_ELI'S HOUSE._
1 SAMUEL ii. 11-36.
The notices of little Samuel, that alternate in this passage with the
sad accounts of Eli and his house, are like the green spots that vary
the dull stretches of sand in a desert; or like the little bits of blue
sky that charm your eye when the firmament is darkened by a storm. First
we are told how, after Elkanah and Hannah departed, the child Samuel
ministered unto the Lord before Eli the priest (v. 11); then comes an
ugly picture of the wickedness practised at Shiloh by Eli's sons (vv.
12-17); another episode brings Samuel again before us, with some details
of his own history and that of his family (vv. 18-21); this is followed
by an account of Eli's feeble endeavours to restrain the wickedness of
his sons (vv. 22-25). Once more we have a bright glimpse of Samuel, and
of his progress in life and character, very similar in terms to St.
Luke's account of the growth of the child Jesus (v. 26); and finally the
series closes with a painful narrative--the visit of a man of God to
Eli, reproving his guilty laxity in connection with his sons, and
announcing the downfall of his house (vv. 27-36). In the wickedness of
Eli's sons we see the enemy coming in like a flood; in the progress of
little Samuel we see the Spirit of the Lord lifting up a standard
against him. We see evil powerful and most destructive; we see the
instrument of healing very feeble--a mere infant. Yet the power of God
is with the infant, and in due time the force which he represents will
prevail. It is just a picture of the grand conflict of sin and grace in
the world. It was verified emphatically when Jesus was a child. How
slender the force seemed that was to scatter the world's darkness, roll
back its wickedness, and take away its guilt! How striking the lesson
for us not to be afraid though the apparent force of truth and goodness
in the world be infinitesimally small. The worm Jacob shall yet thresh
the mountains; the little flock shall yet possess the kingdom; "there
shall be a handful of corn on the top of the mountains, the fruit
thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish
like grass of the earth."
It is mainly the picture of Eli's house and the behaviour of his family
that fills our eye in this chapter. It is to be noticed that Eli was a
descendant, not of Eleazar, the elder son of Aaron, but of Ithamar, the
younger. Why the high priesthood was transferred from the one family to
the other, in the person of Eli, we do not know. Evidently Eli's claim
to the priesthood was a valid one, for in the reproof addressed to him
it is fully assumed that he was the proper occupant of the office. One
is led to think that either from youth or natural feebleness the proper
heir in Eleazar's line had been unfit for the office, and that Eli had
been appointed to it as possessing the personal qualifications which the
other wanted. Probably therefore he was a man of vigour in his earlier
days, one capable of being at the head of affairs; and if so his loose
government of his family was all the more worthy of blame. It could not
have been that the male line in Eleazar's family had failed; for in the
time of David Zadok of the family of Eleazar was priest, along with
Abiathar, of the family of Ithamar and Eli. From Eli's administration
great things would seem to have been expected; all the more lamentable
and shameful was the state of things that ensued.
1. First our attention is turned to the gross wickedness and scandalous
behaviour of Eli's sons. There are many dark pictures in the history of
Israel in the time of the Judges,--pictures of idolatry, pictures of
lust, pictures of treachery, pictures of bloodshed; but there is none
more awful than the picture of the high priest's family at Shiloh. In
the other cases members of the nation had become grossly wicked; but in
this case it is the salt that has lost its savour--it is those who
should have led the people in the ways of God that have become the
ringleaders of the devil's army. Hophni and Phinehas take their places
in that unhonoured band where the names of Alexander Borgia, and many a
high ecclesiastic of the Middle Ages send forth their stinking savour.
They are marked by the two prevailing vices of the lowest natures--greed
and lechery. Their greed preys upon the worthy men who brought their
offerings to God's sanctuary in obedience to His law; their lechery
seduces the very women who, employed in the service of the place (see
Revised Version), might have reasonably thought of it as the gate to
heaven rather than the avenue of hell. So shameless were they in both
kinds of vice that they were at no pains to conceal either the one or
the other. It mattered nothing what regulations God had made as to the
parts of the offering the priest was to have; down went their fork into
the sacrificial caldron, and whatever it drew up became theirs. It
mattered not that the fat of certain sacrifices was due to God, and that
it ought to have been given off before any other use was made of the
flesh; the priests claimed the flesh in its integrity, and if the
offerer would not willingly surrender it their servant fell upon him and
wrenched it away. It is difficult to say whether the greater hurt was
inflicted by such conduct on the cause of religion or on the cause of
ordinary morality. As for the cause of religion, it suffered that
terrible blow which it always suffers whenever it is dissociated from
morality. The very heart and soul is torn out of religion when men are
led to believe that their duty consists in merely believing certain
dogmas, attending to outward observances, paying dues, and "performing"
worship. What kind of conception of God can men have who are encouraged
to believe that justice, mercy, and truth have nothing to do with His
service? How can they ever think of Him as a Spirit, who requires of
them that worship Him that they worship Him in spirit and in truth? How
can such religion give men a real veneration for God, or inspire them
with that spirit of obedience, trust, and delight of which he ought ever
to be the object? Under such religion all belief in God's existence
tends to vanish. Though His existence may continue to be acknowledged,
it is not a power, it has no influence; it neither stimulates to good
nor restrains from evil. Religion becomes a miserable form, without
life, without vigour, without beauty--a mere carcase deserving only to
be buried out of sight.
And if such a condition of things is fatal to religion, it is fatal to
morality too. Men are but too ready by nature to play loose with
conscience. But when the religious heads of the nation are seen at once
robbing man and robbing God, and when this is done apparently with
impunity, it seems foolish to ordinary men to mind moral restraints.
"Why should we mind the barriers of conscience" (the young men of Israel
might argue) "when these young priests disregard them? If we do as the
priest does we shall do very well." Men of corrupt lives at the head of
religion, who are shameless in their profligacy, have a lowering effect
on the moral life of the whole community. Down and down goes the
standard of living. Class after class gets infected. The mischief
spreads like dry rot in a building; ere long the whole fabric of society
is infected with the poison.
2. And how did the high priest deal with this state of things? In the
worst possible way. He spoke against it but he did not act against it.
He showed that he knew of it, he owned it to be very wicked; but he
contented himself with words of remonstrance, which in the case of such
hardened transgression were of no more avail than a child's breath
against a brazen wall. At the end of the day, it is true that Eli was a
decrepit old man, from whom much vigour of action could not have been
expected. But the evil began before he was so old and decrepit, and his
fault was that he did not restrain his sons at the time when he ought
and might have restrained them. Yes, but even if Eli was old and
decrepit when the actual state of things first burst on his view, there
was enough of the awful in the conduct of his sons to have roused him to
unwonted activity. David was old and decrepit, lying feebly at the edge
of death, when word was brought to him that Adonijah had been proclaimed
king in place of Solomon, for whom he had destined the throne. But
there was enough of the startling in this intelligence to bring back a
portion of its youthful fire to David's heart, and set him to devise the
most vigorous measures to prevent the mischief that was so ready to be
perpetrated. Fancy King David sending a meek message to Adonijah--"Nay,
my son, it is not on your head but on Solomon's that my crown is to
rest; go home, my son, and do nothing more in a course hurtful to
yourself and hurtful to your people." But; it was this foolish and most
inefficient course that Eli took with his sons. Had he acted as he
should have acted at the beginning, matters would never have come to
such a flagrant pass. But when the state of things became so terrible,
there was but one course that should have been thought of. When the
wickedness of the acting priests was so outrageous that men abhorred the
offering of the Lord, the father ought to have been sunk in the high
priest; the men who had so dishonoured their office should have been
driven from the place, and the very remembrance of the crime they had
committed should have been obliterated by the holy lives and holy
service of better men. It was inexcusable in Eli to allow them to
remain. If he had had a right sense of his office he would never for one
moment have allowed the interest of his family to outweigh the claims of
God. What! Had God in the wilderness, by a solemn and deadly judgment,
removed from office and from life the two elder sons of Aaron simply
because they had offered strange fire in their censers? And what was the
crime of offering strange fire compared to the crime of robbing God, of
violating the Decalogue, of openly practising gross and daring
wickedness, under the very shadow of the tabernacle? If Eli did not take
steps for stopping these atrocious proceedings, he might rely on it
that steps would be taken in another quarter--God Himself would mark His
sense of the sin.
For what were the interests of his sons compared with the credit of the
national worship? What mattered it that the sudden stroke would fall on
them with startling violence? If it did not lead to their repentance and
salvation it would at least save the national religion from degradation,
and it would thus bring benefit to tens of thousands in the land. All
this Eli did not regard. He could not bring himself to be harsh to his
own sons. He could not bear that they should be disgraced and degraded.
He would satisfy himself with a mild remonstrance, notwithstanding that
every day new disgrace was heaped on the sanctuary, and new
encouragement given to others to practise wickedness, by the very men
who should have been foremost in honouring God, and sensitive to every
breath that would tarnish His name.
How differently God's servants acted in other days! How differently
Moses acted when he came down from the mount and found the people
worshipping the golden calf! "It came to pass, as soon as he came nigh
unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger
waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and brake them
beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt
it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water,
and made the children of Israel drink of it.... And Moses stood in the
gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto
me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And
he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his
sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate through the camp,
and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every
man his neighbour." Do we think this too sharp and severe a retribution?
At all events it marked in a suitable way the enormity of the offence of
Aaron and the people, and the awful provocation of Divine judgments
which the affair of the golden calf implied. It denoted that in presence
of such a sin the claims of kindred were never for a moment to be
thought of; and in the blessing of Moses it was a special commendation
of the zeal of Levi, that "he said unto his father, and to his mother, I
have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his
own children." It was the outrageous character of the offence in the
matter of the golden calf that justified the severe and abrupt
procedure; but it was Eli's condemnation that though the sin of his sons
was equally outrageous, he was moved to no indignation, and took no step
to rid the tabernacle of men so utterly unworthy.
It is often very difficult to explain how it comes to pass that godly
men have had ungodly children. There is little difficulty in accounting
for this on the present occasion. There was a fatal defect in the method
of Eli. His remonstrance with his sons is not made at the proper time.
It is not made in the fitting tone. When disregarded, it is not followed
up by the proper consequences. We can easily think of Eli letting the
boys have their own will and their own way when they were young;
threatening them for disobedience, but not executing the threat; angry
at them when they did wrong, but not punishing the offence; vacillating
perhaps between occasional severity and habitual indulgence, till
by-and-bye all fear of sinning had left them, and they coolly calculated
that the grossest wickedness would meet with nothing worse than a
reproof. How sad the career of the young men themselves! We must not
forget that, however inexcusable their father was, the great guilt of
the proceeding was theirs. How must they have hardened their hearts
against the example of Eli, against the solemn claims of God, against
the holy traditions of the service, against the interests and claims of
those whom they ruined, against the welfare of God's chosen people! How
terribly did their familiarity with sacred things react on their
character, making them treat even the holy priesthood as a mere trade, a
trade in which the most sacred interests that could be conceived were
only as counters, to be turned by them into gain and sensual pleasure!
Could anything come nearer to the sin against the Holy Ghost? No wonder
though their doom was that of persons judicially blinded and hardened.
They were given up to a reprobate mind, to do those things that were not
convenient. "They hearkened not to the voice of their father, because
the Lord would slay them." They experienced the fate of men who
deliberately sin against the light, who love their lusts so well that
nothing will induce them to fight against them; they were so hardened
that repentance became impossible, and it was necessary for them to
undergo the full retribution of their wickedness.
3. But it is time we should look at the message brought to Eli by the
man of God. In that message Eli was first reminded of the gracious
kindness shown to the house of Aaron in their being entrusted with the
priesthood, and in their having an honourable provision secured for
them. Next he is asked why he trampled on God's sacrifice and offering
(marg. Revised Version), and considered the interests of his sons above
the honour of God? Then he is told that any previous promise of the
perpetuity of his house is now qualified by the necessity God is under
to have regard to the character of his priests, and honour or degrade
them accordingly. In accordance with this rule the house of Eli would
suffer a terrible degradation. He (this includes his successors in
office) would be stript of "his arm," that is, his strength. No member
of his house would reach a good old age. The establishment at Shiloh
would fall more and more into decay, as if there was an enemy in God's
habitation. Any who might remain of the family would be a grief and
distress to those whom Eli represented. The young men themselves, Hophni
and Phinehas, would die the same day. Those who shared their spirit
would come crouching to the high priest of the day and implore him to
put them into one of the priest's offices, not to give them the
opportunity of serving God, but that they might eat a piece of bread.
Terrible catalogue of curses and calamities! Oh, sin, what a brood of
sorrows dost thou bring forth! Oh, young man, who walkest in the ways of
thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, what a myriad of distresses
dost thou prepare for those whom thou art most bound to care for and to
bless! Oh, minister of the gospel, who allowest thyself to tamper with
the cravings of the flesh till thou hast brought ruin on thyself,
disgrace on thy family, and confusion on thy Church, what infatuation
was it to admit thy worst foe to the sanctuary of thy bosom, and allow
him to establish himself in the citadel till thou couldst not get quit
of him, so that thou art now helpless in his hands, with nothing but
sadness for thy present inheritance, and for the future a fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation!
One word, in conclusion, respecting that great principle of the kingdom
of God announced by the prophet as that on which Jehovah would act in
reference to His priests--"Them that honour Me I will honour, but they
that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." It is one of the grandest
sayings in Scripture. It is the eternal rule of the kingdom of God, not
limited to the days of Hophni and Phinehas, but, like the laws of the
Medes and Persians, eternal as the ordinances of heaven. It is a law
confirmed by all history; every man's life confirms it, for though this
life is but the beginning of our career, and the final clearing up of
Divine providence is to be left to the judgment-day, yet when we look
back on the world's history we find that those that have honoured God,
God has honoured them, while they that have despised Him have indeed
been lightly esteemed. However men may try to get their destiny into
their own hands; however they may secure themselves from this trouble
and from that; however, like the first Napoleon, they may seem to become
omnipotent, and to wield an irresistible power, yet the day of
retribution comes at last; having sown to the flesh, of the flesh also
they reap corruption. While the men that have honoured God, the men that
have made their own interests of no account, but have set themselves
resolutely to obey God's will and do God's work; the men that have
believed in God as the holy Ruler and Judge of the world, and have
laboured in private life and in public service to carry out the great
rules of His kingdom,--justice, mercy, the love of God and the love of
man,--these are the men that God has honoured; these are the men whose
work abides; these are the men whose names shine with undying honour,
and from whose example and achievements young hearts in every following
age draw their inspiration and encouragement. What a grand rule of life
it is, for old and young! Do you wish a maxim that shall be of high
service to you in the voyage of life, that shall enable you to steer
your barque safely both amid the open assaults of evil, and its secret
currents, so that, however tossed you may be, you may have the assurance
that the ship's head is in the right direction, and that you are moving
steadily towards the desired haven; where can you find anything more
clear, more fitting, more sure and certain than just these words of the
Almighty, "Them that honour Me I will honour; but they that despise Me
shall be lightly esteemed"?