DEVOTION: Thank God for the Eighth Day! ~ by Ray Hawkins

God is a numbers person. He has arranged for us in His word some very specific numbers to stress eternal principles or doctrinal messages. You will be aware of such numbers as one, two, three, seven, ten and twelve and don’t forget forty. There is one number I find biblically significant from a personal point of view. It is most apparent in the King James translation more so than some others. That number, is eight.

Leviticus 17:12 spells out the day on which a male baby was to be circumcised. It was the eighth day. That marked the entrance into the covenant of God with the Nation. Jesus was eight days old when He was circumcised. Luke 2:21).

When the Aaronic Priesthood was established they had to remain within the tent of meeting seven days after their ordination. In Leviticus 9:1 they emerge to serve the Nation on the eighth day.

When a man or woman with a skin disease was cured seven days were required for confirmation. On the eight day he or she was welcomed back into the community via a prescribed sacrifice.

Remember the Apostle Thomas’ eighth day experience? He wasn’t in the upper room that first Sunday of the Resurrection morning. It was the following Sunday, eight days later that the Lord met Thomas, with the other disciples, in the upper room (John 20.). How thankful we should be to Thomas for being absent that first Sunday. His testimony about Jesus is succinct and awesome, “My Lord and My God”!

There are other references but that should suffice.

How then does the number apply to us? You will have picked up the concept. The eighth day points to a new beginning! Sunday is the first day of the week, Saturday the seventh which completes the cycle, the eighth day speaks of a new start.

I like to think that we live continually in the eighth day. 2 Corinthians 5:17: ‘If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation, everything old has passed away, see, everything has become new’. (NSRV). When you and I gave our lives to Christ Jesus we entered a new realm with a new relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have a new song and a new destiny. Our worship is in spirit and truth and we live not by the letter but by the Spirit, and when we fail we have the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ ever fresh in our eighth day ‘world’.

A new year by the World’s reckoning is about to begin. Unfortunately it will be filled with the moral and spiritual junk of past years--and probably worse. However we who are in the ‘eighth day’ experience are to enter the coming year with a sense of mission. That is to live out the wonder of our ‘day’ and pray, share through word, writing and witnessing to encourage others to have their own personal eighth day encounter with Jesus.

Ray (enjoying-the-day) Hawkins.

Ray Hawkins is retired after 30 years as a minister.
He is author of five books of Biblical meditations which you can see on his blog site. His newly released, Bethlehem's Warrior Baby is about to hit the shelves.

Do visit his new blog and say hello!