Special Series #9: Eli - Bible Characters and How they Finished

Our story regarding Eli begins not with Eli but with God's judge who will succeed him. God's successor to Eli will be the great prophet/judge Samuel so we begin with his birth and background.

Samuel's Birth

Samuel was born out of a godly family (1 Samuel 1.1-2.11). Hannah prayed for a son and promised to dedicate him to the Lord. Eli blessed her prayer, and when Samuel was weaned, Hannah brought him to serve in the temple under Eli.

Eli's Failure

By contrast, Eli's sons were wicked men (1 Samuel 2.12-17). They abused their priestly position and "despised the offering of the Lord." Though Eli knew of their sins, he did not restrain them.

Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me? (1 Samuel 2.29).

God revealed to Samuel the judgment that He would carry out on Eli because he did not rebuke his sons (1 Samuel 3.10-14). When the Philistines defeated Israel and captured the ark of God, both of Eli's sons were killed. Upon hearing the news, Eli fell backward from his seat, broke his neck, and died at age 98.

The tragedy extended to the next generation 3 Eli's daughter-in-law died in childbirth, naming her son Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel."

Transcript

Dr Hal Habecker: 0:26

Well, welcome back to our discussion of aging people and how they finished. This is the record of the scriptures. How did characters in the Bible finish in the end of their lives? Don't forget that little byline from Crawford loretz, Don't let me drown in shallow water. As you know, the apostle Paul said, let's learn from these people. They're all examples to us, everybody in the Old Testament. Help us learn from them and learn to live life well, whatever our age, whatever our decade, whether we're teenagers or whether we're in our latter years, 70s, 80s, 90s, even centenarians. Perhaps reminds me of our poem Robert Browning, feel free to memorize this with me. Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be the last of life for which the first was made. You know, God set us up by design for our aging years. Always like to ask the question when I speak, what's the purpose of aging? Well, the purpose of aging is to learn through our life that we may present a heart of wisdom to God. We may have lots of experiences, but are we growing through them and understanding what God wants to do in our lives? That's the value of the aging years. So today I want to talk about Eli. I don't know. We don't spend a lot of time with him. I remember visiting Eli's home in Shiloh when I was in Israel, years ago, seeing the temple platform, the tabernacle platform there. I mean, it looks like a flat football field. You can see where Eli's home was, where he lived, where he served. It's an amazing experience. I hope someday you may have the opportunity to go. But our story on Eli doesn't begin with Eli. It actually begins with the judge who will succeed him, and that judge is Samuel. And the reason the Scriptures do this, the writer of the historical writer, is going to present to us a contrast of the man who will succeed Eli, and he's going to take us into his earliest years so we can see the heart of Samuel, and then that stands as a Contrast to Eli. You with me. So let's think about ELI to that, and I'll try and summarize his life. You remember Hannah, his mother, Samuel's mother, they would go to the temple, and she would pray for a son, and Eli would think that she was maybe had too much to drink, and she wasn't making sense. But she goes every year and she prays, you can see it there in the text. Now it came about as she continued praying before the Lord, Eli was watching her mouth, and she was speaking out of her heart, not for Eli, her lips were moving. So Eli thought, are you drunk? I mean, how crazy is that? How long will you make yourself drunk? He says, Put away. And she says, No, I'm crying out to God, and don't consider your maid service as a worthless woman. For I have spoken now out of my great concern and provocation. And you know, Eli finally hears her voice, and he says, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked him. She said, Let your maid servant find favor in your sight. So the woman, Hannah, went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Eli said, you're going to have a son. I think so they arose in worship and left. Now we see in this text that they left and returned to their home, and Elkanah, her husband, had relationships with Hannah's wife, and the Lord remembered her. And it came about in due time after she conceived, that she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, because I had asked him of the Lord, so they go back up to the tabernacle the next time for she said to her husband, I will not go up until the child is weaned. Then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and stay there. And her husband said, Do what's best. First remain until after you've weaned him, only may the Lord confirm His Word, which he did. So she remained and nourished her son, and now, when she had weaned him, she took him up with her and a three year old bull and one ephah of flour and a jug of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. And although he was young, that is Samuel, they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli. So Hannah's going to do what she promised. God gave her his son, and she said this, Eli, oh my lord, as your soul lives, My Lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord. For this boy, I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition, which I ask of him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is dedicated to the Lord, and He worshiped the Lord there. Now I want to just say parenthetically, what a great thing for every parent, every grandparent, every great grandparent, to do when God brings little people into your life, we ought to bless them and thank God for them and give them to the Lord. I want to say, What greater blessing could a great grandchild have than to have his or her great grandparents pray over them, or their grandparents pray over them, and all those older generations surrounding those young people praying for them and giving them to the Lord and encouraging them, that's what happened here. So Samuel had a godly mother who prayed for him and support him and regularly, Would to God that we would do that for our kids, our grandkids, our great grandkids. Now here's the interesting fact in this story. By contrast, Eli's sons were wicked men. Watch this. The scripture says the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord and the custom of the priest with the people. This is interesting. Eli, the priest, did not bring up his sons the way Hannah was bringing up her son, and she entrust him to Eli, who didn't do what God wanted him to do with his own sons. It's crazy. You know, we need to take care of our families first. This is an interesting observation. Don't put your career as a professional person for God, a preacher, a pastor, a leader, a recognized Christian leader. Don't put your ministry ahead of your family. If it, if you do, if I do, it will get you into trouble. That's the lesson of Eli. You know the the text says, When a man was offering a sacrifice, the priest servant would come and while the meat was boiling with a three pronged fork in his hand. Then he would thrust it into the pan, or the kettle or the cauldron, and all that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. So they're profiting themselves from their work in the tabernacle, you know, and they, you can see the text there. They would proliferate that act they did not serve in the tabernacle as true servants of God. They were putting on a show, you might say, living for themselves. Now, the interesting observation that the Scripture makes the Chronicle, I don't know who wrote. I mean, maybe Samuel wrote, First Samuel and second, Samuel bears his name. Eli did not rebuke his sons. Watch this now. Eli was very old, and he had heard all that his sons were doing to all of Israel, how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent. He said to them, Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people. No, my sons, for the report is not good, which I hear from God's people circulating, if one man sins against another, God will mediate for him. But if a man sins against the LORD, like you, My sons are who can intercede for him, but they would not listen to their dad. God sends a man into Eli's life. Just an interesting observation. And he tells Eli that you're going to be judged. And he says to Eli, why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my dwelling, and honor your sons above me? That's interesting. So even though Eli knew the evil that his sons were doing, he made it as an observation, you guys are worthless people, but he didn't seem to do anything about it. And the man says, the prophet of God, says to Eli, behold. The days are coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. You will see the distress of my dwelling, in spite of all the good that I do for Israel and an old man will not be in your house forever. So God is going to judge Eli, he says, Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from my altar, so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve and in all the increase of the house will die in the prime of life. God says, I won't cut everybody off, but your days are limited. And then the the man gives Eli a sign. He says, this will be a sign to you which will come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, on the same day, both of them will die, but I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in my heart and in my soul, and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My Anointed ways. Always, it's interesting. God reveals to Samuel the judgment that he will carry out on Eli because he did not rebuke his sons. You know, it's just a tragedy, and I don't know what else has gone on in Eli's heart, the Scripture simply makes an observation. Eli did not rebuke his sons in a powerful way. He allowed them to go on. He didn't ask God about it. But the end is coming. So the Lord came to Samuel and stood out and called another time Samuel, Samuel, and that's where God tells all this to Samuel. Remember, the man of God came to Eli and told this. But then God reveals this to Samuel as always. And he said, Behold, I'm about to do a thing in Israel which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. I mean, I hope we get shook up about some of the things God says and take it to heart. Don't just read it and let the text go away. In that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from the beginning to the end. Let's learn from Eli, for I have told him that I'm about to judge his house forever for the iniquity, which he knew because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. Let me tell you, don't let evil go on in your life if it's in you and others around you deal with it. God says, Therefore, I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. So how sad that Eli did not take note of what God had told him, but the story goes on. Let's watch it. The Israelites are soundly defeated by an enemy, even though they take the ark with them. So Eli's sons are desperate. The Philistines drew up in battle ray to meet Israel. This, this, when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about 4000 people on the battlefield. When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Why has the Lord defeated us today? Before the Philistines, I come up with an idea, let's take the Ark and take the Ark into the battle. You know, this is crazy. I mean, just how often do we presume against God to do something? We think we're going to leverage him to help us. And the ark was not to leave the tabernacle. It was put there by God in the Holy of Holies to worship. So these sons of Eli take the Ark and lead it. They think God's going to give them success by taking the ark. I just want to say, don't leverage against God. Don't leverage in the pit. We'll see this in Moses life when we get to him. But don't leverage against God by think you're doing his work his way. Don't presume against God over and above disobedience. You live the disobedient life. You're going to pay for your sin. So don't take God in to help you in that sense. So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent, and the slaughter was very great, for there fell of Israel, 30,000 remember, 4000 had died before now, 30,000 died, and the Ark of was the ark of God was taken, and the. Two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas died. Now let's watch this. Eli is standing by at the tabernacle, waiting to hear okay. The the man from Benjamin comes, and he tells Eli the news that his sons both died and the ark was taken. And the text says, Eli fell off the seat. He was heavy. He couldn't move well, and he couldn't see and he died. His neck was broken and he died. And I just sit back and think how tragic the agony of disobedience extended not only to his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, but it will extend to the next generation as well. Now his daughter in law, Phineas, wife, was pregnant and she was about ready to give birth, and when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken and that her father in law and her husband had died, She kneeled down and gave birth for her pains came upon her listen and about the time of her death, the woman said to her, Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son. She did not answer or pay attention because she was dying in the process, she said, the glory of God has departed from Israel for the ark of God was taken. Now think about this with me. Just some thoughts. How do you live your life, and how does your life impact others? We know how Eli lived. He didn't regard his sons to be disciplined. His sons didn't obey the Lord, pour your life into your family, learn from Eli's mistakes, I would say the impact of your family will live on. What will it be? Will it be good, or will it be challenging and bad? Being in ministry, for me, is no excuse for not leading, investing in and impacting your family. Let's not make Eli's mistakes in our family and in our work for the Lord, Eli, a priest, served God, but did not take care of his family. I want to say in closing, Psalm 90, verse 12, so Teach us to number our days that we might present to you, O God, a heart of wisdom out of our lives, out of our marriages, out of our families, out of our grandchildren. And let's be a blessing to others. Let's not be judged by God for our own disobedience. What an important story to remember as we serve God in our latter years.

Unknown: 18:01

You.