The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
When our children were little, a large part of our Advent activities involved Old Testament prophecy concerning the coming of Jesus. Of those passages, Micah 5:2 sums up the big picture of the coming of Messiah:
“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 passage makes clear that the event would take place in Bethlehem Ephratah, a familiar place and name to Jews. The name first appears in Ruth 4:11 as part of the blessing of Ruth and Boaz in which historical references to Rachal and Leah are tied to the city associated with the tribe and family of Judah. Since Ruth and Boaz are part of the lineage of Jesus, the blessing itself, “and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem” could be said to be prophetic, as well.
The opening statement of Micah places the book’s context with “The Word of the Lord that came to Micah” (Mic. 1:1). Therefore, according to Micah 5:2, God the Father is the “thee” out of whom Jesus came forth into the world, by means of the Holy Spirit.
The reason for His coming was to be “ruler in Israel”. After many years of foreign control, the desire for Hebrew rule over Israel to return was increasingly urgent. For this reason the kingdom Jesus talked about while He was on earth, was understood by His audience to be a political and physical kingdom in Israel. However, Jesus Himself said “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). It is the spiritual, eternal Kingdom of God that Jesus was talking about. He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), i.e. to redeem and reconcile the fallen human race with the Righteous and Holy Father, Almighty God
The appearance of Jesus in Bethlehem was not His first time on earth. Micah 5:2 cites His “goings forth” as having been “from of old, from everlasting.” Anytime you see “the angel of the LORD” in the King James Version Bible, you are looking at a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus. The word “Bethlehem” means “House of bread” in the original Hebrew. Out of this House of Bread came the Bread of Life, Jesus. As John 6:32-33 and 35 says: “Then Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world… I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” In other words, through faith, Jesus satisfies the soul as nothing and no one else can.
