Articles
Eli and His Sons
Eli and His Sons
1 Samuel 2
God created man. God created woman as a suitable mate for man. God created them with the ability to have children. God put the responsibility of the raising of those children upon the father. As God said of Abraham: "For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him” (Gen.18:19).
God provided the means of raising children to be godly people. It begins in the heart of the father: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deut. 6:5). The man that thus loves God is then instructed:
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
See also Gen. 18:19; Deut. 4:9; Deut. 6:7; Deut. 11:19; Psalm 78:4; Prov. 19:18; Prov. 29:17.
Eli did not follow God's plan.
The writer bluntly states that "the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord" (vs.12). How could this happen? If Eli had been talking of God to them as taught in the Law it is hard to see how this could happen. These sons of Eli were undisciplined. First, they lacked the self-discipline to control themselves before God and man. Second, apparently they had not been disciplined by Eli.
Discipline is NOT punishment. It MAY include punishment at certain points, but it is the whole of the teaching of responsibilities and consequences. We use the word 'disciple' which is based on the same root idea. Such involves instruction, exampling, correction, encouragement, reproof. The New Testament commandment concerning this says 'discipline and nurture of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4) Whatever Eli did or didn't do, his sons didn't get it. They did not know the LORD.
It is interesting that now that they were grown, they were still under Eli's responsibility of such discipline. Again the writer is blunt when he states: "Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. 1 Samuel 2:17 The writer gives further insight on their ungodly character when he writes: "Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 1 Samuel 2:22.
Eli did talk to them (vs. 23-25) but they would not listen to him. There was one more step that God had given in such situations. This may be the hardest commandment of the law. I don't know of an instance where it is recorded that anyone did this, but it should have happened with Eli's sons. The rebellious son was to be stoned (Deut. 21:18-21). This Eli would not do. Those that blasphemed God were to be put to death (Lev. 24:16). Those that committed adultery were to be stoned (Lev. 20:10). As difficult as this was, Eli as a leader of God's people was under obligation to do so. He failed.
God's response to this is recorded in chapter 3:13: "I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them." The real failure was not teaching, reproving, discipling them when they were young. "Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death" (Prov. 19:18).
While we are no longer under the Law that proscribed such death penalty upon rebellious children, we are under the law of Christ that has given the sword to the government to punish such evil doers. If we want our children to avoid such, fathers must "not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).
