Micah 5.2-5a

These words are from a familiar Christmas carol which we will sing tonight at all three of our services. They were written in 1866 by an Episcopal priest (later Bishop of Massachusetts), Phillips Brooks, shortly after a trip to the Holy Land, to help the children of his parish celebrate Christmas. They are based on the opening sentence of our reading today from the prophet Micah: “But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” This morning I would like you to see three things about this famous Old Testament prophecy: the prophet who spoke it, the place to which he spoke, and the promise he made to that place.

THE PROPHET

The prophet who first spoke these words was named Micah. Beyond the small Old Testament book which bears his name, we know very little about him. He came from an area of southern Israel that we hear much about today, an area we now call the Gaza Strip. He lived over 700 years before the birth of Christ, and he was a contemporary of the great prophet Isaiah and the two minor prophets Amos and Hosea. The time in which he prophesied was a very interesting time for the Israelites: it was a time when both great prosperity and terrible poverty existed side-by-side; it was a time when the government and the justice system were riddled with corruption; and, it was a time when religious hypocrisy was rampant. Micah spoke out against these conditions again and again, warning people that God’s judgment was coming if they did not change. You can read his most famous warning in chapter six: “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?...He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

During his life, Micah saw the northern part of Israel conquered and destroyed by the Assyrian empire. He knew that if the people of the south did not change their ways, they would face a similar fate at some point. But he also held out hope to those he warned: even if they did not change (they didn’t), even if Jerusalem was defeated and destroyed (it was), God would one day raise up a new city to which all the peoples of the world would come (Micah 4.1-2), and a new king who would rule in power and peace (Micah 5.2-5). And this new king would come from a little town located just a few miles south of Jerusalem in the hill country on the great road to Egypt.

THE PLACE

The place to which Micah spoke these words was the town of Bethlehem, which means in Hebrew “house of bread.” It may have been a little town in the prophet’s time, but it had a long history. We first read about it in the Book of Genesis, where Jacob’s wife Rachel dies and is buried by the road on the way to Bethlehem (35.19). Later on, the beautiful story of Ruth and Naomi takes place in that same little town (Ruth 1.22). And, most importantly, it is in Bethlehem that the prophet Samuel finds the youngest of eight sons, a man by the name of David, and anoints him king of Israel (1 Samuel 16). This David goes on to become the greatest king of Israel, a warrior, a musician, a “man after God’s own heart.” He is not a perfect ruler---the Bible describes him warts and all---but he is the gold standard by which all the other kings are judged and found wanting, and he is the archetype for a future king who will restore Israel. When the magi show up in Jerusalem, asking “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” the obvious answer is “in Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet…” (Matthew 2.2, 4).

This little town of Bethlehem is an example of how God seems to work in human history. Most of the time, God seems to use the small, the weak, the insignificant, the unnoticed, and the ordinary for his plans, rather than the large, the powerful, the important, the famous, and the talented. Remember, God begins with a nobody named Abram in Genesis, and promises to make a great nation which will bless the whole world from him. God chooses a young woman in an obscure village of Galilee through which he will become a human being. God sends his Spirit into a group of very ordinary men and women, and they become the nucleus of a movement that changes the whole course of human history. God arranges for his Son to be born not in a big city like Rome or Paris or New York, but in the little town of Bethlehem.

THE PROMISE

The promise Micah made to the little town of Bethlehem was that one day a new king would be born there who would rule as a king should. Even in the midst of injustice and corruption and hypocrisy, even though foreign powers would demolish Israel, he spoke a message of hope: a ruler would be raised up who was both powerful and peaceful. He describes this ruler at the end of today’s reading: “And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace” (Micah 5.4, 5a). We Christians believe that this prophecy spoken by the prophet Micah was fulfilled when Mary “gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger” in that little town of Bethlehem (Luke 2.7).

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Micah’s prophecy began to be fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem; he is the promised ruler; but his power over all people and his peace among all people is not yet fully realized. We still are waiting for that to happen; we still have a role to play in preparing for it to happen. That is why we observe the season of Advent in the Church: all that the prophet Micah promised to that little town of Bethlehem has not happened yet, but it will. Just as Jesus was born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem in fulfillment of that prophecy, so he will come again in power and glory to fulfill the rest of that prophecy: he will stand and feed us in the strength of the Lord; he will be great to the ends of the earth; he will be the one of peace. Jesus’ birth in that little town of Bethlehem is God’s iron-clad guarantee to us that all the rest of Micah’s prophecy will come to pass. And so, even as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth tonight, at the same time we cry out from the depth our hearts for his return at the end of the age: Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus Christ!

The Rev. David Montzingo, Associate Rector
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church
San Diego, California, USA
© 12/24/06, all rights reserved