The Day of New Beginnings

The Days of Eternity

 

Mat. 2:
1* ¶ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
 2* "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."
 3* When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
 4* Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
 5* They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:
 6* 'AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.'"
 
Micah 5:2: 
"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity."
 
The passage of Scripture quoted in Mat. 2 is from the above verse in Micah. Christ came forth historically and was born in Bethlehem. But notice Micah 5:2: "His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." Although Christ was born historically in the natural realm of time, His appearance was from the days of eternity.  He was manifested out of the eternal realm. John 13:3 states, "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God..." In other words, He came forth out of the eternal realm, and was going back to that realm. 
 
The Lord is emphasizing that we can no longer know a historical Jesus, but must now know the Lord of Glory who is manifested in Spirit. Jesus Christ is always manifested out of the eternal realm. 


 
 
This is the punch line: Back in Micah 5 it says His goings forth are from the days of eternity. The word goings is plural. It means more that one manifestation. The Emphasized Bible by Rotherham, a very literal translation of the Bible, translates the word goings as "comings." The manifestation of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem 2000 years ago in the form of one man was but one coming. Today, He is "coming" in His saints (2nd Thes. 1:10). There is a coming of the Lord in His Body. It too is being manifested out of the eternal realm. The Lord Jesus Christ always appears out of the realm of eternity. It is the realm that exists outside the realm of time. 
 
Why can't Christianity detect or perceive the true revealings of the Lord? Because it dwells in a soul realm, which is the realm of time. God is wooing us, driving us to break out of the time realm, out of the soul realm limitations that have kept us from knowing the Lord in a present manifestation. 
 
1st John 3:
1* ¶ See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
 2* Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
 3* And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
 
We cannot, we must not, relate to the above passages of Scripture as futuristic. When the Scripture says, "We know that when He appears, we will be like Him," it doesn't mean some time in the future He is going to appear and then we will be like Him, but in the meantime we hang around and wait. He is appearing now, and to those who are aware, there is an appropriation of His nature. To be like Him is to bear His nature. 
 
Notice in verse 5 it says that everyone who has this hope of His appearing purifies himself, just as He is pure. How do we purify ourselves? Through legalistic disciplines of rules and regulations? Of an agenda of do's and don'ts? No! We become pure as we break out of the soul realm and began to relate to the Lord in our spirits, which is the realm of eternity. All the refining fires of God, the work of the cross, operate in us when we endeavor to break out of the limitations of knowing the Lord in the realm of soul. Heb. 4:12 says, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
 
Let's be hungry. Let's be stirred in our spirits to behold His goings forth from the days of eternity.