We reach the time of Eli & his wicked sons. Eli comes to power as the High Priest/Judge in Shiloh after the time of Samson the last judge mentioned in the Book of Judges. We have Hannah who has been barren for years and has made a covenant with God that if she can give birth to a son she would consecrate him to the service of God for his entire life. This child turns out to be Samuel the Prophet and successor to Eli as a Judge (Merrill 435)
We also learn by the second chapter of 1 Samuel that the priesthood and nation had become a mockery and a depraved caricature of everything it should’ve been. It was a spiritually destitute distortioon of its former self. Meanwhile we see the Lord raising up a Godly man in Samuel through his childhood. We are essentially at a junction point of Israelite history between the time of the Judges and the era of kingship/kingdom. Samuel appears to have been born to this time and place to fulfill at least a fivefold purpose in this transitory phase.
• A response to a Godly mother’s prayer to the Lord (Hannah)
• The divine reason is to fix a horrible state the priesthood and tabernacle had become.
• To serves as a spiritual leader in a time where there really wasn’t any
• To some extent (except when hacking Agag to pieces), he acts as a passive Judge.
• Priest-Prophet (sometimes passed as a judge/leader until Saul is anointed)
Conversely, Eli’s sons Phinehas and Hophni were son’s of Belial (the devil) and had gone spiritually AWOL (absent without [the] Lord) to the point of taking choice meats/offerings that belonged to the Lord and having illicit sexual intercourse with women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. These were not infractions against other men they were violations directly against God. When Eli approaches them about their sin it appears God has hardened their hearts deliberately because He “intended to kill them”. Not only were these men unsaved they were openly evil. They basically dismiss Eli exhortations and continue on their sinful way.
For all intensive purposes Eli allowed this decadent state to continue by not vigorously correcting his sons or doing anything about their disobedience or sin. So he too would be found guilty by the Lord. Another perfect example that the people of the Lord were/are responsible for and to one another as a whole. A man who truly loves his neighbor will not willingly allow him to continue to sin without at least rebuking him. It may have been the sons of Eli who were stealing the sacrifice from God but Eli is held responsible for their actions as spiritual leader and father.
His sons either saw absolutely nothing wrong with what they were doing or they just didn’t care because they had not been punished yet. Sadly I believe this is the way many of us feel when we deal with our sin. Willing to overlook sin because we are currently benefiting from it for a season and punishment has not come in a recognizable form. All the while we accumulate wrath because God must punish us for our transgression.
Because of the atrocious state of spiritual conditions the Lord warns he is coming and it isn’t going to be pretty for Eli’s family when he comes. They will be removed from the priesthood because they are wicked and Eli couldn’t/didn’t restrain them.
So a Man of God comes to Eli to pronounce judgement in a grocery list format. It is succinct, brutal in its thoroughness and damning:
"Behold,the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest [Samuel], who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, "Please put me in one of the priests’ places, that I may eat a morsel of bread." 1 Samuel 2:31-36
Within a few years this prophecy comes true. Hophni and Phinehas were killed in battle against the Philistines.
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. 1 Samuel 4:10-11
Eli died that day when word came to him that the Ark of the Covenant had been captured. He basically takes header backwards off a chair and breaks his neck."He who brought the news answered and said, "Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured." As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years. 1 Samuel 4:17-18
The wife of Phinehas died giving birth to Ichabod [Hbw: The glory has departed from Israel].
"...the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. As she was dying, the women attending her said, “Don’t despair; you have given birth to a son.” But she did not respond or pay any attention. 1 Samuel 4:19-20
When Solomon was king, Abiathar, the last relative of Eli who was serving as a priest, was removed from his office.
"So Solomon expelled Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, thus fulfilling the word of the LORD that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. 1 Kings 2:27"
"The king [Solomon] put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army in place of Joab, and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar." 1 Kings 2:35
...thus fulfilling in its entirety the aformentioned prophecy of judgement.
Closing note: It isn't Israel losing the battle that troubles Eli or even the loss of his sons, it is the loss of the Ark that essentailly kills him. The reason the capture of the Ark of the Covenant had such a profound and deadly effect on Eli and Phineas' wife is becasue they realized what this meant. The presence of God had departed from Israel. How do we know this? God's presence dwelled on the Mercy Seat (lid) of the Ark of the Covenant. It was unthinkable that this would happen. Israel had made and idol of the Ark and treated it like a talisman or lucky rabbits foot. Dumb but predictable. The Israelites would later do this with the Temple also (in Jeremiah's time). They took it into battle with them and in doing so ended up handing it over to the Philistines as a victory prize.
We see this in some churches today. We still have pastors, priests and clergy doing their thing in the pulpit. There is still a church or gathering place to go to and people still show up in droves but God has left the building. God has not been on the premises of these churches or these peoples hearts for a long time.
Merrill, Eugene H., John Walvoord, and Roy Zuck. "The Conquest of Canaan." Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Bible Knowledge). Acambaro: Victor, 1985. 435. Print.
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