Beyond Bethlehem
Notes
Transcript
Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.
Video
In the dark streets of Bethlehem shone the everlasting light that first Christmas morning.
This is the light that the Gospel of John tells us came into the world in the Person of Jesus Christ.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
This is what Micah prophesied, some 700 years before it happened.
It’s a famous prophecy. We probably all know Micah 5:2. Especially at this time of year. We read it in our devotionals. We hear it quoted on Christian radio. We see it on Christmas cards.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
This prophecy gives us a pinpoint focus on that first Christmas.
Which means it gives us a pinpoint focus on Christ. On the Word made flesh. On the eternal Creator God coming into His creation.
On Emmanuel, God with us.
⬇️But perhaps it gives us a little too much of a pinpoint focus. We think of Bethlehem, the city of David, and a young virgin giving birth in a barn. We think of the baby, lying in a manger - in a crib not fit for King.
We think of that one little spot. A small baby, in a small crib, in a small barn, in a small city, in a small nation.
Christmas is about that one little spot.
But is it?
What was outside of that crib? Outside of that barn? Outside of that city?
What was beyond Bethlehem?
That’s what I want to talk about today.
I know, we are all excited for the season. We have meals to plan for… and to joyfully eat. We have presents to give and to receive.
We have family and friends to see and celebrate with.
It is the most wonderful time of the year, after all!
But what about after the holiday?
You see, Christmas gives us an opportunity to lose our focus for a day, or maybe even a few days - or if you’re a real Christmas person, maybe a whole month!
Christmas gives us an opportunity to take our focus off of what it’s on for 11 months or more a year and have a pinpoint focus for one day.
And I think perhaps we miss something by having too too small a focus.
Because this Christmas, like every other - like the very first Christmas - it happens in the midst of real life. The joy happens in the midst of sadness for many. The fun happens in the midst of mundane and sometimes dreadful “have-tos” of everyday life.
Beyond our celebration of giving and receiving are those who have nothing.
Beyond our wonderful food are those who are hungry.
Beyond our togetherness is a world of disunity.
Beyond this season of peace on earth is an earth that is anything but peaceful.
Beyond our celebration of our faith is a world of religious opposition and arguments.
And in the midst of it all is the One born in that little crib in the little barn in that little city.
And He is in the midst of all that precisely because of all that.
Beyond Bethlehem is a world falling apart.
And that’s why He came.
That’s why He offered Himself to the world.
Let’s consider the state of the world.
Not our world right now, let’s start by looking at the state of the world when Micah prophesied about that little baby.
This prophecy happened in the middle to late 8th century BC.
And don’t tune out because we’re talking history here. Because we have a God Who works in history. That’s what Christmas is all about! God stepped into history - into time and space with us. He entered into a world that was falling apart.
Because His focus was the salvation of the world.
And we see in this prophecy, there was so much going on in the world that Christ’s coming was all about.
So let’s take our pinpoint focus off of just verse 2 - the Christmas verse - and take in the whole prophecy.
Because Micah begins it with this:
Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.
That line will never make it into a Christmas Carol.
But it’s the world Micah prophesied into.
He is talking here about a siege against Israel. But Micah didn’t prophesy in Israel. He prophesied in Judah.
And they were two different nations at this time.
This wasn’t the nation David - the first king from Bethlehem - it wasn’t the kingdom he ruled over.
Because only two generations after him, the nation split into two. David’s grandson was a tyrant over the people, and ten of the twelve tribes of Israel left him to follow a new king.
This was God’s people. This was the nation He saved from Egypt. The nation to whom He graciously gave the promised land. The nation He dwelt in the midst of.
And they were now divided. There were two separate kingdoms under two separate kings.
Imagine being a nation divided over which political leader you followed.
Unimaginable.
Even worse, the two nations had essentially two different religions. The Temple was in Judah, so they worshiped there.
In Israel, the king built two places of worship - one in the north and one in the south, right by the border between Israel and Judah. He wanted people to pass his place of worship if they ever decided they wanted to return to Temple worship.
And he set up golden calves at his places of worship, and presented them to the people of Israel saying “Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
That might sound familiar to you.
But that means there weren’t only two nations and two kings… there were two religions, and depending on who you followed, you were part of one or the other religion.
Imagine religion getting intertwined with politics.
Unimaginable.
But here’s the thing. This all happened after God had made a promise to David. He promised David that his offspring would reign as king over Israel, and reign forever.
Here is the promise:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
Note a few things from this promise. God is talking about Israel - He said He would appoint a place for Israel and that David’s offspring would rule forever.
David’s offspring didn’t rule of Israel when Micah made his prophecy.
What’s more, God promised that Israel would be in the place God gives them, and they would be disturbed no more.
That’s not the case by the time Micah prophesied.
Because, again, he starts:
Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.
Israel was under siege by Assyria - the greatest power in the world at the time. And Israel was about to be defeated, and go into exile. They were about to lose the land.
But the Assyrians had a very specific way of establishing their kingdom in the nations they defeated. They would take most of the people from that land, and distribute them among all of the territory they controlled.
Then, they would move people in from territories under their rule - people who had been acclimated to the new way of life - and move them into the land.
They tried to make everyone the same - one worldwide culture - using influences from all the nations that they took.
And since they wanted to integrate everyone together, they were religious pluralists. They would incorporate the gods of the nations they conquered into their own pantheon of gods.
That way, all religions would basically be the same.
Imagine someone believing that.
But there was more going on in the world. While Assyria was the dominant world power, there was another nation gaining strength. Babylon.
They were also taking over weaker nations. But they had a different tactic than Assyria. When they took over a nation, they took the most educated and most capable of them back to Babylon, and forced them to adopt their way of life and their religion.
For them, there was only one true religion and it was inexorably tied in with their national life.
And Babylon and Assyria would soon be at war.
But not before Assyria defeated Israel.
And Assyria would first try to seige Judah, but fail.
But eventually, Babylon would succeed in doing just that, and would displace God’s people from the Promised Land.
So what was the world like in Micah’s day?
Internal political division.
Religious division within those who were supposed to be God’s people.
Wars with other nations.
Wars between other nations.
Competing worldviews and religious beliefs that destabilized the whole known world.
Unimaginable.
And in the midst of it all, the only thing God’s people had to hold onto - the only thing for certain - was a promise:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.
When Micah prophesied, no one from Judah could rule in Israel.
Yet here, God promises a ruler born in Judah would rule over a united Israel.
But first, there would be times of trouble - compared to the labor pains of giving birth. And those would continue until the time that a woman would literally give birth to the promised King.
And then, in Him, God’s people would be one. And the King would shepherd His flock in the power of YHWH and in the majesty of the name of YHWH.
It would be God Himself.
And then the promise to David of security would come true.
Then would the promised offspring reign.
And there would be peace under the reign of this King.
All of that turmoil beyond Bethlehem - in the midst of a world seemingly falling apart - was this promise of a little baby from a little city.
The promise of Christmas was made because of what was going on in the world.
The promise of Christmas was the answer to it all.
Now let’s consider the state of the world again.
Not our world right now, but the state of the world when Micah’s prophecy came to pass.
What was going on beyond Bethlehem the moment the King was born and the labor pains of more than 700 years were ended?
Well… there was division. That rift between Israel and Judah, along with the capture of Israel by the religious pluralists and culture combiners of Assyria - that resulted in the animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans that we know so well.
Because Assyria mixed cultures with the Israelites, and those people became the Samaritans, there was racism between them and Judah. To call a Judean a Samaritan was quite an insult.
But even within the territories of the Jews there was racism. Not only did the Jews look down on the Samaritans, but those from Judea looked down on those from Galilee.
Peter was identified right away as a Galilean just by the way he talked, and he was immediately associated with that Galilean criminal the Jews had just arrested. For the Judeans, Peter was “one of them.”
When one of the Apostles finds out Jesus was from Nazareth - in Galilee - he actually doubts at first that He could even be the Messiah. Can anything good come from Nazareth?
Racism towards those outside the nation, and racism between those within the nation.
Unimaginable.
And, of course, there was the religious pluralism.
Similar to Israel and Judah in Micah’s day, there was a difference between the religion of the Jews and the religion of the Samaritans.
The Samaritans had something like the religion of the Jews, but again, they had their own place of worship in Samaria. This is the debate the Samaritan woman at the well tried to have with Jesus in John 4.
But there was more. Because even though they weren’t under foreign seige, both the Jews and the Samaritans were under foreign control. Rome ruled the world.
And the Romans were polytheists. There were many gods. Sometimes, they even considered the emperor a god.
And they allowed other religions to exist, as long as there was peace.
But there was pagan influence everywhere Rome ruled.
But it gets even worse, because there were religious differences within Judaism. The Pharisees and the Sadducees disagreed about a great many things. And not just about how to live and obey God - the Pharisees had a much larger Bible than the Sadducees had.
And then there were the Essenes. They kept to themselves, for the most part, because they considered themselves the only true worshipers of God.
Kind of like some churches today.
But there’s still more, because even within these sects of Judaism, there were different schools of thought based on the Rabbinic tradition someone followed.
So there were divisions within divisions within divisions of those who claimed to be God’s people. There was one true religion as revealed by God, and yet people who claimed to follow that one true religion all separated from each other into very specific… oh what’s a good word?… I’ll go with denominations.
Unimaginable.
But let’s forget the divisions within - there was a constant threat from without. The Jews knew that Rome ruled with an iron fist, and if the peace wasn’t kept, they would come in and destroy the nation and their place of worship.
And Rome eventually did just that.
But that threat was already there that first Christmas.
And because of that, you had the Sadducess who were basically Roman allies who used that alliance for their own religious power within Judea.
Religion and politics mixed together.
Unimaginable.
You also had the Pharisees and the Essenes who both believed the captivity to Babylon and the oppression by Rome was God punishing them for not being obedient to Him - and both sects pushed very hard for obedience among themselves and everyone else - each sect in their own particular way.
But then there were the Zealots. This was a religious-political faction that believed they had to throw Rome out by force. And that they were called to do that by God’s Word.
And this set everyone else on edge, because they could very well push Rome to come in and destroy all of Israel.
So anyone who the Jews thought might push Rome to step in by force - the Jews tried to take care of those people themselves.
So there was quite a lot going on when Micah’s prophecy was fulfilled.
Internal political division.
Religious division within those who were supposed to be God’s people.
Racial divides in a nation and a religion.
The threat of war.
Competing worldviews and religious beliefs that destabilized an entire nation.
Unimaginable.
⬇️And through all this turmoil, there was only one hope for God’s people. That a Messiah would come to save them from it all.
That the true King - the greater Son of David - would reign and bring peace on earth.
They were still waiting - and hoping - for the prophecy of Micah to come true.
And it did.
Let’s put our focus back on Bethlehem for a moment:
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
The prophecy came to pass on that first Christmas.
But wait, Jesus’ family was from Nazareth in Galilee. Why in the world would Jesus be born in Bethlehem?
Let’s back up to right before that first Christmas. What was going on?
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
I want us to notice a few things here.
God brought about the prophesy He made through Micah. But there are some factors at play here. God works in history. History belongs to Him.
And He uses what happens in time and space for His purposes.
For example, God used the political power over His people to fulfill this prophecy. Caesar was the enemy of Israel, according to many of the Jews. And he makes this decree. He wants everyone registered in the census because he wants his tax money.
And as much as the Jews didn’t like paying their taxes to Caesar, and as much as they hated Rome, they knew that Rome would have come in with force if they didn’t comply with the decree.
Wait. God used the threat of war and the rule of a greedy oppressor to bring the Messiah into the world according to His promise? He used the turmoil of the world beyond Bethlehem, to get that baby in the manger in Bethlehem?
Yes.
But there’s even more. God used not only external turmoil, but internal.
For example, He used the internal divisions in the land.
What do I mean? Well, Bethlehem was just about a straight shot south from Nazareth. About 80 miles south.
But Nazareth is in Galilee, and Bethlehem is in Judea. And between the two was Samaria.
So, how did Joseph and Mary travel? Well, they would have done what any Jew would have done. They would have headed about 35 or so miles east, crossed the Jordan, headed south the 80 miles, and crossed the Jordan again into Judea.
Then they would have traveled the 35 or so miles to Bethlehem.
So they had to just about double the mileage in order to make the trip because of the racial and religious differences between them and the Samaritans.
Now, I know we all picture just Joseph, a very pregnant Mary, and a camel travelling. But they would have actually been travelling in a caravan of possibly hundreds of people. That slowed things down. The average distance covered in a large caravan like that was about 15 miles a day.
So, the roundabout way they traveled added about 5 or 6 days to their trip.
Had they been able to go straight down, Joseph would have registered for the census, and they may have even made it back to Nazareth before Jesus was born.
At the least, they would have been far north of Bethlehem.
So wait… God used internal religious and racial divisions in order to get the timing just right so that He would fulfill Micah’s prophecy? He used the inner turmoil of God’s people beyond Bethlehem to get that baby in a manger in Bethlehem?
Yes.
Oh praise God that He works in time. Praise Him that history belongs to Him and that He works through it.
And that first Christmas - Christ coming in the flesh - it’s the greatest work He did in space and time. The greatest gift we can receive is God becoming one of us to fulfill His promises.
And God used the circumstances of the world at the time to do His greatest work.
And, the work - when it happened - it went largely unnoticed. I mean, it didn’t really matter for 30ish years when Jesus began His ministry, and even then Jesus was rejected by many because there was no prophecy about someone from Nazareth being a prophet.
Actually, it didn’t really matter to most people until 40 years after Jesus’ death (70 years total) until the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were written.
And the fact of the matter is, the birth of Christ meant far less to early Christians than it does to us! The early church didn’t celebrate Christmas.
In fact, the date of December 25th for the celebration of Jesus’ birthday wasn’t even established until the 4th century. So we’re talking hundreds of years.
All that time that passed before the significance of this was really felt. Before it was understood that God was working, right then and there, in the midst of all the trouble.
That through political turmoil, racism, religious divides, war, opposing worldviews keeping the world on edge - through it all God was completely in control, and would still keep His every last promise.
That through the humdrum of the day to day all the way to wars between the world’s greatest powers - through it all, He kept His promise.
He came to offer what the world couldn’t. Salvation.
And He did in Jesus Christ, our Emmanuel.
He waited over 700 years to keep the promise, but He kept. And He used all of history to work together to get that little baby in that manger.
Over 700 years of history.
⬇️And we want all our troubles solved right now.
Come on, be honest. We run into a little trouble, pray, give it a day or two and then question where God is or why He’s allowing this to happen...
Speaking of our troubles:
What is the condition of our world today?
Well, we live in a world of division.
What else is new?
We are divided politically - we have differences with those outside our nation, and differences with those inside our nation.
We divide over which political figures we follow.
We divide over ideology and worldview.
But we divide over just about anything!
We divide over race.
We are divided by class determined by something as fleeting as money.
We divide over religion. Oh, this is a big one.
And yes, atheism, secular humanism - they are religions. Many of them are more evangelical about their faith than Christians are.
And there is persecution all over the world based on religion.
And it gets worse, because even within Christianity, we are divided.
There are Protestants and Catholics and Orthodox Christians who all believe they have it right.
And then even within Protestantism, we are divided.
There are countless denominations who split from other denominations that split from other denominations.
Divisions within divisions within divisions.
And there are those who claim to follow the one true religion revealed by God that have abandoned Him long ago.
We live in a world full of war. A quarter million people have died in armed conflicts this year.
And even when our country isn’t at war, there’s always the threat of war looming.
We live in a world of violence. There is violence without and violence within our nation.
Let’s focus in a little tighter.
because we don’t need to look that far outside our own lives to know what’s wrong with the world, do we?
We are broken people living in a broken world.
Many of us struggle with our health - physical and mental.
Many of us struggle to make ends meet.
Many of us struggle with the pain of losing someone dear to us.
Many of us struggle with our relationships - whether romantic or with our friends or even within our own families.
Many of us struggle with addiction.
We all struggle with sin.
Anger. Lust. Impatience. Covetousness.
We struggle to stay healthy spiritually. We struggle to read our Bibles. We struggle in prayer. We struggle in serving the church.
⬇️And, right now, with Christmas upon us, we get to take our focus off of all of that.
And we are focused on our plans, and our meals, and our gifts, and our families, and our traditions, and all that goes along with the most wonderful time of the year.
But history always moves on. December 26th always comes.
What’s going to happen then?
Does the baby in the manger still matter then?
Does our pinpoint focus on Him end?
Well, in Micah’s day, the prophecy was made and nobody really took notice. It was 150 years later that Judah went into exile, and the Jews really started seeking answers.
So they turned to the Scriptures and searched for those answers. And they changed their religion based on what was happening in the world.
And after they were restored to the land? It didn’t take long to go back to the humdrum of every day life. They changed their focus based on what was happening in the world.
Sure, there were those who were faithful to God, but for the most part, by the time the Messiah came, nobody’s focus was on Micah’s prophecy.
There was no party in Bethlehem for the birth of the King.
Really, that first Christmas passed, and largely unnoticed was the fact that the King had been born. And emperors changed. And Herod died and his kingdom was split.
Even Joseph had to go back to work at some point.
The world dictated where God’s people put their focus.
This Christmas will pass - and that pinpoint focus on the baby born in Bethlehem will pass - and what will be left is our everyday life in the brokenness of our world.
But the answer to that - the point of that - is what it was in Micah’s day and on the first Christmas.
It is that little baby in the little crib in the little barn in the little city, because that little baby is the infinite and eternal God in the flesh.
The everlasting light in the manger - that one tiny spot in that tiny town - like in Micah’s day, and for more than 700 years of struggle, and in Jesus’ day, and for 2000 years of struggle since then - and today and on Christmas and on December 26th - there is a Savior.
God, Who took on flesh to live among us. To live as one of us.
To live everyday with a pinpoint focus on God and His Law. To live perfectly for our sake.
And then that God - that infinite God - He took on our sin. Our sin that broke the world He created. He came into that world and took that sin on Himself and He took the wrath of God for it.
He took the punishment we deserved.
And He died.
And He rose again on the third day, and was vindicated. He proved He is the Messiah. He proved He overcame sin. He proved He overcame death.
And He ascended back to glory, where He now reigns as King.
But He is today Who He was in that little crib in Bethlehem - He is God and King!
And He was willing to let go of that on that first Christmas for our sake.
He was willing to give everything up for us that first Christmas.
God took on humanity to die for us.
Unimaginable.
What will decide where our focus goes when Christmas is over.
The circumstances of the world?
Or the fact that God kept His promise?
God kept His promise.
But He didn’t keep it for one day. We can’t be so focused on Christmas that we forget why He came.
God is keeping His promise. He will yet keep every promise.
And no matter what you are up against - no matter what the world throws at you - no matter how bad it gets in the world - there is a King in heaven that promises to restore it all.
The King that came for us.
The King that is promised to come again.
And if we have to wait 700 years, 2,000 more years, or more - as long as our focus is on Him - He will shepherd us in the strength of God, we will dwell secure, and He will be our peace.
And rest assured, He will be great to the ends of the earth.
What started in that one little spot in Bethlehem where God’s glory was veiled in flesh for our sake will one day expand over the whole earth, and His glory will be revealed to everyone.
And until then, will we have a pinpoint focus on Christ - on the 25th and the 26th and every day - that God may use us in space and time to glorify Him?
Or will the world - the division, and the lack of peace, and the sin without and within - will that keep our focus?
When little kids get gifts and use them once, even things they really wanted - the Barbie dream house - it mattered for that one day
Do we do that with the gift of Emmanuel every Christmas?
Will we?
Or will we keep our focus on Him and His promises, and let that light - the everlasting light - continue to shine through our lives?
How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive Him still,
the dear Christ enters in.
This Christmas, let’s receive the gift of our Emmanuel in all its fullness, that even in this dark world Christ may enter in to every part of our lives.
In this world we will have trouble, but take heart, Christ has overcome the world for us.
And He will still do it through us.
Because Christ did not enter into history in spite of the brokenness of the world. Not in spite of what was beyond Bethlehem.
He came because of it.
And He is with us, because of it.
So we have two choices when this Christmas is past - when we move beyond Bethlehem.
We can let the brokenness of our world - and even of our own sin - take our focus off of Christ, or we can let every circumstance pull our focus onto Him.
Let the darkness put your focus on the light.
Let this week not be the end of our pinpoint focus on Christ. Let it be the beginning of it.
Let Him enter into every circumstance, into every day, into every moment.
Let Him use each one for His purpose and His glory.
Praise God that He entered into history because of what was beyond Bethlehem.
And praise Him that He still does.
Merry Christmas.
