And Jehovah said to Samuel, Behold, I do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.
God's first word to the boy Samuel is not comfort but a sentence. Two questions press: what is the "thing" God is about to do, and why tell it to a child at night instead of to the priest asleep nearby?
The wording is careful. God does not say He will do a thing to Eli but in Israel — the whole nation will feel what falls on one household.
Eli had already heard the sentence passed on his house. Now God prepares Samuel for his work as a prophet by telling him plainly of the judgment coming on the priest, and the reason for it. All Israel is caught up in the judgment that falls on the priest's family, for what the Lord was about to do would happen "in Israel," and make both ears of everyone who hears it tingle. The Lord Himself is about to act.
Eli's sight was failing. The voice sounded close to him, yet it passed him by.
Eli's eyes are "dim," and the Lord calls Samuel: in other words, Eli's house is passing away, and the faithful priest is about to come on the scene. Samuel runs to Eli, but sadly all Eli could say was, "Lie down again." He had no message for the child. Grey-haired and dim-sighted, he could spend his time in sleep and darkness, while the Lord's voice was sounding so very near him. Solemn — a most solemn warning!
A message this heavy seems wrong for a boy's ears. Writers answer that God knew what He was doing, and that the sentence, once started, would run its course fast.
The Lord's message to Samuel is dreadful. It may seem to us too terrifying for the ears of a little boy; but God is wiser than we are — in fact, it is the "little children" who get the warning about antichrist in 1 John 2:18. Samuel knew about the wickedness of Eli's sons, and he needed to know God's thoughts about it too. God's patience with this would end suddenly. He would do in Israel what would make every ear tingle… and once it began, there would be no delay in carrying it out.
The verses that follow give the reason, and it is not simply that great evil existed.
We are plainly told the reason the Lord deals directly with His people. It is only because they themselves refuse to deal with the evils among them. Terrible evils had gone on among the people of God, yet the evil in itself did not bring God's government down on them. No amount of evil would call out God's government if His people judged the evil themselves. The Lord steps in with judgment because the evil was known and left alone.
Eli himself did not share his sons' sins. That did not shelter him.
Can anything be more striking than God's judgment on this principle, which people treat so lightly? — the allowing of evil, even when you yourself are free from that evil. If you keep company with those who practise sin, or who hold false doctrine, you are clearly held as guilty of that very evil yourself. "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues."
The judgment fell soon after, and a dying mother put a name to it.
As she died, she named her baby son "Ichabod," which means "no glory." The glory had departed from Israel. By turning away from God, Israel had brought this state of "Ichabod" on herself. The ark, the glory of God's presence shown among His people, was gone… In a deeper sense the word "Ichabod" is written over what claims to be the church but has departed from the truth.
Samuel is told before the disaster, not after it.
Samuel, alone with the Lord, is taught by Him the true state of the scene he is in, and the judgment about to fall on it (1 Sam. 3:11–14). That is the only place and way to take in prophetic truth simply and without bias. Such truth is vital to a true witness, because the enemy's cunning always works to keep up a false confidence to the very last moment.
- Heard — every ear that catches the news will ring with it, because what falls on one priest's family falls "in Israel."
- Known — evil by itself did not bring this judgment. Evil known and left alone did. When God's people judge evil themselves, He does not step in.
- Shared — Eli was clear of his sons' sins, yet held guilty by association. Stay tied to evil you will not judge, and you own it.
- Swift — God's patience ended suddenly. Once the judgment began, nothing delayed it.
- Ichabod — the end was the ark taken and the glory gone. Writers see the same word over any church that keeps the forms but leaves the truth.
In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house; I will begin and make an end.
God speaks to the boy Samuel at night, and His first message is a sentence of judgment on Eli's house. Two questions press: why repeat a warning already given, and why does the judgment run straight to its end once it begins?
Nothing in this message is new. God had already sent a man to Eli with the same sentence. One writer gives two purposes for the night message; the second concerns Eli:
The second reason for giving His word to Samuel was to confirm His word to Eli about his guilt concerning his sons. The man of God had already told him this. The law said that two or three witnesses must establish every matter. So the Lord would establish His word with the failing priest, and assure him that what He had spoken before would surely come to pass. Eli might wish to think about it as little as possible, but God would remind him of His word this way.
Older translations end the verse: "when I begin, I will also make an end." That is the sense these writers work from. The judgment has no pause in the middle:
God's patience about this would come to an abrupt end. He confirms to Samuel what He had said before to Eli about his house. Once this began, there would be no delay in its accomplishment.
This message also trains Samuel himself, and the judgment it announces reaches past one family:
Eli had already heard the sentence passed on his house. Now God prepares Samuel for his work as a prophet by telling him plainly of the judgment coming on the priest, and the reason for it. All Israel is to share in the judgment that falls on the priest's family. What the Lord was about to do will take place "in Israel," and make both the ears of everyone who hears it tingle. The Lord Himself is about to act.
If the sentence is already fixed, the repetition looks pointless. One writer reads it the opposite way — as evidence that God is still waiting:
The message confirms the previously announced doom of Eli's house. But why repeat what He had already said so fully? Is not once enough for God? Does it not imply that God still waits for man's repentance, even though He has spoken? That He expects men to cry to Him, and to give Him, so to speak, an opportunity to relent? Why should He warn at all, if not for this?
Eli does not take the opening:
But Eli, though he bows under God's hand, does not turn to Him in this way. His spiritual sense is dulled, so he cannot hear the undertone of pity in the threatening wrath. He has no energy to take up the authority entrusted to him, or to act for the One he has so long ignored. So judgment takes its course.
God does not act here simply because evil exists. He acts because no one dealt with it:
We are told plainly what leads the Lord to deal directly with His people. It is only because they themselves refuse to deal with existing evils. Very evil things had been done among the people of God. Yet the evil in itself did not call forth God's dealing in government. No amount of evil would call forth God's government if the evil is dealt with and judged by the people of God. The Lord intervenes in judgment because the evil was known and not dealt with.
The history confirms the threat word by word, and it took a century to complete:
Eli had sinned through his family, and upon his family the judgment would come. His descendants would die in the prime of life, and Hophni and Phinehas would die on the same day. Everyone left of his house would be driven out of the priest's office and left to beg for bread. The later history gives the solemn fulfilment of these predictions. Hophni and Phinehas are killed in the battle with the Philistines (1 Sam. 4:11). Sixty years later King Saul cut off the descendants of Eli's house (1 Sam. 22:18). One hundred years after the prediction, King Solomon removed the last of Eli's house from the priesthood (1 Kings 2:27).
- Known — The sin was no secret. God stepped in because the evil was known and no one dealt with it.
- Warned — God had already said it once through the man of God. Repeating it through Samuel establishes the word by a second witness.
- Waited — The repeated warning carries "an undertone of pity." God warns because He expects men to cry to Him.
- Refused — Eli bows under God's hand but never turns to Him. His spiritual sense is dulled, so judgment takes its course.
- Performed — Once it begins, nothing delays it. Hophni and Phinehas fall in one day, Saul cuts off Eli's house, and Solomon removes the last of it.
For I have declared to him that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he hath known because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.
Eli was the priest and judge of Israel. The sin God names against him is not something he did. It is something he failed to stop. God's word to the boy Samuel raises a hard question: what does God do with a man who knows about evil, can stop it, and only talks?
(The quotes below use an older translation: "his sons made themselves vile." The ESV reads "his sons were blaspheming God.")
One word carries the charge — Eli knew. God does not call him ignorant, and does not say his sons fooled him. He had the position and the right to act, and he left that right unused.
Here is a feature of Eli's spiritual weakening that the first two chapters do not mention: "For the iniquity which he has known, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not" (v. 13). Eli knew the evil. He had authority to stop it in his sons, but he did not use it. What good was that authority to him, when God Himself had given it? How often does the spiritual weakening of the head of a family come from his own slackness? He should have kept order and discipline in the place where God meant his authority to work. This is a great cause of ruin.
Eli was not silent. He spoke to his sons, and what he said was true and serious. But God sums up the whole thing in one line: "he did not restrain them." Words against evil, with the evil left standing, count for nothing.
Eli hears of all his sons' wickedness and calls them to account. His words are strong and good. But what use are good, strong words when the strong arm of judgment should fall? The law set the penalty for such sacrilege: death. Why did Eli not show himself truly zealous for the Lord's honor? Ah, words, mere words, however strong, are worse than sharing openly in the guilt. Worse, for the man who utters them knows the evil and goes on with it.
Eli held three offices at once, and each of them gave him a means of acting that he never used.
Eli stands toward these shameless offenders as father, high priest, and judge in Israel, all at once. Yet he does nothing, and only shows how powerless he is. Age alone cannot explain it... He never uses the rod placed in his hands, though it might even have saved his sons. He lets them run unchecked toward the judgment of God, which he sees coming but does nothing effective to prevent.
Behind the failure lies a choice about who matters most.
Parents who allow and approve their children in any evil way, and do not use their authority to restrain and punish them, in effect honor their children more than God. They care more for their children's reputation than for His glory. They want to honor them more than they want to honor Him.
Eli did none of the things his sons did. Yet the judgment falls on his house. That points to a principle about staying joined to people who practise evil.
Can anything be more striking than God's judgment on this principle, which men treat so lightly — the allowance of evil? You may be free from that evil yourself. Yet if you are associated with those who practise sin, or hold false doctrine, God holds you guilty of that very evil. "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues."
God's sentence in this verse falls on Eli's house, not on Eli alone. The reason lies in a principle God never sets aside: a man and his household belong together.
Here we see that whatever the personal character of a servant of God may be, if he fails to rule his own house properly, God will not hold him guiltless. Eli should have restrained his sons... he broke his neck about the house of God, because he had not broken his heart about his own house. Suppose he had waited on God about his stubborn sons. Suppose he had acted faithfully and carried out the holy duties given to him. Then the house of God would never have been dishonoured, and the ark of God would never have been taken. In a word, if he had treated his house as part of himself, and made it what it ought to be, he would not have brought down on himself the heavy judgment of Him whose principle it is never to separate the words, "you and your house."
- Knew. The charge is "the iniquity that he knew" — Eli had the facts and the authority, and used neither.
- Spoke. He protested, but words without action are worse than open guilt. The man who speaks them knows the evil and goes on with it.
- Honoured. Leaving a child uncorrected honours the child above God. It guards his reputation instead of God's glory.
- Shared. Your own clean hands do not cover you. Stay joined to people who practise evil, and God counts that evil as yours.
- Lost. Eli broke his neck at the house of God because he had never broken his heart over his own house — and the ark was taken.