THE SHàQAD AND SHàQèD
What is important for this forerunner remnant is the shàqad and shàqèd.
Shàqad (Hebrew H8245, shaw-kad’) is to be vigilant, on the lookout, to carefully watch out,
wake, waking, anticipating, remain and hasten, ready and to be sleepless, alert.
“Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.”
Psalm 170:1 (New International Version Bible, 1989)
“And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.”
Jeremiah 31:28 (Jack W. Hayford, 2002)
If God is not in what have been created, everything is in vain. It could be the biggest mega church in the globe, but God sees it as empty and insignificant if it is not part of His heart and will. God promises to watch over His people with an intent to build and to plant.
Shàqèd (Hebrew H8247, shaw-kade) which means the almond tree or nut, as being the earliest in bloom. Derived from H8245 which indicate looking out for and awakening.
This blossoming of the almond tree is a “waking anointing” - and awakening that has to take place in the church. These forerunners will literally go into churches and call the church to “wake up”.
In Hebrew the Shàqèd is considered the shàqad. In other words, the almond is considered the “waker” in Hebrew thought to do whatever is seen or announced, “I am ready, awake, aloud, to establish, to waking my word”. Waking up the church that the structures is wrong, waking up that believers have left their first love, waking up that they have been asleep, and waking up His bride. The one that awake is an awakener, a walker of readiness and the almond - a sign. They are ready to wake up the church because the almond has blossomed, its time has come!
The budding of Aaron’s rod
Aaron's rod refers to any of the staves carried by Moses's brother, Aaron, in the Torah. The Bible tells how, along with Moses’s rod, Aaron's rod was endowed with miraculous power during the Plagues of Egypt that preceded the Exodus. There are two occasions where the Bible tells of the rod's power.
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ’Speak to the children of Israel, and get from them a rod from each father’s house, all their leaders according to their fathers’ houses - twelve rods. Write each man’s name on his rod. And you shall write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi. For there shall be one rod for the head of each father’s house. Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the Testimony, where I meet with you. And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom; thus I will rid Myself of the complaints of the children of Israel, which they make against you.”
So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses placed the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness. Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod. And the LORD said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.”
Numbers 17:8-10 (Jack W. Hayford, 2002)
The staff of Aaron, which was brought before the Lord, was made from almond wood. As soon as the rod was brought before the presence of the Lord it started to bud, blossom and produced fruit. It went through all those processes overnight because of being in the habitation of God’s presence. In this passage of scripture, God says that the person He choose, He will give a blossoming rod. For today’s church, the Lord is saying that He will prepare His Bride through the same rod of awakening. Just as Aaron was given a rod, which symbolized his selection and authority, so will these twelve forerunner leaders receive an almond rod that will bud, blossom and carry fruit as a sign of their selection.
Aaron’s rod was an unmistakable sign of God's interposition, such a natural impossibility the occasion of an oath among the heathen. God required that the miracles of Moses per se should be accepted both by the sympathetic Israelites and the reluctant Pharaoh (Exodus 4:1- 8). A sign of the permanent vitality of God's appointed priesthood as "an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations" (Exodus 40:15).
A type of the miraculous attestation of the unchangeable priesthood of Christ. God, who "fulfils himself in many ways," about, hereafter, to replace the priesthood of Aaron by a Priest chosen by himself, after the order of Melchizedeck. This priesthood attested by a resurrection (Acts 13:33; Hebrews 5:9, 10), of which the resurrection of this dead tree was a type. And now that the risen Christ is in the holiest place, in the presence of God, his resurrection and reign in glory are signs to all murmurers of his appointment as the one High Priest and King, who "shall send forth the rod of his strength," and reign till all enemies are placed beneath his feet (Anon, 2019).
As the final tribe live in the presence of God, their destiny will start to bud, blossom and produce abundant fruit.