- [Narrator] Toward the end of the Judges' tenure,
at the Shiloh tabernacle,
the elderly Eli had delegated priestly duties
to his sons Hophni and Phinehas
who would prove unworthy.
Their heinous sins followed by no genuine rebuke
or discipline from Eli would result
in severe punishment for Israel.
Eli's sons were evil men
who did not respect the Lord or the priest's share
of the people's sacrifices.
1 Samuel 2:12-17.
"Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
were good-for-nothing priests.
They had no faith in the Lord.
Now, this was how the priests dealt with the people
who were offering sacrifices.
While the meat was boiling,
the priest's servant would come
with a three-pronged fork in his hand,
then he would stick it into the pot,
kettle, cauldron or pan.
Whatever the fork brought up
from the pot belonged to the priest.
This is what the priests did in Shiloh
to all the people of Israel who came there to sacrifice.
But in the case of Eli's sons,
even before the people burned the fat,
their servants would come and say to the man
who was sacrificing,
"Give the meat to the priest to roast.
He doesn't want boiled meat from you.
He wants it raw."
If the man said to the servant,
"First let the fat be burned,
then take as much as you want."
The servant would say to him,
"Give it to me now or I'll take it by force."
The sin of Eli's sons was a serious matter to the Lord
because these men were treating the offerings made
to the Lord with contempt.
However, there was a boy in the template
who was the stark contrast of these boys.
His name was Samuel.
Samuel's mother, Hannah, had been childless
because God had kept her from conceiving.
Her husband, Elkanah, tried his best
to comfort her however.
Because childlessness was widely regarded as a blight
from God in ancient Israel,
Hannah was subjected to cruel mockery year after year.
Hannah finally had enough of the heartache
and went to the tabernacle to pray.
She poured out her heart to God in anguish, deeply hurt.
She vowed that if God gave her a son,
she would dedicate him to God
for the rest of his life.
Hannah offered to raise him
in accordance with the Nazarite vow,
which included abstinence from alcohol
and untrimmed hair
as signs of a person's dedication to God
by promising that his hair would never be cut.
This is the same vow taken by Samson.
Eli mistakenly assumed Hannah was drunk
while watching her intense prayer.
When Hannah explained her situation,
Eli consoled her with a blessing,
which Hannah gratefully accepted.
Hannah had reason to rejoice at the birth of Samuel.
Hannah cared for her baby for three years,
but she never forgot her vow to bring Samuel back
to the tabernacle and live there permanently
to serve the Lord.
She knew it was time to take little Samuel to Eli
when he no longer required nourishment from her.
When Hannah arrived,
she reminded Eli of her narrative
and promise and entrusted Samuel to the care
of the elderly priest.
Hannah returned home but Samuel remained
at Shiloh to serve the Lord.
Although Samuel couldn't have known it at the time,
he had joined the Lord's army at a difficult time.
Shiloh's situation was dreadful,
and it was only a matter of time
before it became disastrous.
1 Samuel 2:18-21.
"But Samuel was ministering before the Lord,
a boy wearing a linen ephod.
Each year, his mother made him a little robe
and took it to him when she went up
with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.
Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife saying,
"May the Lord give you children by this woman
to take the place of the one she prayed for
and gave to the Lord."
Then they would go home.
And the Lord was gracious to Hannah.
She gave birth to three sons and two daughters.
Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up
in the presence of the Lord."
The contrast between a young boy faithfully serving the Lord
and two grown men acting as wicked priests
could not be greater.
And as if their heinous actions
in the tabernacle weren't bad enough,
Hophni and Phinehas added adultery
with the women who served in the tabernacle
to their list of sins.
Eli, on the other hand,
did nothing but scold his boys.
"No, my son, the news I'm hearing
from the Lord's people is not good," he said.
In other words, Eli said,
"Now, you boys stop that
as if a half-hearted reprimand
would get them back on track."
However, he never appears to have attempted to restrain
or remove them from service.
God's patience with Hophni and Phinehas eventually ran out.
Because they refused to repent,
the Lord planned to punish them for their sin.
Samuel, on the other hand, grew in stature
and popularity among the people and the Lord.
God sealed Eli in his family's faith
through the prophecy of a God-fearing man
who delivered the message.
1 Samuel 2:27-36.
"Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him,
"This is what the Lord says.
"Did I not clearly reveal myself to your ancestor's family
when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?
I chose your ancestor out of all the tribes of Israel
to be my priest, to go up to my alter,
to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence.
I also gave your ancestor's family all the food offerings
presented by the Israelites.
Why do you score in my sacrifice
and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling?
Why do your honor your sons more than me
by fattening yourselves in the choice parts
of every offering made by my people, Israel?"
Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares,
"I promised that members of your family
would minister before me forever."
But now the Lord declares, "Far be it for me.
Those who honor me, I will honor.
But those who despise me will be disdained.
The time is coming when I will cut short your strength
and the strength of your priestly house
so that no one in it will reach old age
and you will see distress in my dwelling.
Although good will be done to Israel,
no one in your family line will ever reach old age.
Every one of you that I do not cut off
from serving in my altar,
I will spare only to destroy your sight
and sap your strength,
and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
will be assigned to you.
They will both die on the same day.
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.
Then everyone left in your family
will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver
and a loaf of bread and plead,
"Appoint me to some priestly office
so I can have food to eat."
It is critical not to gloss over the fact
that God did not reveal himself much in those days
and prophetic visions were uncommon.
It's not surprising given Eli
and his meaningless sons in charge
of Israel's house of worship and ministry.
1 Samuel 3:1-17.
"The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.
In those days, the word of the Lord was rare.
There were not many visions.
One night, Eli whose eyes were becoming so weak
that he could barely see,
was lying down in his usual place.
The lamp of God had not yet gone out.
And Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord
where the Ark of God was.
Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, "Here I am."
And he ran to Eli and said,
"Here I am, you called me."
But Eli said, "I did not call, go back and lie down."
So he went and laid down.
Again the Lord called, "Samuel."
And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said,
"Here I am, you called me."
"My son," Eli said,
"I did not call, go back and lie down."
Now, Samuel did not yet know the Lord.
The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
A third time the Lord called, "Samuel."
And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said,
"Here I am, you called me."
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.
So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down
and if he calls you,
say "Speak, Lord for your servant is listening."
So Samuel went and laid down in his place.
The Lord came and stood there calling as at the other times,
"Samuel, Samuel."
Then Samuel said,
"Speak for your servant is listening."
And the Lord said to Samuel,
"See, I'm about to do something in Israel
that will make the ears of everyone
who hears about it tingle.
At that time, I will carry out against Eli,
everything I spoke against his family
from beginning to end.
For I told him that I would judge his family forever
because of the sin he knew about.
He sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restraint them.
Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli,
the guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for
by sacrifice or offering."
Samuel lay down until morning
and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord.
He was afraid to tell Eli the vision,
but Eli called him and said, "Samuel, my son."
Samuel answered, "Here I am."
"What was it He said to you?" Eli asked.
"Do not hide it from me.
May God deal with you, be it ever so severely
if you hide from me anything he told you."
So Samuel told him everything,
hiding nothing from him.
Then Eli said, "He is the Lord.
Let him do what is good in his eyes."
Samuel's reluctance to tell Eli about the vision
is understandable, but Eli insisted on doing it anyway.
And when he heard this terrible prophecy,
Eli had no choice but to submit to God's will.
Samuel's life and ministry, on the other hand,
were just getting started.
As God fulfilled everything Samuel prophesied,
he grew in spiritual power.
1 Samuel 3:19-21.
"The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up
and he let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground,
and all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized
that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.
The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh
and there he revealed himself to Samuel
through his word.
1 Samuel 4:1-3.
"And Samuel's word came to all Israel.
Now the Israelites went out to fight
against the Philistines.
Th Israelites camped at Ebenezer
and the Philistines at Aphek.
The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel
and as the battle spread,
Israel was defeated by the Philistines
who killed about 4,000 of them on the battlefield.
When the soldiers returned to camp,
the elders of Israel asked,
"Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today
and before the Philistines?
Let us bring the Ark of the Lord's covenant from Shiloh
so that He may go out with us
and save us from the hand of our enemies."
The judgment for Eli and his family did not end
at their front door.
Because Eli was a leader in Israel,
the entire nation suffered as a result of his actions.
This is a spiritual principle
that appears throughout the Old Testament.
Furthermore, the entire story of 1 Samuel 1-7
exemplifies the kingdom principle
that when one aspect of God's kingdom structure fails
to meet his standards,
the entire kingdom suffers.
Everything is interconnected.
Eli's dramatic failure of kingdom responsibility
in the family had far reaching spiritual ramifications.
Because Eli was both Israel's spiritual leader,
and his family's leader,
the consequences were disastrous.
When the time came for God
to execute his judgment on the house of Eli,
he chose a familiar path:
war with the Philistines.
These powerful people lived
on the Mediterranean sea's eastern shore
and had been Israel's adversaries
since the days of the Judges.
In fact, they would continue to annoy Israel years later,
leading a young shepherd to confront a giant Philistine
with a sling and some rocks.
God would use the Philistines as a tool of judgment
against Israel during Eli's time.
The Israelites were humiliated
and it's clear that they had not anticipated this defeat
at the hands of the Lord.
It's unlikely that Eli publicized the prophecy
against his family.
According to the reaction of Israel's elders,
Eli and his sons' poor spiritual leadership
had infiltrated the people's attitudes.
Instead of looking to God to find out
why Israel had been routed,
they simply decided to bring the Ark
of the Lord's covenant from Shiloh.
In other words, they regarded it as a good luck charm
that would protect them and ensure their victory.
They confused the symbol of God's presence
and blessing with His true presence and blessing.
1 Samuel 4:4-6.
"So the people sent men to Shiloh
and they brought back the Ark of the covenant
of the Lord Almighty,
who is enthroned between the cherubim,
and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas
were there with the Ark of the covenant of God.
When the Ark of the Lord's covenant came into the camp,
all Israel raised such a great shout
that the ground shook.
Hearing the uproar, the Philistine asked,
"What's all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?"
Bringing the Ark from Shiloh meant that it would be carried
to the battleground by none than Hophni and Phinehas.
These wicked priests probably thought they were going
as heroes to bring Israel victory
as they set out with the Ark in tow.
Instead, they were going to their own funerals.
The Israelites, on the other hand,
were so elated to see the symbol of the Lord's covenant
and glory arrive in their midst
that their raucous shout shook the Earth.
1 Samuel 4:6-11.
"Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked,
"What's all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?"
When they learned that the Ark of the Lord
had come into the camp,
the Philistines were afraid.
"A God has come into the camp," they said.
Oh no, nothing like this has happened before.
We're doomed.
Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?
They are the gods who struck the Egyptians
with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.
Be strong, Philistines.
Be men or you will be subject to the Hebrews
as they have been to you.
Be men and fight."
So the Philistines fought
and the Israelites were defeated,
and every man fled to his tent.
The slaughter was very great.
Israel lost 30,000 foot soldiers.
The Ark of God was captured
and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas died."
The Philistines were well-versed
in their adversary's history,
having witnessed the plagues associated
with the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.
They assumed they were in serious trouble
when they discovered the Ark,
God's throne, had entered the camp.
Israel's God had come to fight for them.
Instead of fleeing in terror,
the Philistine army banded together
and slaughtered the Israelites, including Eli's sons.
Worse, the Philistines had taken the Ark.
Understand that this not just
a humiliating military defeat for Israel.
It was God's judgment at work.
1 Samuel 4:12-18.
"That same day, a Benjamite ran from the battle line
and went to Shiloh with his clothes torn
and dust on his head.
When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair
by the side of the road, watching
because his heart feared for the Ark of God.
When the man entered the town and told what had happened,
the whole town set up a cry.
Eli heard the outcry and asked,
"What is the meaning of this uproar?"
The man hurried over to Eli
who was 98 years old
and whose eyes had failed so that he could not see.
He told Eli, "I have just come from the battle line.
I fled from it this very day."
Eli asked, "What happened, my son?"
The man who brought the news replied,
"Israel fled before the Philistines
and the army has suffered heavy losses.
Also, your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas are dead,
and the Ark of God has been captured."
When he mentioned the Ark of God,
Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate.
His neck was broken and he died
for he was an old man and he was heavy.
He had led Israel 40 years."
This was the day of judgment for Eli and his family.
The disregard of his sons to the things
of God affected not just the family
but the entirety of Israel.
Another man that took the vow was Samson.
To watch the story of Samson, click here.