First, though, we find their behavior contrasted with Samuel's. Yesterday's passage ended with these sad words about Hophni and Phinehas: "The sin of the young men was very great in the Lord's sight." And today's passage begins like this: "But Samuel was ministering before the Lord---a boy wearing a linen ephod." (1 Samuel 2:18) We don't know Samuel's age at this point but he's old enough to perform tasks at the tabernacle and he's performing his tasks in the right spirit. He's "ministering" before the Lord.
Samuel's family visits him on their pilgrimages to Shiloh. "Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, 'May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.' Then they would go home. And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord." (1 Samuel 2:18-21)
As we said several days ago, it's impossible to outgive God. Hannah dedicated Samuel to the Lord's service and in return He gave her five more children to bless her home. The Lord is also being very gracious to the child Samuel and to the elderly priest Eli. Samuel is not growing up in a regular home with a mother and father but the Lord has given him Eli as a father figure. It will be clear to us as we move through the next few chapters that Eli has a great deal of affection for the young boy and that brings us to another example of the Lord giving someone something in place of what they have lost. Eli's sons have no regard for the Lord or for their father. But the Lord has blessed him with the young Samuel who is like a son to him.
I think Eli must have fathered his sons late in life. Hophni and Phinehas have been referred to as "young men" but Eli will be referred to as "very old". We will learn in Chapter 3 that he is so old that his eyesight has faded to almost nothing. In addition to being physically frail and nearly blind, according to Chapter 4 he is morbidly obese. Eli can no longer get around very well due to his age and his great weight. He can no longer see very well. He can no longer hear very well either, I don't believe, since he will not hear something Samuel hears in Chapter 3. On top of all this, he's lost some of the spiritual discernment he once had because it will take him a while to catch on to something that the Lord is doing in Chapter 3. His sons are taking advantage of his weaknesses. They are doing whatever they please right under his nose and it isn't until the people begin to complain to him about their behavior that he seems to realize what's been going on. "Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting." (1 Samuel 2:22)
At this point it would be natural for us to think, "A person would have to be literally blind not to realize such things were going on at the tabernacle!" While I don't believe the sexual rendezvous mentioned in verse 22 were going on at the tabernacle, this is where Eli's sons met the women they enticed into debauchery with them. Exodus 38:8 makes reference to women serving at the entrance to the tabernacle and this must have been some type of supporting role they filled in assisting the people when they came to worship. But not every woman who was working at the house of God was actually doing the Lord's work, based on verse 22. Some of the women who came to the entrance of the tabernacle were not fully committed to doing what was right in the Lord's eyes and they might have even been looking for an opportunity to do wrong. Some, I would bet, were just young and naive and easily led into wrongdoing by the Hophni and Phinehas. After all, the sons of the high priest would have had an aura of power and prestige about them. They were young and they may have been handsome and charming as well. They were also married, as we'll learn later on, which means that in sleeping with these women they were committing adultery. Even if they had been single, having sex outside of marriage is a sin and it's an especially grievous sin when we consider they were priests who were supposed to be setting an admirable example for the people to follow.
Eli may have suspected that something was spiritually amiss with his sons before now but, confronted with complaints about their shocking behavior, he has no choice but to reprimand them. "So he said to them, 'Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the Lord's people is not good. If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?'" (1 Samuel 2:23-25a)
Eli cannot understand why anyone would commit such heinous acts as his sons have been committing. He naturally asks, "What makes you want to be this way? Didn't I raise you right? Didn't I faithfully pass along all the Lord's laws and commandments to you? What has turned you aside from the Lord?" He tries to put the fear of the Lord into them by warning them that God judges unrighteousness. He says, "It would be bad enough if you were ordinary citizens and were defrauding your neighbors or being unfaithful to your wives. You might be able to obtain the forgiveness of your fellow man or your families by repenting and asking them to give you another chance. But you hold spiritual offices in Israel. People look to you for examples of godly living. So not only are you defrauding the people and engaging in sexual immorality, but you're influencing others to do likewise. You're setting a bad example for the people who come to the Lord's house. In addition you're stealing from the Lord when you snatch people's offerings from them and you're leading young women down the path of perdition by talking them into sleeping with you. It's not just your fellow citizens who have complaints against you; the Lord Himself has complaints against you! You are dishonoring His holy name at His holy house! Who can turn His wrath away from you if you do not repent?"
His words have no effect on them. "His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke, for it was the Lord's will to put them to death." (1 Samuel 2:25b) Eli should no doubt have taken further action when his sons refused to change their ways. He could have "defrocked" them and banished them from their duties at the tabernacle. He could have made an example of them by punishing their behavior, thereby restoring the honor of the priesthood and the honor of the house of God. If he had taken these steps, they probably wouldn't have repented but they might not have lost their lives which is going to be the outcome of their sins. But Eli didn't fire them as priests. Maybe in his old age, ill health, and near-blindness he can't face a task that amounts to disowning his sons and preventing either of them from inheriting the office of high priest. Maybe he is humiliated by the spiritual failures of his household and doesn't want to air his dirty laundry, as the saying goes, in the sight of all Israel. It could be that he knows he doesn't have many years left on the earth and he just wants to live the remainder of his life in as much peace and quiet as he can. He gives up where his sons are concerned. They are a lost cause.
But Samuel is not a lost cause! Samuel is in the house of the Lord and even though he is still a minor child he has the most admirable attitude of anyone there and is being the best example of godly living of anyone there. "And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people." (1 Samuel 2:26)
Samuel is at the right place at the right time. Things at the house of the Lord are in a mess at the moment but, in His infinite and inerrant wisdom, the Lord arranged for Samuel to be born in the right way and at the right time to be the judge and prophet Israel needs at this point in history.
No comments:
Post a Comment