Interview with Old Testament Figure – Eli the Priest

Interview with Old Testament Figure – Eli the Priest: There are two stories in the Holy Bible that saddens me a lot each time I read them. One is the encounter between Isaiah the prophet and King Hezekiah recorded in 2 Kings 20:12-19. This was in response to the King showing visitors from Babylon everything in his palace.

When Isaiah told him that the LORD was offended by his action, and that his children and everything in the palace would be seized by Babylonians and taken to their country in future, the King did not even bother to plead for God’s mercy. Rather, he said to Isaiah, “Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. And he said, “Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?” In other words, he did not mind if the Babylonians invaded and destroyed his country so long as it did not happen during his days. What a selfish individual!  

The second story of this nature appears in 1 Samuel 2:22-26 when Samuel communicated to Eli the High Priest, who also served as a judge in Israel, God’s judgment on him and his sons. I expected a good father to fall before the LORD and plead for mercy for himself and his children. Eli could not find any justification for that, as he merely said, “He is the LORD.

Let Him do whatever He thinks is right” (1 Samuel 3:18). It is difficult for me to believe that a person could get to this level of insensitivity. We have not raised this issue to condemn either King Hezekiah or Eli the priest, who happens to be our guest for this edition of the interview segment. We needed to set the foundation for the interview.

Shepherd Heart: We are happy to host you today, dear Eli.

Eli: Thanks for the honour.

Shepherd Heart: Kindly tell our audience about yourself.

Eli: I cannot give you any information about myself that is not recorded in the Holy Bible. I was both a judge and a priest, when the tabernacle of God was pitched in Shiloh. This was way before Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.

Shepherd Heart: The Bible introduced you to us through the story of Hannah, the hitherto barren woman you initially thought was drunk while worshipping in the temple at Shiloh.

Eli: (Smiles) Hannah’s story was one of the highpoints of my tenure as a priest. Many of us have made the mistake of judging a book by its cover, or jumping to conclusions before getting to know the facts. She was a very delightful personality. Other women in her shoes would have been offended by my gruff response to what I thought was a case of drunkenness, but she showed restraint and respect that I found very endearing.

Shepherd Heart: Were you surprised when she fulfilled her pledge by handing her son, Samuel over to you to raise for the LORD?

Eli: I did not expect less from her. As I said earlier, she was a very respectful woman. If she could treat me with so much respect despite what I said to her, I would not have expected her to break her promise to God.

Shepherd Heart: Now, we come to the hard part of this interview – Your relationship with your sons. Why did you find it so difficult to discipline them?

Eli: I know this may sound as a cop out answer. When I started work as a priest and judge, I thought that these were my greatest assignments on earth. Consequently, I did not pay much attention to the training needs of my children. I expected their mother to nurture them; after all other women in ancient Israel, especially widows raised their kids to maturity successfully. I did not know that their mother did not give them the desired in spiritual nurture. By the time they were adults and started helping out in the tabernacle, I tried to discipline them to the best of my ability. Of course, they were already too far gone to listen or accept any correction.

Shepherd Heart: Could you not have reported them to elders of Israel? I know that under the Law of Moses, the elders could have sanctioned them severely, including possibly stoning them to death for their intransigence. 

Eli: That is correct. I guess that I was not strong enough to take that route. I will not say that it did not occur to me to do just that.

Shepherd Heart: When little Samuel communicated God’s displeasure to you, stating specifically the punishment that awaited you and your sons, why did you not plead for mercy?

Eli: I felt that doing so would be a waste of time because there was a tone of finality to the judgment.

Shepherd Heart: God is known for His mercy as much as He is renowned for His holiness and power. There are two clear instances where repentance provoked God to show mercy to those you and I would not have spared. Manasseh, the King of Judah committed more atrocities than you and your sons did. When he repented of his wickedness, God had mercy on him and deferred the judgment He earlier pronounced. The same thing happened when the people of Nineveh repented of their atrocities after Jonah declared God’s judgment on their city. Why did you assume that your sins and those of your sons were too many for God to forgive?

Eli: In retrospect, I think that my response was informed by the fact that I had gotten tired of scolding my sins without seeing any meaningful impact on their conduct. By this time, I was not really bothered about what would happened to them. I was already an old man and death was no longer a terror to me. What did I have to lose? They were the ones who deserved the punishment and I was not ready to intercede for them. They did not deserve any mercy from me of from Almighty God.

Shepherd Heart: What lesson should fathers in our generation draw from your sad story?

Eli: There is a Scripture in the Holy Bible that people like us did not have the privilege of being acquainted with while we were parents. It is Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Do not wait until the child understands what discipline is about. Infants may not communicate effectively with words, but they learn by example. Start the training process at infancy until your children reach maturity. All parents, both mothers and fathers need to take this Scripture to heart, as it would spare them the heartache of raising children that would bring them pain, shame and reproach.

Shepherd Heart: Besides nurture and training, which were clearly lacking in your initial relationship with your sons, was there nothing in your own life that was worth emulating by them?

Eli: I was too engrossed in my service to God in the tabernacle to interact meaningfully with my family.

Shepherd Heart: In effect, they had no way of making you their role model.

Eli: Yes. I could have retraced my steps if my wife or any other member of the extended family had called my attention to this lapse early enough for me to make amends.

Shepherd Heart: This has been the story of many ministers of the Gospel in our own time as well. They neglect their families in the name of serving God. Some of them lost their marriages in the process, in addition to being estranged from their children. What advise do you have for married people called into full time ministry?

Eli: God is a God of order. If He calls anyone to be co-labourer with Him in His vineyard under the New Covenant, He also baptises that person with His Spirit.  Therefore, it is expected that such an individual would live and walk by the Spirit. I do not expect anyone who is totally yielded to the Holy Spirit to live a life that contradicts God’s word and His revealed will. God has given specific instructions on how men should treat their wives and vice versa. He has also instructed His children on how to relate with their offspring and other members of the public. Anyone who is not yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit cannot please God.

Shepherd Heart: Thank you very much Sir, for your insights and counsels. We trust that our readers will take them to heart.

Eli: The pleasure is mine. Thanks once again for having me.