«　WEEK 6　DAY 2　»

　　Acts 2:23 This man, delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you, through the hand of lawless men, nailed to a cross and killed.

　　Micah 5:2 (But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, so little to be among the thousands of Judah, from you there will come forth to Me He who is to be Ruler in Israel; and His goings forth are from ancient times, from the days of eternity.)

　　God in His Divine Trinity held a council in eternity (Acts 2:23 and footnote 1)…. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit held a council, a conference, in eternity to make the determination concerning the crucial death of Christ for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy. God made an economy, but God had to make a decision regarding how to carry out His economy. For the carrying out of God’s economy, Christ had to die an all-inclusive death. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The History of God in His Union with Man, ” pp. 24-25)

　　The second of the Divine Trinity was preparing to carry out His “goings forth” from eternity into time to be born in Bethlehem as a man. Micah 5:2 tells us that Christ was going to be born in Bethlehem, and that was a part of His “goings forth.”… Before God as the second of the Divine Trinity came to be born in Bethlehem in time, He was preparing to come in eternity past. God blessed the believers in Christ with the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-6)…. Before we were created, He blessed us in two things. In eternity past God chose us to be holy, to be sanctified unto Himself with His holy nature (v. 4), … indicating that He would be one with us, that is, that His nature would become our nature. With this nature we are being sanctified, separated unto God. He is holy in nature, and we are being made the same as He is in nature (Heb. 2:11; 2 Pet. 1:4).

　　In eternity past God [also] predestinated us, marking us out, unto sonship, making us sons to Himself with His divine life (Eph. 1:5a). Thus, God blessed us in eternity past with two things—with His nature and with His divine life. God’s blessing us in eternity past with the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies was according to the good pleasure of His will (v. 5b) to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in Christ, His Beloved (v. 6).

　　In eternity past God made an economy to produce the church for His manifestation and to head up all things, including us, in Christ. He also held a council to determine that the second of the Divine Trinity should come to die for us to carry out His economy. Then in eternity past He chose us to have His nature and to have His divine life so that we could be holy as He is and be His sons as His children to express Him. This is God’s history in eternity past, and this history is our history. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The History of God in His Union with Man, ” pp. 25-26)

　　Before His incarnation God moved only with men and among men in the Old Testament…. But that was not God’s direct move to carry out His eternal economy for Christ and the church. This is why the church is not mentioned in the Old Testament. The church was a hidden mystery…. God’s economy in the New Testament is absolutely unique. In the Old Testament you cannot see God’s move for His eternal economy directly. God did a lot indirectly to prepare for the day when He could come to do the direct work…. The Old Testament was a preparation for the direct move of God in man in the New Testament. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 1, “The Move of God in Man, ” pp. 399-401)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The History of God in His Union with Man, ” ch. 1; CWWL, 1993, vol. 1, “The Move of God in Man, ” ch. 1; Life-study of Micah, msgs. 2-3