Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-june-22-2023
I Samuel 2:12-17 and 22-25
Eli’s Wicked Sons
12 Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord. 13 Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. 14 He would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot, and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. 15 But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”
16 If the person said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,” the servant would answer, “No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.”
17 This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.
22 Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23 So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. 24 No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the Lord’s people is not good. 25 If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if a person sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?” His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.
Most of our Bible Reflections are based on passages from the New Testament, and most often from the gospels. The reason is probably obvious: As followers of Jesus, we keep our focus on the life and teachings of Jesus.
But it’s important that we not ignore the Old Testament. After all, Jesus said he came to fulfill “the law and the prophets,” and that was a way of referring to the Hebrew scriptures – the Old Testament. This reading from the First Book of Samuel is one that provides an informative glimpse into the ancient history of the Hebrew people. And when you look closely, it raises a few issues that seem surprisingly relevant to our lives as followers of Jesus in the 21st century.
First Samuel begins in a period in the early history of the Israelites after they had arrived in the promised land, but before they had a central government – they were still operating as a confederation of twelve tribes. It was a pretty chaotic and lawless time. (If you’re interested in what life was like before the events described in First Samuel, you can read the Book of Judges. Just be warned that there are some gruesome and disturbing parts of that book. The recent ordination exams in our denomination required people to write essays on one passage, and it generated angry protests.) The country was in chaos, with gangs of armed men riding around the country murdering and plundering. Even the religious leaders of that time switched back and forth between the true God and pagan gods as it suited them.
The First Book of Samuel tells about the process by which God formed the Hebrew people into a society organized around his word and his law. Today’s reading marks a kind of starting point of that process.
As the story begins, the most important worship center in the country is at the city of Shiloh. (David wouldn’t conquer Jerusalem and make it the nation’s capital for another fifty years or so.) The head priest at the shrine at Shiloh is an old man named Eli. He’s not a bad guy, but he’s weak, and his two sons are portrayed as violent thugs.
Back in those days, when people sacrificed animals, the sacrificial animals weren’t usually burned away to ash. Instead, they were cooked and eaten according to prescribed rituals. And some of the meat from the animals was usually shared with the priests who worked at the shrine as payment for their services. But in the story, Eli’s sons are not satisfied with their normal share. Instead, they send henchmen to demand some of the best meat before the sacrifices are even performed. And they threaten to take by force any choice meat worshippers refused to hand over.
What’s more, Eli’s sons also use their authority as priests to take sexual advantage of the women who work at the shrine. So these guys, who are religious leaders at the most important shrine for the worship of God, are shown to be really evil men. God would remove the family from its leadership role and replace it with a more reliable prophet as religious leader.
From this point on, the Books of Samuel describe a process by which the covenant people are organized into the distinctive society through which God would change the world. By the end of Second Samuel, the Israelites would become a strong and fairly orderly society, led by a king who was chosen and ordained by God to be their leader. As you probably remember, King David would have his own sins and that would cause periods of disorder in the country. But as First Samuel progresses, the society takes shape as one organized around its relationship with God.
As we said at the beginning of this Reflection, the Books of Samuel have a lot of interesting stories, and many of the themes that are still in the news today show up in this 3,000-year-old text. States’ rights vs. a strong central government. The danger of a large military establishment. The problems that arise when both political and religious leaders are lacking in integrity.
And of course, that includes the abuse of women by figures of authority, “sexual harassment” as we would call it today.
But that raises one other issue that’s caught the attention of some scholars. This story says that there were women serving at the shrine. In time, women were excluded entirely from the religious leadership of the covenant people. But this passage and others in the Old Testament (such as Exodus 15 and 38) seem to say that wasn’t always the case.
The overall arc of the Books of Samuel is the transformation of Israel from a lawless society where everyone just does what they please into a society where people – and especially the leaders – feel obligated to obey the laws of God. So for many reasons, it remains a part of the Bible that people of faith should read and study once in a while.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the generations of scribes and scholars who have passed down to us these ancient texts, and we pray that you will help us – and all those who follow Jesus – to continue to listen for your voice speaking into our modern world out of them. Use us to set an example of a way of life that’s organized around your word and your law. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalms 47 and 48; I Samuel 2:27-36; Acts 2:22-36; and Luke 20:41-21:4. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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