Eli – a holy man who lost his way

When I read the account of this man, I feel sad for him.

He was the High Priest of Israel, I think he was a direct descendant from Aaron, the older brother of Moses, the mighty prophet who led Israel out of Egypt under the power of Jehovah. To those of you who have read some of my previous articles, you will remember that Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ, the God of Israel. Further it can be remembered that Jesus is a God who has all power. He is the eldest son of God the Father who acts on behalf of the Father in terms of this world. As the mortal Jesus pointed out to Mary at the glorious manifestation of his resurrection, he, Jesus worships the Father just as we are commanded to.

There are many who do not understand the relationship between the Son and our Father. All must bend the knee and worshipfully acknowledge the divinity of the Son, but salvation comes when we worship the Father. Jesus attests to this continually throughout his mortal ministry. The reason why I am elaborating this so carefully is to impress upon those who read this that Jehovah and Jesus are the same consistent being. Jehovah may appear to be stern and cruel whereas Jesus cold appear as mild and meek. This is an erroneous viewpoint which is inconsistent with the Bible.

So Eli was living at the temple. The earliest time we hear of this man was when the faithful Hannah came to the Temple to petition the Lord for a baby. In those days, women of the House of Israel, desired greatly to have children. Hannah’s husband (Elkanah) had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Elkanah favoured Hannah but Peninnah had the babies. Relationships between the women seemed to be adversarial because Peninnah rubbed in the fact that Hannah was barren, unlike her. When they went to the Temple on their annual pilgrimage and sacrifices were made, Elkanah gave Peninnah and her sons and daughters portions but even though Hannah’s portion was much more generous, it was only for her. So each year this tormented Hannah.

When Hannah was fervently praying and making a vow, Eli observed her and thought she was drunken. Of course Hannah was not drunk and humbly pointed out that she was not drunk but passionately petitioning the Lord. Eli gave her a blessing in the name of the Lord. This remarkable woman was then content and trusted in the outcome. In due course she fell pregnant and gave birth to Samuel.

Just an observation about Eli. I can reasonably conclude that Eli did not have the Spirit of the Lord with him at that time. He made a mistaken assumption based on the outward appearance of Hannah, he was not able to see her heart.
All was not well at the Temple. Eli’s two sons were meant to follow in their father’s footsteps and one of them was to become the High Priest eventually. But his sons were indulgent in all their physical appetites. They took inappropriately from the meat intended for sacrifice for themselves. This they did in front of the worshipping Israelites, corrupting some of them. Even worse, they had sexual intercourse with worshipping women at the entrance of the Temple. Eli knew of the grave sins of his sons and rebuked them but they ignored him and continued to defile the Temple and their priestly duties. Their practises made them no different from the surrounding pagan nations. Eli had the great and awful responsibility to slay his wicked and rebellious sons. He just could not do it, thus he placed the value of the lives of his wicked sons above the commandments of Jehovah. The holy rituals of Israel had become empty and devoid of the Spirit of God. An unknown prophet came to the Temple and rebuked Eli. From the prophet’s words it can be seen that Eli too was eating from the sacrificial meat inappropriately. God, speaking through the unknown prophet, reminded Eli of the covenant made with Aaron, that it was to be everlasting. Eli’s wickedness and the extreme wickedness of his sons meant the covenant was broken. Eli was doomed, he would see the deaths of his wicked sons.

Hannah had vowed that her child would become a Nazarite and become a full time servant to the Lord. She fulfilled her promise and after the appropriate number of years, she brought the young lad to Eli, the High Priest.

One night when the young lad was sleeping, a voice awoke him by saying his name. The youngster thought it was Eli and after several times the High Priest realised that the Lord was speaking to the boy. He instructed him what to do and say. When the youngster responded appropriately, the Lord spoke to the boy and told him of the doom of Eli because Eli did not restrain his sons.

In the morning the lad was afraid to tell the old priest what the Lord has said, but after being instructed to hold nothing back, the dire judgement and prediction from the Lord was told to Eli. The old man seemed to accept his fate. Yet poor Eli still did nothing in terms of his sons.

Samuel was a righteous person; it seems to me like the old man Eli helped raise Samuel in a righteous manner. The spiritual famine of no revelation was over, the word of the Lord was revealed to Samuel.

In later years, Israel went to battle with the Philistines. Israel was now a weak army as the Lord was not with them. The Philistines decisively defeated Israel. The leaders of the Israelite army decided to take the ark with them into battle. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Pinehas, accompanied the ark of the covenant of God. The armies of the Israelites were filled with confidence. The Philistines were afraid but their leaders exhorted them to die like men. In the ensuing battle, the Philistines crushed Israel with a terrible slaughter. The ark was captured and the sons of Eli slain. When the messenger gave the disastrous news to trembling Eli, the 98-year-old man, who had judged Israel for 40 years, Eli fell over backwards in shock, broke his neck and died.

I know that the judgement of God was true and that Eli reaped the consequences of his weakness. He had been repeatedly warned and had failed to act. I still feel sad for the man. Am I being rebellious to feel this sorrow? I hope not.

If I, a mere mortal can feel sad for this man, Eli, whose sins and weaknesses, overwhelmed him, how much more sorrow would a perfect God feel for one of his failing sons? Some may feel that God was harsh in his judgement, I find such feelings inappropriate, how can we who are so flawed judge a perfect being by our limited perspectives? I could never be so presumptuous, but don’t let me speak too soon!

All I can do is plead for mercy for all of us mortals, others like Eli and some like myself. We all depend on the mercy of God.