The Day of New Beginnings

The Third Day

 

If you have a good concordance or Bible software you can run a reference on the phrase, third day. It is used repeatedly through the Scriptures. It has mystical connotations and holds special significance to us. The reference we are all most familiar with is that Jesus was raised on the third day, thus the third day is synonymous with resurrection. In E.W. Bullinger’s book, Number in Scripture, he states, “Three stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete and entire. All things that are specially complete are stamped with this number three.” Let’s look now at a couple of passages that further this revelation that the number three is connected with fulfillment or completion. 
 
Luke 13:
31 ¶  Just at that time some Pharisees approached, saying to Him, "Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You."
32  And He said to them, "Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’
33  "Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.
 
Hos. 6:
1 ¶  "Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
2  "He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him.
3  "So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth."
 
Jesus made reference to “today and tomorrow” when He said that on the third day He reaches His goal. Hosea prophesied that the Lord tears us but heals us. The Lord wounds us but bandages us. He revives us after two days and raises us up on the third day. Have you ever felt in need of reviving? Have you ever felt you were languishing? If so, take heart, because everything points to the third day. It’s that third day relationship with the Lord that we live for. It’s the realm where He reveals Himself to us and makes all things new. We must have this hope within us. Heb. 12:1-2 states:
 
1 ¶  Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
 
For the joy set before Him Jesus endured the cross despising the shame. In other words, He endured the first and second day looking with joy to the third day of completion. 
 
As we experience the cycle of death, burial and resurrection we will find many things of our nature being exposed. We will grieve and despair over the terrible things we discover about ourselves. We will repent out of desperation for change. But it’s in that third day experience with the Lord that our repentance bears fruit. When we see Him afresh He will be something more to us than what we had previously. Our lives will change in accordance with the fresh revelation of the Lord to our hearts. We must always anticipate the goodness of the Lord being revealed to us. John Robert Stevens once said, “I’ve lived a long time in the Word, and the longer I’m in it the more convinced I am that the best way God ever gets to a man is to be so wonderful to him. Then he falls on his face before God like Saul of Tarsus, realizing what a wretched man he is.” 
 
We don’t need to be preached at and told what miserable sinners we are. What we need is to see the Lord in His goodness. This was Job’s experience. We have 41 chapters in the book of Job with God dealing with Job, preparing him to receive a greater revelation of the Lord. Job was perplexed and couldn’t figure things out. In his own thinking he had walked circumspectly before the Lord, and even God testified in the first chapter that Job was upright and blameless, fearing God and turning away from evil. But the Lord had something more for Job. So God began to deal with him. For those first 41 chapters Job justified himself. He couldn’t see his own need. But in chapter 42, when God finally meets Job afresh, Job proclaims:
 
¶  Then Job answered the LORD and said,
2  "I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
3  ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ "Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know."
4  ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’
5  "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You;
6  Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes."
 
When the Lord was revealed to Job, he finally saw his own need. It was the light of the Lord’s goodness that exposed Job’s lack. Job said, “I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.” Job spoke of things to wonderful for him which he did not know. He wasn’t talking about wonderful facts or truths, he was talking about the Lord Himself. The Lord may tear us and wound us for a season, but it’s in the third day, the day of completion, that all things make sense and work for us.