Worthless men.
Men who put on priestly garments every day, yet didn't even know the Lord.
Scripture says they also did not know the custom of the priest (the acceptable behavior).
This was on Eli.
Let me tell you how I know. The Scripture says that Eli was very old, yet he knew and understood what his sons were doing. He knew about the deception involving the sacrifices and offerings, and he knew about their immoral behavior with the women who served at the tent of meeting; the place of worship.
In 1 Samuel 2:25, we read that these boys would not listen to their father, and that Eli could no longer intercede for them.
I have to ask the question so many parents ask: "What makes a child go bad?" I mean, were these boys always bad? Were they bent on bad? Had they been choosing bad from the beginning? As parents of those who have made the worse kind of choices, doesn't it seem reasonable to aim the blame at them?
I can't answer that question for all parents, but I can answer it for Eli. In 1 Samuel 2:25, the LORD asks Eli a very specific question concerning his very specific situation: Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering, and honor your sons above Me?" Eli had not honored or esteemed the LORD in the way he had dealt with his sons by the obvious words the LORD uses here. This was a reprimand NOT to Hophni and Phinehas, but to their dad. The LORD said, I will break your strength, and you will see the distress. Eli would pay for his sons disobedience because Eli had been a part of it.
Eli had kicked at God's holy; he had despised the LORD (that's the word used in verse 30 of this chapter). Did he even realize this? Did he put on these intentions in the same way he put on his priestly robes in the morning? God said, "Far be it from Me (to let this escape My notice)!" Unthinkable! Beyond grace! This seems odd when we know so much about God's lavishing methods. But don't we also know about the methods of this Grace-giver; the One who does not scoff at sin, but instead bleeds over it?
Eli's words to his sons suggest that there was no man on earth who could intercede for the one who sins against the LORD, and he was right. There was only One who could intercede for man's sin, and He did this when He offered Himself as the sacrifice. His father did what Eli had been unwilling to do...give His son over to the holiness of God. And I think that's why Eli's greater grief in death was not in hearing that his sons passed on the same day (he already knew this would happen, according to 1 Samuel 2:34). His grief that day was in hearing that the ark of God had been taken (see 1 Samuel 4:17-18); the evidence of God's glory present with man. I think Eli knew in his deep down that he was the one responsible for letting it pass into the enemies hand, because he had been the one who had not previously defended it.
God's glory departed from Israel that day, and an old father died with the heaviest heart among them, because he knew that he had treasured his sons in that heart more than the God he said he served.
