Any insight into these passages?

[Joey Porter]

Have you ever read a verse that you just know has a deeper spiritual meaning but you can't figure out exactly what it means?  I have been thinking of a few.  If anyone has any insight, please share.

Genesis 37
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robeâ€"the richly ornamented robe he was wearing- 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

The underlined statement is there for a reason, but what is the spiritual meaning behind it?  I want to know.

Also, in the gospels, what is the signifigance of Jesus crossing over the lake and going back again?  All four gospels mention Him crossing the lake so I know it's in there for a reason and I wanna know what it is.

More interesting things:

In Luke 6, before Jesus gives His "blessings and woes" speech, we read:

17He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.

But notice in Matthew chapter 5, before another particular set of blessings and woes:

1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:

These are obviously two different events and there is definitely some deep spiritual nugget in the fact that the scriptures specifically tell us that in one instance Jesus sits on a mountainside, and in the other instance he is standing on level ground.  On both occasions, it is stated that He was speaking directly to His disciples. What is the meaning.

One more for now -

Judges 17 - Micah's idols.  This little story almost seems out of place and kind of senseless if we just read the words.  But what's the story behind the story?  I know there is something there that relates directly to our own Christian walk.

The only think I can take out of it is that Micah was worshipping idols and yet didn't realize he was sinning, because he thought the Levite priest was a blessing from God.  Perhaps in line with the "counterfeit miracles" God may use to deceive people who do not have the truth???

Any help on any of these issues would be very exciting.

[Joey Porter]

Oh and one more - if anyone has any deep insight into Samson's riddle and the lion and the honey, etc. that would be great too.

[bobf]

Genesis 37
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robeâ€"the richly ornamented robe he was wearing- 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

The underlined statement is there for a reason, but what is the spiritual meaning behind it?  I want to know.

Joseph is a symbol for God's chosen, sent ahead to save the rest of mankind.  But first God's chosen have to be judged.  So God puts us into a pit with no water.  He drys up all our pools, makes us cast off our idols,  makes us thrist for the Living Water.  Then (if we remain faithful) God repays each woe with two mercies.

Zechariah 9:11 Because of the covenant I made with you, sealed with blood, I will free your prisoners from

death in a waterless dungeon.  12 Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners, for there is yet hope! I promise this very day that I will repay you two mercies for each of your woes![/list:u][/color][/b]
David thristed for God from a land where no water was.

Psalms 63:1 [[A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.]] O God, thou [art] my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee

in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.[/list:u][/color][/b]
In judgment, God first drys up our own pools of water and makes waste of our high places.  Then He leads us out of darkness.

Isaiah 42:14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, [and] refrained myself: [now] will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. 15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and

I will dry up the pools. 16 And I will bring the blind by a way [that] they knew not; I will lead them in paths [that] they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. 17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye [are] our gods.[/list:u][/color][/b]
God dries up proud green trees, but then gives new life to the dry tree.

Ezekiel 17:24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.[/list:u][/color][/b]
Jesus grows up like a tender plant in the PARCHED ground.

Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.[/list:u][/color][/b]

[Joey Porter]

Thanks, bobf.  Good scriptural insight there.  It looks like Joseph was in the waterless cistern as part of the "much tribulation" that we must go through before we enter the kingdom.  Even Christ was brought to the point of "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

[bobf]

Thanks, bobf.  Good scriptural insight there.  It looks like Joseph was in the waterless cistern as part of the "much tribulation" that we must go through before we enter the kingdom.  Even Christ was brought to the point of "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Yes that's how I see it too.  Christ showed us the way that we must follow.