Therefore the LORD God of Israel says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever: but now the LORD says, Be it far from me; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
All Commentaries on 1 Samuel 2:30 Go To 1 Samuel 2
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
If we regard the sentence passed on him [the serpent] to be in the nature of a condemnation, God did not condemn the serpent in order to cause injury to humans. He pointed out what was to happen in the future. … What we are to expect can in some measure be gathered from our knowledge of what has been written: “Whoever shall glorify me, him will I glorify, and he that despises me shall be despised.” God brings to pass what is good, not what is evil, as his words can teach you that he confers glory and disregards punishment. “Whoever shall glorify me,” he says, “him will I glorify,” thus declaring that the glory of the good is the purpose of his work. And concerning “him that despises me,” he did not say I shall deprive of glory, but that he shall be deprived of glory. He did not avow that injury to them [Adam and Eve] would be the result of his action but pointed out what was to come.
