Read 1 Samuel 1:12-18; 1 Samuel 2:12-20; 1 Samuel 4:12-22. We are continuing with our introduction to the study of King David. In the last blog, we started off with a brief look at the Psalms, the second of our sources. We are now going to see the start of our principal source - the book called First Samuel whose primary purpose is to describe how Israel moved from being a theocracy - (a country ruled by God with judges acting on God's behalf) to becoming a monarchy (a country ruled by a king.)
As essential background to our understanding of the life of David, it is helpful for us to look at the state of the nation before he was anointed as king. It was not only kings who were anointed for service. Prior to Saul's anointing by Samuel, anointing was used for priests when the first priests were given their office(Exodus 40:15; Numbers 3:3). Prophets may also have been anointed but the record of such anointing comes after the time of King David (1 Chronicles 16:22; Psalm 105:15). It seems that the priest in Shiloh had a key role in the spiritual life of the nation. Sadly, the record shows that there were deep flaws in the functioning of the priesthood.
Eli was a priest at the tent of meeting or tabernacle which had been pitched at a place called Shiloh. He encounters Hannah (who was to be the mother of the prophet Samuel) and he totally misjudges her and mishandles the situation. We will look in more detail at Hannah in the next three blogs. There are three priests mentioned at Shiloh - Eli and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas. Eli is an old man and his eyesight is poor. His two sons are evil and he is apparently oblivious to their conduct. He is powerless to change their behaviour. What were they doing? They are described as worthless men who did not know the Lord. They were acting as God's representatives but they did not know Him. In short, they were abusing their position as priests for their own selfish ends. Firstly, with regard to food. A large part of the priests job related to sacrificing animals on God's altar. There were extensive regulations about how animals were to be offered and it was perfectly proper for those handling the offering to be given their share of the animal. The Levites - the tribe of the priests had no land because it was expected that they would be given a share of the food which was being offered to God. However, there were specific regulations to avoid greed and excess. For example, when an ox or a sheep was being sacrificed, the priests were to receive the shoulder , the jaws and the stomach. [Deuteronomy 18: 3] In other words, the priest was being given enough to live on while at the same time the bulk of the animal was being burnt on the altar and offered to God.
By the time of Hophni and Phinehas, there were some strange practices going on. We read of the animals being boiled in a large pot. Then the two men sent their servants over to commandeer their share. He had a large three-pronged fork which he sunk into the pot and whatever came out on the fork was taken back to the priests for their dinner. This was not enough, however. They decided that they wanted the meat raw so that they could roast it themselves. This presented a problem for some people who were bringing their offering to God. They knew that it was stated that the fat of the animal had to be used as a burnt offering to God. This did not please Hophni and Phinehas who wanted the fat for themselves. They were not interested in God - they had no respect for God. It was all about satisfying their hunger and greed. It would appear that Eli also benefited from this excessive food. He was described as overweight when he fell off his seat and died (1 Samuel 4:18). Also, the Lord warned him that there were going to be consequences for the conduct of his sons and it is evident that Eli was very much part of this gluttonous conspiracy
Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honour your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ [1 Samuel 2:29 ESV]
In addition, these young men were having sex with the women who were servants in God's tent of meeting or tabernacle. This was considered shocking. God's temple or tent was a holy place and they were defiling the whole place by their conduct. Everyone knew what was happening and their old father, Eli even heard the reports of their conduct. He rebuked them and tried to get them to stop this disgraceful abuse of power. He made it clear that they were not only sinning against the women and their husbands but they were sinning against God. They refused to listen to the voice of their father. By this stage, there was no going back and God had determined to punish them for their evil deeds.
What is really shocking is that Eli was very quick to judge Hannah when she visited the temple. She was sitting praying to God silently and Eli, for some reason or another, decided that she was drunk. He rebuked her for this. "How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you?" [1 Samuel 1:14 ESV]. He was in no position to judge other people as his own sons were behaving shamefully. He is too eager to judge other people instead of starting with his own family. There is a saying, "blood's thicker than water," which means that we are less likely to judge our family by the same standards as we judge other people. I used to have a real challenge convincing some blinkered parents of their son or daughter's behaviour in school. It was normal to blame the school, the teachers or other young people in their class. God is not partial. He treats everyone alike by the same standards. As Christians, we need to be guided by God. We need to be slow to judge others for sins of which we ourselves are guilty.
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. [Matthew 7:1-5 ESV]
My reaction to this passage is "Ouch!"
By the way, God did judge Eli and his two sons. There was a battle against the Philistines and the Ark of God was captured. This was where God resided in the journey through the desert. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were both killed by the Philistines. Eli was 98 years old and his eyesight was so poor that he was sitting on a seat staring ahead of him when the news arrived of the defeat at the hands of the Philistines. The shock that the ark of God had been captured caused the old man, he fell off his seat , broke his neck and died. Phinehas's wife gave birth soon after hearing the news that she had lost her husband, her brother-in-law and her father-in-law and she called her new born son, Ichabod, which referred to the departure of the Ark of God and the loss of God's presence.
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