There are a kind of irony to today’s piece. I started writing it yesterday, before finding out of the passing away of our close neighbour. As I sit here typing I wonder, how I can write about new beginnings, while feeling the loss of someone we got to know for the last eight years of our lives.
But God is a God of new beginnings, therefore He send His Son, Jesus Christ to make sure that we all could share in this new beginning.
Weeks ago, I read this piece in Micah, and it spoke to me. Not so much the whole piece, but the verse “when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men” (Micah 5:5, KJV).
However we can’t jump to that verse, while ignoring the rest of this interesting, eye opening piece. For today’s writing, I will be discussing my views on Micah 5 (King James Version).
I just love reading through the books of the prophets, seeing the prophecies of my Lord Jesus Christ. We see in the first verse how the Romans will be treating Jesus, before His crusifixion. And in the second verse we read about the birth of our Christ, being from the line of Juda, and being born in the town of Bethlehem.
Verse three and four speaks of the return of the Jews to the land of Israel and that Jesus will “stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they [the Israelites] shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth” (verse 4).
But even in this time of joy, trouble will rise up against the people of God. But it is herein that lies the promise of God. For weeks now I pondered on verse 5. I asked God why seven shepherds? and why eight principal men? I do realize that with God everything has its purpose.
Now, the seven shepherds will be seven church leaders. For Jesus, himself said : “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches” (Revelation 1:20, KJV). So, in this end time seven churches will rise up spreading the truth about the gospel. Please note that I underlined the word we, to make sure you to see the significance thereof. These leaders will come from amongst us, standing for God and His people.
It was the eight principal men that had me scratching my head. Principle men are those who know and live strictly by the law. However, these men are different than the men Jesus spoke about in Matthew 15:9 (KJV), “but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” The secret lies in the number eight. The website Bible Study, states that “the number 8 in the Bible represents a new beginning, meaning a new order or creation, and man’s true ‘born again’ event when he is resurrected from the dead into eternal life.”
So, when you look around you seeing the world around you falling apart, you can know that in everything God has a plan. He is already there. Paul tells is in Romans 8:28 (KJV), “...we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.“
God is for us and not against us. The rest of the piece in Micah tells us for the harsh punishment that God has in store for the people who come against His people. However, the focus of this writing isn’t on them, but on all of them that do believe in the birth, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are feeling discouraged today.
Focus your attention of God. Do not worry about the flesh, but rather on the spirit. God will provide for us the leaders who will help us in our new beginnings.
My prayer for us today is that we will put our trust in God and His Holy plans for us. That we will allow Him to guide us on His path that He laid before us. May He strengthen us on our walk in righteousness with Him. #GodCanDoThis
Notes:
The readings of this piece comes from the following segments of the bible:
https://bible.com/bible/1/mat.15.9.KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/mic.5.1-15.KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/rev.1.20.KJV
The biblical meaning of the number eight:
https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/8.html
Lightbearer's Quest 