Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
How important to you is the place of your birth? Is that place significant in the long story of your family heritage? Is there a story of unusual circumstances which explains where and when you were born? In these days, as we approach Christmas 2021, we’ve been looking at how God was telling the Christmas story hundreds of years before it happened, as only God can do! Have you ever thought about this: that God knew where, when, and all circumstances related to your birth many generations before you were born?
In the past few days we’ve been looking at the writings of a Jewish prophet named Isaiah who wrote around 700 years before Jesus was born. One of his contemporaries was a little known prophet named Micah. While we have 66 chapters of the writings of Isaiah we have only 7 short chapters of the writings of Micah, and as you look into the Bible, it may take you a little while to find the little book which bears his name. Nonetheless, one of the distinctives of Micah’s messages is that it is through Micah that God alerted the world to WHERE the Messiah would be born!
Micah 5:2 says: “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 old, from ancient times.” In the days when Micah wrote these words, I can see the people of Jerusalem discussing this statement in all kinds of situations. As people haggled over prices in the market, can you see them asking each other what Mr. Micah meant? As they ate their meals at home, can you see grandchildren asking their grandparents to tell them the ancient stories of Israel and then listening carefully for any hints which might explain what Mr. Micah meant? So may I ask you, my friends, other than the Christmas story and the birthplace of Jesus, what else comes to your mind when you hear the name Bethlehem? Micah was right… there are some remarkable stories in the long history of Israel which took place in this little village only a few miles south of Jerusalem!
The first time we hear of Bethlehem is way back in Genesis 35. Jacob, remember him? He was grandson to Abraham, son of Isaac. As a young man, Jacob had fled his home because he’d deceived his twin brother Esau not once but twice and Esau was ready to kill Jacob. Jacob fled several hundred miles north to the home area of his mother Rebekah, and found his mother’s brother, Uncle Laban. Jacob hired on to work on Uncle Laban’s ranch, and fell in love with his cousin Rachel. He agreed to work seven years for her hand in marriage, but on the wedding night justice was done, you might say, and Jacob was deceived into marrying Rachel’s older sister Leah! This remarkable story is found in Genesis 29.
Jacob then worked another seven years to finally earn the hand of Rachel, the woman he loved. Sadly, both wives were barren, unable to bear children, and in that time and culture it was customary for such wives to offer their female servant as a surrogate mother, bearing children on their behalf. So Jacob began building a family with servants of both his wives. Then God opened the wombs of Leah and Rachel, so Jacob eventually ended up with 12 sons and 1 daughter and four wives… oh my goodness! But in God’s great Sovereignty, these 12 sons became the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel.
In Genesis 35 Jacob was leading all his extended family back to his homeland, and stopped at a place called Bethel, which was where Jacob had had his first encounter with God in a vision. That experience helped define the rest of Jacob’s life. They spent some extended time at Bethel and in another encounter with God there, Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel”. (Gen. 35:10) As they continued their journey from Bethel toward the home of his birth, Rachel was giving birth to Jacob’s 12th son, Benjamin, and she died in childbirth. In great remorse, the record says “So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar…” (Gen. 35:19) For centuries, whenever any Hebrews travelled near this place, they would stop and reflect on this story. Thus when Micah made his statement about Messiah being born in Bethlehem, a place of significance in ‘ancient times’, we can imagine the grandparents made sure their grandkids knew this story.
But there were two other great stories with roots in Bethlehem. The little book of Ruth in the Bible tells us the story of Naomi, her husband, and their two sons who lived in Bethlehem. Famine struck, and to find food, they all moved east into the region of Moab. Naomi’s sons married women there, but before they could begin families, they both died, as did their father, leaving Naomi a widow in a foreign land. Her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, cared for her while in Moab, and then word came the famine ended in Bethlehem, so Naomi desired to return home. Orpah chose to stay in Moab, but Ruth was deeply committed to helping widowed Naomi and returned with her to Bethlehem. Amazingly, God led Boaz, a ‘kinsman redeemer’ relative of Naomi, to marry widow Ruth, and God blessed them with a son. That child was named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, the father of David, the future king of Israel! Oh how this story gave such great hope to people whose lives were marked with tragedy or hopelessness.
Finally, of course, Bethlehem was most famous as the hometown of young David, the son of Jesse. We first meet David when the prophet Samuel comes to Bethlehem on a surprise visit to Jesse’s family and Samuel asks to meet all Jesse’s sons. Unknown to them, of course, is the fact that God has sent Samuel on the mission of finding the next king for Israel, and eventually Jesse’s youngest son David is identified, by the Holy Spirit, as the one Samuel should anoint. 1 Samuel 16 records this remarkable story, and concludes with this statement: “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.” (1 Sam. 16:13)
My friends, can’t you see the eyes of grandparents sparkling with delight as they gather their grandchildren around them to recount these precious stories which were so very, very important to their heritage as God’s people, the Hebrews? May I ask, if you are a grandparent, what stories will you tell your grandchildren this Christmas season which reflect the goodness and majesty of God? Do you have some personal stories which you consider important that your grandkids hear, so they can understand how God has been greatly at work in their family heritage?
As we close today, may I invite you to look with me at one other thing Mr. Micah wrote? “He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will live securely, for then His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And He will be their peace.” (Micah 5:4,5) The days in which Mr. Micah wrote his messages were terrifying days for the people of Jerusalem, for they witnessed the slaughter of their cousins to the north, the 10 tribes known as Israel, with their capital in Samaria, as the great empire Assyria invaded and devastated the region. Living securely, with confidence that God was protecting them, was a desperate desire of the people in and around Jerusalem. They could not possibly imagine what it might be like if from Jerusalem their Messiah would reach to all people around the world, offering peace and protection!
But from our vantage point this Christmas 2021, we understand the remarkable offer of God that Jesus can be the Savior of anyone, anywhere in the world, who will come to Him acknowledging their need for a Savior! That is why the angels in the sky over those Bethlehem fields on that “Christmas night” proclaimed “Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord…Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth PEACE to men on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:11-14)
My friends, do we understand that all of heaven rejoices when people trust Jesus Christ to be their Savior and they experience the PEACE that only God can give, when sin is forgiven and a person becomes a new creation in Christ? (2 Corinthians 5:17) Oh my friends, let’s celebrate how the words of Micah the prophet, written seven centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, are being fulfilled in our day all around the world! And here’s a new song I found, to help us celebrate this remarkable truth:
Today’s Scripture is Micah 5:2, 4.
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 262.441.8785
“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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