Virtue Is Not Inherited
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When Israel entered Canaan the Lord had commanded them to assign cities to the Levites throughout the various tribes. Thus instruction in ways of righteousness might be given to all the people. But they seem to have paid little or no attention to the command. They did not, in fact, even drive out the Canaanites, but dwelt among them (Judges 1:21, 27, 29–33). Within a few years the Levites, who had received no specific tribal allotment, found themselves without employment. Even Jonathan, the grandson of Moses (see on Judges 18:30), visited the home of Micah the Ephraimite ‘to sojourn where’ he could ‘find a place’ (Judges 17:8), and became priest to Micah’s ‘house of gods’ (Judges 17:5). He eventually stole the images out of Micah’s house and went with the migrant Danites to be their priest (see Judges 18).
Thus at a time when ‘every man did that which was right in his own eyes,’ Israel violated God’s plan that the Levites should instruct the people in His ways, and soon lapsed into the ignorant, superstitious ways of the heathen about them.” Thus, the story of David begins with Samuel, the son of Elkanah and Hannah. He was “the last of the judges, one of the greatest of the prophets, founder of the schools of the prophets . . . , and the one who led out in the establishment of the Hebrew kingdom and in the laying down of the fundamental principles on which it was to operate (see 1 Sam. 10:25).” “Samuel chose to repudiate the evils of the day and to devote his life to the correction of these tendencies.” “The reign of judges in Israel closes with Samuel, . . . few purer or more illustrious characters are presented in the sacred record.
There are few, also, whose life-history contains lessons of greater value to the thoughtful student.” Position and possessions are lent to an individual to test his or her character. Helping and uplifting others purifies one’s nature from selfishness.
