The Tragedy of Eli

(I Samuel 1-4)

Something struck me in my latest reading of 1 Samuel (9/15/08).  It is the last line of the story of Eli, the final words of his obituary (4:18)

“He had judged Israel for forty years.”

So Eli was a judge!  40 years earlier at the age of 58, Eli had been raised up by God and empowered by his Spirit to deliver Israel.  The nature of that deliverance we do not know.  Most of the judges had some military role.  Eli does not strike us as a military leader, but that doesn’t mean he did not know war.  Almost certainly, however, he must have led the nation in a social/moral/spiritual renewal.  In days of lawlessness, Eli was one of those who arose and restored order.  I think he must have been instrumental to renew a lapsed priesthood and the sanctuary of the Lord at Shiloh.  As a reward for his service, God gave him a promise if he continued to be faithful (see 2;20).

When we first meet Eli, however, he does not come off well.  We find him scolding poor, broken-hearted Hannah whom he sees pouring out her heart to the Lord.  He accuses her of being drunk in the sanctuary, and how dare she so violate its holiness!  (A little further on we find out that his own sons, priests of the Lord, have already polluted the sanctuary beyond repair.)  When she explains through tears the true story his tone changes and he blesses her, but the blessing seems generic, perfunctory.  Hannah takes his word as the word of God, but Eli does not impress us as a profoundly spiritual man of God.  Throughout the story that follows he comes across as old, tired, weak, and ineffectual; a man whose own sons, the priests, do not take him seriously.

There was a day before Eli was old, fat, and jaded.  There once was a day when his world carried spiritual power and authority.  There was a day when Eli was  a hero, who had stood against a tide of idolatry and apostasy; who had been the instrument of God to purify the worship of the people and establish righteous sacrifices at a lawful altar, to restore law and order in Israel.

How great is the fall, then, and how poignant is his passing from the scene with no more tribute than this: “He had judged Israel for forty years.”

No, there is one other thing: His poor daughter-in-law, as she lay dying, named Eli’s grandson, Ichabod, “the glory has departed.”  There was a glory, but now it is gone.  It is important to finish the race, to finish strong, and not to lose the reality of the One who called us to his glory.

Eli was a has-been, and that’s tragic.  Even more tragic: he was a might-have-been.  Eli could have been one of the great priests of all time.  His family line could have been the main line from Aaron all the way to Christ.

Apparently Eli’s problem was just that: he was ambitious for his line to lead the priesthood.  That was his promise from God, and that was the reward that was taken from him (2:30-36).  God did not say that he would wipe out Eli’s posterity, but that his descendants would have a hard time even finding a job.

Harsh?  Not at all.  “For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”  Eli’s sons despised God, i.e., they held the name and holiness of God in contempt.  To them it was just a job--a dead-end job at that.  The perks of the priesthood were not enough for them, so they invented new ones, abusing the sacrifices of the people and flouting the commandments of God.

Eli’s response?  He scolded them--and it was a pretty mild bawling out considering the enormity of their sins.

What should he have done?  He should have fired them and replaced them with other priests.  He had qualified nephews who could have come in and taken over.  Why didn’t he?  the obvious reason is that if he did it would mean the end of his desire to be the father of a perpetual line of priests.  He lacked the faith in God’s promise to let go of his ambition and do what is right.

The story of Eli foreshadows that of Saul, just as the story of Samuel foreshadows David’s.  Eli could have and should have been great.  We should be remembering him with reverent admiration for his great testimony and faithfulness.  Instead we remember him at best for for sending Samuel back to reply to the One who spoke to him, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

In one way, however, Eli ended better than Saul.  Saul never submitted to the judgment of God on his kingdom and fought against it until the day he died so ingloriously on Mt. Gilboa. When Eli heard the judgment of God spoken against him his reply was, “It is the Lord.  May he do what seems good to him.”

It is not a great statement of faith, but it is faith.  It is not an easy thing to accept a hard word from God, but Eli took it.

Undoubtedly Eli will have a righteous eternal reward, but we mourn for him for the sad defeat and gradual depletion of a life of faith that could have been a great one.