This passage of Scripture is one of promise and comfort to the people of God. God shares through Micah, one of His prophets, some exciting truths about The Messiah to come. The Messiah is The One Who will deliver Israel from the bondage of their oppressors. He is The One Who will establish a kingdom that will be independent from outside rulers.
God’s people are told that there will be One Who will rule in Israel for The Lord. He will come from the tribe of Judah and from the town of Bethlehem. He will shepherd The Lord’s flock by The Lord’s strength. He will also be great and powerful in the land to the degree that the whole earth will know of Him. This Ruler will also be their peace and He is eternal. Today we will be looking in the second verse at His eternal characteristic.
All the characteristics that are listed of The Messiah could be assigned to any man that could be born in the future except for one of those characteristics, His eternalness. We read it in the second verse, “His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” (NASB) This characteristic of The Messiah is a profound statement to the reader. The statement God is making through Micah, is that this is not just any man, but The Messiah to come will be God, Himself. Let us look at the language used in this verse.
Let us start with “His goings forth”. This is designating His place of origin. In the rest of the verse, we will come to understand from the place in which He is coming. The section “are from long ago” gives the idea of being of the past also with the idea of being from the beginning. We could say the beginning of time. The phrase “from the days of eternity” clarifies to the reader that Micah wants them to understand that The Messiah existed before time and that He is eternal. This proclamation of The Messiah to come was extra-ordinary but true. There is only One Who is eternally existent and that is God, Himself. It is this characteristic that disqualifies any human being from being The Messiah to come because all men are created. It could only be God, Himself, coming personally to be The Messiah in the likeness of a man.
What an awesome understanding. The God of the universe, Who created everything, would come to earth in the form of a human to be The Messiah. God is intimately involved with His creation and desires all to know Him. Later in the scriptures it is shown that Jesus is The Messiah. Also, we read that He would die for man’s sin and rise again to be The Savior of the world for those who believe in Him.
We serve and love a wonderful and awesome God Who loves us so deeply. May we grow deeper in knowing His love for us today and forevermore.
love
Daniel
Posted on November 24th, 2006 by Daniel
Filed under: Truth To Live By