Advent 4: Micah 5:2-4
Prayer: Father, I ask that You would teach us this morning through this text how it is that Christ is to be our food. I pray that there would be no question, no confusion, and no doubt, and that Your Spirit would open our mouths and fill them with Your goodness. Through Jesus Christ, Amen.
Introduction
When the wise men from the east asked where the King of the Jews was to be born, Herod gathered all the priests and scribes and ask them where the Messiah was supposed to be born. They cited Micah’s prophecy that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.
It’s remarkable that the Jews knew this prophesy, knew that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and still many refused (and still refuse) to believe in Him.
The Text: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth” (Mic. 5:2-4).
Summary of the Text
Micah prophesied during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (Mic. 1:1), when the Assyrian empire was the growing threat to Israel and Judah – so he was a contemporary of Isaiah. He prophesied not only the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel but also the southern kingdom of Judah (Mic. 3). But he also prophesied that in the latter days the mountain of the house of the Lord would be established above all the hills and the nations would flow into the house of the Lord and swords will be beaten into plowshares (Mic. 4:1-4). It’s in this context that Micah foretells that a great ruler will come out of the little town of Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2). After a great exile and the return of a remnant (Mic. 5:3), this ruler will stand and shepherd in the strength of the Lord, and He will be great to the ends of the earth (Mic. 5:4).
A Brief History of Bethlehem
The first mention of Bethlehem in the Bible is the location where Jacob’s wife Rachel died after giving birth to Benjamin and where she was buried (Gen. 35:19-20). Elimelech and Naomi were also from Bethlehem and left during a famine, and Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem when they heard that there was food there. This is somewhat ironic since the name “Bethlehem” means “house of bread.” Ruth was David’s great-grandmother, and King David was born in Bethlehem, the original city of David (before Zion) (1 Sam. 20:6). This is why Joseph and Mary went there for the census, since Joseph was of the house and lineage of David (Lk. 2:4, cf. 2:11). So Bethlehem was a small town just a few miles south of Jerusalem that had great historic significance to the people of God, stretching back to Jacob and Rachel and King David.
The Good Shepherd
Micah says that this ruler from Bethlehem will stand and “feed” in the strength of the Lord (Mic. 5:4). The word there translated “feed” is literally “shepherd,” and that is why it is also sometimes translated “rule.” For a good king to “shepherd” the people of God is to “rule” them well. In Ezekiel 34, the prophet condemned the “shepherds of Israel” because instead of feeding the flock, they fed themselves and often fed on the flock, they ruled with cruelty and the sheep were scatted (Ez. 34:1-10). So God says that He will come and search out His own sheep: He will find His lost sheep and bring them home and feed them in good pastures and bind up the broken (Ez. 34:11-16). And Ezekiel says, “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd” (Ez. 34:23).
Of course all of the Davidic connotations with Bethlehem would resonate with the Jewish scribes, but the Jewish mind would not have missed the fact that the promise of this Good Shepherd/King who will “feed” his people was to be born in Bethlehem, the “house of bread.” But God sometimes likes to lay the elements of the story on thick, just to make sure we don’t miss it. And so Mary brought forth her firstborn son, “and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk. 2:7). God made sure she laid Him in a food trough, so that we would know that He is our food. He is the Good Shepherd born to rescue and feed His flock, and He did it by giving His life for the world: “I am the bread of life… if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever” (Jn. 6:48-51). Jesus is our house of bread, our Bethlehem, our Good Shepherd-King. So how do you eat of His flesh and blood? You believe in Him with all your heart. And to believe in Him is to rest in Him and to follow Him (Jn. 4:34).
Conclusion
The first Christians did not miss the fact that Micah had prophesied a King from Bethlehem “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:2). His origin is literally from the “days of eternity.” The early Christians saw this as a clear prophecy that Jesus is not only fully man, born of Mary, but also fully God, eternally begotten of the Father. He is the Good Shepherd and He shepherds in the strength of the Lord precisely because He and the Father are one (Jn. 10:30). He does what only God can do.
What the Jews called blasphemous (and still deny today), we call glory. It is blasphemous for any man to seek to ascend to Godhead, but for the infinite God to come down is all grace. There is something in the carnal mind that has always hated the thought of God coming down (foolishness to Greeks, a stumbling block to Jews), and while there may be faux pious excuses, the fundamental reason is that it makes salvation entirely gracious. We cannot lift even a little finger to do anything for our salvation; but God has come down. And He came down to become our food. Will you take and eat?
Prayer: Father, give us true faith that leans wholly on Christ so that we may obey Him in all things without fear. And I pray that our Christmas celebrations would be marked by this feasting, so that all of the other feasting would be true and blessed. And we ask for this in Jesus name, who taught us to pray…
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