Last week we looked at Samuel and Saul — a faithful man and a failed king.We saw something sobering: faithfulness in one generation does not guarantee faithfulness in the next. Now we step back a little further. Before Samuel stood as a prophet…Before Saul rose and fell as king… There was a father in Israel named Eli. And in his house, something went terribly wrong.

This week, the Scriptures lead us forward into the lives of Samuel and Saul — two very different men whose experiences as fathers remind us of another sobering truth: faithfulness does not always produce the legacy we expect.