Last night I dreamed that my wife and I had slept in the car. We were in front of my parents mansion and our youngest daughter was inside sleeping. We were talking about this and walking up the driveway towards the corner of the house. I picked up the water hose and we started getting ready to talk a shower under the water hose. I was noticing how busy the road was and how unusual it would be to take a shower in front of all of these people driving by. I think that God is about to shower us with His Spirit in an unusual way but many people will see it.
Earlier in the night I dreamed that I was in my father’s office in the house I grew up in. All of my kids were there with me and I was teaching them things. My father yelled in frustration as he has often done. I was thinking about how often I do that same thing and how I’ve tried so hard to change that habit with my kids. I think the Lord is giving me the ability to be loving and patient instead of frustrated with my children as part of the office he has for me.
Those dreams were both short but they were powerful. I laid awake for a couple of hours praying after each one. I prayed over my family and I feel like God is calling me to spend more one on one time mentoring my children and some other people. I’m very thankful that He has brought me to this place. I feel like this last decade has prepared me for something special.
Ok, in the Bible study we are in 1 Samuel and we are going to find Jesus. Yesterday in school I had to do an ELI which stands for Ethical Lens Inventory. It was just a little test to look at how a person approaches ethical decision making for an ethical leadership course. But I find it interesting that I got to that point just as I get to the place where we read about Eli the priest. I feel like the Lord is putting a little extra emphasis on today’s bible study, so I hope that I can see Jesus here.
Eli heard Hannah praying in the temple and didn’t recognize it. He thought she was drunk, this is the same thing that happened to the church on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts. It is the same thing that is happening in the church today as people come against the true outcry to God believing it to be false. Even when the Lord spoke audibly out of the cloud to Jesus and the disciples on the mount of transfiguration, some standing there were so far from God that they couldn’t hear his loud booming audible voice, they thought it was thunder.
But God still heard Hannah and Eli as they prayed and He granted that request. Samuel was the answer to that prayer. Samuel went to live with Eli in the temple and began to hear the voice of the Lord on his bed at night. There is something overlooked here by most Christian scholars. “And the Lord said to Samuel:” is how the dialog is described. I says the Lord said. But in the next line is says Samuel, “was afraid to tell Eli the vision”. Here is the word/vision the Lord gave Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family- from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.”
Sounds like the Lord spoke to Samuel, but it was also a vision, that explains a lot about how the word of the Lord comes to a person. But let’s look for Jesus in that word. The sins of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by ‘sacrifice or offering’. Now the name Eli means ascent, offering or lifting up. He represented the priests who lifted up the offering but did not restrain their children or disciples from sin. This was a word about Jesus in the life of Eli.
The name Samuel means name of God and God has heard, and because God heard the cry of His people, slaughtered by their leaders, He sent His name, His word, to become flesh. And just like Jesus, Samuel grew in wisdom and stature with God and man. Israel went on to lose the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines. This is a picture of the losing of the old covenant with God. But through Jeremiah He would promise a new covenant and that was prophesied here as well.
The Ark went into the temple of the false gods and laid them down. Jesus also went into Sheol and took the authority of the gods. Then the ark returned to Israel just as Jesus returned to life from Sheol. At the time the ark was lost, Eli and his family died. At the time of the crucifixion of Jesus the covenant was broken and the priests were no longer in authority. Ezekiel saw that the priests had gone after the gods and let them rule over Israel. It was so bad that they couldn’t recognize God. Even when His Word became flesh and lived among them, many were so far from God that they couldn’t recognize Him.
Do you see Jesus in there? What about Samuel? He went on to be the last judge, prophet and priest. Do you see Jesus? He started the schools of the prophets and set up kings. Do you see Jesus? He chose Saul first but his heart was wrong and he went after other gods, so he was replaced with the house of David. There’s plenty more parts of this that speak of Jesus, it all speaks of Jesus. The more we look for Him, the more we understand the scriptures and feel the Spirit of Prophecy and learn to discern the Word of the Lord.
I pray that you would hear the Lord and how He speaks to you. I pray that He would make Himself clear as you make yourself sensitive to His word and Spirit. I pray that you would receive the Holy Spirit as the seal of your inheritance and as the witness that confirms your testimony of Him. Today’s reading was 1 Samuel 3- 15, I hope you will read along. We are going through this Bible fast but I think we can just go through against when we get finished. May your heart be touched by the living God and my God bless all y’all.
Practice Outlaw 