Question
Why did God
pre-ordain the death of Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehasin in
I Samuel 2:33
and I Samuel 4:10-11?
I Samuel 2: 33
‘Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar so that your eyes
will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your
house will die in the prime of life. ‘This will be the sign to you, which
will come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on the same day
both of them will die.
I Samuel 4: 10 So the Philistines fought and Israel was
defeated, and every man fled to his tent; and the slaughter was very great,
for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11And the ark of God
was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
Of
all the questions that have come in during this series on I Samuel, this is
perhaps the hardest to answer. It is challenging to balance choice and
predestination in the biblical framework of God’s sovereignty. This single
question has been argued within the church now for 2,000 years.
In
my early years as a believer I was nurtured in a denomination that
emphasized man’s choice when applying God’s sovereignty. Later, I spent
years with churches and Christian organizations that focused on the doctrine
of predestination when applying God’s sovereignty. In retrospect, I
believe that both persuasions affected God’s will as well as the other, and
both defended their views adequately with a plethora of Scripture. For the
most part, my following views about the pre-ordained deaths of Hophni and
Phenehas primarily come from my own personal study of God’s Word.
I
can’t state definitely why God pre-ordained their deaths, other than through
His omnipresence (all knowing) He was able to foresee the choices they would
make, and thusly decided before hand to end their lives as He did and
replace them with a Godly priest like Samuel. I believe the “whys” of
the preordained (predestined) acts of God are mainly reserved for
heaven. In heaven, I will be free from all influence other than what is
God’s. The “why God does this or that”, for now, is knowledge I am
convinced I will never truly attain while on earth. My ever-present sin
(Romans 7:11), the foolish wisdom of my fellow humans (I Corinthians.
1:25), and the constant opposition of evil limit greatly my
understanding of all that He wants me to know (Ephesians 6:11-12).
Aside from these limitations, I believe Hophni and Phinehas were put to
death because they were evil and an embarrassment to the priesthood. I can
say this because I am looking back at what they did. God, on the other
hand, has the omniscience ability to foresee what they were going to do and
preordain their demise accordingly. But the question remains; why didn’t
He intervene with them like He did with Paul, the great Apostle? Paul
was quite evil himself, before making Christ his Lord and Savior. He
persecuted the church and was responsible for killing many Christians. Why
did God not intervene with Hophni and Phinehas as He did with Paul (Acts
9:3)? I don’t know, but I do know that God is perfectly just and fair
in every decision He makes.
Since we cannot know definitely why God ordains some like Hophni and
Phinehas for destruction and others like Paul for salvation, is there any
Scripture that can partially help us understand the why behind His
decisions? I believe there are some Scriptures and have included a small
sample of them below. I have also included some of my own thoughts on
these passages and suggest you do the same.
The way God works
Romans 8:28-30 28 And we know that God causes all things to
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose. 29For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the
firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also
called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He
justified, He also glorified.
My thoughts- Romans 8:28 teaches us that God causes everything to
work together for good to those who love Him. God can even take the bad of
others and work it out for us. Hophni and Phinehas were evil.
Contrastingly, Samuel loved God. The decisions these two spiritual jerks
made ended up to be the catalyst to bring Samuel to the forefront as God
intended. What Hophni and Phinehas did was no surprise to God; He knew
their hearts before they were born. Their evil acts did not deter God’s
will for one moment.
Predestination and free will in God’s
sovereignty
Psalm
139:1,7-8,13,15-16
1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. Where can I go
from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to
heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 13
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 15 My frame
was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought
in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When
as yet there was not one of them.
2 Thessalonians 2: 13 But we should always give thanks to God
for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the
beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in
the truth.
Ephesians 1:9-11 9 He made known to us the mystery of His
will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a
view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is,
the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on
the earth. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been
predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel
of His will,
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life.
I Timothy 2:1-4 1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties
and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2
for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and
quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in
the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to
come to the knowledge of the truth
Romans 10: 11,13-14
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be
disappointed.” 13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be
saved.” 14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they
hear without a preacher.
