Eli’s sons are priests and yet they care nothing for the Lord. Their actions regarding the sacrifice and the
priests’ portion of it are completely out of accord with the Word of God. For some sacrifices, the priests were allotted
specific portions and the rest was consumed in the fire. The fat portions of all sacrifices were
considered the “best” and belonged entirely to the Lord. Their lack of concern and reverence for both
the altar and the Word caused the people to treat the worship of God with
contempt. Priests and pastors have a
heavy responsibility as leaders and models.
These men also were having sex with the women who served at the entrance
to the tent of meeting. Who used the
tent of meeting at this time and why were there women serving at the
entrance? Eli was hearing gossip but all
he heard was what he should have seen for himself. His attentiveness to Hannah when she prayed
and his rebuke of her at the time belie the fact that he wasn’t paying
attention to what was going on right under his nose. All the while, Samuel pops up in the
narrative as a boy serving diligently under Eli’s direction and, interestingly,
we are told, “the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor
with the Lord and also with man.” That’s
exactly what Luke says of Jesus in Luke 2.
The marrying of a childless widow by a family member of the
deceased was considered an act of greatest kindness in Israel. The one who married such a woman did so in
order that she might bear children on behalf of the one who died. The progeny of such a marriage was considered
to be the child of the deceased, continuing his name. The Sadducees choice of this particular
example was to say that the entire line had ceased and surely these men all
deserved to be resurrected as they continued to marry this woman who was surely
cursed of God as she was not only barren but also, seemingly a killer of
husbands. Jesus proves the resurrection
by referring the episode of the burning bush and God’s self-identification of
Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by using the present tense verb,
I am the God of… We will not be married
because there will be no need of marriage as the institution within which procreation
occurs since there will be no procreation in eternity. We will be “like” angels in this regard, not
in form.
God is a promise-keeping God. The Lord had spoken through the prophet Joel
concerning what it would look like when He poured out His Spirit in the last
days and Peter immediately seizes on this word to explain what is going on at
Pentecost. Pentecost, or Shavuot, was a
harvest festival and it also is a time when the Jews celebrate the giving of
the Law at Sinai. Remember, on the
mountain, there was fire and smoke, the people saw what Moses had seen in the burning
bush at this same mountain writ larger than life. Here divided tongues of fire appeared and
rested on them and yet the flames did not consume those on whom the Spirit
rested (recall the dove “rested” on Jesus at His baptism). The Lord was faithful to His promise and here
the disciples are now confirmed in their witness by the testimony of tongues,
both of fire and proclamation. They began
this day to grow in stature and favor with the Lord and with man.
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