Ephratha, the virgin birth, and living securely

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. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. 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 (Micah 5:2-4).

This week's Old Testament lesson is familiar to us because it is the one place in the Old Testament that specifically predicts the town that Jesus was to be born in. But the prophet Micah had much more to say about the coming Messiah than just the name of His birth place; in just these three verses, God tells His people a great deal about the Savior that would be coming 700 years after Micah wrote these words down.

Micah begins by being very specific about Jesus’ birthplace. It is important that Micah be precise, because two of the ways to correctly identify who the Messiah is have to do with His background. The first identifier has to do with Judah. Judah was the fourth of Jacob’s twelve sons. His name means "May God be praised." Over time, Judah came to be the leader among his brothers. God promised Judah that his descendants would continue to be leaders among the Jewish people until the time that the Messiah came; in Genesis 49:10 we read, The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until He comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is His. A ‘scepter’ is a decorated rod that represents the right to rule, just as a crown does; this verse is a poetic way of saying that the descendants of Judah would be given leadership of the twelve tribes of Israel until the final king came, the king to whom the scepter of rulership truly belongs, the king who will be obeyed by peoples all over the world, the king Jesus Christ.

God had promised the country of Canaan to Jacobs’s descendants as their homeland, and eventually the land was divided up between the descendants of Jacob's twelve sons. The descendents of Judah received the area where both Jerusalem and Bethlehem were built. Bethlehem would be the town of King Jesus’ birth, and Jerusalem would be the place where He died to offer kingly pardon for all human sin. But just as today there is more than one city named Madison, so in the Old Testament there was more than one town named Bethlehem. So Micah identifies the birthplace of the Savior both by it’s current name and by it’s ancient name—Ephrathah. The town had been called Ephrathah back when Jacob’s wife Rachel died—Genesis 35 records: So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). And when Samuel later records the facts about King David’s birth, he tells us: Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah (1 Samuel 17:12). Because King David was born in Bethlehem, it later came to be known as the "City of David."

Micah was careful to point out that God’s ruler over Israel was going to be a descendant of royalty—a native of Judah’s tribe, born in the city of King David. There was to be no doubt that the Messiah would be true royalty, fit to lead God’s people as their king.

Through Micah, God also tells us that this king was not going to be an ordinary man; Micah records whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. How can a king, who won’t be born for another 700 years, have His origin in the ancient past? This is only possible because that newborn king, born in Bethlehem, is also the Son of God, given life by His Father before the world was made. The king who would be a descendant of Judah and King David would simultaneously be the Son of God, heir to the eternal throne of His Father, the Prince of Peace. Jesus would be royalty, both by human descent and by divine right of inheritance as the Son of God.

This king was coming into our world for one purpose—God the Father says, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel. Jesus was not coming to serve His own interests; Jesus was coming to rule Israel for God. Everything that Jesus did in His time among us was done to carry out His Father’s wishes. Jesus said, I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:38-40).

Do not think that Jesus did this work grudgingly; Jesus was not a Son who only did His Father’s work reluctantly. No, Jesus and His heavenly Father were in complete agreement—they both loved mankind, they both hated the sin that mankind finds so irresistible, and they both agreed that we must be offered a way to escape from the entanglements of sinful pleasures before the web of our sins tightens to the point of choking the life from us. Jesus and His Father were in complete agreement that the only way to rescue us from the hell that we have earned by sinning was for the Son of God to put on the clothing of humanity and suffer God’s punishment for our sins in our place. This shows the extent of our Savior’s love for us; this shows the extent of the Father’s concern for us, because Jesus said, Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9).

Our text continues, Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. First, God located where the birth of the Messiah would take place; now He gives hints as to when this birth would take place. One condition is that the rest of his brothers [will] return to join the Israelites. God warns the Israelites through Micah that they have angered Him by living in unrepentant sin, and the time is coming when He will withdraw His protection and allow many of the people to be captured and taken away into captivity. Hosea, who spoke for God at the same time as Micah, gave this warning: Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed" (Hosea 4:1-2). The people lived in wickedness and felt no shame over it—therefore, God would issue them a "wake-up call" by allowing the Babylonian Empire to successfully invade the land and take most of the populace hostage for 70 years. But when this time of crisis finally resulted in remorse and contrition, God would free His captive people and bring them home to be reunited with those left behind—Micah 2:12 says I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. This is what God is referring to when He speaks of the rest of his brothers returning to join the Israelites. The Messiah would not come until after the end of the Babylonian Captivity.

The other indicator would be the time when she who is in labor gives birth. Since children are being born all the time, there must be something remarkable about this particular pregnancy that people would see it as a sign of the Messiah coming. Isaiah, another prophet of God living in Micah’s time, speaks of such a remarkable pregnancy—he predicts: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). The most significant announcement that the Savior of God has come is when a virgin will miraculously become pregnant and give birth to a boy, a boy who has no human father, only a heavenly one. A child both of man and of God.

This all comes together for us in Luke chapter one: God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." And in chapter two, Luke continues: In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his 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 line 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, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Micah continues: He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. How unlike other kings would this king be! Other kings come in power to be served; Jesus said, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Jesus doesn’t use His scepter of royal power to drive us before Him with blows; rather, He leads us like a shepherd, guides us to safe pasturage, protects us from demonic predators, and rescues us when we foolishly wander away and become lost. Jesus is well equipped to protect us because He has the strength of the LORD; as God’s Son, He has infinite power to support His infinite loving care for us. And He has the authority to lead us, because He has the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; the heavenly Father has given Jesus the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11). Yet in spite of all this royal power and privilege, Jesus presents Himself to us as our shepherd—no wonder that shepherds worshipped Him as well as kings from the East.

Our text concludes: And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. We do live securely, surrounded though we are by sin and temptation, because Jesus’ greatness is reaching the ends of the earth. All over the world, people know that next week is Christmas—all over the world, people speak the name of Christ, the Anointed One, when they make their plans for the holidays. All over the world, people see the image of the cross, the symbol of God’s sacrifice of love for fallen humanity. Our LORD’s greatness may not be honored everywhere, but it is visible everywhere, and this gives us security because we know that God has kept His promises and God continues to keep His promises—promises of mercy on those who repent and put their trust in Jesus’ name, promises of freedom from sin and the evil that seeks to entangle us, promises of eternal joy in the presence of the Babe of Bethlehem.