The Prophecy “Two Priesthoods”

An unnamed prophet · 1 Samuel 2:27

The man of God at Shiloh

The book of First Samuel tells us that a man of God came to Eli with a prophetic message. We are never given his name—only his word.

That matters. When heaven decides to speak, the messenger’s reputation is not the point; the message is. This unnamed prophet walked into Shiloh and delivered a word that has everything to do with what is happening in the church of our own day. It exposes the character of dead, dry, ungodly ministries operating right now—and it reveals, at the same time, the kind of ministry God is raising to replace them.

Consider what it took for this word to come. Eli was the high priest of Israel, seated in authority at Shiloh where the tabernacle rested. His sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests in full office. From the outside, everything appeared intact: the structure stood, the sacrifices continued, the names on the offices had not changed. Yet heaven saw something different, and heaven sent a man whose name history did not bother to record—because the burden he carried was greater than any title.

The prophet began where God always begins: with remembrance. “Did I not clearly reveal myself to your ancestor’s family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?” (1 Samuel 2:27, NIV). He rehearsed the calling—chosen out of all the tribes to go up to the altar, to burn incense, to wear the ephod in God’s presence, to receive the food offerings of Israel. Eli’s house had been given a sacred trust. The question the prophet presses is what they had done with it.

That question is the door into the prophecy. Behind it lies a revelation of two priesthoods that would develop and continue from that day onward, until the very end of time. Both would be ministering in the house of God. One would be a cursed, abominable shame. The other would be a ministry after God’s own heart.

The revelation

Two priesthoods, side by side

This is the part most readers miss. The prophecy does not describe a bad age being replaced by a good one, as though the church would simply pass through corruption and come out clean on the other side. It describes two ministries running at the same time—one bearing the spirit of Eli, the other bearing the heart of God.

And this prophecy is being fulfilled today, right before our eyes. Indeed, both ministries are operating simultaneously, in nations all across the world. In pulpit after pulpit, on screen after screen, the two priesthoods stand side by side. Most churchgoers cannot tell which is which—which is why the Lord gave this word in the first place. He did not send the prophet merely to pronounce an ending. He sent him so that His people would learn to discern.

The prophet speaks first of the ongoing ministry of a self-centered, backslidden, compromising priesthood. He describes priests who carry the spirit of Eli, and he names two marks by which they may be known. These are not marks of circumstance or of generation. They are marks of the heart—and they have not changed in three thousand years.

1 Samuel 2:30–31

When heaven draws the line

It was these next words that drew my attention to this entire prophecy.

This is the hinge on which the whole prophecy turns. God’s principle is not complicated, and it has not expired: honor given to Him returns as honor; contempt shown to Him returns as contempt. The word translated “disdained” carries the weight of a curse—those who despise God will themselves be counted worthless in His sight.

Then heaven pronounces the sentence:

He is describing a curse upon the priesthood of Eli. The “arm”—the strength, the reach, the influence of that house—was to be severed. A priesthood that had used its position to feed itself would lose the position altogether.

And notice what follows in chapter 3. Samuel is now called by the Lord, and this was the first time Samuel ever heard the voice of the Lord. But instead of an encouraging word, the boy is given this news: the judgment upon Eli’s house is coming. To make matters even more difficult, as soon as Samuel wakes, Eli is standing there asking what the Lord had said. The young prophet-to-be had to deliver heaven’s verdict to the very man under it. That is the sobriety of the prophetic calling—it does not flatter, and it does not spare.

The spirit of Eli · Mark 1

The first mark: soft on sin

The first mark of the compromising priesthood is this: its priests seek esteem from man rather than from God. They are man pleasers.

The prophet’s charge carries an old, sharp phrase—translated in the older rendering, “Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice.” The word behind “kick” means to despise, to treat with contempt. Eli’s house was despising what God had prescribed, and Eli was honoring his sons above the Lord.

Consider the record. Eli was soft on sin. In more than fifty years of ministry, he corrected his sons only once. And what was there to correct? His sons had been committing adultery—sexual relations with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting—the vilest acts, carried out at the very door of God’s house. Yet all Eli could say to them was, “Why do you do this?” A question, not a judgment. A murmur, not a rebuke.

Eli had full authority to remove them from the priestly office. But he was unable to restrain them, because of years of neglect—and he himself had grown too lazy to even bother. This man had no righteous indignation. He never shared God’s wrath and hatred toward sin. And he represents a priesthood of ministers who are afraid to rebuke, afraid to exercise the authority of God before His people.

Look at our generation and tell me this word has expired. There are churches you can attend for an entire year and never hear one word about sin and its effects on the body. A congregation can be thoroughly compromised—half of it divorcing, adultery accepted, young people sleeping around, children unruly, the whole gathering given over to pleasure, sports, and entertainment—and from the pulpit there is never a word of correction. Instead the pastor caters to the people’s weaknesses and cravings. He is afraid to offend anyone. He is afraid the offerings will decline and he will lose his income. And in many cases, the people with the deepest pockets use their finances to control the leadership.

This is the first characteristic of the evil ministry that developed in Eli’s soul. It is the mark of every ongoing, compromising priesthood today: a ministry that would rather be liked than be faithful.

The spirit of Eli · Mark 2

The second mark: fed at the people’s expense

The second mark is this: they cater to their own needs and comfort rather than giving themselves to the needs of the flock.

They took the best of the sacrifices—the offerings that were supposed to be burned to God as a sweet-smelling fragrance. The order of worship was clear. When the people brought the meat offering, it went into the seething pot to be boiled. Afterward the priest dipped a three-pronged hook into the pot, and whatever came up on the hook went to his table. God had provided for His priests—but provision has boundaries, and these men would not stay within them.

Eli’s sons did not want the boiled, sodden meat that the Law allowed. They wanted the red, raw steak. So they brought their father the prime cuts—the choice parts, taken before the fat was ever burned to the Lord. There was no sodden flesh on his table. That is how Eli grew fat, lazy, and careless. If he had dealt with his sons, he might have lost his steak dinner.

Eli was concerned with his own interests—his own table. And that is precisely what is happening in many dying churches today. Preachers are interested only in their own comfort, caring for themselves, taking the best of the hard sacrifices offered to God by pure, genuine people—people who believed their giving was going to the Lord—and using it to fill the bank accounts of money-hungry preachers, instead of spending time on their knees for the sake of the people.

The prophet’s indictment still burns: “You are self-absorbed, Eli—taking care of yourself and your own desires! To you the ministry means nothing more than food on the table and security for you and your family. You do not really care about the flock. You are more interested in what goes onto your table than in what goes into the people’s hearts. Yet you never once think about how your compromise and selfishness bring reproach to God’s name. You never consider the people who watch as your sons steal the prime meat. You are soft on sin and afraid to reprove, because you are consumed with the things that make you comfortable!”

That is the spirit of Eli: ministry as a means to comfort, and comfort as the reason truth is never told.

1 Samuel 2:35 · The promise

The faithful priest promised

But the prophecy does not end with the curse. It ends with a rising.

He will continue ministering throughout the generations—even up to the age of the Messiah and beyond. The Hebrew behind “my anointed one” is mahshee-ak—the Messiah. God was not merely promising a replacement for Eli. He was reaching forward across the centuries to a priesthood that would stand before the Anointed One forever.

There is another priesthood. One that does what is in God’s heart and mind—not what is popular, not what is profitable, but what is in His heart. It is the Zadok priesthood. And it is being called forth in this generation.

This is the hope the prophecy leaves us with. The house of Eli would be cut off—but God would not be left without a witness. While one priesthood feeds itself and fears men, another is being formed in the secret place: men and women who honor God, and whom God will honor; who minister before Him rather than before the crowd; who stand in righteousness and justice when everything around them has gone soft.

A closing call

Which priesthood are you in?

The prophecy of Shiloh puts a searching question before every reader of this series: which priesthood are you part of? The one that pleases men and feeds itself—or the one that does what is in God’s heart and mind?

Do not answer too quickly. Examine the table you sit at. Examine the ministry you support, the voices you follow, and the one you yourself are becoming. Where there is no rebuke, no righteous indignation, no kneeling for the people—the spirit of Eli is present, whatever the sign above the door may say. Where there is reverence for what is holy, courage to speak truth, and a life laid down for the flock—there the faithful priesthood is rising.

• Which ministry do you sit under—one that confronts sin in love, or one that avoids the subject?
• Where have comfort, position, or people’s approval become the measure of your service to God?
• What in your life is truly being offered to God—and what is being kept for your own table?
• Are you pursuing what is in God’s heart and mind, or only what keeps you secure?

Those who honor Him, He will honor. Do not relent in your pursuit—for the rising of the faithful priesthood will come forth, and it will not delay.