Last night I dreamed that I was the owner of an apartment complex. Me and the kids lived in the middle of it and many of my friends lived in the rooms around the outside. It was a nice place with a pool and some space, like a vacation condo complex. I think this dream was for me, to show me something. The friends that were there were my closest friends growing up and I was helping them by giving them a place to live.
I don’t know what the Lord is saying here exactly but it seems like a picture of something He’s going to do through my life. He’s going to use me to help people. These are friends, family, fellow believers and friends of God. God is going to bring some provision and comfort through my life to some of His people. I’m sure most people have had dreams about apartments, hotels, condos, or something along those lines. That stuff isn’t random, God is revealing something to you.
I skipped a couple of days this weekend in Bible study, so I’m just going to back up to where we left off in Judges. Let’s see if we can find Jesus there in the last part of Judges or Ruth. The last part of Judges is hard to read, but I think those hard to read stories are put there for a specific purpose. So let’s try and find Jesus in Judges 19-21 somewhere.
This story is not one you hear a lot about in church and it’s painful so many people won’t know this story. They definitely don’t teach it on Veggie Tales. But this is a prophetic act that tells about the first and second coming of Jesus all in one story. It starts out with a Levite, which means he was from the tribe of the priests and those who handled the temple service. He is a picture of Jesus in the beginning of the story but Jesus’ role in the story switches later.
The concubine has left and the Levite has gone after her. This is a picture of Israel who would later walk away from God and break the covenant but Jesus came to them to get them in the house of their father the devil. This is something that Jesus said Himself, that the priests of His time had become children of their father the devil. So Jesus would go into that father’s house to get her back, and spent 3 days and nights in the heart of the earth, but did not stay. He got His people out of the grave when He rose from the grave.
Now the Levite took his concubine into Gibeah which means hill in the tribe of Benjamin which means son of my right hand, or son of my strength. The people there did exactly what was done in Sodom and Gomorrah. They surrounded the house, demanding that the men come out so they could rape them. The men sent out the woman and they raped and murdered her. This is what happened to believers at the hands of the priests and then the woman was cut into 12 parts and the parts were sent out. Here we start to see how Israel and the church prophesy of each other.
The church was abused and murdered and the 12 disciples were sent all over the world and Israel was abused and murdered by Rome and the 12 tribes were sent out all over the world. Now the story is going to make a shift towards the return of Jesus. The tribes gather and army for war and those who did wrong in Israel were more than unrepentant. They fought back and they won for a short time. But eventually the righteous prevail and destroy the those relying on their own strength.
There’s some more detail in there to be brought out but once you can see how it speaks of Jesus, it can all open up. Let the Spirit of prophecy, the testimony of Jesus, teach you to unlock the meanings of the scriptures. I pray that you would see and understand. I hope that you are able to read along, the verses for today were Judges 16 – 1 Samuel 2. May the Lord fill you with His Holy Spirit and my God bless all y’all.
Practice Outlaw 