The First Book Of Samuel. Day 6, The Wicked Sons Of Eli The High Priest, Part One

Samuel has been left at the house of the Lord in the care of Eli who is the high priest of Israel. But he is very old, according to our current chapter, and very heavy, according to Chapter 4. He is no longer able to properly oversee everything that's going on at the tabernacle. He has given over a lot of the work to his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who are not godly men. His sons are taking advantage of the fact that he is old and not able to get around very well. They are doing a lot of wicked things right under his very nose and he is largely unaware of it. 

"Eli's sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord." (1 Samuel 2:12) We don't know why these men have gone so wrong. They were brought up with the laws and commandments of the Lord. They have spent most of their lives in and around the tabernacle. They have been surrounded by the Levites, many of whom must have set a good example for them. At one time their father Eli probably set a good example for them. But these things have had no effect on them. 

We probably all know at least one person who was brought up in a good home by parents who love and honor the Lord. And yet this person has no heart for Him at all. Perhaps they've fallen into drug use or a life of crime or perhaps they're just generally living immoral lives. It could be that they've rejected the Lord completely and say they don't believe in Him. We can't help wondering what went wrong in such cases. King David once observed: "Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies." (Psalm 58:3) There are those who, from a very young age, have no respect for any type of authority. They feel contempt for anyone who tries to give them direction or any type of orders, such as parents and teachers and employers. They feel contempt for the Lord and for His sovereign authority. In their hearts they do not believe anyone---not even the Lord---has the right to tell them what to do.

Eli's sons have this type of attitude. They have no regard for the Lord or for the rights of their fellow man. They horribly treat the people who bring sacrifices and offerings to the tabernacle. "Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. But even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, 'Give the priest some meat to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw.' If the person said to him, 'Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,' the servant would answer, 'No, hand it over now; if you don't, I'll take it by force.'" (1 Samuel 2:13-16) 

We learned in Leviticus that the fat belonged to the Lord. Most sacrifices, other than the whole burnt offering, were shared in by the priests and by the people who brought the sacrifice, but the fat and certain internal organs were to be given up entirely to the Lord. Eli's sons have instructed their servants to grab meat from the offerings while it is still raw and with the fat still attached to it. It could be that they're selfishly taking the best portions for themselves to prepare it as they please but it's more likely that they are having their servants sell the meat for them in the marketplace. These men were profiting from the Lord's offerings!  

We know from the writings of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament that the heathens sold meat in the marketplace that had first been offered to idols. They would sacrifice the animal to their gods but then the meat was theirs to do with as they pleased. They did not consider it any holier than if it had come from animals butchered on the farm. But sacrifices made to the Lord were to be eaten reverently in the area of His tabernacle in the attitude that they were sharing a meal with the Lord. 

Eli's sons have adopted heathen habits. They may even be selling meat to the heathens. If they are selling to fellow Israelites then they are not revealing the source of the meat. Because they are taking it before it has been boiled and while the fat is still attached, it looks just like regular meat for sale. People were buying it without any idea that they shouldn't be. Eli's sons were defrauding the people who brought the offerings because they were interfering with the proper procedures; they were cheating the people out of giving the Lord everything they meant to give Him. They were defrauding those to whom the meat was sold at the market who would not have purchased it if they had known it was devoted to the Lord and was to be eaten only by the bringer of the offering and by the priests. They were defrauding the Lord by taking the parts that were rightfully His.

The behavior of these men in regard to offerings is deplorable and the author sums up the first half of our passage by saying, "The sin of the young men was very great in the Lord's sight, for they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt." (1 Samuel 2:17)

But we haven't finished studying all the sinful things these men are doing. In tomorrow's study we'll learn more about their contempt for the Lord, their contempt for His house, and their contempt for their father.