PART TWO : THE COMPASSION FATIGUED ELI HIGH PRIESTHOOD
APOSTOLIC LEADER MISOGYNY APPROVED?
The Book of I Samuel
(C)2014 Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved
PART ONE REVIEW: Eli the High Priest is catching a short break from ministry when he sees a sobbing woman on the temple steps. It is his reaction which warrants our attention. I Samuel 1
PART TWO PREVIEW:
The Levitical High Priesthood, was intended to set up, and to maintain a clear “set apart” ministry HIGH STANDARD.
God appointed the Chief High Priest as spiritual OVERSEER with a divine charge to watch over (to guard, guide and leader govern) over His own personal ministry associate/temple staff as well as to keep a perceptive spiritual eye open at all Levitical times on behalf of Hebrew lay people: men, women,children, elderly, etc.
Therefore Chief Temple High Priest Eli was imbued with leader/Torah power to discipline and to remove, all who refused to yield to God’s Holy Scriptures.
However, upon further study of the Book of I Samuel, we find Eli fails to do this. He allows, tolerates and enables both his willful manipulative sons to do whatever they wished. (more later about this)
THE HIGH PRIESTLY ANOINTING
The story of the Eli priestly family was one that started off filled with promise, hope and a high calling. Each of them were honorable descendents in the priestly line.
Eli was a descendent of the younger son of Aaron, Ithamar, and therefore a descendent from the tribe of Levi.
It was implied that a keeper of a God ordained high priestly temple overseer OFFICE would be expected to be spiritually discerning and perceptive, and to KNOW and to TEACH God’s people ” the difference between what was holy and what was profane.” (Ezekiel 44:23) (which was not what Eli nor either of his sons did)
Historically, the office of the ministry (Old Testament high priest, Levites, associate ministers) would be expected to represent the Holy Living Father Almighty God to the people, be they children of Israel or idol worshippers.
As temple High Priests they would come bearing God’s HOLY SPIRIT ANOINTING (Isaiah 10:27″ the yoke breaking anointing”) which, IF the priests were truly consecrated, submitted to the Book of the Law(Torah, Ten Commandments) would assist them LEADER HERO ROLE MODELING but also EMPOWER, EQUIP and QUICKEN them as they served in their priestly office.
And, if each of the PRIESTS fully obeyed, then the Lord would continue to pass down the priestly mantle, heritage to the next family generation…(only IF ..more later)
THUS, all three ELI RELATIVES were imbued with God’s mandate, fully privy to His Anointing, and surely had many prior priestly relatives from which to gain counsel but also to look at for a ROLE MODEL…(be it a blessed or a dishonorable leader one.)
YET, throughout the entire Book of I Samuel, we find a dull and imperceptive “user” priesthood, of which the FATHER (High Priest ELi) had grown sluggish, complacent, dull of accurate leader perception and deep discernment and had turned slack, permissive and in deep denial.
WHEN we read of Eli’s first reaction to the weeping sobbing leader woman on the temple steps, (READ PART ONE) we first note the ACCUSER LEVITICAL SUSPICION against leader WOMEN. (And very ironically, the accused weeping woman was righteous Hannah, whom God had chosen to be the mother of the first national prophet SAMUEL)…
…AND notice how, when a person is going through intense personal suffering, that the legalistic ACCUSER will usually try to hurt them to bring even more attack and create suffering and deep needless pain.
This personal intense experience of long suffering and emotional pain in a national High Priestly Office /leadership time then brings us to the following:
I SAMUEL: EXAMINING THE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP TRACK AND NATIONAL SPIRITUAL TRACK
BOOK OF I SAMUEL:
God has a TIME and a PLAN in mind which will bring forth THE NEW THING. And He repeatedly winnows, testing one human individual by bringing up close to them another.
And God uses some of the strangest unseen PLANS to work in appointed Time and Season to bring forth RIGHTEOUS NONACCUSATIVE JUDGEMENT and PERFORM JUSTICE even in the most BARREN, LENGTHY DRY DESERT CIRCUMSTANCES. Both personally, in ministry and nationally.
“He changes the times and the seasons; he removes (leader) kings, and sets up (leader) kings.” Daniel 2:21
TWO SILENT GOD TRACKS
In the entire book of I Samuel we find there are TWO God tracks operating, each supernaturally, mysteriously and invisibly.
ONE MICRO “LONELY” TRACK appears to be the barren desert HANNAH BABY TRACK (one single private human person in big long term suffering, real want)
THE OTHER MACRO “OVER VIEW” TRACK is what is going on in the mind of God as HE oversee watches His Own Hebrew People and the daily lives in a collective, governing, but planning on a blessed Future (based on required faithfulness and complete obedience) National Destiny Sense.
OLD TESTAMENT LEVITICAL WOMEN
ASIDE: WAY BACK then, Hebrew leader women were not regarded as office holder leader and were not given rights equal with the Hebrew men. They were far more subservient and without any personal privileges than the New Testament leader WOMAN of today (barring Old Testament Law being mixed in with New Testament Freedom in misogynist/Patrician, Levitical Patriarchal/subservient Levitical Matriarchal/legalistic ministries)
THUS that makes it readily compared with the New Testament 5 fold offices (Book of Ephesians) in modern senior ministry today.
TODAY: LETS ANALYZE THE ELI PRIESTLY FAMILY SPIRITUAL LEADER FRUIT
I SAMUEL 2: 12-17
12 Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord.
** Eli’s sons Hopni and Phineas “did not know the Lord” but were allowed to minister in the priestly ministry staff, and they were well known to abuse their position
(see below)
13 And the priests’ custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fleshhook in his hand while the meat was boiling. 14 Then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; and the priest would take for himself all that the fleshhook brought up. So 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 sacrificed, “Give meat for roasting to the priest, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but raw.”
16 And if the man said to him, “They should really burn the fat first; then you may take as much as your heart desires,” he would then answer him, “No, but you must give it now; and if not, I will take it by force.”
** They demanded that the offering of fat brought for the LORD be given over to them…and they even threatened God’s people with FORCE /implying controlling, abuse of office, even violence.
SEE NEXT VERSE: This grievous sin of stealing God’s offerings, was widely well known and it cast aspersions on GOD’S TITHES AND OFFERINGS around the local region..due to the fleshly sins of the OFFICE SENIOR MINISTERS.
17 “Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.”**
**AND from what the writer observes among grass roots Believers, today the offering is “abhorred” around the nation.
**WONDERING if the TEMPLE HIGH PRIESTHOOD in some situations, may be creating an awful lot of this??
THUS THE TEMPLE MINISTRY OFFICES were held accountable and fully responsible by and before the LORD for how each of them handled God’s love offerings, ministry donations and tithes.
AND: THE MINISTRY PRIESTLY STAFF AND STAFF ABUSE, CHAUVINISM, MYSOGYNY
<em>I SAMUEL 2:22 “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.”
Eli “heard” about the OFFERINGS but also about the In Leader House disrespect for the Levitical women. And he either felt too worn out, or did not regard God’s girls and women as worthy of respect. So Eli tolerated, accepted and /or pretended not to let on that he knew about all of this.
We may regard this as
1)Eli’s sons demonstrating self serving, entitled, demeaning use of God’s females( fellow human beings)
2) Evidence that high priest Eli’s dull of perception, lacking in human natural leader compassion narcissistic sons regarded themselves as the elevated “archetypal Rock Star ministers” who enjoyed a host of adoring female followers and thereby regarded them selves as “entitled” to use their power, office and senior position to woo and win, many local gullible women.
3) Eli’s sons blatantly overstepped their God given leader true spiritual/office authority by using their implied governmental power, statue in the community, to dominate, control and force others to do their bidding.
Yet High Priest Eli perhaps said to himself” Well, boys will be boys..” and then turned a deaf ear.
4) Hopni and Phineas leader manipulation, control, and rebellion constitutes “the spirit of witchcraft.” (I SAMUEL 15:23 “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.’
5)The dominating In Area House rule of the entire Eli priestly staff, demonstrates asleep at the spiritual wheel, hardened, high office ministry chauvinism as well as (abusive oppressive) misogyny (misogyny means a hatred of women).
And if they did not treat the mothers and daughters of that day with respect, but used them selfishly, then that bears the spiritual fruit of lack of real LOVE, and which may also imply hatred.
CURIOUS: And no where in I Samuel is Eli’s wife, their mother mentioned..so perhaps she too felt used, disrespected and repeatedly demeaned.
SELAH EVALUATION OF MINISTRY SPIRITUAL MORAL FRUIT:
- Was there high priest compassion fatigue?
- Was there chief minister, associate pastor/priest self serving lack of leader human empathy?
- Was there a senior ministry team spiritual dullness and lack of accurate Holy Spirit perception?
- Wast the Temple Chief High Priest Eli tolerant, permissive, an enabler, and one who turned a blind eye regarding the sins of both of his chauvinistic, misogynist manipulative priestly sons?
-
Didn’t Eli hear all of the rumors circulating about his sons taking the offering for themselves? And sleeping with the women who came to the temple?
SO WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH LEADER ELI’S MIND?
**Was Eli in such a fog that he failed to OBSERVE?
**Was Eli in such a dull spiritual stupor that he was APATHETIC?
**Was Eli afraid that if he rose up and tried to stop his sons, that they might have a big FIGHT, which would start gossip around the community.
**OR perhaps Eli was AFRAID that he might be outnumbered by his two sons who might and cause him bodily harm?
** And as women were regarded as “less than” the Hebrew men, could Eli, after understanding how both of his sons “slept with the women who came to the temple” (I Samuel 2:22) and simply dismissed it as “Well, boys will be boys…?”
WHAT MAY HAVE BEEN KEY FACTORS IN ELI’S REACTIONS(or lack there of)?
ELI’S MIDDLE-OLD AGE? Proven High Priest (via number of years in office, experience and chronological advancing age 50′s or much higher) Someone said that Eli may have been 78 when Samuel was born.
PERHAPS,very slowly, Eli had dulled down, accepted that he would never be able to get both sons to respect and obey him…
…OR he may have simply felt entitled to the perks of his office, after so many hard years of sacrifice and interacting with all of the complaining, sob stories, leader high pressures which came with his priestly office.
AND SO by the time weeping Hannah appeared, perhaps Eli had developed a method to peer from afar, size up someone by religiously STEREOTYPING them based on the many similar others who looked, acted, reacted, similar to each of them.
??
WAS ELI NAIVE AND PERHAPS CLUELESS? Perhaps as Eli had sired only sons, he did not truly respect, place any big value on girls and women.
SO PERHAPS descending down from the Levitical heritage,perhaps added to this, Eli also presumed that females were emotionally weak, sin laden, less valuable, and always too emotional. SELAH.
Hence, the God Appointed Overseer may have intentionally turned an blind eye to his own associate ministry leader sons and allowed both of them to do whatever they pleased…even while as God’s Representatives on His Temple Staff.
EXAMINATION OF ELI’S FIRST REACTION TO SEEING A WEEPING LEADER WOMAN
SUMMARY I SAMUEL 1:1-2: Hannah is being persecuted by the other wife and comes to pour out her heart before the Lord, at the temple.
Eli the Chief Priest, “happens” to be out catching a few rays on the temple porch, and suddenly notices a weeping leader female just across the way.
I SAMUEL 1:12-14 ELI’S HEART REACTIONS
“As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”
** Hannah is acting strange. Her lips keep moving but there is no sound coming out of them.
Eli quickly judges by appearance. NOTE: His first heart reaction is NOT TO rise up (showing human /ministry elder caring compassion or empathy) but rather Eli reacts at first with CRITICAL ACCUSATION: “She’s big DRUNK”.
**The writer also notes, that as the Priest was seated, catching a 20 minute ministry break, that his immediate “priestly” reaction is NOT to rise up from his place of rest to walk over there (also showing God’s CONCERN/UNDERSTANDING CARING FATHER’S COMPASSION) but is instead ACCUSER SIN CONSCIOUS.
HANNAH DEFENDS HERSELF TO THE UNJUST LEADER IMPERCEPTIVE MINISTER’S ACCUSATIONI SAMUEL 1:15-16
15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
**Hannah strong, but respectful to the office of the senior temple high priest, stands up boldly to defend herself against unjust ministry accusation.
AND HANNAH’S STAND UP RESPONSE TO THE DULL IMPERCEPTIVE ACCUSER LEVITICAL HIGH PRIESE EVIDENTLY AWAKENS ELI FROM HIS SLUMBERING SPIRIT DULL STEREOTYPING RELIGIOUS LEVITICAL SPIRIT
I Samuel 1:17
“Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
BOOK OF SAMUEL OVERVIEW:
The barrenness of righteous Hannah, was also a sign of the spiritual condition of the entire Hebrew nation at that point in time.
And it was the elders, the temple high priests, whom the Lord held fully responsible….but the judgement which both Eli and his two sons face comes later on in I Samuel.
STILL a lot more to come…
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