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The Promise of the Faithful Priest in the
prophecy to Eli - in 1 Samuel 2-3
We noted in the last study that these books of Samuel are
not just histories. In these books God gives to us
explanations, answers to many of the ‘why’ questions about our
salvation, some of which can be found nowhere else in the
Bible.
In the last study we discovered: -
1. That the nation of Israel did not force the idea of a
king upon God which God later adopted for the Messiah.
Hannah’s prophecy in 2:1-10 many decades before the people
think to demand a king in chapter 8 shows that the idea of a
king was God’s.
2. The reason why God had planned for a king was because
the duties of kingship (1 Samuel 8:20) – bringing justice (or
justification) leadership and victory (over sin and death)
could not be performed for man by any other than by the One
who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Now in this study we shall discover one of the Bible’s
hidden gems, a different slant on priesthood. We will also
hope to learn how God sees Jesus as priest, and catch a
glimpse of how important we are to God. Finally we may have
our imaginations stretched as to how or what we think about
heaven and our eternal destiny. The text of today’s study is a
mixture of prophecy and history, and is taken from 2:11 –
3:21. We can split it into three headings: -
1. The end of the house of Eli.
2. The Faithful Priest.
3. Priest Samuel?
1. The end of the house of Eli.
Israel’s first official priest was Moses’ brother Aaron.
The role of High Priest was reserved to the leading direct
descendant of Aaron. Eli was descended from Aaron’s youngest
son Ithamar. The text does not tell us very much about Eli as
a man. He was however a total failure as a father and the
behaviour of his sons brings the nation to a new low.
1SA 2:12 Now the sons of
Eli were worthless men; they did not know the LORD 13
and the custom of the priests with the people. When any man
was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come
while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his
hand. 14 Then he would thrust it into the pan, or
kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the
priest would take for himself. Thus they did in Shiloh to all
the Israelites who came there. 15 Also, before they
burned the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to the
man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest meat for roasting,
as he will not take boiled meat from you, only raw." 16
And if the man said to him, "They must surely burn the fat
first, and then take as much as you desire," then he would
say, "No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will
take it by force." 17 Thus the sin of the young men
was very great before the LORD, for the men despised the
offering of the LORD.
Remember what the book of Judges identified as the problem
in the nation. Because there was no king in Israel, then even
when people did what was right in their own eyes they made a
mess of it. Compared however with Hophni and Phinehas the
people in the book of Judges were saints. Hophni and Phinehas
do not even try to do what is right. They know what is right
in God’s eyes and they care nothing for it. They simply do
what they want.
After giving us by contrast the conclusion to the study of
Hannah in verses18-21 the problem of Eli’s sons is brought to
a climax.
1SA 2:22 Now Eli was very
old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel,
and how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of
the tent of meeting. 23 And he said to them, "Why
do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all
these people? 24 "No, my sons; for the report is
not good which I hear the LORD'S people circulating. 25
"If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him;
but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for
him?" But they would not listen to the voice of their father,
for the LORD desired to put them to death. 26 Now
the boy Samuel was growing in stature and in favor both with
the LORD and with men.
Hophni and Phinehas, although priests of the Lord, were
resolute in rejecting God’s will and God’s word. They did only
what they wished. If the picture of the nation at the close of
the book of Judges represents the helplessness of mankind in
independence from God, the example of Hophni and Phinehas show
that the inevitable terminus for independent man is total
rejection of God leading to war with God.
By contrast Samuel, who was not of priestly stock, grew up
with respect for the God of his mother. It is clearly a
situation that cannot endure. We are told that God is going to
intervene in judgement.
1SA 2:27 Then a man of
God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, `Did I
not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they
were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house? 28
`And did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be
My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an
ephod before Me; and did I not give to the house of your
father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? 29
`Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering
which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons
above Me, by making yourselves fat with the choicest of every
offering of My people Israel?' 30 "Therefore the
LORD God of Israel declares, `I did indeed say that your house
and the house of your father should walk before Me forever';
but now the LORD declares, `Far be it from Me--for those who
honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be
lightly esteemed.
In the course of this study we will discover why God could
not let men who hold Him in contempt continue as priests.
31 `Behold, the days are
coming when I will break your strength and the strength of
your father's house so that there will not be an old man in
your house. 32 `And you will see the distress of My
dwelling, in spite of all that I do good for Israel; and an
old man will not be in your house forever. 33 `Yet
I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar that your
eyes may fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the
increase of your house will die in the prime of life. 34
`And this will be the sign to you which shall come
concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on the same day
both of them shall die. 35 `But I will raise up for
Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in
My heart and in My soul; and I will build him an enduring
house, and he will walk before My anointed always. 36
`And it shall come about that everyone who is left in
your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of
silver or a loaf of bread, and say, "Please assign me to one
of the priest's offices so that I may eat a piece of bread."'"
God gives a devastating pronouncement of the end of a line
of priesthood, and a sign will be the joint deaths of Eli’s
two sons. The prophesy is confirmed in chapter three where we
read of God’s night visitation to Samuel.
1SA 3:10 Then the LORD
came and stood and called as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!"
And Samuel said, "Speak, for Thy servant is listening."
11 And the LORD said to Samuel, "Behold, I am about to
do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears
it will tingle. 12 "In that day I will carry out
against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from
beginning to end. 13 "For I have told him that I am
about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he
knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he
did not rebuke them. 14 "And therefore I have sworn
to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not
be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever."
Because of the behaviour of Eli’s sons and their father’s
lack of discipline or censure God is going to bring to an end
this branch of the priesthood. This judgement of God starts
with the death of Hophni and Phinehas in chapter 4, continues
with the slaughter of the High Priest Ahimelech and all of his
family save Abiathar in chapter 22. It reaches its conclusion
in 1 Kings 2 when Solomon expelled Abiathar, from the role of
high priest (because he had sided with Adonijah in the
attempted succession coup) and replaced him with Zadok, who
was a descendant of Aaron’s third son Eleazar.
At this point we read in 1 Kings 2 -
1KI 2:27 So Solomon
dismissed Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, in order to
fulfill the word of the LORD, which He had spoken concerning
the house of Eli in Shiloh.
And so it seems that this ends the matter, the prophecy of
1 Samuel 2 confirmed by the word to Samuel in chapter 3 has
now been concluded – case closed.
There is more to it however, as we shall discover, because
woven into this prophecy of the end of Eli’s line is God’s
promise of His Son, and a picture of the work of the Lord
Jesus, as viewed from heaven, that we get nowhere else in the
Bible.
2. The Faithful Priest.
We observed the curiosity that the prediction of the end of
the house of Eli is given twice – once in chapter 2 and again
in chapter 3. This is not simple repetition. The word to
Samuel in chapter 3 clearly confirms that the house of Eli is
finished, and this is fulfilled by the action of Solomon in 1
Kings 2. But if we look closely at the text of the prophecy in
chapter 2 we discover that the removal of Abiathar by Solomon
cannot be the fulfillment of the whole of that prophecy.
There are four elements to note in the prophecy: -
- The rejection of a priesthood, but whose priesthood?
- The promise of a faithful priest
- The promise of a ‘house’ for the priest
- The enduring ministry
The rejection of a priesthood, but whose
priesthood?
God declared to Eli -
1SA 2:27 … Did I not
indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they
were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house? 28
`And did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be
My priests, … ' 30 … but now the LORD declares, …31
… I will break your strength and the strength of your
father's house
When Solomon brought to an end the priestly service of the
line of Eli, it is clear that it was Eli’s line alone that has
been terminated. Yet the prophecy declares that it is the
house of Eli’s father to whom God gave the priestly function
in Egypt which will be removed and replaced by a faithful
priest.
Zadok could not be the faithful priest who is promised in
verse 35, because he shared with Eli the same ‘father in
Egypt’ – Aaron.
The rejection of Eli’s family from the priesthood in this
prophecy in chapter 2 is in fact woven into a root and branch
rejection of the whole house going back to the head of the
family (Aaron) in the captivity in Egypt.
So who can be the ‘Faithful Priest’ that God declares that
He will raise up in replacement?
The promise of a faithful priest
`But I will raise up for Myself a
faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart
and in My soul
To appreciate this declaration we need to look at how God
describes the priesthood of the house of Aaron. It is depicted
as having four duties or functions: -
- To officiate at the altar – to
intercede on behalf of the people
- To burn incense – to bring pleasure to
God
- To carry an ephod – before Me – to
discover God’s mind in specific cases
- To enjoy the food of the fire
offerings – to share in God’s own blessings
It is not the subject of this study to expound any further
the significance of these functions, but rather to note that
they were specific functions and by being so specified the
role of the priests was defined and limited. This stands in
stark contrast to the role predicted for the faithful priest.
The role of this priest is unlimited. He will do ‘according
to what is in My heart and in My soul’. The
Faithful Priest will accomplish – all that is in the heart and
soul of God. He will bring to completion all the inner
longings of the heart and mind of God.
Can we digest just how mind-boggling this is? This priest
will bring to pass all the dreams and desires of an infinite
God. Clearly this is beyond the reach of Zadok or any of his
descendants. Who can fulfil such a ministry? Thankfully the
Bible does not leave us in ignorance. In Hebrews 3 the writer
begins to extol the majesty of Jesus as our High Priest.
HEB 3:1 Therefore, holy
brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the
Apostle and High Priest of our confession. 2 He was
faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all
His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more
glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house
has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is
built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5
Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant,
for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;
6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house …
Hebrews 3 picks up the promise of the Faithful Priest in 1
Samuel 2 and declares to us Jesus our High Priest as THE
FAITHFUL ONE – THE FAITHFUL PRIEST.
It matters not a jot that the comparison in Hebrews is
between Moses and Jesus, because although Aaron became
officially the High Priest, the actual role of intercessor
between God and man that Aaron inherited was performed first
by Moses. Here in Hebrews 3 we are told that God declared that
Moses was faithful, in a limited capacity – as a servant in a
house. Jesus, on the other hand is faithful to a much higher
order, He is faithful (to God) as a Son over His house.
If we can see how the writer of Hebrews has used this
prophecy to Eli as the springboard for the presentation of the
priesthood of the Lord Jesus perhaps we can also see why he is
so confident about the change in the priesthood that he
describes in chapter 7.
We shall consider the house in a moment, but first let us
consider the glory of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus. How
will Jesus the Faithful Priest perform ‘all that is in the
heart and mind’ of God? God is infinite – and what is in God’s
heart and mind is inexhaustible – yet this prophecy tells us
that Jesus will fulfill it all.
The answer begins with who and what Jesus is.
COL 1:19 For it was the
Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, …
2:9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in
bodily form.
It continues with what Jesus did on earth, and He could say
–
JN 8:29 "… for I always
do the things that are pleasing to Him."
And in His redemptive suffering and death He performed the
will of the Father. Yet even all of this does not I believe
exhaust the dreams and ambitions of an infinite God that forms
the ministry of our Great High Priest. In a very true sense we
have seen nothing yet. Paul begins to capture some sense of it
in the magnificent language of 1 Corinthians 2 as presented in
the KJV.
1CO 2: 9 But as it is
written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him.
What is your concept of heaven? Some pictures that we
employ of the eternal state are frankly boring and unbiblical.
Just how many centuries do you envisage sitting around
strumming harps and singing? We get a far better picture of
the eternal prospect when we look at the first creation.
God is the God who expresses Himself in physical creation.
And in Genesis 1 we are told that in six days God created the
wonderful universe that we enjoy, and delegated to man the
enjoyment of ‘making something of’ the small planet that we
call earth. However we understand what the six days of Genesis
1 are, one thing should be clear. The work of six days did not
exhaust the creative imagination of the infinite God. Rather
the impression from Genesis is that God did not even break
sweat. And now we are told that this priest will bring to
reality – all that is in the heart and mind of God.
God expresses Himself in creation. There is something
mysterious about why the Eternal God who is Spirit should
choose to demonstrate Himself in a physical creation, but it
is so. The six days of Genesis have not given us the full
expression of the dreams and longings of God. From this
prophecy however (see also Psalm 8) we can learn that the
exhaustive achievement of God’s creative designs will involve
the participation of a man.
Now does the need for a man that God can trust become
clear? To open up one’s heart and dreams to another is to make
yourself vulnerable. God could only do that to someone whose
integrity and ability, whose faithfulness, He could trust.
That is why Hophni and Phinehas, or any other man apart from
Jesus, could never be the priest that God needed.
The great message of the Bible however is that in Jesus God
has found a man to whom He can entrust all of His longings and
dreams for a timeless eternity. This is our Great High Priest
- the One whom God describes as Faithful, and who will bring
all of God’s dreams to a physical reality.
I believe that there is simply no basis of comparison
between the creation that we see and the creation that will
fulfil all the dreams and ideas of God.
The promise of a ‘house’ for the priest
I will build him an enduring house,
‘House’ in this book often means family, and so it is here.
Since we have identified Jesus as the faithful priest, we can
rejoice that the book of Hebrews identifies the family of the
faithful priest as us –
HEB 3:6 but Christ was
faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, …
We, those who have been redeemed, saved by the blood of
Jesus, God describes as a family that He has given to the Son.
Now let us consider something else
Adam before he sinned was not a part of the family of God.
Yet the Bible is clear that a family relationship is what God
gives to us through His Incarnate Son. The question arises
therefore – are we better off because Adam sinned? If our
destiny – of being the ‘family’ of the King, is better than
Adam enjoyed before the fall then can it not be said that we
have benefited from the fall? That would be the inevitable
conclusion if the incarnation was the consequence of the fall.
If God changed His plan and sent His Son to earth to become
man in response to man’s sin, then the awful argument just
made would be valid. But remember our first lesson in this
book. God did not bow to pressure from the masses in giving
Israel a king. The idea of the king was God’s all along. So it
is with the thought of making men the family of the faithful
and Incarnate Priest.
The incarnation of the Son of God was not a response to the
fall. Rather we might say that the primary purpose of creation
was to be the means for the incarnation. The incarnation is
the central objective in the creation – it is in this sense
that Paul describes Jesus as
COL 1:15 And He is the
image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.
He – JESUS – the Incarnate Son IS the reason, the first
objective, the main motive for all the creation.
If we think about the incarnation and the creation in this
way it opens up to us another marvellous concept. When Genesis
1 tells us –
GE 1:26 Then God said,
"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
- we may consider that in this declaration God is gifting
to mankind the physical shape and structure that had already
been determined and reserved for the Son in which to become
incarnate. Mankind was made in the physical form that had been
designed for the Son of God. And God’s purpose was that
mankind might truly become family with the One who will be the
Faithful Priest. Is that not dignity indeed for man?
That is what man throws back in God’s face when he chooses
to look to apes and jellyfish for his origins. That is what
man spurns when he declares – ‘I will do what I want’.
If this seems too radical an interpretation of Genesis,
look at the dialogue between God and the fallen creatures in
Genesis 3. God addresses Adam, Eve and the serpent, but
significantly the first judgement is given to the serpent.
GE 3: 14 And the LORD God
said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly shall you go,
And dust shall you eat
All the days of your life;
GE 3:15 And I will put
enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel."
Note carefully the tenses in God’s language. ‘I will put
enmity’ implies introducing something that had not existed
hitherto, implying that up to this point God and Satan have
not been at war. However when talking about the Messiah God
does not say ‘I will give a seed to the woman who will bruise
your head’. No, what God declares is that it will be the seed
of the woman (already determined and identified) who will
bruise the serpent’s head.
Can we let it sink in that the fact that the woman will
produce a seed who will be God incarnate is already a given
certainty – even before the fall.
We should rejoice that it was always God’s design for the
Son to become incarnate – as Jesus, and for us to become His
family, gifted to Him by God, and related to Him by a
spiritual union that Adam did not and could not enjoy (simply
by virtue of his creation).
Thus we can be confident that sin has not compelled or
induced God to do anything for us that He had not planned from
eternity to do.
The enduring ministry
Because many Bible translators have assumed that the
faithful priest is Zadok the conclusion to v35 in most (but
not all) Bibles is translated as - and he will walk before My
anointed always. In this ‘he’ is Zadok and ‘My anointed’ is
Solomon. That translation however makes the service of the
priest directed to the king, whereas God specifically
described the service of the (high) priest as being ‘before
Me’ (1S2:30). It cannot be that the better service of the
better priest will be placed in a lower order.
Even more conclusively however we can see from our vantage
point in history that Zadok (and his descendants) cannot be
the Faithful Priest identified in the prophecy – because the
prophecy talks about a service in perpetuity – and there is
now no high priestly service before a king in Israel
There is another way in which the Hebrew can be translated
–
‘And it will walk before My anointed
always’
Both translations are linguistically valid. The second
translation however changes the subject of the verb and it
widens the identity of the ‘anointed’. Because Zadok cannot be
the faithful priest it is more likely that the better
translation is ‘and it (the house/family i.e. us) will walk
before My anointed (Jesus our High Priest and King) always.
So what can we learn from this prophecy? We discover that
our association (as family) with the Incarnate Son (who is our
Great High Priest) was always God’s purpose and design for us
– from before creation was – and the best has not yet dawned.
Together we can see from these two prophecies (Hannah’s in
2:1-9 and this one) that Jesus is both our King and our High
Priest. Under the Old Testament regimes these offices are kept
separate. Yet here are given the first indication in the Bible
that these two great offices will achieve their fulfilment in
Jesus, the Messiah. Later David would come to appreciate this
truth when he penned Psalm 110, which would itself serve as
the great underpinning of the book of Hebrews.
PS 110:1 The LORD says to
my Lord:
"Sit at My right hand, Until I make Thine enemies a footstool
for Thy feet." 2 The LORD will stretch forth Thy
strong scepter from Zion, saying,
2 "Rule in the midst of Thine enemies." 3
Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of Thy power; In
holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Thy youth are to Thee
as the dew.
4 The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind,
"Thou art a priest forever According to the order of
Melchizedek."
Are these titles King and High Priest merely historical
curiosities to us? If so then these two prophecies should help
us to understand the differences between the two of them.
As King we learn what Jesus will do for us - bring
justice/justification, lead us and fight our battles (against
sin and death). As Priest we learn what Jesus will do
for God - with us; He will achieve all that is in God's
heart and mind.
As King/High Priest after the order of Melchizedek He will
save and perfect unto the uttermost those who come to God
through Him - and He will enable us to enjoy and share in this
most astonishing or roles, that of bringing to exhaustive
reality all that is in the innermost dreams and longings of an
infinite God who is LOVE.
There is something especially precious in this picture of
the priest. Normally we think of the priest as the one who
brings man to God. Yet here is a picture of the Faithful
Priest who both brings His house to perform acceptable service
to God, and also enables the house to know and enjoy the
hidden depths and longings in the heart of God.
The making of us into His house is only the start - the
purpose is so that we can share in this magnificent venture
into the utter ends of eternity.
3. Priest Samuel?
Was Samuel a priest? Clearly by birth he was not (he was a
Levite but not a descendant of Aaron). And in the book he is
described as a prophet or seer. Yet look at some strange
straws in the wind. We have just seen a different side to
priesthood, being the performance of God’s will, and the
bringing of God’s word to men. In this role the dividing line
between priest and prophet has been made very thin. Now look
at some of the detail we are given about Samuel in chapter 3.
1SA 3:1 Now the boy
Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli. And word from
the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.
2 And it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in
his place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could
not see well), 3 and the lamp of God had not yet
gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD
where the ark of God was, 4 that the LORD called
Samuel; and he said, "Here I am."
While Eli was sleeping ‘in his place’ Samuel was sleeping
inside the tabernacle, and less we miss the point the detail
is given ‘where the ark of God was’. No one other than a
priest was permitted to enter the tabernacle. Then at the end
of the chapter we are told that Samuel was confirmed as a
prophet – at Shiloh, giving the people the word of God that
Eli and his ancestors ought to have done, and so we are told
that the Lord appeared ‘again’ at Shiloh.
1SA 3:19 Thus Samuel grew
and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail.
20 And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that
Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD. 21
And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, because the LORD
revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
Finally we will later meet a very strange incident. In
chapter 13 there is a pivotal moment in the life of King Saul.
In desperation he takes it upon himself to offer a sacrifice
to God. He is roundly rebuked by Samuel who insisted that it
was not Saul’s role to usurp the priestly function. Yet the
text appears quite comfortable with Samuel offering such
sacrifices, thus inferring that Samuel did perform a priestly
role, even if the book does not formally give him the title of
priest.
Perhaps we can see in Samuel, who was not born a priest but
who one might say became a ‘priest’ by adoption, a prototype
for those who have been adopted into the family of God to
become a ‘kingdom of priests’ a family related to the King,
serving the Faithful Priest, now and forever.
Conclusion
Jesus is the man whom God can trust. He as The
Faithful Priest will fulfil all of the innermost longings of
the heart of an infinite God. He is the centre of all
creation - the creation was designed for the incarnation.
It was always God's intention to make us His Family, and as
the family of the Faithful Priest we can share (as an adopted
priesthood) starting now and continuing throughout eternity -
in the activity and service of our King and Great High Priest.
Crossroads 09.03.03 - DAB
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