At the time of the birth of Samuel, Israel was in period of great apostasy. Time and time again, God raised up a judge to liberate Israel from the oppression of its enemies in Canaan. But this oppression was the result of their disobedience to God. Israel failed to drive out the pagan inhabitants of their inheritance, Canaan. They intermarried with the pagan nations, turning to the gods of the Canaanites and forsaking the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) At the end of the book of Judges in ch. 21:25 we read, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

And as a result of the spiritual decline of Israel, even good men like Hannah’s husband Elkanah was affected. In I Samuel 1:2 we read that the man Elkanah “had two wives”, participating in the pagan custom of polygamy. This shows us the danger of the apostasy and its influence. This failure was not just Elkanah’s but was common among the Hebrews, who forsook the ordinance of God for marriage established in Genesis with the joining together of Adam and Eve.

Elkanah probably married Hannah first, but because of her barrenness, married a second wife, Peninnah. No doubt Hannah would have been sorrowful at the absence of children if she had been Elkanah’s only wife. However, the failure rests at Elkanah’s feet. He allowed his circumstances, Hannah’s barrenness, to guide his decision, rather than trusting in the will of God. There is always a cost when we decide to go outside of God’s will.

The consequence of Elkanah’s sin, was a home of striving and tenstion because of the provoking of Peninnah against Hannah’s barrenness. I Samuel 1:6&8 reveal the burden of Hannah and the provoking of Peninnah left her so grieved that she would not eat.

“And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.” I Samuel 1:6

Another evidence of the falling away within Israel was the unfaithfulness of Eli the High Priest as both a spiritual leader and father. We read of three events in chapters 1 and 2 that reveal the fallen character of Eli:

First, Eli was not able to discern the burden of Hannah.

When we read of the first prayer of Hannah in ch. 1:10, the “bitterness of her soul” drove her to a posture of quiet agony before her God. It is apparent that Eli could not recognize the troubled heart of Hannah. Her type of praying was uncommon for that day. It was uncommon for Eli to witness devout and deeply moved worship in the house of God. He was not accustomed to observing someone who wrestling with a burden before the throne, was oblivious to external things.

It suggests that Eli himself was not accustomed to very close communion with God. He was not in the habit of coming into the presence of the Lord with a heart so burdened for his people that the prayer was too deep to be uttered aloud. The kind of worshiper Eli assumed Hanna to be must have been a common occurrence in the Tabernacle: “How long will thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee.”

Second, Eli did not stop his two sons in their sin.

In ch 2:12-17, the Bible tells us that Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were “sons of Belial, they knew not the LORD”, meaning they were worthless sons, and without any profit to the people they were to be serving. They both greedy and immoral, openly sinning in the Lord’s house.

“Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”

Except for a verbal warning, Eli took no public stand against the sins of his sons, nor did he have the fortitude to remove them from their position in the temple. They certainly did not respect Eli’s admonition, “Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the LORD would slay them.” It seems that Eli did not think much of them either. At the hearing of the death of his sons and the taking of the “ark of God” by the Philistines in I Samuel 4:17-18, there was no emotional response from Eli about the loss of his sons. It was hearing the loss of the ark of God that caused Eli to fall from his seat and brake his neck.

Finally, the Lord was not speaking to Eli. 

I Samuel 3 gives the detailed event when the Lord calls to the boy Samuel as he ministered in the Temple. Samuel shared the message of the Lord to the priest Eli, but the Lord never spoke directly to Eli after the visit of the “man of God” in ch. 2:27. How long had Eli been without communion with the Lord? He was a man of transition from the judges to Samuel but instead of representing a remnant heart, he represented the failures and apostasy of Israel.