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The Sins of Eli - From Eli to Annas |
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As First Samuel opens, a woman named Hannah is in the Temple praying mightily and asking God to give her a son. God had given her much favor with her husband, but he had two wives, and the other one was constantly putting her down because she could not have children. She had prayed for many years for a son, and it seems that now she had gotten to the point where she just didn't think she could take it any more. She did not eat for several days, and was just crying her heart out for God to give her a son. She told Him that if He would do that, she would give her son back to Him as soon as he was weaned. Eli was the high-priest in the Temple at that time. I Samuel 1:10 says "And Hannah was in distress of soul, praying to the Lord and weeping bitterly." Eli saw her and thought she was drunk. He went over to her and told her that she needed to quit drinking. She told him that she was not drunk, but just pouring out her heart and soul before the Lord asking Him to answer her prayer. When Eli heard what she said, he told her to "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him." God did answer Hannah's prayer for a son and she named him Samuel. She honored her promise to God and brought him to the Temple to live so that he could be brought up in the ways of God. Hannah and her husband went back home and left Samuel to learn how to minister to the Lord with Eli as his teacher. She came back every year to see him when they came to town for their yearly sacrifice, and brought him new clothes that she had made for him. Because Hannah had been faithful to keep her word to God, He greatly blessed her with 5 more children.
The Sons of Eli According to 2:12, "the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord." The following verses tell of how they desecrated the holy offerings to God, finally ending with verse 17, "Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord: for men abhorred the offering of the Lord."
The Five Sins of the Priests
(The above comes from the Dake Annotated Reference Bible.) Since Eli was a direct descendant of Aaron, the first High Priest, he, his sons, and their descendants would have continued to be inheritors of the priesthood forever (Exodus 29:9), had they not totally disregarded God and His Way of doing things.
Judgment Against Eli and His Sons Finally things got so bad that God sent a man to Eli to warn him of future judgment against him and his sons, and also against his whole family line for the future. This judgment is in I Samuel 2:14 - 36. Eli was told that both of his sons would die in the same day, and that he would die soon also. God told him that he would raise up a man who would be true to Him and do his work. That man was Samuel, and he became a mighty prophet because God was with him and gave him great favor. He was the next one after Joshua. Chapter 4 reveals that the Israelites went to war against the Philistines. There were 30,000 of them slain in the battle, along with Hophni and Phineas, the sons of Eli. When the messenger came in to tell Eli the news of the defeat and slaughter, Eli fell backwards off the bench he was sitting on and broke his neck. By now he was 98 years old and very heavy. He had judged Israel for 40 years. Even his descendants were not allowed to stay as priests, and his whole line was tarnished because he did not teach his sons in the right way. He just seemed to let them do whatever they wanted to do and didn't try to stop them very hard.
Annas the High Priest During the Time of Jesus Now we fast-forward to the time of Jesus. A High Priest named Annas is very noted in New Testament history. He was the head of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin always met in the 'Hall of Hewn Stones' on the south side of the Court of the Priests. This was within part of the Temple itself. 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, Annas transferred the Sanhedrin meeting place to 'the Bazaars'. Then afterwards he moved the meeting place again to the City itself. It is almost certain that these Bazaars (or the Temple-markets) were owned by the sons of Annas the High-Priest, and that they occupied part of the Temple-court. In short, the Temple-market and the Bazaars of the sons of Annas are identical. The above paragraph is taken from Jewish Antiquity about Annas and the things he did during his time as high priest. Here is another high priest and his sons who profaned the Temple and sacrifices. Things had gotten so bad that the people finally revolted and the Temple Markets were shut down. This happened after Jesus overturned the tables and proclaimed it to be an unholy place instead of the holy one that God had intended. Both Eli and Annas had perverted the House of God and ended up being destroyed along with their family ancestries. Instead of being blessed by God, they had to pay a heavy price for disobedience. They were both in positions that were holy to God, and they flippantly desecrated what God had set up as holy. In due time, they were judged by God and had to pay a heavy penalty for what they had done. Eventually every person reaps what they have sown, whether good or bad. This text is written and authored by Cathy Deaton and is her own work.
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