THE WICKEDNESS OF THE SONS OF ELI.
It is a sad chapter in the life of Eli that relates to the wickedness of his sons. No stain appears upon the life of this amiable priest and judge in Israel except his sufferance of the wickedness of his sons. Undoubtedly this fault dated back to their early childhood. Though judge in Israel, he had no government over them. We may be certain, therefore, that he had failed with his sons in their early life. He had not formed their characters to virtue. He had not implanted in their breasts that love for purity, and that abhorrence of evil, which, by the aid of God's Spirit, he could have formed within them, had he watched over their early lives as he might. He had neglected family government. Very probably he excused himself on the ground that his duties to the cause of God left him no time to look after his own sons. Yet this was a fatal mistake. If the current saying, “Charity begins at home,” were applied to cases of this kind, we might well approve the maxim. It was Eli's business, first of all, to govern his own sons. He should have devoted his time first to the formation of righteous characters in them. He would have found the remainder of his time worth more to the people of Israel than all of it could be with his sons growing up in wickedness. But he signally failed in this important matter. He left that work to the Lord, which the Lord had enjoined upon Eli to do. When he should have taught his sons diligently the law of the Lord, he excused his neglect because he had no time for this work. And, whereas, he should have visited with correction their first waywardness and disobedience, he evidently left this to the Lord, presuming that somehow it would all come out right. Probably he thought they must have a time “to sow their wild oats.” At all events they had such a time, and they used it in the diligent performance of wicked deeds. It is, perhaps, not very strange that young men, growing up under such a system of parental government, should throw off all restraint and thoughtlessly plunge into sin. But it is, indeed, surprising that their father should forget that they would certainly reap the very crop they had sown. They sowed to the wind and they reaped the whirlwind. Their father flattered himself that their early follies would soon be succeeded by wisdom and discretion. Perhaps he reasoned that as he had himself turned from folly and from sin, to God, so, in due time, they also would do the like. Now they were like him in his days of folly. Soon they would, by true repentance, become like him in piety toward God. What a fatal mistake was made by Eli! He left that work undone which God had given him to do. But though Eli was thus neglectful of the precious opportunity to form his sons to virtue, Satan was by no means idle or indifferent. He seized the chance to ruin the young men, and he did it most effectually, even in the plain sight of their father. The sin of the young men was very great, both in the sight of God and man. Eli filled two offices, high priest, and judge in Israel, and either of these offices would have given him ample authority to put the young men, his own sons, out of the priesthood. But the same lack that appeared in the parental government of Eli, appeared also in his rule as a magistrate. He feebly remonstrated with them against their course of sin, but when he saw that they would persist therein, he suffered them still to remain in the office of the priesthood. The supreme Judge and Ruler in Israel sent him first an awful warning by “a man of God” (1 Sam. ii, 27–30), and afterward a final announcement of the terrible fate of his family. 1 Sam. iii, 11–14. Surely Eli suffered an awful chastisement. 1 Sam. iv. Let us consider the wickedness of his sons: 1. They were emphatically the “sons of Belial.” 1 Sam. ii, 12. Their office was to minister in sacred things. But they forgot its solemn obligations, and devoted their lives to the service of sin, of Satan, and of self. They were the disgrace, the scandal, and the stumbling-block of the people of Israel. Their conduct gave men occasion to say that religion was a farce, that piety was a sham, and that the profession of godliness was only mockery and hypocrisy. 2. Though the vows of God were upon these men, they were of no consequence in their esteem. When they were consecrated to the priesthood, the blood of consecration was placed upon the ear, the great toe, and the thumb, of each man. And this declared to them the fact that the ear was set apart to hear God's word, the hand to do his work, the foot to run in the way of his commandments. Ex. xxix, 20; Lev. viii, 23, 24. But they forgot God. They forgot those solemn vows which themselves had ratified. When God spoke they had no ear to hear. Their feet were swift to run in paths of evil and of sin. Their hands, so solemnly consecrated to the service of God, were defiled with the most accursed deeds of evil. 3. The offerings of God were seized upon by these wicked men, and used for their own selfish purposes, while the honor of God was utterly disregarded. Their conduct caused men to abhor the offering of the Lord, and made the very name of sacrifice to be an abomination among men. 1 Sam. ii, 12–17. But this, awful as it was, stood only among their smaller sins. 4. We are further informed respecting their sin against God. These young men made the sin of adultery the chief business of their priesthood. They turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. They made religion a cloak under which to commit the most awful abominations. They deliberately, systematically, and, it is probable, for a considerable period of time, carried on the work of corrupting the worshipers of the Most High. It does not appear that there could be any forgiveness for this awful crime. They sinned not merely from sudden temptation which took them unawares, but they made this their deliberate purpose, and they dared to persist in it against light and knowledge. The crime of Eli's sons is placed on record to show to all future ages how God looks at such sins when committed by his ministers. God swore that this iniquity should not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. 1 Sam. iii, 14. It is not unlikely that this very oath of the Almighty had reference to the peculiar form of temptation which gave boldness to these young men. They were priests. It was their business to offer sacrifices for the sins of men. We may very certainly decide that these sons of Belial reasoned with themselves, that sin was not after all a very dangerous thing. What if they did allow themselves to commit sin? Could they not make an offering for themselves?45Were they not the Lord's priests? Did they not minister before the ark? Were they not an indispensable part of the Lord's cause? So they may have reasoned. And it seems that they thought themselves perfectly safe in going out to battle with the ark of God against the Philistines. They little thought that for their own sins against the law of God, that law and ark were to be delivered into the hands of the enemy, and themselves to be slain, and Israel to be smitten with a sore destruction. There are some solemn reflections to be drawn from this lesson: 1. Those that bear the vessels of the Lord must themselves be clean. Those that minister in holy things must themselves be holy men. God will not wink at sin because his ministers commit it. No man is to be spared in sin because he is so serviceable to the cause of God, or because he fills so important a station. The expulsion of Satan, the highest of the angels, from Heaven, settles that question. God has no favorites. He respects character, but he does not respect persons. 2. The violation of the seventh commandment, which is among the greatest and the most abominable of crimes, is that form of sin which Satan especially delights to lead the ministers of God to commit. He can thus most effectually dishonor the cause of God. If such persons are willing to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, he can make even the service of the Christian ministry an opportunity for this awful transgression, as did the sons of Eli their office of priesthood. 3. But let the men who are exposed to this heinous sin, remember that such sin deliberately committed under the cloak of religion, is a sin never to be forgiven. It is lying to the Holy Ghost, worse than did Ananias and Sapphira. It is a sin unto death, not to be prayed for. Surely the end of such must be in the fire of Gehenna.