1 Samuel 2 verses 11 to 36 Rise and Fall

 

Introduction

There was a crisis in Israel. Everyone did as they pleased; and the result was a nation devastated by depravity.

Part of God’s solution was the provision for atonement through priests and sacrifices. When you sinned, you could come to the tabernacle and find atonement through a sacrifice offered by a priest. The problem was that far from pointing the way back to God, the priests were leading the way in turning from God.

In our passage we see the narrator use contrasts to make a point. Here we will see the contrast between faithful Samuel and the wicked sons of Eli. And this contrast between Samuel and Eli’s sons does more than warn us against the way of the wicked. It also reminds us that God is at work- even amid wickedness and unbelief there is always hope for grace.

Our passage can be understood like this:

Eli’s Wicked Sons (The Desperate Need of Grace)

Eli’s Failed Rebuke (The Grace of Godly Discipline)

Eli’s House Rejected (The Need to Heed God’s Grace)

These verses chart the rise of Samuel and the fall of Eli House. But more than that, they show that through Samuel, and his quiet faithfulness, God will work to deliver His People from Spiritual darkness.

This is a truth that is fully realised with the coming of Jesus. In Christ God has delivered His People from the domain of darkness into His wonderful light. So let us rejoice in the way our God works, firstly, as we consider…

Eli’s Wicked Sons

The introduction of Eli’s sons, in verse 12, leaves little to the imagination:

¹² Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord.

Here we learn of Israel’s desperate need for grace.

To say that these men were ‘…wicked…’ is to say that they were agents of destruction. To add that they ‘…had no regard for the LORD…’ is to say that they were ignorant of God’s saving grace and cared nothing for His Holiness. That these men were the ‘spiritual leaders’ of Israel indicates the crisis Israel faced- they were in desperate need of God’s grace.

Perhaps, with all the scandals of leadership, both political and religious, we are not as shocked by this description of Hophni and Phinehas as we should be. It really should be devastating to hear that these priests at Shiloh were rogues; verse 12 is meant to shock us.

This was Israel, the nation chosen by God out of all the earth to be ‘…a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…’. This was Shiloh, the place of God’s dwelling place among His People. These young men were priests, responsible for teaching God’s Law and offer sacrifices for the atonement of the people’s sins.

Therefore, the scandal that the young priests at Shiloh were wicked men who rejected knowledge of the Lord was appalling. God’s People were in desperate need of God’s grace.

In verses 13 and 14 we see their first offence was against the people. While it was true that priests were entitled to certain benefits from their work at the tabernacle, these priests exploited the people they were meant to be serving. Their ‘custom’ was far apart from anything laid down in the Law.

They were getting their servant to take whatever meat he could spear with a fork. In effect they were stealing the food meant for sacrifice.

In verses 15 and 16 we see depths to which these young men stooped. There were times when the priests demanded, with the threat of force, that meat be handed over to them before it had been properly sacrificed. Incredibly, the only reason indicated for their conduct was their preference for roasted meat!

The people rightly protested, but to no avail. Force won the day. The writer sums up this situation in the solemn words of verse 17:

¹⁷ This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.

Worst of all, in verse 22, was the contempt these young ministers showed toward God’s holiness. The tabernacle- the place where Israelites entered God’s holy presence- was effectively turned into a brothel.

Israel was in a sad state. The people did as they pleased. Their spiritual leaders indulged in sins of greed and sexual infidelity. There was a desperate need for God’s grace.

But there was another young man at Shiloh. And he provided a stark contrast to the arrogant actions of the others; in verse 18 we read:

¹⁸ But Samuel was ministering before the Lord— a boy wearing a linen ephod. 

Samuel was humbly ministering in the presence of the LORD and was wearing the garments of a priest himself.

So, as the sons of Eli were abusing their position as priests, Samuel did what a priest was meant to do, and looked the part. We can imagine how Samuel’s faithful example encouraged sincere faith and godliness in others. He reminds us that individual Christians may serve God’s purposes with holy lives regardless of their spiritual surroundings.

Believers in harsh work environments may treat their workers with respect. Where others gain success through dishonesty, Christians can serve God with integrity. In homes, Believers can faithfully live out the joy of the Lord as a faithful witness in difficult circumstances. Believers can daily ask God to help them shine His light into the darkness of their world.

In verses 19 to 21 we see grace in the midst of the darkness. By way of contrast, we see the tender care that Samuel enjoyed from his family and that Elkanah and Hannah enjoyed from the Lord- they are blessed by God and their faithfulness is rewarded with a growing family and a son who grows in the presence of the Lord.

There is a clear contrast here between the house of Samuel and the house of Eli; this becomes clearer still as we turn to see…

Eli’s Failed Rebuke

In verses 22 to 26 we see, in Eli’s interactions with his wicked sons, the grace of godly discipline. Eli would not discipline his own sons, and they would face the consequences of their wickedness, in contrast Samuel grows in godliness.

Eli comes across as a well-meaning and personally godly man, but an ineffective spiritual leader. Eli’s failure is seen in that although he heard about his son’s wickedness and he talked to them about their behaviour, he did nothing to curb their wicked actions.

Eli’s first error was in failing to properly supervise their priestly service. Instead of intervening and correcting his sons, he merely came to them later to discuss what he had heard. His greater error, however, was that his rebuke did not lead to immediate punishment. In other words, he failed to heed the godly wisdom that failure to discipline our children is the surest way to ruin their souls.

In dealing with his sons Eli had an obligation to at least remove them from their office and replace them with godly priests. But he took no actions. He failed to display the grace of godly discipline.

Eli’s sons, on the other hand, would have been wise to receive their father’s rebuke, but they did not listen. Few things are more vital to children than humility when receiving godly discipline- it is grace given by God, through godly parents, for the flourishing of His People.

The grace of godly discipline was lost on these wicked sons. But in the midst of wickedness and darkness God was still at work.

Behind the scenes, and in contrast to Eli’s corrupt family, is the family of Samuel. In verse 19 we see in Elkanah and Hannah the value of loving, godly involvement with the children God has given to us.

Hannah and Elkanah were sinners like the rest of us, but they were committed to God and providing a godly influence on their son. It would not be inappropriate to imagine Hannah praying intentionally as she made Samuel’s robe; or to think that Elkanah sat down with his son during those visits to the Tabernacle to talk about the things of God.

And God honoured their faithfulness. Hannah gave to the Lord and received an abundance from Him in return. And, in verse 26, Samuel’s increasing spiritual maturity is described in words echo the description of Jesus’ growing maturity when He was a boy.

The contrast should encourage those of us who are to pause and consider our own families. Fathers, especially, are to think about the spiritual temperature they set in their homes and the way in which they exercise the grace of godly discipline. We are to prayerfully consider how we can be diligent in teaching God’s Word, correcting sin, and encouraging our children to make use of the means of grace- gathered worship, corporate prayer, acts of service. And we must be mindful of where our priorities truly lie when it comes to our children- what is our truest desire for our children and how will bring that to fruition?

And what are we to do if, like Eli, our children have grown up and walked away from God? Well, we must not lose hope. Instead, we should redeem the time by praying for God’s intervening grace and seeking all godly means to do good to our children.

The House of Samuel exercised the grace of godly discipline and experienced a harvest of spiritual fruitfulness. In contrast, the house of Eli failed to exercise the grace of godly discipline and there was consequences…

Eli’s House Rejected

A man of God comes to Eli and brings a stinging rebuke in the form of a history lesson. In verses 27 to 29 the man of God describes what God has done for the House of Eli; here we see that God:

– revealed Himself to their ancestors. In other words, God had entered into a relationship with them and shown them how to live for Him.

– chose them to enjoy all the privileges of priesthood,

– gave them sufficient food.

But Eli’s house had scorned the sacrifice. God effectively says: I have done all this for you and in return you’ve spit in my face. Therefore, we see in verses 30 to 33, Eli’s house was rejected by the Lord because they treated the privileges of the priestly birthright so lightly.

God had promised Eli’s house the privilege of serving as priests, but, as with any covenant, there was a clear obligation involved. Because Eli had failed to honour God completely, his house would be cut off from the priesthood. Throughout Scripture and in the coming weeks we will see how God kept His word in this matter.

The principle behind God’s rejection of Eli’s house is one we must pay attention to: God honours those who honour Him. In other words, there is a need on the part of every person to heed God’s grace.

The Lord graciously promises to honour those who devote themselves to Him. The wicked may prosper for a moment but there is a day of reckoning for every soul in God’s good time. And those who honour God will be honoured- in this life and the next.

For example, we can think of men like Eric Liddell who held fast to their belief in what God desired and were honoured. Liddell famously won a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics. However, his gold medal came in a race he had not planned to run. Due to his belief that he should not run on the Lord’s Day Liddell was excluded from the 100m race and faced political pressure and personal ridicule for his principled stance. In the end, Liddell ran and won the 400m race- shattering the world record in the process (!).

Liddell was celebrated across Britain and the world, but instead of cashing in on his fame, he returned to China as a missionary where he would die in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. At the end of the movie made in his honour, Chariots of Fire, these words appear on the screen: Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All of Scotland mourned. Liddell honoured God, and God honoured him.

And just as Liddell stood out in his generation, young Samuel made quite the contrast to the rejected house of Eli. The rise of Samuel is a sign of the fall of Eli’s house. But it is also a sign that God can raise up for Himself a priest from outside the house of Eli. And this is precisely what God promises in verse 35:

³⁵ I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before my anointed one always. 

As God was preparing to tear down, God was also preparing to raise up, providing a godly leader for His burdened People Notice God’s grace once again: God would provide faithful, godly leaders.

We will see God keeps His promises immediately with Zadok and his house, who gain legitimacy under David and Solomon. But ultimately it is an allusion to Jesus and His better priesthood.

When we turn to Hebrews 7 we see that Jesus is the better priest who offers a better hope and is the guarantor of a better covenant. In verses 26 and 27 we read:

Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

Think of the contrast with the house of Eli. Jesus is holy, blameless, pure and set apart from sinners. He does not take from us, but ‘offered Himself’ for us.

In Christ, God raises up a faithful priest, who ‘…is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them…’. This means that you and I have a priest standing in the presence of God, and through Him we are cleansed and forgiven.

So, we do not need to hide our sin or excuse our failings. Instead, in Christ, we confess our sins confident that we will be forgiven. In Christ, we have been set free to enjoy God’s lavish grace. Our Great High Priest beckons us into the light. We don’t need to live in the dark, or fear rejection ever again. In Christ, who was rejected for us, we are cleansed of our sin and set free to live for God, our Loving Heavenly Father.

Conclusion

As we close, what are we to take from seeing the fall of Eli’s house and the rise of Samuel?

Samuel’s obedience reminds us to look behind the scenes to where God is working with grace. In the places where God is honoured, where His Word is revered, and where humble commitment to the Lord is sincerely lived out, God is at work.

The message of godly little Samuel and the wicked sons of Eli is that nothing is ever more important than the simple commitment of God’s People to God’s Word and to prayer. If we want to make a real difference with our lives, we will humbly to serve the Lord, wherever He has placed us, and remember His promise that ‘…those who honour me I will honour…’.