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What Child is This?1
Micah 5:1-5
Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567
Zion’s Distress
When King Herod gathered the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law and asked
where the Messiah was to be born (Matthew 2:3-6) they quoted the Messianic prophesy of Micah
5:2:
“but you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for
out of you will come a ruler who will
shepherd my people Israel.”
While this familiar Christmas passage
provokes peaceful thoughts of a babe
lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling
clothes I want to invite you to go back in
time to reflect on the dire circumstances
and great hope given in this prophecy.
Micah told Jerusalem to “marshal their
troops”2 for a “time of deep
degradation”3 would fall upon them right
before the coming of the Messiah.
Even
though they had through divine
intervention survived the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib in 701 B.C.,4 the Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar laying siege to Jerusalem5 would succeed in destroying the temple and exiling
1
Outline of the sermon was taken from: James E. Smith, The Minor Prophets, Old Testament Survey
Series (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1994), 329.
2
H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Micah, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls
Company, 1909), 67.
3
James E. Smith, The Minor Prophets, Old Testament Survey Series (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1994),
329.
4
James E. Smith, The Minor Prophets, Old Testament Survey Series (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1994),
330.
5
Elizabeth Achtemeier, Minor Prophets I, ed.
W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K.
Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 338.
most of their inhabitants.6
To add even further humiliation the ruler of Israel, Zedekiah would
not only be their last king (from this earth) but also would have his eyes blinded by
Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:7; Jeremiah 39:6-7)!7 This was a striking blow to the cheek, one of
the grossest insults a king could ever receive (comp. 1 Kings 22:24; Job 16:10; Luke 22:64).8
And yet despite their utter humiliated and desperation there was still hope for God would soon
come good on His promise to always have a Davidic heir sit upon the throne (2 Samuel 7:8-17).9
The Coming Ruler
The statement of doom in verse one is followed by one of hope for out of Bethlehem
would come a King who would usher in everlasting peace to the ends of the world!10 Jesus
chose to be borne out of Bethlehem for two
main reasons.
First, Jesus was to be born in
the same town that David was born (1 Samuel
17:12)11 to fulfill the prophecy that the
Messianic King would come from the same
lineage (Psalms 132:11; Matthew 2:6).12
Second, Jesus was born in Bethlehem to
ensure God was given all the glory.13
Like
Saul (1 Samuel 9:21), and Gideon (Judges
6:15)14 God chose to do great things through
6
James E. Smith, The Minor Prophets, Old Testament Survey Series (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1994),
330.
7
Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol.
20, The New American Commentary
(Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 95.
8
H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Micah, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls
Company, 1909), 67.
9
Elizabeth Achtemeier, Minor Prophets I, ed.
W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K.
Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 338.
10
Thomas E. McComiskey, “Micah,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel and the Minor
Prophets, ed.
Frank E. Gaebelein, vol.
7 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 427.
11
Thomas E. McComiskey, “Micah,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel and the Minor
Prophets, ed.
Frank E. Gaebelein, vol.
7 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 427.
12
D. A. Carson, ed., NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 1596.
13
John Piper, Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014) (Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2014).
14
Elizabeth Achtemeier, Minor Prophets I, ed.
W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K.
Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 339.
a place that by human standards was insignificant! “Bethlehem, too insignificant to be
mentioned by the cartographer of the book of Joshua or in Micah’s catalogue of Judah’s cities of
defense (Mic.
1:10–15; cf. 2 Chr.
11:5–12), is today incredibly the center of pilgrimages from
around the world and is universally renowned because Jesus Christ fulfilled this verse.”
15 An
insignificant place was chosen to bring forth the “most pre-eminent person”16 so that no “one
could boast in the merits of their own cities achievements”17 but instead accept the truth that
Christ willfully emptied Himself of His glory in heaven to be born in a lowly place so that “no
human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)!18
The innkeeper
could not boast, He chose the comfort of my inn,”19 nor could Jerusalem with all its magnificent
buildings claim prominence of His presence.
He who was to be slain before the foundation of
the world (Revelation 13:8) did not demand regalities and comforts of earthly kings but instead
chose to be born in a lowly manger and to become a servant of all (Matthew 20:28)!
At a time when Israel was about to go through abandonment by God due to her sin (1:5–
6; 2:1–5; 3:4, 9–12; 4:10; 6:9–16), that was so intense that it threatened to throw her into a
sinkhole of oblivion,20 the prophet Micah stated there was great hope for a new ruler whose
origins were from old, from ancient times was about to arrive to redeem His people!21
The
origins of this ruler is in many ways “mysterious and beyond human comprehension,” 22 because
He comes from and is God from all eternity past, present and future!23
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