Eli’s sons continued with their evil deeds while serving as priests at the Tabernacle in Shiloh.
Eli did not correct them.
A VISIT FROM A MAN OF GOD
It was a rare occassion for a prophet to appear in Israel at that time. God had remained silent for many years. However; one day a prophet came to see Eli. He had a message from God to give to him. These are the words he uttered (from 1 Samuel 2:27-36):
“Didn’t I demonstrate my power when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt? Didn’t I chose your ancestor Levi from among all his brothers to be my priest, and to sacrifice upon my altar, and to burn incense, and to wear a priestly robe as he served me? And didn’t I asign the sacrificial offerings to you priests? Then why are you so greedy for all of the other offerings which are brought to me? Why have you honored your sons more than me – for you and they have become fat from the best of the offerings of my people!”
THE MESSAGE FOR ELI
The prophet continued to speak for The LORD; “Therefore, I, the Lord God of Israel, declare that although I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi would always be my priests, it is ridiculous to think that what you are doing can continue.
I will honor only those who honor me, and I will despise those who despise me.
I will put an end to your family, so that it will no longer serve as priests. Every member will die before his time. None shall live to be old. You will envy the prosperity I will give my people, but you and your family will be in distress and need. Not one of them will live out his days. Those who are left alive will live in sadness and grief, and their children shall die by the sword. And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!”
Then I will raise up a faithful priest who will serve me and do whatever I tell him to do. I will bless his descendants, and his family shall be priests to my kings forever. Then all of your descendants shall bow before him, begging for money and food. ‘Please they will say, ‘give me a job among the priests so that I will have enough to eat'”
ELI CHANGES NOTHING
These were powerful and terrifying words.
It must have been hard for Eli to hear them, but still he did not repent, or address the actions and deeds of his sons with correction.
You have to wonder why Eli was so weak in this situation. Surely he knew that God would not be mocked. To have corrected his sons would have been to have shown them love, even though they would not have liked the confrontation.
Maybe Eli felt hopeless.
Perhaps they had been this way for so long that he did not think they would ever change and that he would be wasting his breath to address them again. Maybe he knew that he would have to judge them harshly, and he could not gather the strength to face that alternative.
A MILE-MARKER IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL
We have no way of knowing all of Eli’s thoughts, but we do know that this lack of action completely changed the order of the priesthood for Israel.
This was a milemarker in the history of the people of God. Because of so much sin at His altar, God was going to change the order of the priesthood and raise up a new and faithful priest who would truly walk before Him in holiness and righteousness.
Many have assumed this passage speaks of Messiah, because it sounds so much like Him, but the scriptures in the passage also refers to the fact that this priest will walk before God’s anointed one. That would be Messiah at a later point in history.
For the present, it meant that God was going to grant Israel their request for a king. This King, whose kingdom would go on forever, would be served by a great prophet named Samuel.
THE RESTORATION OF PROPHECY THROUGH SAMUEL
Samuel was the beginning of the reimplementation and restoration of the office of prophecy which had disappeared from Israel for so long. Through His prophets; God was going to begin to speak of new things. Many more would follow after him; but Samuel was the first to bring back the Word of God before the people of Israel.
All of this would happen in God’s time.
Samuel was beginning to grow; but he still had much to learn. His amazing life was about to unfold during the same period of time that God was beginning to implement many changes to the way and order that Israel maintained its worship.
Changes were coming, and it was a good thing.
How was Samuel processing these things as a young child living in the Tabernacle?
He had taken to sleeping inside the Tent of Meeting, inside the Holy Place, so that he could make sure the oil for the great lamp never ran out.
As long as Samuel followed God, the oil would flow and the light would continue to shine forth for Israel.
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