2015 Understanding Given to Me
It is not my policy to seek prophetic words for 2015 or most any other time. This year, however, as I have waited on the Lord and studied, something dropped into my understanding that I know has meaning to me and I would like to share it with you.
I was reading in Judges the last three chapters ….maybe I was listening to them as I often have Bible Gateway Audio Bible on while I am painting or sewing or doing dishes. It got my attention that the Israelites continued to seek the Lord after being defeated two times by the Benjamites after they had sought to destroy the Benjamites for their despicable treatment of the virgin daughter and concubine in the city of Gibeah. It also amazed me that God was involved in the Israelites efforts to deal with the Benjamites who wanted to have sex with the men and did have sex with the concubine of the Levite and the virgin daughter of the man who welcomed the Levite into his home.
From our Western standards, one would question throwing out the concubine and the virgin daughter for the men of Gibeah to abuse and kill in order to spare their own lives from the Benjamites.
But that is another thing....obviously God doesn't see things the way we see them. For He appeared not to hold those two men who offered their women to the Benjamites in any way accountable. Nor did He seemed concerned that they let the concubine stay on the porch all night when she returned from being raped, only to be found dead in the morning.
How quickly we judge things from our Western point of view and assume it is God's view.....again....not the point of my writings.
The Israelites sought the Lord when they came together after each receiving one of the 12 parts of the concubine's body which the Levite sent out to the various tribes. The Israelites sought the Lord and wept before the Lord. They also gathered together....almost all of them another story in itself.
The two times as they sought the Lord and He told them to go out to battle with Judah leading the Israelites, they were seriously defeated losing in the 20,000s. Yet, they came back again, a third time, and sought the Lord, who once again told them to go out on the third day and that they would have the victory over the Benjamites. They also had a new plan of attack which involved an ambush. Again they lost Israelites but only a few in the process of getting the victory. And they went on and ended up burning all the towns of the Benjamites leaving only 600 warriors who had escaped to rocks at Rimmon.
Then the Israelites felt bad, because there were no women for those 600 men to marry to carry on the tribe of Benjamin.........their own relatives, their brethren...another story.
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Not to change the subject but to further share something that goes along with what dropped into my Spirit. This involves the Exodus. Many voices have said, Go read the Exodus so you know truly what the Scriptures say so know where modern day movies of Exodus violate the scriptures. So I have been rereading Exodus. And as I have done so, something so like the story of Judges 19-20 was highlighted in my understanding. In the beginning the Lord told Moses that Pharaoh wouldn't let the people go until the end. 9 times Moses and Aaron carried the message to Pharaoh of what God would do “tomorrow.” And Pharaoh's heart was hardened each time and he refused to let the Hebrews go and worship the Lord God as He had set up.
The 10th time....there was victory which of course led to the Passover and then on through the Red Sea and the three day journey to offer sacrifice before the Lord to remember the Passover.
A pattern came clear to me.............................first it was two defeats and the loss of tens of thousands of Israelite warriors before the third day victory. Each defeat they sought the Lord and pressed on in....obeying the Lord even in the face of the previous defeat. And I couldn't help but notice, there was no judgement or correction given to the Israelites, saying their defeat in someway was the result of their failures. The victory came on the THIRD DAY.
In the story of the Exodus, victory came on the tenth time, the tenth plague. And after each failure or defeat Moses sought the Lord and was obedient in the face of “failure.”
There are possibly many ramifications to the relationshp of these two scriptural scenarios, but I only want to address one aspect. That is that “after defeat, they sought the Lord.” And there was no judgement or criticism from the Lord for the defeat. The Lord never told the Israelites in Judges that they had done it wrong or they needed correction, etc. Defeat was apart of the plan of God to bring judgement upon the Benjamites. And again, we could go at length to the “why” God led the Israelites to destroy their own brethren and what relevance it has today...but that is not my focus.
My focus is, that they continued to seek the Lord as they had in the beginning as to how to deal with their relatives, the Benjamites. They continued to obey the Lord and follow His instructions until the victory was accomplished. Then they walked it in, both the initial victory and on to destroying by burning every Benjamite town. Amazingly they felt bad for their relatives who lost their ability to maintain their inheritance and figured a way to give the men at Rimmon women to carry on the lineage of the Benjamites.
And in Exodus......Moses kept going back the Lord after 9 defeats or failures, despite all the miraculous things the Lord did. And we know the story well: that the Hebrews suffered even more from the hands of the Egyptians each time that Pharaoh didn't let them go but he
put heavier burdens on them..
Two stories that carry a similar theme: seek the Lord first, and if you follow the Lord, and you don't see the victory you want, or if the matter gets worse and it looks like total defeat, continue to seek the Lord, continue to do what He says whether you see the results you want or think ought to come, and even if things get worse. This is more than "positive thinking" or "confessing the Word." This is living out His Life in you by faith.
In both stories there is a “third day.” Somewhat different in the Exodus where the Third day is where they make offerings to the Lord God that delivered them, while in Judges, the Third day was when they were told to attack the Benjamites the third time and were promised the victory.
I will not go into the details of the Third Day other than to say, some say we live in the Third Day and we can expect to appropriate all the victory of the Third Day now. And perhaps that is true. Yet in both these stories, there was a “journey” to the Third Day which not only affected the ones who were journeying but those they were dealing with. Why did so many Israelites have to die before the victory? I surely don't have the answer for that, other than they were obedient unto death. Why did the Hebrews in Egypt have to suffer more and more before the Victory and the release of the captives from Egypt and their crossing of the Red Sea? I don't know.
What I do know, is that we tend to want the victory on the third or the tenth day without going through day one to nine “defeats.” For some that means going through Chemo and seeing their body get sicker and sicker before it gets better. For some it means seeing families fall to pieces, sometimes even the loss of children before others turn to the Lord. But both stories have a similar theme....continue to seek the Lord and obey His Word...what He says to you as you seek him in intimacy and personal relationship.
It isn't enough to “obey the scripture”....the Logos, but to obey the voice of the Lord, the Rhema word that comes out of relationship with Him.
Obedience to His Word in that intimacy of relationship He offers to us, is the key. Great defeat came to various ones in the scripture when they violated what God had spoken to them. That will always be followed by "correction" and there is always a price to pay for that kind of shortcoming by which we are increasingly invited to walk in the character that is His image in us. But that is a whole different scene that we have in these two stories. Walking through defeat to victory according to the rhema Word of the Lord as you have heard him in the intimacy of your own relationship with Him.
May you be strengthened in HIm and empowered to hear Him as we begin a new year on the calendar. For apart from hearing Him and following His voice as He speaks to our own hearts, there is no Life.
Meri
Meri Ford 516 Park Rd Winlock, WA 98596 360 520 4503 Blogs http://meriford.blogspot.com/ http://www.renewedhopesite.wordpress.com/ website: http://www.renewedhopesite.com
