Samuel's Sons

It is deeply sorrowful to discover failure in Samuel, especially when we remember the terrible object lesson which had come before him in Eli and his sans. But where is there not failure in poor, frail flesh? Only in Christ has God seen from first to last that which has given joy to His heart, and. blessed he His name, in Him will lie gathered up all the broken threads of human history at the finish. All that Adam, Noah, Moses, Aaron, David, etc., should have been, and were not (even though they were all types of Christ) will be realized at the end in God's Second Man and Last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Samuel, beginning to feel the weight of his years, "made his sons judges over Israel." 1 Sam. 8:1. There is no mention of any word from Jehovah, and no record of any prayer on the part of the prophet! Yet this was the man who was conspicuous in his day for his powerful intercession! But why appoint his sans? Moses did not do so. When he felt that his term of service was drawing to a close, he said. "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in: that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd." Num. 27:16, 17. This is beautiful, and it shows that a true shepherd's heart was found in Moses. But he did not venture to appoint anyone, neither did he suggest his own sons for the service. Indeed, he willingly acquiesced in Jehovah's choice of Joshua.