Practice and tradition; Eli

“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit”. So ends the book of Judges. One of these judges was Eli, and we are given just four windows on Eli who was both a judge and the High Priest in that period before the three national kings, Saul, David and Solomon. These windows tell us more of things that Eli did not do rather than his actions. First his concern about emotion and behaviour in church. Second the blind-spot for his own actions. Third his preference of logic over faith. Fourth, popular culture over God’s rules. He thought the ark could be a good luck charm. Still, people with problems came up to the little temple/tent where Eli administered because he was popular. The name “Eli” means “God is great” and was a common prefix to people’s names. I have found thirty seven in the Bible already.

Eli the judge. One day Eli saw a young lady called Hannah praying in the temple by herself with tears streaming down her face and obviously agitated. He thought she was drunk and told her off. “Get rid of your wine” he said forcefully. He was obviously scandalised that someone should treat a holy place with such disrespect. It was only after she explained that her husband’s other wife had lots of children and she had none. She felt a failure. She was very emotional in her prayer. “May God grant your request,” Eli said, and she promised that if she did have a son, she would give him to God. She kept her promise, had a son, called him Samuel, and when the boy had grown a bit, brought him to Eli in the temple where Eli then adopted him. He was good with young children. She went on to have three more sons and two daughters. Her prayer of praise is given in full in 1 Samuel chapter 2 where she says that the Lord will judge.

His blind spot. Eli had two sons who did not follow their father’s example even though they acted as assistant priests, they were immoral and corrupt. But Eli did not do anything about their behaviour. They officiated in the services in the temple when offerings were made. But they helped themselves to the offerings. We read that they were “treating the Lord’s offerings with contempt”.

Eli is judged. The third window is when the boy Samuel is a bit older and is sleeping in the temple when he hears a voice calling “Samuel”. He thinks it is Eli and runs through to him. Eli thinks the boy is dreaming and tells him to go back to bed. He knew God speaks from the book or the pulpit, not through thoughts. This happens again with the same result. “If you hear that voice for a third time” Eli tells the boy, say “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”. Samuel hears that still small voice again and replies as Eli has told him but misses out the word “Lord”. The voice then gives little Samuel a message that God would judge Eli because he knew his sons were bad and he did nothing about it. Eli was ready to castigate others, but not his own sons. The outcome would be a disaster. Still Eli did nothing about them. Ordinary people hearing voices should not concern the conscience of a high priest. The final disaster came about 510 years later, the people transported and the city demolished.

The results. The fourth window comes when the Philistines, a belligerent neighbouring nation, attacked Israel and won the first battle. The Israeli army decided to fetch the sacred Ark from Eli’s keeping and hoped that it would bring them fortune, like a good luck talisman. Eli approved a popular symbol over faith. This Ark was a gold plated box containing the tablets that Moses inscribed with the ten commandments and was so holy that it must not be handled. It had rings at the corners so poles could be threaded through for transport. Eli’s two sons carried the poles. The remnant of the Israel army was thrilled with the Ark and the Philistines were frightened. In the subsequent battle the Ark relic was captured and Eli’s two sons were killed. When this news reached Eli sitting waiting at the roadside, he fell off his chair, broke his neck and died. A fatal result. The Philistines took the ark and put it in their temple in front of the statue of their god Dagon. Next morning Dagon was flat of the floor. They stood it up, but it went down again and again. Next came a plague of rats in the Philistine country followed by a lethal epidemic. That caused such a panic that they sent the ark back to Israel. Here too there were problems until they treated the ark with due respect. They had misread or forgotten God’s instructions.

Questions? We now ask ourselves why this man’s actions are recorded in such detail together with the subsequent effects caused by the temporary loss of the Ark. It did come back and eventually ended up in Solomon’s temple about 100 hundred years afterwards. Was Eli more upset by Hannah’s emotional praying than by keeping the traditions of silence in the temple? Was Hannah’s prayer too emotional? Was that contempt? Later Eli is told off by a visitor for giving honour to his sons more than to God. Eli was obviously a sympathetic and patient man dealing almost as a father to the boy Samuel, even though he did not listen seriously to Samuel’s warnings. The voice speaking to Samuel needs thinking about. It obviously was not like that voice the shepherds heard about the baby born in Bethlehem. That was loud. Luke claims that his gospel was “approved from above” (Gk anothem in chapter one). Old Testament writers record frequently “the voice of the Lord came unto me saying….” See all the prophet books, especially Jeremiah. The fourth- window shows us that Eli and the people regarded the Ark almost as a talisman or good luck charm. They seem to be confusing a symbol with the reality of worship. Is this possible now? Are there things, practices or church rituals which are more important than faith? “We have always done it this way, so it must be right.” The people, and Eli, appeared to have forgotten the content of the ten commandments that were inscribed on tablets and inside that Ark. Those commandments were the laws which precluded everyone doing as they saw fit. Jesus summarised the commandments with the words we repeat every Sunday, “Love God and love your neighbour”.

Bob