The People Belong to God

But did not Jehovah know the age of His servant? And did He not care for His people? Let us remember that the people belonged to God, not to Samuel. Do we sometimes feel anxious about the future of those amongst whom we labor? Are we disposed to make provision for them according to our own thoughts? Let us learn the lesson of Samuel's blunder. Creature hands need not be stretched out to support the ark: God is quite able to take care of it Himself (2 Sam. 6:6), Remarkably, the man who spoke of getting old, lived nearly fifty years longer. He lived to see his sons run their course, and pass into obscurity: he saw Saul rise and fall: he anointed David to be king in his (Saul's) place, and he afterward sheltered him when driven from home by his would-be destroyer. It is important to emphasize these facts.
It is sorrowful to learn that Samuel's sons "walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment." 1 Sam. 8:3. One wonders that the sons of one so preeminently godly should be SP evil. With the lessons of Eli and his sons before him, Samuel surely sought that his own household should be a true testimony for God. Is it possible that his going on circuit from year to year explains the breakdown? May God have mercy upon the families of those who, in our own day, are called to travel hither and thither proclaiming the Word of God.