Micah 5:2-5a "Foretelling the Kingdom" pt.3

Introduction

The prophet Micah was a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah.

Micah prophesied about the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel but his primary ministry was to the Southern Kingdom.

The land was plagued with sin and injustice for which God was announcing His oracles of judgement on the divided nation.

This is what often happens to the covenant people of God. They live in the prosperity of the blessings of God and then end up committing idolatry by finding their security in the things of the world.

But like Isaiah’s prophecy Micah announces, not just condemnation, but also the hope of restoration through the coming of the Messiah of God.

God in His mercy has ways of opening our eyes and reminding us of the Messianic hope that we are called to live in as the people of God.

Micah declares this restorative hope in our text this morning by emphasizing the Significance of Bethlehem in verses 2-3. Look back at your text:

I. The Significance of Bethlehem (2-3).

Bethlehem is declared to be significant in spite of her being small among the clans of the tribe of Judah (2).

Bethlehem was the birthplace of King David and it was about 5-6 miles southwest of Jerusalem.

The thing that made it significant in the eyes of God was that it aligned the prophetic testimony regarding the coming of God’s Messiah.

Judah’s line through King David was once again being referred to, and this time there is a geographical location being referenced.

This is the text that the chief priest and scribes referred to when Herod wanted to know the place where Messiah would be born. He was disturbed because the wise men from the east came to inquire of him in Matthew 2.

It was the plan and purpose of God that was emphasizing the significance of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem was to be the place of Messiah's birth (3).

Verse three is alluding to the coming overthrow of Judah and there will be a time when Israel will be without a King but it will come to pass that there will be a restoration of the Kingdom and the prophetic testimony will be fulfilled.

The birth of Messiah would be the indicating event of that restoration. When she who was in labor gives birth that will indicate that the gathering of Israel has begun.

The birth of Christ is the initiating event of the coming of the Kingdom and the gathering of people from the nations starts when Mary gives birth.

This is not only a reference to Jewish people that would come in submissive allegiance to the Messiah King. Those wise men from the East were Gentiles and yet they came from a far away land to worship Him.

For the Jewish people they were going to be scattered. The Assyrians and the Babylonians will eventually scattered them among the nations of the ancient near east.

All that they hoped in for a safe, secure national Israel would eventually be laying in ruins.

And the political restoration that they would witness would be nothing more than a hopeless facade of a Roman sanctioned substitution. Herod ruling under the cloud of Roman occupation.

Christian we should all know something about the unpredictability of the political world. Not just American politics but history should tell us something of it as well in general.

God reminds us of the instability of the world in order to call us back to the real source and security for our lives. And Christian it is not a geographical place but to the authoritative rule of our Messiah King. Look at verses 4-5a:

II. The Stand of Messiah (4-5a).

He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of God and to the glory of God (4a).

The flock that He will shepherd is a reference to His covenant people. God has made Christ the mighty fortress of His people. Christ is the bulwark never failing. He is the source of our ultimate security.

John 10:11- “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep”

The world will offer many secondary alternatives but they are not sufficient for our ultimate hope and security. The world will offer us false alternatives and many will rally around such things but there is no hope for eternity to be found in the things that in the end perish.

Everyone will in the end be subject to Christ. All authority will be under His feet. God worked through the small things of this world to work the big things of His eternal plan.

In small little Bethlehem the sovereign King of Glory came into the world to call men from every nation into His flock so that God would be glorified and His people would be secure.

We see in our text that He will secure His people in peace (4b-5a).

This is more than just having a safe place to exist. It carries with it the benefits of reconciliation. Having been made right with God due to what Christ has done.

He didn’t just come into the world to destroy our enemies by beating them with a club until the all died or surrendered. There would be no need for the incarnation if that was His mission.

No physical enemy of Israel could ever stand before the God of Israel. The Assyrians made their way down to the Southern Kingdom and surrounded Jerusalem and put the city under seige around 701 BC.

And one night as the Assyrian army slept the Angel of the Lord went through the camp and 185,000 Assyrian soldiers didn’t wake up the next morning (2 Kings 19).

And what was left of the Assyrian army headed to the house. They went back to Nineveh. There is no match for the power of God in all the Universe. God didn’t need a Messiah with a physical body to conquer nations in the physical sense.

No, you see there were legal demands of divine law that had to be fulfilled in order to release us from the just obligations of that same law. Man’s greatest enemy was his own sin and the death that comes because of it.

Messiah came to take care of both of them on our behalf by fulfilling the sacrificial system of law. He came born of a virgin to be a sacrifice on our behalf. A humble King submitting to the glorious divine plan of God to redeem a people for Himself.

Conclusion

Christmas in a very real way is all about how God secures us to Himself through Christ coming into the world to redeem us through the Cross.

Christian are you at rest in Him? Where can you have such security that furnishes you with peace before God.

Nowhere but in Christ alone. Confess and receive.

Unbeliever: God still hold out the same gift to you again in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Believe the Gospel!