WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.280 Samuel was arguably the greatest spiritual leader Israel had seen 2 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:08.279 since Moses. He was a prophet, a judge, and the 3 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:13.039 man who anointed Israel's first kings. For decades, he held 4 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:17.199 an entire nation together through the sheer force of his integrity. 5 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:22.440 People trusted him with their disputes, their families, their futures. 6 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:25.199 And when he got old and it came time to 7 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:28.480 pass the torch, he did something that would change the 8 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:32.600 entire trajectory of Israel's history. He handed the job to 9 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:37.359 his sons, Joel and Abijah, two names that literally mean 10 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:42.640 Yahweh is God and my father is Yahweh, two men 11 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:46.240 whose names were declarations of faith stamped on them at 12 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:49.560 birth by a father who walked with God closer than 13 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:54.079 almost anyone in the Hebrew Bible. So why did they 14 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:58.960 become the most corrupt judges in Israel's recorded history. Why 15 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:03.079 did their betrayal of justice trigger the single biggest political 16 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:07.239 upheaval the nation had ever experienced. And what does the 17 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:11.680 original Hebrew text tell us about their corruption that most 18 00:01:11.799 --> 00:01:16.159 English Bibles completely bury. That is what we are going 19 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:20.000 to uncover today, because this is not just an ancient 20 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:24.400 story about two bad sons. This is a story about 21 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:28.359 how corruption grows in the places you would least expect. 22 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:31.719 It about how the children of the righteous can become 23 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:37.200 the instruments of destruction, and about a pattern in scripture 24 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:40.879 that once you see it, you will never be able 25 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:45.319 to unsee. And honestly, it might be one of the 26 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:50.200 most personally relevant stories in the entire Old Testament, because 27 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:52.760 if you have ever struggled with living up to someone 28 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:56.000 else's legacy, or if you have ever watched someone you 29 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:00.920 raised or mentored walk away from everything you who taught them, 30 00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:05.719 this story is going to hit different. Let's go back 31 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:09.479 to the beginning. To understand what went wrong with Joel 32 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:13.439 and Abija, you have to understand the man who raised them, 33 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:17.639 and to understand Samuel, you have to understand the woman 34 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:22.800 who prayed him into existence. Around eleven hundred BC, in 35 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:25.599 the hill country of their frame, there was a woman 36 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:28.919 named Hannah. She was one of two wives of a 37 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:34.680 man named Elkana. The other wife, Panina, had children. Hannah 38 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:38.520 had none, and in ancient Israel, that was not just 39 00:02:38.599 --> 00:02:43.560 a personal sorrow, it was a social catastrophe. A woman 40 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:48.479 without children was considered cursed. She had no security, no 41 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:53.360 standing and no future. Every year the family would travel 42 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:57.120 to the tabernacle at Shiloh to worship, and every year 43 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:01.400 Panina would provoke Hannah about her barrenness. Us. The Hebrew 44 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:05.360 word used for what Paninna did is ram, and it 45 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:08.639 does not just mean she teased her. It means she 46 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:14.000 thundered against her. She made her life unbearable. So one 47 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:18.199 year at Shiloh, Hannah did something desperate. She went to 48 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:21.520 the entrance of the tabernacle and poured out her soul 49 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:25.479 before God. She was crying so hard and praying so 50 00:03:25.639 --> 00:03:29.319 intensely that the priest on duty, a man named Eli, 51 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:33.599 actually thought she was drunk. He confronted her about it, 52 00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:38.360 and this is where it gets interesting. Hannah told Eli 53 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:41.879 she was not drunk. She was in anguish. She was 54 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:45.280 praying for a son, and she made a vow that 55 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:48.240 if God gave her a child, she would give that 56 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:52.479 child back to God for his entire life. She would 57 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:56.439 dedicate him to the Nazarite vow no razor would touch 58 00:03:56.439 --> 00:04:01.199 his head. He would serve God from infancy. God answered 59 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:04.879 her prayer. She conceived. She gave birth to a son, 60 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:09.120 and she named him Samuel, which in Hebrew is Shemuel, 61 00:04:09.479 --> 00:04:14.280 meaning heard by God or asked of God. His very 62 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:18.079 name was a monument to answered prayer. And then Hannah 63 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:21.519 did the hardest thing a mother could do. When Samuel 64 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:25.560 was weaned, probably around age three, she brought him to 65 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:29.639 the tabernacle at Shiloh and left him there. She handed 66 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:33.839 her miracle baby to Eli, the priest, and said, in essence, 67 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:39.639 he is yours now he belongs to God. Think about that. 68 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:43.639 This child was not an accident. He was not even 69 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:47.680 a normal blessing. He was a prayer answered after years 70 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:52.360 of tears, and she gave him away. That decision shaped 71 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:56.279 everything that followed, because the house where Samuel grew up 72 00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:01.839 was not a holy, peaceful sanctuary. It was disaster. Eli 73 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:05.319 was the high priest of Israel. He was an old man, 74 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:09.079 he had served faithfully for years, and his sons were 75 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:14.920 destroying everything he had built. Their names were Hopni and Finejas, 76 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:18.199 and the Hebrew Bible does not hold back when describing 77 00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:23.839 what they did. First Samuel chapter two calls them beney belial, 78 00:05:24.279 --> 00:05:29.399 which is often translated as worthless men or sons of wickedness, 79 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:33.120 but that phrase is much heavier than it sounds in English. 80 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:38.680 Bellial in Hebrew means without worth or without going up, 81 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:43.199 a term that later Jewish writings would associate with pure evil. 82 00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:47.800 These were not just bad apples. The text is telling 83 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:52.360 you these men were spiritually cancerous. What did they actually do? 84 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:57.319 They stole from the sacrifices When people brought offerings to 85 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:01.680 God at the tabernacle, Hofni and Finihas would send a 86 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:05.000 servant with a three pronged fork to plunge into the 87 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:09.279 pot while the meat was boiling. Whatever the fork pulled 88 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:13.920 out they kept for themselves. And if the worshiper protested 89 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.480 and said, let the fat be burned first, as the 90 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:21.720 law requires, and then take what you want, they would 91 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:27.240 threaten them. The text says their servant would respond, give 92 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:31.120 it now, or I will take it by force. They 93 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:35.000 were robbing God's altar and threatening God's people to do it. 94 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:39.600 And it gets worse. The text tells us they were 95 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.800 also sleeping with the women who served at the entrance 96 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:46.759 to the tabernacle. They were using their religious authority to 97 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:52.439 exploit vulnerable women. This was not just corruption. This was 98 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:57.879 predatory abuse wrapped in priestly robes. Now Here is the 99 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:02.360 critical detail. Mule was growing up in this house. He 100 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:06.800 was a little boy sleeping in the tabernacle, serving under Eli, 101 00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:11.160 watching Hofni and Finihaus do all of this. He saw 102 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:15.079 the stolen meat, he heard the threats, He witnessed the abuse. 103 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:19.560 He watched Eli, the high priest, do almost nothing about it. 104 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:24.600 Eli did confront his sons technically, he asked them why 105 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:28.319 they were doing these terrible things, But the Hebrew verb 106 00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:32.399 used for Eli's rebuke is weak. It was a verbal 107 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:35.639 scolding from a man who had no intention of actually 108 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:41.079 removing them from power. He asked questions, he did not act, 109 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:46.120 and God noticed. A prophet came to Eli and delivered 110 00:07:46.120 --> 00:07:49.480 one of the most devastating messages in the entire Old Testament. 111 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:53.120 He told Eli that because he honored his sons above God, 112 00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:57.160 his family line would be cut off. His descendants would 113 00:07:57.160 --> 00:08:01.800 die young. Both Hofni and Finnejas would die on the 114 00:08:01.879 --> 00:08:05.680 same day, and the priesthood would eventually be given to 115 00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:10.160 some one else. Samuel heard all of this. He was 116 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:13.519 there the night God called his name three times, and 117 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:17.000 he kept running to Eli's room, thinking the old priest 118 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:20.439 was calling him. He was there when God told him 119 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:25.439 directly that judgment was coming on Eli's house and that 120 00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:30.240 nothing could stop it. This is the environment that shaped Samuel. 121 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:34.080 He grew up watching a godly leader fail to discipline 122 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:38.519 his corrupt sons. He watched that failure destroy an entire 123 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:43.759 family and bring judgment on a nation. Remember that, because 124 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.720 the cruelest irony in this entire story is that Samuel 125 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:52.399 watched this disaster unfold from the front row, absorbed every 126 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:55.960 lesson it should have taught him, and then, decades later, 127 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:01.720 repeated the exact same mistake. Samuel grew into one of 128 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:05.320 the most remarkable figures in the Hebrew Bible. He was 129 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:09.080 not just a priest. He was a prophet, confirmed by 130 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:13.840 God before all of Israel. First Samuel chapter three says 131 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:16.279 that the Lord was with him and let none of 132 00:09:16.279 --> 00:09:20.559 his words fall to the ground. Every prophecy he spoke 133 00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:25.360 came true. Every judgment he rendered was just. He traveled 134 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:30.320 a circuit between Bethel, Gilgal, Mispah and his home in Ramah, 135 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:35.240 judging Israel year after year after year. He was also 136 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.919 a military leader. When the Philistines threatened Israel, it was 137 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.000 Samuel who called the nation to repentance at Mispah, offered 138 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:48.120 a sacrifice, and led them to a decisive victory. The 139 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:51.840 text says the Philistines were subdued and did not invade 140 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:56.639 Israelite territory again. During Samuel's time as judge, he quite 141 00:09:56.759 --> 00:10:01.519 literally kept the nation safe through spiritual authority. For decades. 142 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:06.879 Samuel was the glue holding Israel together. No king, no 143 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:11.840 centralized government, just one man whose integrity was so widely 144 00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:16.639 recognized that people trusted him to resolve their disputes, guide 145 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:20.960 their worship, and speak for God. And then he got 146 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:26.320 old first. Samuel Chapter eight opens with five Hebrew words 147 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:31.679 that change everything viahi Kaasha, zakin Shamuel. And it happened 148 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:36.799 when Samuel grew old. That phrase zaken, meaning old or aged, 149 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:40.440 is the same word used to describe Abraham when he 150 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:45.080 was preparing to die. It carries weight. This is not 151 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:48.840 getting a little gray. This is a man approaching the 152 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:52.559 end of his capacity to lead. And what did he do. 153 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:59.120 He appointed his sons as judges over Israel. Now pause 154 00:10:59.159 --> 00:11:03.399 on that for a seton, because something is already wrong. 155 00:11:04.120 --> 00:11:07.120 The office of judge in Israel was not supposed to 156 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:11.240 be hereditary. Judges were raised up by God in response 157 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:15.159 to specific crises. Moses did not pass the role to 158 00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:19.279 his sons. Joshua did not pass it to his the 159 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:25.399 judges who came after Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon. They were 160 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.519 called by God individually. The people were supposed to have 161 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:34.240 a say in who judged them. According to Deuteronomy, chapter sixteen, 162 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:39.399 verse eighteen, Samuel did not consult God. He did not 163 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:44.120 consult the elders. He just appointed his sons. The Hebrew 164 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:48.879 verb used is viasem, which means he placed or he set. 165 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:53.120 It is a unilateral action. He placed them in power, 166 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:56.440 the way you place an object on a shelf. He decided. 167 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:01.759 Some scholars believe this was Samuel's first mistake, not because 168 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:05.519 the men he chose were unqualified, though they clearly were, 169 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:09.360 but because the act of appointing them at all was 170 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:13.240 an overreach. Samuel, the man who had spent his entire 171 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:17.080 life listening to God's voice, made this particular decision on 172 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:22.639 his own, and he sent them to Beersheba Bersheba. That 173 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:25.440 name should mean something to you if you know the 174 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:30.799 patriarchal narratives. This was where Abraham planted a tamarisk tree 175 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:34.320 and called on the name of the Lord. Where Isaac 176 00:12:34.360 --> 00:12:37.840 built an altar after God appeared to him and renewed 177 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:42.080 the covenant. Where Jacob stopped to offer sacrifices on his 178 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:46.840 way to Egypt. Beersheba was sacred ground, soaked in the 179 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:51.039 memory of God's faithfulness, but by Samuel's time, it was 180 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:55.399 also something else. It was the southernmost settlement in Israel. 181 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.840 When the Bible describes the full extent of the nation, 182 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:03.639 it says from Dan to Beersheba, meaning from the northern 183 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:08.759 border to the southern edge. Beersheba was the frontier, the boundary, 184 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:12.919 the last outpost before the wilderness of the Negev, and 185 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:16.840 it was fifty miles south of Ramah, where Samuel lived. 186 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:21.399 Fifty miles. In the ancient world, that was not a 187 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:25.080 short drive down the highway. That was days of travel 188 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:28.519 on foot or donkey. There was no e mail, no 189 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:32.200 phone calls, no way for Samuel to keep daily tabs 190 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:35.600 on what his sons were doing. Think about the geography 191 00:13:35.639 --> 00:13:39.080 for a moment. Samuel judged from a circuit in the 192 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:42.879 central hill country. He stationed his sons at the extreme 193 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:46.679 southern edge of the nation. Whether he did it intentionally 194 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:51.399 to give them independence, or whether he simply needed judges 195 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:56.000 in the south. The practical effect was the same. Joel 196 00:13:56.159 --> 00:14:01.080 and Abija operated with almost zero oversight, and that distance, 197 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:06.159 that physical separation, became a metaphor for something much deeper, 198 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:10.559 because it is in the absence of accountability that corruption 199 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:16.679 finds its oxygen. Now maybe you are thinking, well, Samuel 200 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:21.159 trusted his sons, He raised them well, He expected them 201 00:14:21.159 --> 00:14:24.919 to do the right thing without someone watching over their shoulders, 202 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:31.080 And that is exactly the point, because the text is 203 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:36.039 about to tell us just how badly that trust was betrayed. 204 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:41.840 First Samuel, chapter eight, verse three. In the original Hebrew, 205 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:48.840 it reads vlohlchu vanav bidrachav vaitu acha rei habatsa vaik 206 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:54.480 chu shochad vayatu mishpat. Most English translations render this something 207 00:14:54.679 --> 00:14:58.600 like his sons did not walk in his ways. They 208 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:04.679 turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. 209 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:09.039 That is accurate, but it is also flat. The Hebrew 210 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:12.879 text is doing something much more devastating than those English 211 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:17.960 words convey. Let's break it apart phrase by phrase, because 212 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:23.240 every word in this sentence is chosen with surgical precision. 213 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:29.559 Vilo halchu vanav bidrachav. His sons did not walk in 214 00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:34.480 his ways. The word hulchu comes from halak, which means 215 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:38.799 to walk, to go, to conduct one's life. It is 216 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:41.720 one of the most important verbs in the Hebrew Bible. 217 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:46.240 When God tells Abraham walk before me and be blameless 218 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:51.120 in Genesis seventeen, that is halak. When the psalms say, 219 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:53.639 blessed is the one who does not walk in the 220 00:15:53.679 --> 00:15:57.919 council of the wicked, that is halak. The entire concept 221 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.279 of Jewish law is called halai, literally the way of walking. 222 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:07.840 Samuel walked, his sons did not. The text is telling 223 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:11.200 you this is not just about behavior. It is about 224 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:16.279 a fundamentally different orientation of life. Samuel moved through the 225 00:16:16.360 --> 00:16:20.600 world in alignment with God. His sons moved in a 226 00:16:20.679 --> 00:16:25.960 completely different direction. And then comes the key phrase vaitu 227 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:32.919 achaai habatza they turned aside after habatza. Now, most English 228 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:38.200 Bibles translate betsa as dishonest gain, and while that is 229 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:42.600 technically within the semantic range, it misses the violence embedded 230 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:46.720 in the Hebrew word. Betsa comes from the root butsa, 231 00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:50.159 which means to cut off, to break off by violence, 232 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:54.759 to plunder. The noun form betsa does not just mean 233 00:16:54.879 --> 00:17:01.159 dirty money. It means gain acquired through violence, exploitation, or coercion. 234 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:04.599 It is the word used for plunder taken in war. 235 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:08.200 It is the word Judah used when he suggested selling 236 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:12.400 Joseph instead of killing him. What betsa is it to 237 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:16.160 us if we kill our brother. When the text says 238 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:20.119 Joel and Abija turned aside after Betsa, it is saying 239 00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:24.160 they pursued gain the way a soldier pursues plunder. This 240 00:17:24.440 --> 00:17:27.880 was not passive corruption, It was not skimming a little 241 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:33.000 off the top. The Hebrew implies an aggressive, violent extraction 242 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:36.200 of wealth from the people they were supposed to protect, 243 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:43.680 and then via chu sho chad, they took sho chad. 244 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:49.039 Shochad means a bribe, but in the Torah this word 245 00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:53.960 carries the weight of divine prohibition. Exodus twenty three, verse 246 00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:58.160 eight says, do not accept a shochad for a shochad 247 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:02.640 blinds the clear sighted and corrupts the words of the righteous. 248 00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:08.240 Deuteronomy sixteen, verse nineteen repeats it almost word for word. 249 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:12.799 The Talmud later says that any judge who takes shochad 250 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:18.119 brings divine anger upon the entire world. The rabbinic tradition 251 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:22.720 held that a bribe taking judge was so corrupted that 252 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:24.640 it was as if he had become one of the 253 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:29.160 litigants himself. He could no longer see clearly the bribe 254 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:34.039 had fused with his judgment. Joel and Abeja were not 255 00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:37.079 just taking money on the side. They were doing the 256 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:40.279 one thing that God's Law said would blind them to 257 00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:45.200 truth itself. They were making themselves incapable of justice while 258 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:50.119 sitting in the seat of judgment. And finally, viatu mishpat. 259 00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:57.559 They bent justice. The verb nuta means to bend, to stretch, 260 00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:01.839 to incline, to turn aside, and mishpat is one of 261 00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:05.319 the most important words in the entire Hebrew Bible. It 262 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:10.519 appears over four hundred times. It means justice, judgment, the 263 00:19:10.599 --> 00:19:13.440 right order of things, the way things are supposed to be. 264 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:18.319 When the prophets cry out for justice and righteousness, mishpat 265 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:23.240 is what they are demanding. Joel and Obeja took mishpat, 266 00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:27.759 the sacred obligation of making things right between human beings, 267 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:31.720 and they bent it. They warped it. They took the 268 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:35.359 straight line of God's justice and curved it to serve 269 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:38.759 whoever paid the highest price. So when you put the 270 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:42.440 whole verse together in its full Hebrew weight, you get 271 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:47.160 something far more devastating than they were dishonest. You get 272 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:51.480 they did not walk as their father walked. They aggressively 273 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:56.000 pursued violent gain. They accepted the one thing God's Law 274 00:19:56.079 --> 00:20:00.039 said would make them spiritually blind, and they took the 275 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:03.960 sacred order of justice and bent it until it broke. 276 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:08.960 That is what was happening in Beersheba. Think about what 277 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:12.119 that meant for the ordinary people of the southern territories. 278 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:15.440 If you had a land dispute and your neighbor was 279 00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:19.960 wealthier than you, you lost. If someone stole your livestock 280 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:22.960 and could afford to pay off the judge, you had 281 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:27.039 no recourse. If a widow was cheated out of her inheritance, 282 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:31.480 she had no advocate. The very system designed to protect 283 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:35.359 the vulnerable was now weaponized against them. And the men 284 00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:39.160 doing this were the sons of Samuel, the sons of 285 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:42.440 the most trusted man in Israel. They were trading on 286 00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:46.720 their father's name while violating everything that name stood for. 287 00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:50.640 I want you to sit with something uncomfortable for a moment. 288 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:53.960 Have you ever been in a position where you were 289 00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:58.640 trusted because of someone else's reputation, where doors opened for 290 00:20:58.759 --> 00:21:02.759 you because of a you carried, or a relationship you had, 291 00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:06.799 or an institution you belonged to. And have you ever 292 00:21:06.839 --> 00:21:09.599 been tempted to use that trust for your own benefit 293 00:21:10.119 --> 00:21:14.759 knowing that nobody was really watching, Because that is exactly 294 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:19.279 what Joel and Abeja did. They inherited credibility they had 295 00:21:19.319 --> 00:21:23.200 not earned, and they spent it on themselves. And if 296 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:26.119 you are on the other side of that equation, if 297 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:29.720 you are the person who trusted someone because of their pedigree, 298 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:35.000 because of their family name, because of the institution they represented, 299 00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:41.519 this story is a warning. Credentials are not character. A 300 00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:47.319 name is not a guarantee. Now let's talk about those names, 301 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:51.119 because this is one of those details that, once you see, 302 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:55.119 it makes this whole story cut about ten times deeper. 303 00:21:56.160 --> 00:22:00.400 Joel in Hebrew Yoel it is a combination of two 304 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:04.640 divine names. Yo is an abbreviated form of the tetragrammaton 305 00:22:05.160 --> 00:22:08.519 y h w H the sacred name of God, and 306 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:12.880 l is the word for God from Elohem put them together, 307 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:17.240 and Joel means Yahweh is God. It is essentially the 308 00:22:17.319 --> 00:22:22.640 name Elijah reversed Elijah means my God is Yahweh. Joel 309 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:28.519 means Yahweh is God. Same declaration, different word order. Abija 310 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:34.279 In Hebrew avia Avi means my father jah is again 311 00:22:34.440 --> 00:22:38.559 an abbreviated form of hy h w h. So Abija 312 00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:42.559 means my father is Yahweh or Yahweh is my father. 313 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:47.319 Samuel named his first born Yahweh is God and his 314 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:51.920 second my father is Yahweh. These were not casual names. 315 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:56.400 In ancient Israelite culture, Naming a child was a prophetic act. 316 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:01.680 It was a declaration of identity and destiny. Samuel was 317 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:06.240 writing theology on his son's birth certificates. He was embedding 318 00:23:06.359 --> 00:23:10.720 his faith into their very identities, and both of those 319 00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:16.119 names became lies. Joel Yahweh is God, lived as though 320 00:23:16.200 --> 00:23:19.799 Yahweh did not exist, as though there was no divine 321 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:23.319 standard of justice, as though the God whose name he 322 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:30.079 carried would never hold him accountable. Abija, my father is Yahweh, 323 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:34.240 acted as though his only father was prophet, as though 324 00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:38.640 the divine fatherhood encoded in his name meant nothing compared 325 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:42.839 to the silver he could extract from desperate litigants. There 326 00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:46.119 is a Hebrew concept for this that does not translate 327 00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:50.440 cleanly into English. It is the idea of chilul Hashem, 328 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:55.000 the desecration of God's name. It is considered one of 329 00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:59.400 the gravest sins in Judaism. When someone who represents God 330 00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:02.839 bees in a way that makes God look bad, that 331 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:07.119 makes people associate the name of God with injustice and corruption. 332 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:11.799 That is chilul Hashem, and it is exactly what Joel 333 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:15.519 and Abija were doing. Their corruption was not just a 334 00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:20.279 legal problem, it was a theological crisis. They were teaching 335 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:24.240 the people of southern Israel through their daily actions that 336 00:24:24.359 --> 00:24:27.960 the God of Samuel was either powerless to stop corruption 337 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:33.759 or indifferent to it. Every crooked verdict they handed down 338 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:37.359 was a sermon about who God is, and the sermon 339 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:43.119 said God doesn't care about justice. God's representatives can be bought. 340 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:47.599 The system God established doesn't work. That is why this 341 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:51.319 was not just a family scandal. It was a national 342 00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:55.640 catastrophe waiting to happen. If you are watching this and 343 00:24:55.720 --> 00:24:59.759 you carry any kind of spiritual responsibility, whether you are 344 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:03.720 a pastor, a small group leader, a parent who is 345 00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:07.119 trying to raise kids in the faith, or even just 346 00:25:07.319 --> 00:25:11.279 someone who calls yourself a follower of God, this is 347 00:25:11.319 --> 00:25:15.559 the weight you carry. People are watching, and when your 348 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:19.440 life contradicts the name you carry, the damage goes far 349 00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:24.640 beyond your personal reputation. It teaches people something about God 350 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:29.359 that is not true. Now, there is a question hiding 351 00:25:29.400 --> 00:25:33.160 in this text that nobody seems to ask, and I 352 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:35.880 think it might be the most important question of all. 353 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:42.079 Why did Samuel not stop them? The text does not 354 00:25:42.279 --> 00:25:46.279 say Samuel was unaware of his son's corruption. It does 355 00:25:46.359 --> 00:25:49.640 not say he confronted them and they refuse to listen. 356 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:52.640 It does not say he tried to remove them and 357 00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:56.440 the elders blocked him. It just says he appointed them, 358 00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:59.799 they were corrupt, and then the elders showed up at 359 00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:03.960 his complaining about it. What was happening in that gap? 360 00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:08.119 What was Samuel doing while his sons were dismantling justice 361 00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:14.920 in Beersheba. One possibility is distance Samuel was old, Basheba 362 00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:18.480 was fifty miles away. He may have genuinely not known 363 00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:22.039 the extent of what was happening. In the ancient world, 364 00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:27.400 information traveled slowly. Abuses in a remote southern outpost could 365 00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:32.279 continue for months or years before word reached the central authorities. 366 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:36.640 But there is a more uncomfortable possibility, and it is 367 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:40.680 the one that haunts this narrative. Samuel may have known 368 00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:46.240 and done nothing just like Eli. Remember, Samuel grew up 369 00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:51.039 watching Eli fail to discipline Hofni and feinihas he watched 370 00:26:51.079 --> 00:26:54.559 that failure result in the deaths of Eli's sons, the 371 00:26:54.599 --> 00:26:57.640 capture of the Ark of the Covenant, and the collapse 372 00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:01.039 of the priesthood at Shiloh. He had a front row 373 00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:05.880 seat to the most catastrophic example of failed parental leadership 374 00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:10.519 in Israelite history, and some scholars believe he repeated the 375 00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:14.640 pattern exactly. This is one of the most painful themes 376 00:27:14.680 --> 00:27:19.400 in the Hebrew Bible, the cycle of generational failure. Good 377 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.640 men who see exactly what goes wrong in the generation 378 00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:27.680 above them, who understand the consequences, who are perfectly positioned 379 00:27:27.720 --> 00:27:31.000 to learn from the mistakes of their mentors, and who 380 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:35.279 then make those same mistakes with their own children. It 381 00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:39.680 is not stupidity. It is something worse. It is the 382 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:42.559 blind spot that forms when you are so focused on 383 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:47.839 your public calling that you neglect your private responsibilities. Samuel 384 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:54.440 spent decades traveling a circuit judging Israel, offering sacrifices anointing kings. 385 00:27:55.240 --> 00:27:59.200 He poured his life into the nation, and maybe, just 386 00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:02.559 maybe he did not pour enough into his own house. 387 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:06.759 There is a phrase that circulates in pastoral circles that 388 00:28:06.839 --> 00:28:11.559 applies here. He saved every one else's family and lost 389 00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:16.079 his own. It is the occupational hazard of spiritual leadership. 390 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:19.039 The more you give to the public, the less you 391 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:22.720 may have left for the private. Now, I want to 392 00:28:22.759 --> 00:28:27.319 be careful here. The text does not explicitly blame Samuel 393 00:28:27.400 --> 00:28:32.400 for his son's corruption. The responsibility for their choices ultimately 394 00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:36.400 falls on Joel and Abija. They were grown men. They 395 00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:40.720 made their own decisions. The Bible is clear that children 396 00:28:40.759 --> 00:28:44.519 of godly parents can and do choose their own path. 397 00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:49.359 But the text is also uncomfortably silent about Samuel's role. 398 00:28:50.119 --> 00:28:53.279 It doesn't defend him. It doesn't say he did everything 399 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:57.079 right and his sons just went bad anyway. It just 400 00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:01.039 presents the facts. He appointed them. They were corrupt, and 401 00:29:01.119 --> 00:29:07.119