Told him everything and hid nothing

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Of the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for 10 January 2014 (Friday before the First Sunday after Epiphany), I chose to reflect on 1 Samuel 3:10—4:1a.

Told him everything and hid nothing 1 Samuel 3:18a

I continue on with 1 Samuel 3.

The story of Eli is one of the more cautionary ones in the Hebrew Testament.  Granted, there are quite a few cautionary tales there, but this is one in which I think it is fairly easy to identify with the one who suffers, for it easy for us to imagine ourselves in Eli's sandals.

Eli is the high priest at Shiloh. Judging by the text, while he personally is a righteous man  his sons most definitely are not and Eli fails to rebuke or correct them. Their scandal cause God to send a prophet to Eli in 1 Samuel 2 telling of the retribution that he will cause to fall upon the House of Eli because of his sons.

In 1 Samuel 3, God speaks to the young Samuel for the first time and God brings up the fact that he will be passing judgement upon Eli for the iniquity of his sons and his failure to correct them.  Now, the relationship between Eli and Samuel is described here in terms that make it clear that Eli treats Samuel as the upright son he never had and young Samuel looks upon Eli as a father figure.  Hence, when morning comes Samuel is reluctant to tell Eli what God has told him, for he believes that Eli will not like it.  Yet Eli tells him to let the cat out of the bag and Samuel does so. Eli gives a resigned statement that God will do as wishes.

It's enough to make one think that if Eli lived today and was a Christian, he'd be a Calvinist.  Even after having been told twice (once by the earlier unnamed prophet, and now by Samuel) of what will befall his sons, Eli does nothing.  He does not try to wrestle with the Lord as did Jacob and Moses.  He does not punish his sons or strip them of their priestly duties.  Eli knows what is right and what will happen if he allows wrong to happen yet he does not do all he can to see to it that right is done, even when the consequences are clear.  Does Eli think his sons are beyond salvation?  Does he think his sons will repent of their sins in their own time?  The text is silent as to what motivated Eli's inaction

One wonders what might have been had Eli corrected his sons more forcefully.  The tale of Eli reminds us that it is not enough for us to know what is the right thing to do.  We must put our knowledge into action if it is to be of any meaning or use.

[Blue3]

Question... not meaning to be rude, but why do you keep posting a new thread for each of these reflections? And what are these reflections for?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Well, I do a new thread for each so that any responses don't get jumbled up if people don't respond to them instantly. Also I'm keeping a separate thread to index these as other than these are reflections on bible verses, there isn't really a singular topic to these.  Besides, one or two new threads a day from me is hardly going to overwhelm the board, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing some additional postings from others on topics of their choice.  I'd hoped afleitch would be posting more, but so far his daily-ish thread is looking more like a weekly-ish or maybe even a fortnightly-ish thread since he hasn't done anything since his initial post.

As for what these reflections are for, mainly my own edification.  I try to do some Bible (and other religious texts) study everyday.  Doing these daily reflections and posting them helps me keep to that intention.  I probably should have started this back at the end of November at the start of the liturgical year instead of the start of the calendar year, which is why you see me do two of these some days as I try to catch up on the days I missed. (That catching up is another reason for the separate threads, as the index lets me list them in order by their RCL date rather than posting date.)

[The Mikado]

Eli's two sons die in combat with the Philistines, yet another iteration of the theme that God's people can and do lose and sometimes lose quite badly if God is annoyed with them.  Saul will die in the same way in the same book.

Samuel has his own failings, quite different from Levi's.  The rather cavalier choosing of the stunningly incompetent Saul to be King over Israel shows Samuel phoning in the most important decision of his career.