48 – Samuel’s Firsthand Account Of The Corrupt Priesthood / Devarim Torah Portion

FULL MEETING WITH MIDRASH HERE

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.

So far, Samuel has written from oral history passed to him by others. There is no other known written texts at the time of Samuel for the books of Joshua and Judges. His life began a few years, perhaps 10 to 15 years, before the Temple was destroyed. The Temple stood for 369 years. By the time Samuel wrote the histories later in life (assuming he did not start writing at the age of 10 or 15), the oral histories he recorded started around 400 years prior. But now, with his personal account in 1 Samuel, we will begin to receive his direct eyewitness account of Israel’s condition and the spiritual situation she was in.

Eli’s Worthless Sons

1 Samuel 2:12  Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know Yahweh. -WEB

The WEB version has a different translation than the KJV.

1 Samuel 2:12  Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD. -KJV

The Septuagint simply says they were evil, Strong’s G3061, loimos, which actually means “a plague”. These men were a plague inside the temple of YHVH.

These were not just wicked men, they were sons of Belial, children of Ha Satan himself. Dictionary.com defines Belial as ‘the spirit of evil personified; the devil; Satan’ himself. The utter rebellion, abominations and total lawlessness of these two priests has prophetic implications for those who will operate the end times Jewish temple. This is because the corruption of the priesthood began right after the death of Pinchas and has continued until today. This was so even during the righteous reigns of Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash (Jehoash), Amaziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Today’s rabbis and the men who take control of the coming temple are all Kabbalists and occultists who go even further than Hophni and Phineas. Today’s Levitical priesthood not only embodies Satan himself, but they also worship Satan as god through their Kabbalistic, occultist religion. There is nothing in these accounts written by Samuel so long ago that does not have a far, far fulfillment in the end of days. YHVH prophesies the same destructions of Jacob – the physical 12 tribed people who never accepted YHVH’s Holy spirit or His authority over them – over and over and over again. The final destruction of Jacob’s Holy Spirit-less people will happen when YHVH uses the King of the North to destroy Jerusalem, Mystery Babylon with its Kabbalistic, occultist Temple.

1 Samuel 2:13  The custom of the priests with the people was that when anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the meat was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand; 
1 Samuel 2:14  and he stabbed it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot. The priest took all that the fork brought up for himself. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 
1 Samuel 2:15  Yes, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, “Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw.” 
1 Samuel 2:16  If the man said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take as much as your soul desires;” then he would say, “No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force.” 
1 Samuel 2:17  The sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for the men despised Yahweh’s offering. 
1 Samuel 2:18  But Samuel ministered before Yahweh, being a child, clothed with a linen ephod. 

Samuel ministered correctly in his child-sized linen ephod, his little apron. He stands in stark contrast to the sons of Eli, and in this way, becomes the prototype for righteous Israel in opposition to the wicked Jacobites.

In verse 18, the wording is in the 3^rd person. Today, autobiographies are written in the 1^st person. Though the literary style has changed from 3,000 years ago, it still remains that Samuel wrote the Book of 1 Samuel.

1 Samuel 2:19  Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 
1 Samuel 2:20  Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, “May Yahweh give you offspring from this woman for the petition which was asked of Yahweh.” Then they went to their own home. 
1 Samuel 2:21  Yahweh visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before Yahweh. 

Eli Rebukes His Sons

1 Samuel 2:22  Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how that they slept with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 
1 Samuel 2:23  He said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all this people. 
1 Samuel 2:24  No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear! You make Yahweh’s people disobey. 
1 Samuel 2:25  If one man sins against another, God will judge him; but if a man sins against Yahweh, who will intercede for him?” Notwithstanding, they didn’t listen to the voice of their father, because Yahweh intended to kill them. 

In 1 Samuel 2:13-14, we read that Hophni and Phineas were so wicked as to forcibly take the offeror’s portion of the peace and thanksgiving offerings set aside for them as well as the breast and right thigh portions set aside for the priests. Eli was correct that his own sons had become so worthless and lawless that God would have to judge them. In fact, YHVH planned to kill Hophni and Phineas for their rebellion and awful treatment of the Israelites who came to Shiloh to worship.  

1 Samuel 2:26  The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with Yahweh, and also with men. 

The Lord Rejects Eli’s Household

1 Samuel 2:27  A man of God came to Eli, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Did I reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? 
1 Samuel 2:28  Didn’t I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? Didn’t I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? 
1 Samuel 2:29  Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?’ 

We see here that YHVH is now making Eli responsible for the actions of his sons. Certainly there were other priests that could have served in the Temple at Shiloh but Eli did not dismiss his sons from service. He should have done that. This makes him culpable just as if he himself had committed these treasons against YHVH.

1 Samuel 2:30  “Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father [meaning Levi], should walk before me forever.’ But now Yahweh says, ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be cursed. 
1 Samuel 2:31  Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s house, that there will not be an old man in your house. 

The arm is a metaphor for a man’s strength. His firstborn is his strength. Yeshua is the Father’s right arm. This understanding begins in Genesis.

Genesis 49:3  “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power. 

YHVH was telling Eli he would lose his firstborn because Hophni hated YHVH and he hated YHVH’s people. YHVH could not allow Hophni to become Israel’s High Priest!

YHVH saying He would cut off the arm of Eli’s father’s house meant He intended also to kill Eli. Eli would have been his father’s firstborn. So Eli was told by this man of God that his family would all die.

1 Samuel 2:32  You will see the affliction of my habitation, in all the wealth which I will give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. 
1 Samuel 2:33  The man of yours, whom I don’t cut off from my altar, will consume your eyes and grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house will die in the flower of their age. 

Phinehas was just like his brother. He was that “man of yours” who must have been Eli’s favorite. When word came that both of Eli’s sons had died in battle, it grieved Eli so much that he died and fell from his seat at the entrance to the Temple.

1 Samuel 2:34  “‘This will be the sign to you, that will come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they will both die. 
1 Samuel 2:35  I will raise up a faithful priest for myself, that will do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house; and he will walk before my anointed forever. 

Some commentators say that Samuel functioned as a godly priest after Eli. This is a misunderstanding of the Torah’s commandments regarding who can serve as priest before YHVH. Rather, Eli’s grandson, Ahijah, served first doing so at Gibeah (1 Samuel 14:3) after Shiloh was destroyed. Scripture tells he was Phineas’ son in 1 Samuel 14:3.

Then came Ahimelech, from the same lineage, serving as High Priest after Ahijah. Ahimelech was killed when King Saul authorized Doeg, the Edomite, to kill all the priests at Nob (1 Samuel 21:1), but Abiathar escaped from the hand of Doeg and found David (1 Samuel 22:20.

The lineage of Eli finally lost all its claim to the high priesthood during King David’s reign. Eli’s 3^rd great grandson, Abiathar, was the last from Eli’s line to serve. It would be the line of Eleazar in the personage of Zadok whose line would take over the priesthood. Zadok was from the line of Pinchas who was the son of Eleazar. It was to Eleazar that the High Priesthood was to be inherited. It is unclear in scripture how Ithamar’s line obtained the High Priesthood. If later historical examples of betrayal within the High Priesthood are an indicator, it may be that the tradition to steal the High Priesthood from the rightful heir is what happened between the lines of Eleazar and Ithamar. Zadok’s return to service was a turning point in the priesthood and brought it back to its rightful heirs. 

It is sometimes taught that Samuel stepped into the High Priesthood. But Samuel could not be priest because he was from the line of Kohath, not Aaron. However, he will become the one who performs the sacrifices on the high places of Israel after the Shiloh Temple was destroyed.

You may have asked yourself how did Samuel get away with offering sacrifices to YHVH for almost his entire life when the only authorized person than can do so was someone from the line of Aaron? It is because the Temple was destroyed, the ark was taken and there was no altar for the priesthood or Samuel to officiate at. He simply sacrificed at the high places that already existed in Israel after the Temple’s destruction and he did so under YHVH’s direction, as did Gideon and Elijah.

It wasn’t only the priesthood that was corrupt. The people, except for YHVH’s faithful remnant, did not go to Shiloh for His Feasts. Samuel arose from one of those faithful remnant, Elkanah and Hannah. The Israelites created high places, places of divine importance, where they could worship other gods in their own vicinities and within their own tribal territories. It was at these places where Samuel would sacrifice to YHVH to reverse or cancel the sacrifices to other gods. 

But all of the places where YHVH instructed His people to sacrifice were only within the borders of Israel except for the first Passover in Egypt, and only under the direct supervision of the High Priesthood who would build a proper altar for sacrificing (Exodus 20:24-26). Once the Shiloh Temple was gone and the priesthood moved to Gibeah without an ark sitting in an authorized location, the only sacrifices to YHVH that the people had were those from the more pure and temporary line of Samuel.

And no, we are not to sacrifice to YHVH in our backyards wherever we live on the earth. Again, all sacrifices to YHVH are only to be done in the place of His name. David obtained that place and named it Jerusalem. Some people try to use Samuel’s sacrifices on the high places of wicked Israel as willy-nilly approval by YHVH that we also can sacrifice to Him wherever we are on the earth because there is no Temple just like there was no Temple at Shiloh. Not so.

As I said, some Christian commentators claim that Samuel functioned as a priest. Also, not so. Samuel functioned as a prophet and judge after the destruction of Shiloh but not as a priest officiating officially before YHVH’s altar. All of those high places Samuel visited to prophesy, judge or sacrifice at are the evidence of how splintered Israel was. Rather than creating a unified Israel, the House of Ephraim failed in their job as lead tribe which allowed the Israelites to continue what was right in their own eyes.

I believe the reason Samuel continued to sacrifice on Israel’s high places was because the people were sacrificing to other gods on those places. It was Samuel who created the prophetic custom of sacrificing at the same places where the people worshiped other gods, just like Elijah would later do, in order to reverse and cancel what the Israelites were doing. The fact that Samuel erected altars to YHVH and sacrificed on them was actually a judgement against Israel! It was not an implicit command in favor of sacrifices wherever the people wanted to do them.

1 Samuel 2:36  It will happen, that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, “Please put me into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’” 

And with that, the man of God stopped prophesying against Eli and his sons. We will see in a future teaching how YHVH fulfilled the personal prophecy against them.