The Ripple Effect of Leadership

Stories have power. The biblical narratives found in 1 Samuel aren't merely historical accounts—they're divine revelations that speak across millennia directly into our lives today. These ancient tales reveal not just what happened, but what happens in every generation when we either embrace or reject God's wisdom.

Samuel's story begins with miraculous birth and unfolds against a backdrop of dysfunction. Raised first in a polygamous household with inherent tensions, then handed over to serve in a temple overseen by a weak high priest and his corrupt sons, Samuel's journey demonstrates how God works through imperfect circumstances. Despite this challenging environment, Samuel became one of Israel's greatest prophets because "God hears" (the very meaning of his name).

Chapter 4 marks a pivotal moment when Israel faces devastating military defeat. After losing 4,000 soldiers to the Philistines, the elders make a fatal error—treating the Ark of the Covenant as a good-luck charm rather than respecting it as the symbol of God's presence. The result? A catastrophic loss of 30,000 more soldiers, the capture of the Ark, and the fulfillment of prophecy through the deaths of Eli's corrupt sons. All because a father "failed to restrain" his children from dishonoring God.

This painful lesson echoes through the centuries: when we fail to train our children properly, we risk creating entitled individuals who reject authority and responsibility. "If we fail to train our children, we will become their slaves." The balance between responsibility and privilege must be carefully maintained—too much responsibility without privilege breeds resentment, while too much privilege without responsibility cultivates entitlement.

The good news? We can break destructive cycles. God has equipped us through His Spirit to raise children who become spiritual giants. Our goal should be to serve as "catapults, not anchors," launching the next generation further than we've gone. Every parent has the opportunity to establish a higher starting platform for their children in matters of faith and character.

Are you raising entitled children or empowered ones? Are you a leader whose personal life strengthens or undermines your public influence? Let's learn from Eli's mistakes and embrace God's design for family and leadership. Email us at LifeAroundTheFire@gmail.com to continue the conversation about raising a generation that will go further than we ever dreamed possible.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Stories in Scripture Matter
• 8:56 Israel's Defeat by the Philistines
• 11:54 The Ark of God Captured
• 15:01 Eli's Failure to Restrain His Sons
• 18:16 Raising Children with Responsibility
• 22:46 Being a Catapult, Not an Anchor

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:38

we've been looking into the book of 1 Samuel for the past few episodes, and the reason that I love the book of 1 Samuel actually 1 and 2 Samuel. When they were originally written, they were one scroll, one writing, but because of the need for space in the conservation of scrolls, the scribes put the book of 1 Samuel into two books, 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. And so the reason, though, that I personally one of them anyway love reading the book of Samuel is because of the stories. I love stories. I learn a lot from stories. In fact, the scriptures are full of stories. In fact, the scriptures are full of stories, and that's again one of the chief reasons why I love the scriptures, because the stories in them speak volumes of what took place, but they also speak into my life, into our lives currently, because it's the word of God and it's eternal. It has weight both then and now, and, furthermore, it will continue to bear weight because the Word of God has that ability, because and this might sound a bit obvious, but because it comes from God it just comes from God, not a smart man or a smart woman, but from God, the creator of the universe, god of the universe, god, the concept of there being a supreme being is more than just a concept divided by men. It's the reality that's been placed in our heart, because we are created in the image of God by God, image of God by God. And so the stories, they carry so much power and many of them are really inspiring. And then some of them are, they're hard man.

Speaker 1: 3:15

And we're going to be entering into a time in the book of 1 Samuel where we're looking, in the next 12 chapters, looking into some very difficult times in the nation of Israel, and in that respect, some of us can relate to the fact that there are times in our life where we go through some difficult things, whether they're brought on by things that we've done or things that have been done to us. We go through hard times. Man and Israel went through some very hard times, but God does not spare us from seeing those hard times. He doesn't just give us the things that make him look good even though he is good right but he shows us things that are difficult so that we can see that in them he's able to rise above them and lead us into a place when we follow him through them. And so, in reviewing the first three chapters of first samuel, we really find out a lot about Samuel himself, the namesake of the book, samuel and the name Samuel means God hears and Hannah, his mother, who was barren for years, prayed desperately to God for a child, and God heard her prayers and so Samuel, when he was born, was called Samuel or God hears, and he became one of the greatest prophets in all of Israel, in all of Israel. But his upbringing we find that his upbringing wasn't really a picture-perfect upbringing. He was raised in a home that was a polygamist home, which had friction in it by nature of the whole arrangement in polygamy competition with the wives, difficulty with how things are done. And then, at the age of three, sammy was handed over to the temple of the Lord that was at that time overseen by a priest, a high priest, and his two sons, eli, the high priest, and Hophni and Phinehas, his two sons, and their home life was dysfunctional, to say the least. And if you want to find out more about that, just read the first three chapters of 1 Samuel or listen to the previous few podcast episodes and you'll get the point. And so we've looked at that and now we're beginning to look a little bit further into the role that Samuel is going to play, but also some of the things that were going on in Israel that really led to its downfall.

Speaker 1: 6:55

At this point in time, no-transcript. So Scripture says prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and there revealed himself to Samuel through his word. And Samuel's word came to all Israel.

Speaker 1: 7:47

Chapter four Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. I'm just going to pause for a moment and look at that word now. The Philistines went out to fight against the Philistines. Now really means we're going to be taking a look at things as they happen. Now Kind of gives us an idea that there was a span of time that had gone on from chapter 3 to chapter 4. Kind of like picking up from where we left off. We find out that the Israelites went out to war against the Philistines. So now doesn't mean like it just happened in sequence right away. There was a span, but now we're picking it up.

Speaker 1: 8:39

So now the israelites went out to fight against the philistines. The israelites camped at ebenezer and the philistines at afek. The philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel and as the battle spread, israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed, about 4,000 of them on the battlefield. When the soldiers returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked why did the Lord bring defeat upon us today, before the Philistines? Why did the Lord bring defeat upon us today, before the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the Lord's Covenant from Shiloh so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies. So the people sent men to Shiloh and they brought back the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord Almighty, who was enthroned between the cherubim, and Eli's two sons, hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God.

Speaker 1: 9:49

When the Ark of the Lord's Covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked what's all this shouting in the Hebrew camp? When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. A god has come into the camp. They said we're in trouble. Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us. Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kind of plagues in the desert. Be strong, philistines. Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews as they have been to you. Be men and fight. So the Philistines fought and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great. Israel lost 30,000 foot soldiers. Israel lost 30,000 foot soldiers. The Ark of God was captured and Eli's two sons, hophni and Phinehas, died.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Now, as I said, the next 12 chapters are pretty hard, but we're not going to avoid them. In fact, sometimes pretty bleak, in the sense that Israel was defeated, people died in a slaughter and the Ark of the Covenant, the very symbol picture of God's presence, was captured and taken away from Israel, and two of the priests that were leading the procession died. Eli's two sons that were leading the procession died Eli's two sons. Now, remember, in the previous chapter, the Lord said to Samuel, when he called him to be a prophet, he spoke to Samuel some things and he said see, I'm about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears it tingle. At that time, I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family from beginning to end, for I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about. His sons made themselves contemptible and he failed to restrain them. Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli the guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by the sacrifice or offering. And it was spoken to Eli previously that his two sons would die at the same time, same day, and they did. And they did because they made mockery out of the priesthood and the offerings of God and Eli, eli, even though he didn't do exactly what his sons did, he got fat off of the offerings that his sons skimmed from the top, literally. But what was really the problem? What the real problem was? Eli failed to restrain his sons.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Folks, there's a high charge that's been given to parents, to parents, and that is that we are called by God to train up our children, not just have them, not just produce them, but to train them. Train them up in the ways that they should go, so that when they're old, they're not going to fall away from those things or, even if they do, they'll return because they've been trained. And Eli failed to do that. You see, if we fail to train our children, we will become their slaves, because an entitlement in their mentality will take over. They will feel entitled. They will feel entitled to preferential treatment and when others don't give it to them, they will act out or they will deny all authority and take things upon themselves to do things their own way.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Sometimes they'll take it upon themselves to do absolutely nothing, because if nothing is required of someone, the tendency of human nature is to do nothing. We tend to rise to the level of expectation that's placed upon us and sometimes to the responsibilities and privileges. You see, with responsibility must come privilege. If there's too much responsibility and no privilege, must come privilege. If there's too much responsibility and no privilege, we tend to breed resentment and a legalistic mindset. But if there's too much privilege and not enough responsibility, we breed that entitlement thing, and Eli bred that entitlement thing. But we can break from that.

Speaker 1: 16:37

The good news is it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, we can learn from this example what not to do and the example that we have, what we can do. Man, we have ample examples all throughout Scripture concerning the way that you would raise a child and how they should go. Abraham raising Isaac Wonderful example. Wonderful, beautiful, powerful example. So we have in front of us examples on how to, but sometimes we need a clear picture of what can take place if we don't, if we don't restrain our children and teach them respect, they will become disrespectful. Strong word, but a good word If it's applicable. Don't shrink back from it. Embrace it and make some adjustments. If you're doing a great job of raising your children, praise God, be encouraged. It will pay off. And if you know people who are in a situation where they're letting their children run roughshod, pray for them and find ways to help.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Don't judge people and just cluck our tongues and say, well, isn't that a shame? And then walk away. We can help. In fact, we're called to love one another. We're called to help one another. We're called to be a body that joins together to help one another. Because, you see, not everyone is raised knowing how to raise children. That's why we need, at times, children. That's why we need, at times, older women teaching younger women how to raise children in a feminine way, as well as men, older men teaching younger men how to be a father period Not to be absent, but to be a present father, because the outcome didn't just affect Eli's house, but it affected all of Israel, because they were leaders.

Speaker 1: 19:40

And that point right there. If you're a leader and you have your house that's in disarray, it's better to take a step aside. There's no shame in taking time out and getting your house in order versus just barreling through for the sake of keeping your reputation intact, even though what you're producing isn't healthy. And we reproduce after our own kind. And so we have an opportunity in front of us to do things right. That that, that, that right there. We have that opportunity to make things right. We have the ability to repent, to change, to turn, and all of us can make some adjustments.

Speaker 1: 20:47

But the encouraging point is this we're not alone in the process of doing it. We've not been left on our own to do it. We've been empowered by God, his very life, the spirit of God within us, who's at work to both will and do his good pleasure, and he's called us to it, he's equipped us to it. He's equipped us to it. He has equipped us to fulfill the task. You've been equipped to be a good parent. Let the Holy Spirit draw that out of you and establish that within you, and we can see a generation that's raised, that can do some great things. Because our children begin, get this. Our children begin at our highest level, and I'm not done growing yet. So that means that the children on my are going to continue to have a platform that they begin with that's higher and higher and they're going to go further, because I'm a catapult, not an anchor. I want my children to go further in the things of the kingdom than me and I celebrate that. And God empowers us to be that way by his spirit.

Speaker 1: 22:17

Let's learn lessons from Eli and from Israel that when we allow spiritual decay to come into our lives, it starts to erode the very foundation of an entire society, of an entire church, group of people. But the opposite is true when we have good seed, the harvest becomes even greater, because there are more seeds in one grain when it falls to the earth and dies than if it should remain alone. And God is into the harvest, and God is into the harvest. So let's be in league with him. Hallelujah, let's pray.

Speaker 1: 23:24

Father, thank you for the lessons that you teach us in your scriptures and, lord, I ask that you would go beyond what's just been communicated by me and that things that I haven't even said, but they come from your scriptures, that those who are listening would be impacted because you are leading and guiding Holy Spirit, transcend my words, go beyond them and work your work in our hearts to establish the likeness of Jesus, and we stand here in his name and we believe you for that and we say amen, amen, amen, amen, hallelujah. Folks, we love you and if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at LifeAroundTheFire at gmailcom. That's our email address, or you can type in LifeAroundTheFire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, god bless you. Adios amigos.