The story of Eli the High Priest is told in the book of I Samuel. He lived in the city of Shiloh where the people of Israel would go to worship. They also brought animals for Eli and his sons to be sacrificed before the lord.
Every year a man named Elkanah, along with his family, went to Shiloh to make a sacrifice. This man had two wives named Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah had children and Hannah was childless. So one morning Hanna goes to the temple to pray and makes a vow to God. She states that if God gives her a son that she will give him back to him. While she is praying Eli thinks that she is drunk and approached her on this matter. Hanna informed the High Priest that she was not drunk and told him of the vow she made to God. Eli informed Hannah that God had heard her prayer.
As the months went by Hannah had a son and she named him Samuel. And Hanna did fulfill her vow to God. After Samuel was weaned Elkanah went to Shiloh on his annual visit. When Elkanah and his family returned home Samuel was left at the Temple. Samuel became a temple servant and Eli taught him the ways of God.
Eli did a wonderful job as Samuel’s tutor and as a Judge he gave the people Godly advice, as he did Hanna. But the downfall of Eli was with his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. They would steal meat that was meant to be sacrificed to God. They also took bribes from the people. And they even committed adultery in the tabernacle. Eli approached them about this matter, but he did nothing to stop them.
One day a unnamed Prophet came to the tabernacle and pronounced God’s Judgment upon Eli and his sons. Eli’s family would be removed from the Priesthood and the leadership of Israel would be given to another man. In I Samuel Chapter 3 God calls Samuel to be the new leader of Israel. God never speaks to Eli again.
The Prophecy is fulfilled in Chapter 4, Israel went to battle against the Philistines. Hophni and Phinehas took the Ark of the Covenant to the scene of the battle. Israel was defeated, the Ark captured, and the sons of Eli were killed. When the news came to Eli he was sitting in his seat. As Eli heard the bad news he fell backwards in his chair and broke his neck. He was 98 years old and very fat and unable to pick himself up. This man who had once been a great leader died in disgrace.
Eli served as Israel’s Judge for 40 years.
2 comments:
Hello! I am from Oxford, alabama. I was trying to find out why a woman would dedicate a child to the temple. Was this an unusual practice in Israel?
I read in the Bible training Institute (look online for it), that the whole idea of her giving her child to God (yahweh) had to do with redemption. That God says "every first born child is mine" (and the clean animals too). Normally, you offered a sacrifice to God, I believe. (This is not clear to me) She did not have to give Samuel up to live in the temple but she went more than the extra mile. God did not expect people to give up their children. What do you think?
A posting, which I recently discovered, about the biblical Hannah and Samuel asked why a woman would dedicate a child to the temple(I assume she meant Tabernacle, for that is what stood in Shiloh, the first capital of ancient Israel).
Samuel was a very unique case. He grew up in the Lord's service in Shiloh, and thus, was destined for spiritual greatness as the prophet who would eventually appoint the first two kings of Israel. You can read more about this in my new book, God, Israel, and Shiloh.
(www.godisraelshiloh.com)
David Rubin
Shiloh, Israel
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