why did Eli get punished and died and not samuel?!

edited December 1969 in Random Issues
wel dats pretty much all i wanted to ask! 


GBU
sandra

Comments

  • 1 Samuel 2:27-36 (NIV)

    27 Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the Lord says: 'Did I not clearly reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? 28 I chose your father out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your father's house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites. 29 Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?' 30 "Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: 'I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before me forever.' But now the Lord declares: 'Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. 31 The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your family line 32 and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, in your family line there will never be an old man. 33 Every one of you that I do not cut off from my altar will be spared only to blind your eyes with tears and to grieve your heart, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life. 34 "'And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you--they will both die on the same day.

    35 I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his house, and he will minister before my anointed one always. 36 Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a crust of bread and plead, "Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat."'"


    i guess God made it clear....
  • if God made it clear to Eli, but how come he never made it clear for samuel when his sons sined also?? is he like more special than Eli or something..Samuel never fell off the chair and broke his neck, as Eli did so why did God actually made it clear to Eli and not samuel..this whole thing is confusing me!

    GBU
    sandra
  • [quote author=sandrahanna link=topic=5530.msg73898#msg73898 date=1183868097]
    if God made it clear to Eli, but how come he never made it clear for samuel when his sons sined also?? is he like more special than Eli or something..Samuel never fell off the chair and broke his neck, as Eli did so why did God actually made it clear to Eli and not samuel..this whole thing is confusing me!


    i don't know much info about Samuel but i know that he is one of the greatest prophets that was called by God. Samuel was born to be a profit as it says in the part before what i posted below
  • Hello Sandra

    Eli answers your question in these verses:

    1 Samuel:2,22-25
    22 Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 23 So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. 24 No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the LORD’s people transgress. 25 If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?” Nevertheless they did not heed the voice of their father, because the LORD desired to kill them.

    Eli, very old and blind, fell when he had a severe heart attack (or a severe shock/stroke), not because of his two bad sons death (he knew it will happen and it was reconfirmed in Samuel's vision) but because of the news of what happened to God's Ark as Israel left it in the hands of the Philistines who captured it when they defeated Israel and killed Eli's sons.

    1 Samuel:3,10-14
    10 Now the LORD came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
    And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”
    11 Then the LORD said to Samuel: “Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain 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.”

    In 1 Samuel 4, Death of Eli
     
    12 Then a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line the same day, and came to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. 13 Now when he came, there was Eli, sitting on a seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told it, all the city cried out. 14 When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, “What does the sound of this tumult mean?” And the man came quickly and told Eli. 15 Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see.
    16 Then the man said to Eli, “I am he who came from the battle. And I fled today from the battle line.” And he said, “What happened, my son?”
    17 So the messenger answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead; and the ark of God has been captured.”
    18 Then it happened, when he made mention of the ark of God, that Eli fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

    The sins of Samuel sons were rather against people because they turned into bad judges - not against God Himself: it is not written they were bad priests or bad ministers, or made the people hate prayers and offerings or made iniquity or evil against the Lord.

    1 Samuel 8 (Israel Demands a King)
    1 Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

    GBU
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