"Why are you doing these things?" Eli said to his sons. "I hear about your wicked deeds from all these people. Sermons
1 Samuel 2:22-25. (SHILOH.) A man may possess many amiable qualities, and be, on the whole, a good man, and yet be marked by some defect which mars his character, prevents his usefulness, and makes him the unintentional cause of much mischief. Such a man was Eli. Of his early life nothing is recorded. He was a descendant of Ithamar, the youngest son of Aaron, and held the office of high priest, which formerly belonged to the elder branch of the Aaronic family, that of Eleazar (Numbers 20:26), but which was now transferred to the younger, from some unknown cause, and which continued therein until the time of Solomon. At the age of fiftyeight he became judge, and "judged Israel forty years" (1 Samuel 4:18). When first mentioned he must have been at least seventy years old. His sons were children of his old age; for some time afterwards they were spoken of as young men (1 Samuel 2:17), and, as is not uncommon in such cases, he treated them with undue indulgence. He was hasty and severe in reproving Hannah, but slow and mild in reproving them. The inefficiency of his REPROOF appears in that - I. IT WAS NOT ADMINISTERED IN PROPER TIME. The tendency to go wrong generally appears at an early age; and it must have been seen by him in his sons long before the rumour of their flagrant transgressions reached him, if he had not been blind to their faults. But he had no adequate sense of his parental responsibility, was old and weak, of a gentle and easy going temperament, and omitted to reprove them (1 Kings 1:6) until they had become too strongly devoted to their evil ways to be amenable to expostulation. A little plant may be easily rooted up, but when it has grown into a tree it can only be removed by extraordinary efforts. If some children are "discouraged" (Colossians 3:21) by too much strictness, far more are spoiled by too much indulgence. "Indulgence never produces gratitude or love in the heart of a child." II. IT WAS NOT GIVEN WITH SUFFICIENT EARNESTNESS (vers. 23, 24). Gentle reproof may sometimes be most effective, but here it was out of place. 1. It was not sufficiently pointed in its application; being given to them collectively rather than individually, in indefinite terms, by way of question, and concerning things which he had heard, but into the certainty of which he had not troubled himself to inquire. 2. It exhibited no sufficient sense of the evil of sin (ver. 25). He spoke of the consequences rather than of the nature, the "exceeding sinfulness" of sin, and spoke of them in a way which indicated little deep personal conviction. 3. It showed no sufficient determination to correct it. He did not say that he would judge them for their injustice toward men; and with reference to their sin against the Lord, which was their chief offence, he simply confessed that he could do nothing but leave them to the judgment of a higher tribunal. "In the case where the rebuke should have descended like a bolt from heaven we hear nothing but low and feeble murmurings, coming, as it were, out of the dust. Cruel indeed are the tenderest mercies of parental weakness and indulgence. And the fate of Eli shows that by such tender mercies the father may become the minister of vengeance unto his whole house" (Le Bas). III. IT WAS NOT FOLLOWED BY ADEQUATE CHASTISEMENT. The law of Moses in the case of disobedient children was very severe (Deuteronomy 21:18-21). But Eli neither observed this law "when they hearkened not to his voice" (ver. 25), nor took any further steps to prevent the continuance of the evil which he reproved. He had none of the zeal for which Phinehas the son of Eleazar was approved (Numbers 25:11-13); but as a father, a high priest, and a judge he was guilty of culpable infirmity and wilful disobedience (1 Samuel 3:13). "Osiers," says an old writer, "can never be pillars in the State or in the Church." IV. IT DID NOT RESULT IN ANY IMPROVEMENT (ver. 25). Their contempt of reproof showed that they were already infatuated, hardened, and abandoned to destruction; or (reading for - therefore), it filled up the measure of their iniquities, and exposed them to inevitable judgment. "He that hateth reproof shall die" (Proverbs 15:10). 1. Reproof is often a solemn obligation. 2. It should be given in an effective manner. 3. When not so given it does more harm than good. 4. When justly given it should be humbly and obediently received. - D.
Nay, my sons: for it is no good report that I hear. It does not often occur to us what shame and guilt belong to mortal vacillation and weakness. Too often a man's weakness is accepted as a sufficient excuse for his sin. Outbursts of evil passion are excused because a man has a passionate nature. Vacillation is condoned, because a man by nature is pliant and indecisive. Inconsiderateness is held to be blameless, because a man is impulsive by natural disposition. That all this is wrong in judgment and false in principle, could not be more sternly taught than in the experience of Eli. Blameless and pure, humble and devout, there is no more beautiful character, in many of its aspects, to be found in Scripture than his; yet how stern the rebuke which is passed upon him, and how terrible the retribution! Plain it is that in God's sight moral weakness is sin. At the Bar of Judgment "I cannot" finds no acceptance as a plea against "You must." To say that you have not the strength, the courage, the resoluteness to do right is a confession which is itself a shameful wrong. It is the plea of a weakling, and weakness in God's sight is wickedness. It is the plea of a coward, and moral cowardice is sin.(J. Bainton.) 1. He saith over softly to them, "Why do ye such things?" (v. 23). This was to reprove them, saith , with the lenity of a father, not with the authority of a magistrate: 'Tis an old saying, "Pity spoils a city"; sure I am it did so here, for it spoiled his family, causing the priesthood to be removed from it. 2. "I hear of your evil doings." This was too gentle, to mention them in the general only, and not to particularise them with their detestable aggravations, he should have rebuked them, cuttingly, or sharply (Titus 2:15) with all authority. 3. "By all the people:" As if it were their report only, and that he was put on by the people to say what he said. 4. "Nay, my sons." He should have set on his reproof, by saying "Ye act more like sons of Belial than my sons, the sons of the high priests of the Most High God." 5. "'Tis no good report:" He should have called it, the most dismal and diabolical, if he had had a right zeal for God's glory, etc. 6. He was not willing to reprove them, but the clamours of others forced him to do it. 7. He did not rebuke them publicly (1 Timothy 5:20) for the public sins to make the plaster as broad as the wound. 8. It was only a verbal reproof, whereas he should have put them out of their priesthood and punished them for their adultery according to the law, without respect of persons as a judge, etc. 9. He did not rebuke them in time, but let them live long in sin. 10. He soon ceased chiding them, so 'tis said, "He restrained them not," (ch. 3:18.) II. APOLOGY FOR ELI IN THIS CASE IS — That he now was very old, some suppose him to be now come to his ninetieth year, even in his dotage, so could not himself converse with his sons, so as to observe their maladministrations, and withal, he was dim-sighted, so could not so well see their sinful practices: his superannuation caused his frequent absence from the Tabernacle, which gave a greater opportunity for his sons' wickedness, to whom the management of God's worship was (in their father's retirement) be trusted, and 'tis not improbable, his sons did not much regard his reproofs, because he was old and over-worn, but themselves, being in their vigour, had married wives, and were fathers of children. And 'tis commonly known that old ago doth incline men to mercy, so that it is no wonder if Eli seem rather to flatter than to chastise his sons. III. JUDGEMENT PRONOUNCED ON ELI. The promise for the perpetuation of the priesthood to Aaron's family (Exodus 28:43, and Exodus 29:9) was conditional only so long as they did honour God therein, which condition the elder line of Aaron kept not in the case of Jephtah's vow, therefore was the high priesthood transferred to the younger line, which now upon the like failure in the condition, made a new forfeiture thereof, by dishonouring God so notoriously in Eli's sons. 1. This may be called breach of promise, as that is (Numbers 14:84) when the old generation were wasted in the wilderness, and yet the new one was brought into Canaan as God had promised. 2. This Man of God threatens the extirpation of Eli's family (vers. 31, 32). His arm shall be cut off. 3. This Man of God threatens him with a rival in the place of the priesthood, which he or his posterity should behold with their eyes, to their great grief and regret (verses 32, 33). 4. This Man of God threatens him with the violent, death of his sons before their father's death (verses 34, 35). 5. He threatens him with the poverty of his posterity (verse 36). They shall come crouching as Abiathar did (1 Kings 2:26) when banished to Anathoth. (C. Ness.) (J. G. Greenough.) When George III wished his two sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, to be instructed, he sent for one of the most rigid disciplinarians of the day; and when the king and the teacher stood together, one would have been at a loss to know whether to admire more the majesty of royalty or the majesty of learning. The king gave a side glance at the two boys who stood at, his feet, and said to the stern doctor who stood before him, "Sir, I wish you to teach these, my two sons." "And, please your majesty," replied the teacher, "how do you wish these princes to be treated?" "Just treat them," returned the king, "as you would treat the sons of a private gentleman; if they require it, flog them; just do with them as you do at Westminster School." And so the doctor did; he let them know by hard experience that the rod was made for the fool's back. And when Louis XIV of France, one of the proudest kings that ever sat on the French throne, began to feel his inferiority in knowledge after he had arrived at the years of maturity, he complained to his courtiers that he was ignorant of many things which they knew. Upon which a nobleman near him ventured to hint that when a child he was wilful and wayward, and refused listen to the voice of instruction. "What!" he exclaimed, "was there not birch enough, in the forest of Fontainebleau?"(J. Hutchinson.) Eli surely has his parallel in many a moral household which presents the spectacle of a father of exemplary life and character surrounded by children who, as they phrase it, take their own line in whatever form of dissipation or extravagance, or at best of aimless and frivolous living. The fault may be altogether with the child, but generally in this world when sons go wrong there are at least faults on both sides. And may it not be that in the critical years, when character was taking shape, and temptations were pressing hard with eager importunity, nothing was done, perhaps nothing was said to check, to rebuke, to guide, to encourage? The boy's character was allowed to drift; it was allowed to drift by the man whose sense of responsibility as his father should have saved him from a mistake so ruinous. Authority need not be despotism; it may be tender and considerate to any extent, provided only that it is authority, and that its voice is not silent, nor its arm paralysed by a misplaced affection or by a want of moral courage, or by secret indifference, to the greatest issues which He before every human being.(Canon Liddon.) People Eli, Elkanah, Hannah, Hophni, Israelites, Pharaoh, Phinehas, SamuelPlaces Egypt, Ramah, ShilohTopics Accounts, Dealings, Deeds, Evil, Hearing, Reports, YoursOutline 1. Hannah's song in thankfulness12. The sin of Eli's sons 18. Samuel's ministry 20. by Eli's blessing Hannah is more fruitful 22. Eli reproves his sons 27. A prophecy against Eli's house Dictionary of Bible Themes 1 Samuel 2:22-25Library The Child Prophet'And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision. 2. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; 8. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; 4. That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. 5. And he ran onto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Reverence in Worship. The Knowledge of God Though the Fore-Mentioned Eternal Moral Obligations Letter xxix. To Marcella. A Private Enquiry Appendix xix. On Eternal Punishment, According to the Rabbis and the New Testament Covenanting a Privilege of Believers. The Mystery Sixth Day. Holiness and Glory. Sanctification. Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity the Christian Calling and Unity. The Sun Rising Upon a Dark World Entire Sanctification The Holiness of God Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Israel Tiglath-Pileser iii. And the Organisation of the Assyrian Empire from 745 to 722 B. 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