Micah 5:2-5a Midweek Advent Pastor Ron Koehler Grace Lutheran Church December 2018
Mighty Messages from Micah: A Mighty Ruler from a Lowly Place Dear friends in Christ, If you or anyone you know is from a small town, you may know how we often like to tell of the famous people that come from little places. The town I grew up in—Owosso, Michigan—is not a huge place. Its population is about the same as Benson’s and Vail’s put together. Owosso takes great pride in being the birthplace of Thomas Dewey, former governor of New York and he of “Dewey defeats Truman” fame (if that is a familiar historical event for you)…as well as being the city where the man who designed the Jefferson nickel decided to relocate after his design for that was accepted…and the home of author James Oliver Curwood. Back when I lived there, everyone in our little town used to hear about those people and you can even go visit Curwood Castle on the Shiawassee River if you want the whole history on him. When God planned, in eternity, to send a Savior from sin, he had to send him from somewhere. True God born into the world as a human being would have to have a birthplace. The prophet Micah, back in about 700 BC, foretold exactly where the Messiah would be born. Listen to the way God had Micah prophesy about the Savior’s birth: “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 bears a son, 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. And he will be our peace. The Savior would be born in Bethlehem, which was formerly also called Ephrath or Ephratha. Though Bethlehem today is about the size of Sahuarita or Green Valley, it was much smaller back then. It was a town so little that calling it a town might have been giving it too much credit! It was so small that it wasn’t even listed in Joshua 15 in the list of towns in Judah. Though it was tiny, a few notable things had happened there. Jacob, an ancestor of the Savior and holder of the promises of God, buried his wife Rachel there. Ruth, the woman from Moab who married into the Savior’s family tree, did so in the valley just to the east of Bethlehem. Her great-grandson David was born there and he was later anointed at Bethlehem as Israel’s king by the prophet Samuel. I would imagine that there was some amount of small-town pride in Bethlehem because it was the city of David.
The little town of Bethlehem—5 miles from Jerusalem—had a rich history of God periodically touching base with his people—the people to whom and through whom he would send the Savior from sin. But it is still an amazing thing that out of a town so small that it’s barely worth mentioning, would come the One Micah prophesied about, the One God’s people longed to see. We may find it interesting that One so great could come from such a seemingly insignificant place. We still are fascinated today when someone famous comes from a tiny town. But more interesting than that and infinitely more important, is who this One would be! A Mighty Ruler would come from this Lowly Place. The Mighty Message from Micah is not simply that a ruler would come from Bethlehem; it is also about what he would be like and what he would do! Christmas is about the Father sending his Son to save the world from sin and certain eternal death. You get a reference to this as Micah shares words directly from the Father: “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.” Did you hear it? Out of you will come for me. It was the Father’s plan that this would happen. And the One who would come out of Bethlehem was to be no ordinary person, but one whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. This mighty ruler could trace his ancestry back farther than King David, even farther than Adam and Eve! Micah was privileged to proclaim the eternal nature of the One to be born! The message from Micah then is that the mighty ruler to be born would be both God and man. He would be a very different kind of ruler than his ancestor David or any king who ever ruled over God’s people. He would be a spiritual king over Israel. He would come at just the right time, at a time when Israel still suffered at the hands of others…and then this son would be born to a woman. When you hear Micah say that, it might make you think of the words of Isaiah, who prophesied at the same time: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14, NIV84). (And you remember that Immanuel means “God with us.”) Isaiah was the prophet in Jerusalem (the big city prophet) and Micah was out in the lowlands to the west of Jerusalem (the country prophet)—and both were telling people the same thing at the same time: God was going to enter this world, born of a woman. This One to be born would become a mighty ruler and his reign would be different than kings before him too. He would be like a shepherd, guiding his people—but with divine strength and majesty. God’s people would have the strongest, most loving ShepherdKing ruling over them and for them. This would mean protection for them—they would be safe and secure under this mighty ruler. Peace would reign. Actually Micah declares that HE would be peace for God’s people; peace would be found in him.
These are all wonderful, amazing prophecies when you consider that they were told and recorded by Micah 700 years before Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem. It is amazing to see that in Jesus all of these things happened just as the prophet said they would. But you know that this is all much more than a fascinating slice of history. What Micah foretold and what Jesus did means everything for you and me. Jesus was born in Bethlehem just as Micah foretold, just as God had promised, just as God’s people trusted. True God came to live as a human being like us—under God’s command to live a perfectly righteous life. Unlike you and me, who regularly anger God with the way we talk and think and behave, that little baby born in Bethlehem’s manger grew up and lived a perfectly righteous life before the Father. This is why the Father planned to send him and why Jesus was born into the world. He ruled over sin in his life…then willingly offered himself in sacrifice for us on the cross—just 5 short miles from the place of his birth. The Mighty Ruler gave himself up for all people. God the Father accepted his unblemished life and his blood shed at the cross as payment for our sins. As our Mighty Ruler, Jesus brought us peace with the Holy God. God promises that as we trust in him, we find forgiveness for our sins. We are safe and secure as our faith is placed in him. He loves us and rules over our hearts now and will do so for eternity. For now, we are comforted, knowing that he guides us in life like a shepherd leads his sheep. This was the plan and this was the promise over centuries. It is why Jesus was born into the world. Our Mighty Ruler began in a little town, but his love reaches across the entire world, or as Micah said, “to the ends of the earth.” We celebrate the fulfillment of these mighty promises of Micah each year at Christmas. We dive back into the history of a tiny town that by the hand of God produced the most important person this world has ever known—and more than a person, the Son of God, true God and true man, born in time, yet the eternal God, the ruler of all things in heaven and earth…and the Savior who brings the security of God’s forgiveness and the peace which comes from knowing that through him, God loves us and will welcome us into his home in heaven. That is the Christmas message of God’s love in Christ for all people. It was Micah’s to share long ago so that people could trust in the Savior to come. It is our message to share today so that people can trust in the Savior who did faithfully come to save us and will come again to bring us to heaven with him. May God move you and me to share this Mighty Message of Micah so that others may come to know this Mighty Ruler who came from a Lowly Place—the Savior of all people. Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.