In our text we meet two such "primary care-givers." Both of them had their children in the right school. But their children didn’t turn out the same. What was the difference? Those two parents were Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and Eli, whose two sons were named Hophni and Phineas. And there’s a lot we can learn from the two of them—one by negative example and the other by positive.

It doesn’t happen by accident that someone becomes a good Christian parent. In Hannah’s case it had very much to do with the kind of person she was. Hannah was a very spiritual person. She was devoted to God in her inmost heart. Anybody can go through the motions with a little practice, but Hannah meant what she said and did in her devotion to God. It’s not uncommon that those who have the deepest and closest relationship with God, are those who have been drawn closer to him through personal trials. Hannah was such a person. In a land that disdained childless women, Hannah was barren. Since God had promised that one of the women in Israel would one day give birth to the Savior, Jesus, every woman wanted to be that one. Childlessness was considered a curse. She must have felt, real or not, the piercing glare of the women of her village every time she walked to the market to buy food or the well to draw water.

Add to that trial the fact that her husband was a two-timer. Oh, he was a respectable two timer. He had properly married a second wife. And of the two wives, Elkanah, her husband, loved Hannah most. But what sorrow comes when people invent their own ways of living, like bigamy. Elkanah’s other wife is called in 1 Samuel her "rival." And the Bible says she continually pestered Hannah that she had children but Hannah didn’t. It was like a nagging, festering mouth sore to Hannah to hear this again and again, and from under her own roof!

This constant pestering brought her more and more to her heavenly Father in prayer. Scripture says, "In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow, saying, ‘O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life.’" (1:10-11) Hannah’s religion wasn’t only skin deep. From deep within her heart, she was devoted to God.

Unlike Hannah, who had been drawn closer to the Lord through her problems in life, Eli was a parent who had everything going for him. Spiritually, he was in the best possible position to raise his children. Eli had been raised in the tribe of Levi, an entire tribe dedicated to serving the Lord in the temple and synagogues of Israel. Eli was born to be a church worker, the child and grandchild and great-grandchild of church workers. His whole life had been lived working for the church, in and around the church. And of all the priests and Levites in the land, he had been appointed the High Priest, the priest of priests for Israel.

Eli was a believer, but his spiritual character was not of the same caliber as Hannah. You see that in what happened the first time these two parents met. It happened while Hannah was in the Temple praying fervently for a son. "As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, ‘How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.’" (1:12-14) Apparently, he had trouble relating to such a spiritual person.

Within the year, God blessed Hannah with the son she had prayed for. Now she had the chance to show what kind of a parent she would be.

Hannah remembered her vow. Sometimes people try to bargain with God, like "if you let me win the Lotto God, then I’ll give some money to the church." Hannah had made a vow to the Lord, not a cheap bargain. She’d made her vow in sincerity. So when the Lord blessed her, there was no question of her changing the terms.

She did that first of all by spending time close to him during his early years. In Israel children were not weaned until they were at least four or five. After those years the time came for Hannah to present him to the Lord. She brought him, together with thankofferings to the Temple. She brought him to the Lord’s house to learn of the Lord and be trained for his service. There he would spend his days in training. There she continued to monitor his progress, to encourage him and to show her love for him. Our text says, "But Samuel was ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod. Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, ‘May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.’ Then they would go home." (2:18-20)

Hannah cared for her child. She didn’t ignore him or his work in the Temple school. She remembered and kept her vow because it had come from the heart. She prayed for him and took deep personal interest in his progress, because she loved him.

Eli was quite different at parenting than Hannah. He was a believer himself, but he didn’t take a personal role in ensuring that his faith was transmitted to his sons. His sons, like Samuel, were in the temple regularly. His sons Hophni and Phineas learned all the outward forms and acquired head knowledge of the ceremonies and the words. But they didn’t learn to fear the Lord. They came to view serving the Lord as something to do outwardly, but not from the heart, because their father was too busy with his own work to devote time to praying and working with his boys. Those boys came to view their father’s work as priest as just a job that he did to earn bread. He never took the time to show them otherwise. What a deadly combination!—having a form of godliness but denying its power!

As a result look how they turned out. Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD. (2:12) When people came with sacrifice, they would steal the meat of the offerings intended for God himself. They would commit adultery with the women who were serving at the temple. And Scripture records, This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt. (2:17)

How did Eli react to the way his sons were sinning so offensively? With a slap on the wrist. He scolded them a little, but that was it. Besides, it was too late. They’d already grown up. Eli had told them the truth, to be sure, but in the wimpiest possible of ways. No discipline ensued. It must have been impossible for his sons to take him seriously. Over the years, they had come to have no close personal relationship. No wonder God said Whoever spares the rod, ruins the child. With his lack of discipline and nonchalance about his children’s training, Eli ruined his children. By counting on the temple school to do the training for him, he not only turned his children into terrible men, but he deprived them of the faith that could save them eternally.

You see, it’s not just the training and instruction which parents buy for their children that counts. That’s just the means to an end. The goal is to prepare them for life and for eternity. We need to be able to look down the road to see what we are making our children into. A memory work assignment for Tuesday isn’t just about Tuesday. It’s not just about a grade at the end of the quarter. It’s about preparing our children to face their maker and Redeemer one day at the final judgment. It’s about them being prepared to deal with all the traumas and hopes and blessings that come into their lives when they’re grown and gone. And that’s where we see the real difference between the parenting of Eli and Hannah, in the eternal results.

Hophni and Phineas went on to prove the rule in the fourth commandment that promises long life to those who obey their parents. Eli’s sons were cut down in the prime of life in battle. Nor was it a matter of chance that they died in this way. The Lord himself removed their ugly sight from before his eyes. But worst of all, they went to hell to pay eternally for their rebellion against God.

When news of the tragedy was delivered to their aged father, Eli, he fell backwards off his special chair in the temple and died of a broken neck. His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas went into premature labor and died in childbirth, but not before she had named her baby boy Ichabod, meaning "the glory has departed from Israel."

Thus the father’s own parental sins came full circle, and brought Eli down to the grave in sorrow and despair. The parent, in not helping his children to learn to live a happy, productive, God-pleasing life, wound up ensuring his own unhappiness.

And what about Samuel? Samuel went on to become one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. He served as the last of the judges, or leaders of Israel, anointing Saul Israel’s first king and then David to succeed him. Samuel lived a life that brought great joy to his mother. He lived a life that served and praised God. He lived a life that brought himself inner happiness, and eternal triumph in heaven.

As we celebrate the opening of our Christian school for another year today, is there anything we can learn from these two parents? Could there be anything more obvious?

From the bad example of Eli and the good example of Hannah, we should take home with us the fact that we need to give more to our children than tuition payments. Yes we need to give them Christian education, so they can glean the facts and learn with their heads to know the Lord, his word and his ways. But that isn’t enough. We need, like Hannah to show genuine love and concern for our children and set them a personal example. We need to take the time with them to share our personal faith in Christ. What do children learn, if they are studying God’s Word, but their parents aren’t? They learn that God’s Word is really unimportant. That’s the message parents convey by their silence and disinterest.

What do children learn if their teachers and pastor say worshiping is important, but their parents stay away from worship? That should be obvious. They learn that their parents believe the pastor and teachers are wrong in this emphasis. They learn that the parents don’t believe in the mission and objectives of the school. They learn that their parents believe eternity is too far away to be important.

Fellow parents, it’s never too late to repent of our parental sins. God is merciful and forgives us our sins when we turn from them. Jesus paid for these sins too, through his death on the cross.

And he is also there to help us change. He will stand behind our determination to be good Christian parents. He will be there with guidance and strength through his Word. He is there to answer our prayers, like he answered Hannah’s, when we come to him wondering what to do or where to turn next.

In a society living in fear of its children and in fear for our children, let’s resolve to be part of the solution here at St. Matthew’s. God has blest us with all of the tools to ensure our children’s future, both on earth and in heaven. Let us use them to the best of our ability. And let us remain focused on the goal of our school and our parenting, to bring our children with us into heaven. Amen.