So what was the purpose of Samuel establishing his sons as Judges?
Did Samuel want to make sure one of his boys would be a national judge over Israel after he passed away?
Maybe…
I mean that does seem to be the natural aspiration a father would have for his progeny.
Keep in mind that since Samuel was a Levite, by birthright that also made his sons Levites.
So in the current strange arrangement Israel was operating under in which Samuel was serving as a combination of prophet, Levitical priest and judge, making his sons judges probably seemed like the most logical thing to do.
And although I said a combination of prophet, priest and judge, keep in mind that for the most part, Samuel primarily acted as a Judge or Shophet rather than a Levite who served at God’s sanctuary.
Plus, we shouldn’t overlook that if his two sons operated out of Be’er-Sheva it would expand their visibility in the public’s eye.
This would be the perfect preparation to make one of them Israel’s next national judge not to mention that the area probably needed their rulership because Samuel couldn’t judge every part of the land himself.
Finally, and this was a practical political consideration, understand that people groups become worried when there’s a leadership vacuum.
Why?
Because it inevitably results in tribal warfare to determine who the next top dog is gonna be.
So the people were probably comforted that Samuel had set up a visible line of succession through his sons.
Let’s also not forget that Israel had been in the land for a good 400 years by this point…
I mean this was a longer period of time than the entire history of United States up to now.
You know what that meant?
Israel was aching for “nation status”!
They wanted to be like the other gentile nations in the world.
And that meant only one thing: they wanted a king.
We’ll continue with this discussion the next time we meet.
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