1 Samuel 2:16, commentary and pictures

The verse shows the priests demanding their chosen portion of the peace offering before the fat had been given to God, and threatening to seize it by force if refused. It was greed putting appetite ahead of God's plain command, treating what was sacred as means for self-indulgence and robbing the offering of its purpose to lead the people in gratitude and faith to the coming Redeemer. Their course revealed selfish, covetous and gluttonous men in open contempt of God's authority, whose sin was very great because it was not merely against man but directly against God himself. By their violent example they caused Israel to sin, to despise the Lord's offering, to regard crime lightly and to excuse their own transgression. Because Eli honored his sons above God and failed to restrain and remove them promptly and decisively, guilt came upon his house to its ruin, warning parents and all in sacred trust that indulged evil hardens into defiance and brings disaster.

Greed at the Sacrifice

The demand was for the chosen portion of a peace offering to be handed over at once, before the fat had been burned to God, with the threat to seize it by force if it was refused. It was an abuse of priestly office that insisted on immediate gratification rather than waiting for God's portion to be offered first. The act broke the specific rules laid down for sacrifices, turning a sacred offering into a means of self-indulgence. Appetite and greed were put ahead of God's commands, and the sacred service was treated with contempt.

The peace offering was meant to direct the people in gratitude and faith toward the coming Redeemer and His sacrifice for sin, but this conduct robbed it of that purpose. Its holy meaning as pointing forward to Christ's sacrifice was obscured, and the people were made to abhor the Lord's offering. What was intended to awaken thankfulness and faith was thus emptied of its witness to the Redeemer to come.

The men who did this were selfish, covetous, gluttonous, profligate and licentious, determined to have their own way. They defrauded Israel in its offerings, taking what they wanted by violence instead of receiving their due portion. Their course was open contempt for God's authority and bold transgression of His law. Their irreverent seizure of the sacrificial meat displayed a selfish course suffered through lax restraint.

Their sin was very great before the Lord, for it was not a sin against man for which an officiating priest could atone. It was a direct sin against God Himself, committed by priests sinning as priests against Him. That enormity set it apart from ordinary wrongs that priestly mediation could meet.

Their violent conduct caused Israel to sin. The people were led to lightly regard crime and to despise the sacrificial offerings. Dishonor done to God in the abuse of holy office led others to transgress, and many were inclined to excuse their own sins because leaders transgressed. The profaning of a holy office thus became a temptation and snare to the nation.

The sacrilege and profligacy of Hophni and Phinehas nevertheless troubled the people less than the arrogance and injustice later shown by Samuel's sons as judges. The reason was that the judges threatened temporal interests, while the priests' sacrilege did not touch those interests so directly.

Judgment on Eli's House

Eli as father, priest, judge, and high priest bore accountability for the moral and religious standing of his people and in a special sense for the character of his sons. He was required to restrain their forceful, self-willed seizure of what they demanded in the priesthood, first by mild measures and, if those failed, to subdue the wrong by the severest means. That duty meant reproving sin and executing justice upon the sinner, at once removing them from the priesthood and judging them with death for their abominable example of defrauding Israel in its offerings. He incurred displeasure by failing to do this and could not be depended upon to keep Israel pure.

He only reproved them for the enormity of sinning as priests against God himself, for whom no officiating priest could atone. He passed lightly over their evil, treated their wrongdoing lightly instead of reproving and restraining them, feared their displeasure, honored his sons above God, and did not restrain them. He permitted them loaded with guilt to remain priests and suffered them to go on in rebellion until they were a curse to Israel, allowing sin to flourish unrebuked and unchecked. He did not lead his children but was led by them.

For failing to restrain them promptly, firmly and decisively, Eli and all his house were cursed and condemned. Guilt came on his house for honoring his sons above God, and it was declared that their sins should not be purged with sacrifice nor offerings forever and that both sons would be cut off in one day. When Samuel told Eli what the Lord had shown him, Eli submitted and said it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.

The threatened calamity followed in fearful ruin: his wicked sons fell slain in battle, thirty thousand of Israel were slain, the ark of God was taken by the Philistines, and when Eli heard the ark was taken he fell backward and died. Eli's sin and his wicked sons thus brought disaster and death to himself, ruin to his sons, and ruin to thousands in Israel. Their sin was allowed to remain among Israel, bringing this calamity.

Israel vainly thought that notwithstanding sinful practices the presence of the ark would insure victory over the Philistines. In the same way the inhabitants of Judah in Jeremiah's days believed strict observance of the divinely appointed services of the temple would preserve them from just punishment for their wicked course.

Because Eli neglected his solemn, sacred charge and failed to train his children in the right way, God passed by the aged priest and accepted Samuel when his mother dedicated him to God's service. God communicated a solemn message to the boy Samuel. God honors the young and will use a dedicated child to do his work when leaders fail, and he will do a great work for children when parents cooperate with him in training and educating them according to his instruction.

Though the sons' abuse of holy office in demanding their share of the offerings by force polluted the atmosphere around Samuel and helped corrupt Israel, Samuel remained untainted and faithful to God amid those influences. His mother's early training that taught him to distinguish good from evil helped him refuse to yield to the evil influences in Eli's household.

Their iniquitous course in demanding sacrificial meat before the fat was burned and threatening to take it by force brought widespread corruption upon Israel. That corruption endangered the moral and spiritual welfare of the people and required a barrier against it. Samuel provided that barrier by establishing the schools of the prophets to resist corruption, promote the righteousness that exalts a nation, and furnish men qualified to act as leaders and counselors in the fear of God.

Charge to Parents and Leaders

This history belongs to Eli's mournful account and warns parents that neglecting the duty to correct, train, and restrain children dishonors God. Allowing children to grow up without restraint leads to confirmed selfish and disagreeable habits, and brings disaster and death and ruin to thousands. The sin of Eli's sons serves as a warning about the consequences of defects in parental and home management.

Eli believed himself wiser than his Creator and followed his own judgment and human wisdom instead of God's commands in training his children. He fondly and indulgently overlooked the faults and sins of his sons in childhood with the excuse that they would outgrow evil tendencies. He did not lead his children but was led by them, fearing their displeasure, and he suffered them to go on in rebellion until they were a curse to Israel. In this way unchecked desires and forward, selfish and disagreeable ways were allowed to strengthen into confirmed habits, second nature, and defiance of authority, insisting on having their own way and seizing by violence what they demanded.

Parents are therefore required to watch over, advise, lead, govern, correct and subdue their children, and to command the household after them. They must manage children and teach them to yield to parental will, educating them to obedience and self-denial rather than indulging them and consulting their pleasures. Evil must be restrained promptly, firmly and decisively, first by mild measures and, if those fail, by the severest means through reproving sin and executing justice upon the sinner. Tolerating wrongdoing as unavoidable is condemned, for Eli was cursed because he did not promptly and firmly restrain his wicked sons.

God holds parents responsible in a great degree for the conduct of their children because they have the formation of character. The salvation of children depends very much upon the course pursued by parents, who must not from mistaken love and fondness indulge them to their hurt. Those who through lack of courage, indolence, or lack of interest fail to purify the family or church are held accountable for the evil they might have checked by parental or pastoral authority as if the acts were their own. Tenderness that will not restrain sin and disobedience makes parents partakers of their children's wrongs and leaves the blood of their souls on the parents' garments, with results of neglect that can never be fully blotted out.

Permitting disobedience in children makes them candidates for perdition and leads to transgression and death. Allowing disobedience trains them to disobey God. Children allowed to manage their parents and to be forward will not honor parents, will place the high, sacred and holy on the same level with common things, will have little reverence for God and truth, and will show self-will and pleasure-seeking in all their religious experience. All but those already established will be in danger of losing heaven unless converted, coming out from the world and being separate, and learning the purifying, cleansing work that fits for the society of heavenly angels and dwelling in the presence of a pure and holy God.

God himself established family relations, understands all the needs of children as their Creator, and feels the deepest interest in their welfare as the One who bought them with his own blood. He has given in his word the only safe guide in the management of children, wiser than anything human philosophy has discovered. Parents show lack of wisdom from God when they permit disobedience in training their children. They must seek by earnest, anxious prayer how to order the child and what to do unto him, rather than in self-confidence supposing they know a better way than God has given.

In a pre-eminent degree those who minister in sacred things and stand in holy office must make their families patterns of good works and perfect Christian households. They must govern their own families and have them in good subjection with order at home, ruling well their own house. He who fails to direct wisely his own household is not qualified to guide the church of God or to judge and decide in matters of the church. Negligent example misleads many, disgusts unbelievers, brings reproach upon the cause of truth, exerts a corrupting influence upon the whole nation where they live, and deprives Israel of strength and glory.

The hidden wrongdoing exemplified in demanding the portion before the fat was offered to God and threatening to seize it by force must be corrected rather than allowed to defile the church. People in responsible positions in the church must stand for what is right, reprove and restrain wrongdoing, and remove the unfaithful from positions of trust instead of treating sin lightly and allowing it to remain and flourish unrebuked. Failure to do so profanes God's house and brings calamity.

The same condemnation for extortion in sacred office rests on selfish men at the very heart of the work who eagerly grasp all they can get to advantage themselves, such as accepting high wages of $30 a week for their labor. Such grasping turns things upside down, departs from the faith once delivered to the saints, reveals the true state of the heart, lacks the self-denial and self-sacrifice of Christ, sets an unsafe example for other institutions, and God will not approve or bless it. The selfishness and abuse of sacred office by Hophni and Phinehas show how ministers can give free rein to passion while hiding depravity under religion.