Worthless Men and the Need for a Worthy One - 1 Samuel 2:12-20

This term “worthless men” or “worthless women” shows up a bunch of times in the book of Samuel. Samuel is placed where it is in the Scriptures because Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” Samuel of course will eventually anoint Saul as king and later the same with David. So Samuel is focused not just upon the need for a king, priest, and prophet but the need for the right king, right priest, and right prophet. The book begins with the High Priest’s sons being examples of “worthless” and wrong men and builds toward Samuel and later David and even Nathan as the worthy and right people for these jobs. We want to see how our sin puts us closer to Hophni and Phinehas and our need for someone to stand between us and judgment. This will set us up for Palm Sunday and considering Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem as the people rejoice and celebrate that the King is there.