Chapter 7
Coming to the prophet Eli, he foretells what will happen to his house because of the guilt of disdain. Now the man of God came to Eli, etc. This reading does not teach figuratively, but with the clear words of prophecy, that the entire old priesthood, which is from the seed of Aaron, is to be changed to the new priesthood of Christ, which is now carried out in the Church.
[1 Samuel 2:27] -- Was I not openly revealed? etc. He does not speak here of the recent father of Eli, who could not have been in that Egyptian servitude; but of Aaron himself, to whose house He was revealed in Egypt, and whom He, having been instructed from there, preferred to all the tribes of Israel by the right of the priesthood.
[1 Samuel 2:28] -- And I gave to the house of your father all things, etc. All things from the sacrifices of the people, whatever the priests ought to receive, to the sons of Aaron your father, because I chose them into the priesthood, I provided.
[1 Samuel 2:29] -- And you honored your sons above me, etc. Not content with the portion that I granted you, you also tried to take the firstfruits which were due to me; which can be understood both of the time and of the portion of the sacrifices; because before the fat was burned, they presumed to take for themselves the best parts to be eaten from the victims, as was read above.
[1 Samuel 2:30] -- Therefore, says the Lord God of Israel: He spoke, I said, etc. The question arises by what reason what was promised to last forever could be changed; but recall that the priesthood of Aaron was the shadow of the eternal priesthood, and the promise of eternity; understand that truth pertains not to the shadow but to that shadowed. For lest you would think the shadow and figure to be everlasting, even its change had to be prophesied. Just as with the kingdom of Saul, it is to be understood, as it was said: “But now your kingdom shall not continue; the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever” (1 Samuel 13). Which will be more fittingly dealt with in its own place.
[1 Samuel 2:30] -- Now the Lord says: Far be it from me, etc. Changing times, not changing plans, the Lord seeks elected ones from the nations for Himself in a spiritual priesthood, and deprives entirely the contemptuous sons of Aaron of any order of priestly office.
[1 Samuel 2:31] -- Behold, the days are coming, and I will cut off your arm, etc. These days are present, no priest is now chosen from the stock of Aaron; but the boast of the legal priesthood has been cut off, not only in Eli alone, but in the entire succession of the Levitical lineage; so much so that not even a priest of the lesser order, who are called presbyters in Greek, that is, elders, is considered to be sought there. Whence the Septuagint interpreters have more clearly translated: And there shall not be an elder in my house for you, because indeed many from that tribe age in body, but in the house of the Lord they are not endowed with the rank of presbyters.
[1 Samuel 2:32] -- And you will see your rival in the temple, etc. Your descendants will see the people of the nations, beloved in the faith, spiritually using the Scriptures and promises of Israel from the temple.
[1 Samuel 2:33] -- Nevertheless, I will not utterly cut off every man from you, etc. A place of repentance is not entirely denied to the sons of Aaron, even though they sinned greatly and grievously in the killing of the Lord; but if any of them wish, let them come to the church repentant, partake of the altar of Christ, while the rest remain in the blindness of their perfidy and envy, by the example of whose pious dispensation, even when Eli and his sons perished, not every man was utterly taken away from the altar of the Lord. For even in the days of Saul, Abijah, the grandson of his son Phinehas, is recorded as serving in the priesthood (1 Kings 13).
[1 Samuel 2:33] -- And a great part of your house will die, etc. A great part of the house of Eli, reaching adulthood, died when, by the betrayal of Doeg the Edomite, eighty-five priests were slaughtered together in the fury of Saul (1 Samuel 22). But even today a great portion of his house, when they come to the years of understanding, lose the rewards of life by the blade of their own perfidy.
[1 Samuel 2:34] -- This will be the sign for you, etc. These words pertain to Eli and Samuel, because the death of Eli's sons and Samuel's election as priest not from the lineage of Aaron signifies the death not of men, but of the old priesthood, and the substitution of the new, in which Christ is the priest in the church forever according to the order of Melchizedek. But when the Lord says, "Who acts according to my heart and my soul;" do not think that God has a soul, since he is the creator of the soul; but this is said of God figuratively, not literally, as are hands and feet and other parts of the body. And lest it be believed that man is made in the image of God in the likeness of his flesh, other things are added which man does not have, and he might say to God: "Protect me under the shadow of your wings" (Psalm 16); so that men understand these things about that ineffable nature not to be said with proper but with metaphorical terms.
[1 Samuel 2:35] -- And I will build a faithful house for him, etc. The faithful house, which is built for the faithful priest on the rock foundation by the wise man, is the Church; which walked before Christ all the days of this present life, and never will the gates of hell prevail against its perfect progress. And it is beautifully said, "She will walk all the days;" because when the course of fleeting days has passed and the better day comes in His courts, which is better than thousands, and He grants the blessing, who gave the law, this house has nothing more to improve, walking from strength to strength; because she will see the God of gods in Zion and will praise Him blessed in His house, indeed even the house itself forever. For a faithful house cannot easily be understood as built for Samuel, whose sons are reported to have turned aside to greed and not walked in his ways, unless perhaps his house is to be considered the people he was leading, about which it is written: "And all the house of Israel longed for the Lord" (1 Samuel 7). And to have walked before Christ the Lord, either the Lord Himself before Samuel, or Samuel himself, whether Saul or David can be understood.
[1 Samuel 2:36] -- It will happen, however, that whoever remains in your house, etc. And some daily not only from the priestly, but also from every tribe of Israel, and all at the end of the world the remnants of that nation, so that they may be reconciled to God, come to the church; and, rejecting the flesh of the sacrifices, they offer the word consummating and shortening of the life-giving confession, and the bread of spiritual sacrifice. For indeed silver signifies the word of the confession of faith, and the coin expresses the brevity of the same confession, which is contained in the Creed. And this man of God, who is shown to be a prophet by his office, said: Whoever remains in your house, which is what Isaiah said: The remnant shall be saved. (Rom. XII). And the apostle, recalling the words of Elijah: So therefore, he says, also at this time there is a remnant according to the election of grace that has been saved (Isa. XI).
[1 Samuel 2:36] -- And let him say, Let me go, I pray, to one of the priestly parts. It signifies to the very people, illustrious to Christ the priest; to whom Peter says: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood (I Pet. II). And as he adds: That I may eat a morsel of bread, he also elegantly expressed the very kind of that sacrifice, concerning which the priest himself says: The bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world (John VI). For since he had said above, giving food to the house of Aaron from the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were the sacrifices of the Jews, therefore he said here: One must ask to eat a morsel of bread, which is the sacrifice of Christians in the New Testament.