Brother Jon Greene, my Charismatic colleague who operates a website, http://revolutionbrigade.com/ , that includes an enjoyable blog made an interesting observation about my entry yesterday, which follows as such.
I think Eli gets a worse rap than he deserves sometimes. He was a poor priest, but mostly he was a poor father. His kids ran over him. He’s guilty mostly of being a pushover. But, by the time Samuel came on the scene, he already knew that his priesthood was kaput. It had been prophesied. And yet, he still chose to equip Samuel, which was even more amazing considering he was not his own son.
I can only add a hearty amen, especially to the last comment. I wonder if perhaps Eli, in raising up Samuel (of course this was all part of the destiny appointed since Hannah was going to surrender the boy to the Lord), was trying to make up for his mistakes with Hophni and Phineas. Who knows. Either way, Eli welcomed the boy on board with him and taught him all there was to know about the priesthood. The great thing, was that this boy was organically raised up out of the tribe of Levi adopted by Eli, raised up by the Lord for the express purpose of getting His people back on the road to righteousness and sanctity. The Lord stops at nothing and will use a lazy old high priest to raise up a holy, set apart man or woman of God to accomplish his purposes.
Your thoughts???