LESSON EIGHT
ELI

A. THE PRIEST ELI:
•	Eli was a priest of the line of Ithamar. 
o	Ithamar was the younger son of Aaron. 
•	Two of Aaron’s sons, Nabad and Abihu, had been killed for offering strange fire. 
•	A line of priests descended from his other son, Eleazar, but Eli was a descendent of Ithamar. 
•	The office of the priesthood remained with the line of Ithamar through Eli until Solomon deposed Abiathar and turned the priesthood back to the descendents of Eleazar.

B. ELI'S PIETY:
•	Eli was a man of very noble character. 
•	His piety is shown by his meek submission to God's will ( I Samuel 3:18), his reverential regard for the ark of God (I Samuel 4:18), his willingness to take and train the young child, Samuel and his discernment of the moving of the spirit of God (I Samuel 3:8-9).
•	God trusted Eli with the training and bringing up of Samuel. 
•	Eli served Israel during a period of decided spiritual decline. 
•	Eli dwelt in Shiloh at the house of the Lord. 

C. ELI'S NEGLIGENCE:
•	Eli was a man capable of very high ideals, yet He completely failed in training his own sons, Hophni and Phinehas. 
•	His sons were also were priests. They were in charge of ceremonies and were wicked men who perverted the ritual and profaned the sanctuary.
•	As a result people abhorred to come to worship. 
•	Eli was held responsible by God.
•	Reprimand came first through an unnamed prophet and later through the boy Samuel.
•	In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote that one of the qualifications of a minister was that his own children had to be in subjection and that the minister had to rule his own house well. 

"One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)" (I Timothy 3:4-5).

•	Eli disqualified himself from being priest.

D. ELI'S DEATH:
•	Punishment came through a terrible battle with the Philistines at Aphek.
•	The Philistines had oppressed Israel for some twenty years.
•	In the battle Israel lost some 4,000 men. 
•	The Isrealites, with permission from Hophni and Phinehas, took the ark from Shiloh, and brought it the 23 miles to camp. 
•	This time 30,000 men of Israel fell including Hophni and Phinehas and the ark was captured. 
•	When news of this catastrophe reached Shiloh, Eli fell from his seat, backward and died of a broken neck.

E. THE ARK TAKEN BY THE PHILISTINES: (I Samuel 5 & 6).
•	The ark of the tabernacle was returned to Israel seven months after its capture. 
•	This came about through a series of events in which God brought judgment upon the Philistines. 
o	The image of Dagon had twice been made to fall to the floor. 
o	Painful tumors had been inflicted on the people: some died from them. 
o	The land had been overrun with mice.
•	The Philistine priests tested God by placing the ark on a new cart drawn by young heifers.
•	God intervened so that the heifers drawing the wagon moved straight along the road to Bethshemesh, in Israelite territory. 
•	At Bethshemesh, the ark was desecrated when curious people looked into it.
o	 God took the lives of many in punishment.
•	Instead of sending it back to the tabernacle, the Bethshemites sent for men of Kirjath-jearim to come and get it. 
•	These people handled it properly because they experienced no harm but they still did not return it to the tabernacle. 
o	It remained with them until David brought it to Jerusalem.

F. ICHABOD: (I Samuel 4:21).
•	The wife of Phinehas was ready to bear a child when the news came of the death of her husband. 
•	She immediately gave birth to her child and died in childbirth. 
•	Before her death she named the child Ichabod. 
o	Means: "The glory is departed from Israel." 
•	Ichabod spoke of the fact that the ark had been taken by the Philistines and of the great spiritual depravity of the entire nation. 
o	Israel had reached one of the darkest moments of her history.

LESSON EIGHT
SELF HELP TEST S
ELF HELP TEST
A.	What is the meaning of the word, "Ichabod?"

B.	What was the greatest failure of Eli's life?

C.	State the good characteristics of Eli.

D.	Write the story of the ark being taken by the Philistines.