Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
On our journey toward Christmas 2024 we’re wrestling with ONE Christmas question each day. How about this question for this weekend: “WHY BETHLEHEM”? Have you ever wondered that?
In the first century Bethlehem was nothing more than a village, perhaps a few hundred people at most. It was about 6 miles immediately south of Jerusalem, the same place that it is today. The world had already seen magnificent cities over the previous several centuries.
The Pharaoh’s had used slave labor to construct the pyramids, the Sphinx and great cities in their Egyptian dynasties, and the Assyrians had done the same building the greatest city of its day Nineveh. For the Babylonians, it was the great city of Babylon and for the Persians the great city of Susa. For the Greeks it was Alexandria and for the Roman Empire it was, of course, Rome. If God was looking to make a grand entrance through His “incarnation” here on planet earth, certainly God had many great options over the centuries in magnificent cities of our world, but the little, quiet village of Bethlehem on the road to Jerusalem in Israel? WHY?? WHY Bethlehem of all places?
I’m sure you understand my friends that the Bible is primarily focused on one small nation, Israel and the people God calls His chosen people. (Exodus 19:5,6) God told Moses to tell the Hebrew slaves at Mount Sinai: “…out of all the nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” So, it’s reasonable that if God was going to come to live on earth among the human race for several years, Israel would be the place to which He would come, to live among His people, right? In fact, John the disciple describes it this way: “He [Jesus, God the Son] was in the world and though the world was made through Him the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” (John 1:10)
It’s amazing really! The Creator of the entire Universe, came to live for a while on this one little planet earth, which He had made. And He came to live among the human race which He had designed and created in His image, yet humanity did not recognize their Creator was here among them! In fact, I have a question for us. If this very same Jesus was born, in the very same obscure way in our time, perhaps in your town, would our modern world ignore Him in our day the same way they ignored Jesus in the first century?
So WHY Bethlehem? Well yes, perhaps the obvious reason is because pregnant Mary needed to go with her husband Joseph to Bethlehem to register for the census decreed by the Caesar, do you remember that part of the Christmas story? Luke 2:1 says: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And everyone went to their own town to register. So, Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and lineage of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there the time came for the baby to be born…” (Luke 2:1-6)
So, you might say the Christmas incarnation of God happened in Bethlehem because Joseph and Mary were caught up in a political decision and a taxation declaration! The census was for the purpose of taxing the people. The Roman government was running a deficit and needed more money to accomplish their global ambitions! Of course, the Roman Caesar, who thought himself to be the most powerful and important man in the world, had no idea God, the Creator of the Universe, was coming to our planet for a visit just at that time!
700 years before Caesar Augustus was even born, a little-known Jewish prophet was led by God to make this prediction: “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2) Through this Jewish prophet Micah, during the reign of the wicked Jewish King Ahaz and about the time the great Assyrian empire was invading and conquering the northern kingdom Israel, Micah was led by God to write this prophecy about the little village of Bethlehem.
King Ahaz, you may recall, was a wicked man and he was too busy erecting idols and even closing the Temple of God, (2 Chronicles 28:22-25) to pay any attention to this remarkable promise that one day God would make His quiet arrival to begin His earthly visit here in Bethlehem! So, another reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem was because God had predicted it 700 years before Joseph and Mary came to register for that census, and God always makes sure His predictions come true!
As we’ve already seen in Luke’s Christmas account, Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem because that was King David’s hometown and since both Mary and Joseph were both born into the lineage of David Caesar’s decree required that they go, both of them, in person, to register in David’s town, Bethlehem. Perhaps you remember it was the great Old Testament prophet and judge Samuel who introduced us to the young shepherd boy David when Israel needed a king. God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem, to the home of a man named Jesse who had 8 sons and anoint the youngest son David as the future king of Israel. (1 Samuel 16:1-13) And yes, not long thereafter Jesse sent his young son David to visit his older brothers serving in Saul’s army and it was on that fateful day shepherd boy David killed the Philistine giant Goliath with one stone. (1 Samuel 17)
But friends did you know there are two other famous Biblical stories in the history of Israel which raise the little village of Bethlehem to prominence? The story of Ruth and Naomi takes place in Bethlehem and is recorded for us in the Bible book of Ruth. Perhaps you remember by God’s miraculous provision the Moabite widow Ruth returned to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law and eventually married Boaz, the ‘kinsman redeemer’ for widow Naomi, and the first child born to Boaz and Ruth is named “Obed”. That wonderful story ends with this summary: “So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife…the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son…and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David…” (Ruth 4:13-17)
And several generations further back in the history of ancient Israel we find the first Biblical mention of Bethlehem. The patriarch Jacob buried the love of his life, his wife Rachel, “…on the way to Ephrath (that is Bethlehem). Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb.” (Genesis 35:19,20) Jacob and his entire family were leaving a very powerful encounter with God at the place called Bethel where Jacob had first encountered God 20 years before. (Gen. 28:10-22) As they traveled Rachel was pregnant and went into labor and died giving birth to her second son, Benjamin. As the verse says that place has been a revered, cherished place for millennia. Sadly, in the recent past ISIS warriors desecrated it and did some damage to what Jacob had erected in honor of Rachel. The below picture was taken of “Rachel’s tomb” in 1912! Long before ISIS.
So WHY BETHLEHEM? Because God chose that little town to be a very special place in the story of His people Israel. Did you know “Bethlehem” means “house of bread”? And do you remember Jesus once said “The bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world… I am the bread of life.” (John 6:33,35) Jesus was referring to Himself as compared to the daily manna in the desert which the rescued Hebrew slaves ate. But also, Bethlehem because God came to earth humbly not with fanfare.
Tomorrow we’ll look at the humble arrival of Jesus as we consider the question “WHY A MANGER”? For today, I hope Bethlehem takes on new significance in your celebration of Christmas and here’s a wonderful Christmas song about that little village, as I urge you to ‘walk with Jesus’ today, my friends…
Today’s Scripture: Luke 2:1-6.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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