The Sins of Hophni and Phinehas - Relative Weight?

[smhbbag]

My wife and I read through I Sam 1 and 2 today, and noticed something new to us there.

We read of two major sins of Hophni and Phinehas - treating the sacrifices with contempt, and sleeping with servants at the Tent of Meeting.

After re-reading it a few times, there was a general impression that their sins regarding sacrifices aroused more anger in the sight of God than their philandering with women. Both are mentioned and both bear severe penalties, but God's anger toward them is revealed after only their sins regarding sacrifice are mentioned. The sexual sin is mentioned, but almost as the icing on the cake.

That really struck a chord. We all know that adultery is a sin of severe weight, as it is an assault on the very institution set up to reveal and proclaim God's faithfulness to His people.

If I were confronted with an individual who I knew participated in corrupt or self-serving worship of God, and was also an adulterer, I believe my negative thoughts of the man would focus more on his adultery. If we are reading the passage correctly, that may be wrong. The lawfulness of our worship of God is no small thing, and cannot be treated as a secondary matter - that is, not secondary to anything.

Even among the issues of the highest order, does this account show that our worship is perhaps the most serious?

If attempting to reform a church, do we not inherently place RPW issues on the back-burner until other issues are handled? I think we generally believe so. But is that right? Are we reading too much into this?

 

[Herald]

Jeremy,

God is foremost concerned with His glory.

Exodus 20:4-5 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me..."

Idolatry profanes God's name and His character. Hophni and Pinehas committed a similar sin by treating the commanded sacrifices with contempt.

This is also why there is a warning associated with the Lord's Supper.

1 Corinthians 11:27-30 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

Moral sins are not excused, but the LORD seems to have less forbearance with sins that directly profane His name and glory.

 

[Wayne]

You are on the right track. Compare the sins of Nadab and Abihu.

 

[Andres]

One act violates the second commandment, the other violates the seventh. Both are violations of God's law, and therefore sin. I was under the impression that sin is sin; all transgressions of the law are an affront to God, correct?

 

[Wayne]

Andres:

I was working on the idea that the worship of God is the more crucial, or central thing.

To which you then reply, "Against Thee, and Thee only, have I sinned."

At which point I admit that yes, all sin is against God. That is why it is sin--all sin is rebellion against the Lord.

But Bill said it well:

Moral sins are not excused, but the LORD seems to have less forbearance with sins that directly profane His name and glory

 

[Jack K]

I'd say it's right to see that profaning God's worship is strongly condemned. But I don't know know that the conclusions about proper worship in today's churches vs. adultery are necessarily correct.

Hophni and Phinehas weren't just neglectful of proper worship. They were opportunists who used their position as leaders in worship for personal gain. Any of us might end up succombing to bits of this, but these guys coerced, threatened, stole and committed adultery. They had absolutely no respect for God. They cared only about their own pleasures and riches and saw God's worship system as a way to fill their own sinful desires.

I would not want to suggest that churches today that intend to truly worship God but get it wrong through neglect or misunderstanding of worship principles are at the same level. And depending on the motives and heart attitudes behind them, such sins may not be at the same level as that of, say, willful and self-serving adultery. The attitude of contempt, shown by Hophni and Phinehas, may be echoed more in a person committing adultery than in a person who worships incorrectly, depending on the heart.