responsibility of children as their parents strive to lead them in righteousness?

Teach and discuss 1 Samuel 3. You may want to have an assigned class member briefly summarize this chapter. Remind class members that the boy Samuel was serving in the temple after his mother, Hannah, had given him to the Lord’s service, as she had promised (1 Samuel 1).

• Who spoke to Samuel in the night? (See 1 Samuel 3:4.) Whom did Samuel first think was calling him? (See 1 Samuel 3:5–6, 8). How did Samuel learn it was the Lord calling? (See 1 Samuel 3:8–9.)

• How does the Lord communicate with us? (He communicates most often through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Class members may suggest additional ways he communicates with us.) How can we prepare ourselves to receive and understand communications from the Lord?

• In what ways did Samuel honor the Lord? (Uncover the picture of the Lord.) You may want to consider the following passages in your discussion:

  “I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind” (1 Samuel 2:35).

  “The Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I” (1 Samuel 3:4).

  “Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:10).

• The Lord promised to honor those who honored him (1 Samuel 2:30). How did the Lord honor Samuel? (See 1 Samuel 3:19.) How do you think the Lord will honor us if we honor him as Samuel did?

Teach and discuss 1 Samuel 8. You may want to have an assigned class member briefly summarize this chapter.

• What type of government did Israel have during Samuel’s ministry? (See 1 Samuel 8:1. The Israelites were governed by judges.) Whom was Israel supposed to regard as their king? (See 1 Samuel 12:12.)

• Why did the children of Israel want a king? (See 1 Samuel 8:5, 20.) In asking for a king “like all the nations,” whom did Israel reject? (See 1 Samuel 8:7.) What did the Lord instruct Samuel to say about the problems of having a king? (See 1 Samuel 8:9–18.) What was the response of the Israelites to Samuel’s warnings? (See 1 Samuel 8:19–22.)

• In asking for a king, whom did the Israelites honor? (Uncover the third sketch or the object representing the world.)

• In what ways do we sometimes desire to be “like all the nations”? (See 1 Samuel 8:5.)

  You may want to use the pamphlet For the Strength of Youth (34285) to discuss the standards the Lord has set for us so we will not participate in the wicked ways of the world. Explain that these standards apply to adults as well as youth.

• The Lord Jesus Christ is our true king, just as he was the true king of the Israelites (Psalm 47:7; 89:18; 149:2). How should this knowledge affect our attitudes toward the ways of the world? How do we sometimes reject the Lord as our king?