Eli: A
Priest and Judge of Israel
by Pastor Ronald Boelte
This study of Eli will set up our next two editions of Daily Prayer.
Eli whose personal name meaning, "high" is the priest at Shiloh
where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and he was also a judge in Israel.
Eli was the father of Hophni and Phinehas and was the descendant of
Aaron's fourth son Ithamar (1 Chron. 24:3).
As the priest he was to become the custodian of the child Samuel (1 Sam.
1:3), and thereby became the human agent largely responsible for the
religious and spiritual training of the boy. When Samuel mistook the voice
of God for the voice of Eli, Eli instructed him to ask the Lord to speak
the next time he heard the voice (1 Sam. 3).
Eli lived during a very sad period of Israel's history. For some time the
Philistines had begun to overrun the central districts of Israel. Samson
who had fought the Philistines before Eli's rule had failed in his mission
to deliver the nation from the rule of the Philistines. Soon after
Samson's death the Philistines began to take over most of the land. Israel
was again obliged to take up arms and fight. The Israelites thought they
would win if the Ark was carried into battle with them. However; God was
not with the army because of Israel's wickedness in worshiping other gods.
Hophni and Phinehas were the ones who had brought the Ark to the battle,
but because of their wickedness the Bible tells us they were also killed
and the Ark was captured by the Philistines. When the messenger came to
Eli to tell of the loss of his sons and the Ark, Eli fell backwards out of
his chair and died. The only good thing to come out of Eli's time was his
training of Samuel.
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