Micah 5:2 (KJV)
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.
Of those Old Testament
passages that are Christmas related, Micah 5:2 is undoubtedly the most incontrovertibly
a Messianic passage.
It takes:
· No imagination,
· No special understanding of prophetic terminology
· No deep comparisons between Scriptures
to catch onto this one.
So clear a Messianic
prophecy is this that when Herod asked the where Christ should be born, the
chief priests and scribes, without hesitation answered,
Matthew 2:5-6 (KJV)
And they said unto him,
In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
And thou Bethlehem, in
the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee
shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
Bethlehem, also known as Ephratah and Ephrath,
was a small town – still is comparatively.
But God puts little
stock in size and how impressed people may be in a thing.
He does His greatest
works among those who are not:
· Wise,
· Mighty or
· Noble
in the sight of the
world.
Bethlehem means “House
of Bread.”
I think it is a fitting
name for the city where Christ, who is the bread of life, should be born.
Ephratah means “fruitfulness.”
Long before the Jews
ever lived there, God had already determined that out of this place would come
the most pleasing gift man would ever know.
I would like to use the
city of Bethlehem to picture Jesus Christ, Who was born there, and ask you to
consider three things with me today.
Notice:
I. IT IS A
PLACE OF HISTORY
Genesis 35:16-19 (KJV)
And they journeyed from
Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel
travailed, and she had hard labour.
And it came to pass,
when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou
shalt have this son also.
And it came to pass, as
her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but
his father called him Benjamin.
And Rachel died, and was
buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
A. The first mention of the city of Ephratah
or Ephrath, is here in Genesis 35.
It’s the place where
Rachel gave birth to Benjamin and where she died.
I do not believe it was
ever considered holy place until the days of the Ottoman Empire, when the
Muslims invaded the Israel, but since then it is a place of interest to:
· Jews,
· Christians and
· Muslims
B. The whole story of the book of Ruth is
centered around Bethlehem
Elimelech and Naomi were
both from there and, when Naomi returned with her widowed daughter in law,
Ruth, it was to the city of Bethlehem.
· When Boaz married Ruth it was in the city of Bethlehem and
· When Ruth gave birth to Obed, David’s grandfather, it was in
Bethlehem.
I am reminded that
C. Jesus has a history far older than
Christmas
Micah 5:2 (KJV)
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.
The study of genealogies
has become a huge past time in America hasn’t it?
Almost everybody would
like to find some connection to their past by connecting with relatives who
have come and gone before us.
I was listening to a
podcast on the study of genealogies a few days ago.
The historian that was
being interviewed said that, unless your family has some royal blood, you are probably not going to be able to research
your family much past the 1600’s.
In some parts of the country research
past the 1860’s is impossible because those records were destroyed in the Civil
War.
For families like mine,
who are Native
American, we can only trace our
lineage back probably four generations. No records at all were kept before
then.
In every case we are
saying that our connection to history is through those who lived before we were
born.
Not so Jesus.
Though He was born in
Bethlehem some 2000 years ago, Micah 5:2 makes it clear that His goings forth
were everlastingly before that.
There is a pastor of a
huge church outside of Atlanta.
Andy, the son of the
well-known Southern Baptist pastor, Charles Stanley, is, to say the least, a
bit controversial.
Not too long ago he
preached a series of messages telling those who had quit coming to church that
they did not have to believe the Bible in order to return to the Christian
faith.
He has been in a bit of
hot water this Christmas season for preaching that the details of Christ’s
birth don’t matter; what matters is the resurrection.
To paraphrase the
message, it was something like this,
“When a man can die, be
buried for three days and rise again by His own power, who cares if His mother
was a virgin.”
May I just say that the
matter of His birth and of His death, burial and resurrection are so integrally
interwoven that it would be impossible to have the one without the other?
He could rise from the
grave because the baby born in that manger was no ordinary man.
His birth was the
introduction of Eternal God into human flesh.
The One who was born in
that manger
· Spoke the world into existence
· Answered the prayer of Jacob
· Gave Joshua his battle plans for Jericho and
· Called Gideon to deliver Israel from their enemy
He is God.
· Fully,
· Completely,
· Absolutely
God.
Bethlehem is a place of
history.
Furthermore,
II. IT IS A
PLACE OF COMFORT
2 Samuel 23:13-17 (KJV)
And three of the thirty
chief went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam:
and the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim.
And David was then in an
hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.
And David longed, and
said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem,
which is by the gate!
And the three mighty men
brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of
Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David:
nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD.
And he said, Be it far
from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that
went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things
did these three mighty men.
A. Bethlehem was the place where Naomi married
Boaz and they had a child named Obed
· To Obed was born a child named Jesse
· To Jesse was born a child named David
David grew up there.
I can imagine him as a
child – in some of the more carefree moments of youth,
· Playing with friends
· Roaming the hills and once in a while
· Refreshing themselves with a cool drink from the well at the
gate of Bethlehem
Years have past now.
· The circumstances of the day and
· The providence of God
have placed David in
much different circumstances than his youth.
He has moved on from:
· A playful child to
· A responsible young shepherd to
· A musician and warrior for the king and now
The God ordained King of
Israel.
A person might think
that promotion to authority and leadership is a privilege and blessing, but it carries
with it a lot of pressure.
At the time of this
writing, Israel was under attack by the Philistines and
They have taken control
of David’s own hometown.
What place would you
want to protect more than that?
David and his men are in
a hold; they are hidden out somewhere.
I imagine he is
somewhere he can look down upon the city of Bethlehem, and maybe even see that
well he had so often sat beside in his youth.
Just musing to himself,
not realizing he had men who could hear him, David whispered, “Oh that one would give me drink
of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.”
And three of his men
risked their lives to go get him a cup of that water!
It was a place of
comfort.
B. Jesus too, is a place of comfort.
John the Baptist spoke
of Jesus and said,
John 1:29 (KJV)
The next day John seeth
Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world.
1. Weary with our sins, we come to the foot of
the Cross
and call upon the name of the Lord, believing that He died for our sins and
rose again victorious over our sins.
And we find eternal
peace with God.
2. Needy for direction we sit at His feet to
hear the Word of God
It will be through our
own personal quiet time with God and also through the preaching of the Word of
God in our church.
And our soul is fed and
light is shed upon our path in this world.
3. Anxious over our failures, we kneel to pray
before the throne of grace.
There we obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
In Jesus Christ there is
comfort.
Bethlehem is:
· A place of history
· A place of comfort
Lastly
III. IT IS A
PLACE OF PAIN
Matthew 2:16-18 (KJV)
Then Herod, when he saw
that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and
slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof,
from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently
enquired of the wise men.
Then was fulfilled that
which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
In Rama was there a voice
heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her
children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
A. This little town just outside of Jerusalem
was small and insignificant.
They say they raised the
lambs for sacrifices there.
· It seems peaceful
· It seems quiet
· It seems like the perfect place for the birth of this humble
baby
But it’s role in the
plan of God stirred up the anger of the devil.
When Herod realized that
the wise men who had inquired about the birthplace of Jesus, had left without
pointing out the boy –
The Bible says he had
all of the children 2 years old and under slain.
The Bible says Rachel,
as a symbolic name for Bethlehem wept for her children and could not be
comforted.
It was a:
· Vicious
· Unjustifiable and
· Senseless
act.
Why?
· What had Bethlehem done?
· What had these children done?
· What had their parents done?
to deserve this?
I tend to think attempts
to answer those sorts of questions only add to the pain.
But I can say,
B. What happened in Bethlehem does foreshadow
what would happen to Jesus
You can say want you
want to about the terrible things that have happened in the name of
Christianity
· The Crusades
· The Inquisition
· The persecutions
· The Executions
· The wars in the name of religion
The fact of the matter
is Jesus endorsed none of it and was grieved by it.
· When they captured Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
· When they tried Him, before the High Priest, before Herod
and before Pontius Pilate
· When they beat Him and mocked Him and nailed Him on the
Cross to die
It was:
· Vicious
· Unjustified and
· Senseless
But it was also
effectual.
Jesus did not die for
His sins.
· He died for the sins of the very people who wished Him to
die
· He died for the sins of those people who sentenced Him to
die
· He did for the sins of those people who caused Him to die
He died for the sins of
every man, woman, boy and girl, who has or ever will live.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV)
For he hath made him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him.
And because He died in
our place and for our sins the Bible promises,
Romans 10:9 (KJV)
That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
