1 Samuel 3:11-16 And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that hears it shall tingle.… Can you find one vulgar sin in the venerable high priest? We cannot see, looking at the page in the light of merely literary critics, where the great lapse was. We know not but that if Eli, as portrayed in the inspired book, were set up as the standard of determination, a great many would fall short of his lofty altitude. These considerations justify the interest of the question how Eli came to be dispossessed of the priesthood. Look at his noble treatment of the child Samuel. When did he chide the young prophet? When did he superciliously snub the child? Look at the unpriestliness of his tone when he talks to the child. Looking at some aspect of Eli's character, what reverence we feel for the old man! We see that he was a fine interpreter of the supernatural section of life. He was not self-obtrusive; he was no mere priest; he introduced men immediately to God; he did not claim any power of exclusive or tyrannic mediation. Look, again, at the submissiveness of his tone when his doom was pronounced. Then look at the man's interest in the ark of the Lord. Down to the very last, we see that Eli was an intensely religious man, from whom God withdrew His covenant, and on whom He pronounced such severe judgments. We would, therefore, repeat with fervour and with emphasis, that the conscience of universal man asks: "Lord of heaven and earth, is this right?" In looking at the failure of Eli as involving a moral question between the Creator and the creature, we are prepared to teach that the obligations of character must always control the obligations of covenants. All God's covenants are founded upon a moral basis. A covenant is but a form; a covenant is merely an arrangement, if it be not established upon moral conditions. There are circumstances in which God's faithfulness and God's unchangeableness are seen, not in fulfilling, but actually in the annulling, of covenants. God will never maintain the letter at the expense of the spirit. There is a pedantic morality amongst men which says, "The bond must be kept to the letter," and which cares nothing for the spirit of the engagement. God's morality is not a morality of ink and seals and witnesses. It involves life, spirit, motive, purpose. Were God to keep to the letter at the expense of the spirit, He would be no longer God. His unchangeableness is in His righteousness, not in His formality. Our confidence in Him is this: — That He will set aside His oldest servants, His first-chosen men, His most princely vice-regents and interpreters — he will utterly destroy them from the face of the earth, and hurl after them the written covenants He has made with them — if they trifle with eternal truth, with infinite purity! To cover a corrupt life with the blessing of His approbation, simply because there is a literal covenant to be carried out, would be to deny every element which makes Him God. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. |
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