What Child Is This?

What Child is This?

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” for a “time of deep degradation” 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., the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar laying siege to Jerusalem would succeed in destroying the temple and exiling most of their inhabitants. 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)! 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). 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).

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! 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) to fulfill the prophecy that the Messianic King would come from the same lineage (Psalms 132:11; Matthew 2:6). Second, Jesus was born in Bethlehem to ensure God was given all the glory. Like Saul (1 Samuel 9:21), and Gideon (Judges 6:15) God chose to do great things through 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.” An insignificant place was chosen to bring forth the “most pre-eminent person” so that no “one could boast in the merits of their own cities achievements” 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)! The innkeeper could not boast, He chose the comfort of my inn,” 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, 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! The origins of this ruler is in many ways “mysterious and beyond human comprehension,” because He comes from and is God from all eternity past, present and future! This Ruler who “had gone out of heaven on many occasions to lead and shepherd His people, was none other than the Mighty Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace predicted by Isaiah (9:6-7)! His arrival inaugurated the kingdom of His Father that would not only “signal the beginning of the end of the nation’s oppression” but would also forever change her identity! Since her Messiah, the fulfiller of both the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants, gave His life as a ransom for many, no longer would Israel’s identity include only those of direct descendants of Abraham, but instead anyone who had faith in the atoning sacrifice of the Son (Galatians 6:16; Romans 9:6–29)! Micah’s prophesy gave the people of Israel great hope for while Babylon was about to decimate her lands and take them captive, when the Messiah arrived Israel would be gathered from all the lands of dispersion as a “restored, reunified, complete nation” under the banner of the church ending the hostility between them and God! This church would also unite both Jew and Gentile together as one, both gladly bowing their knees to their Chief Cornerstone of their new formed family (Ephesians 2:14-22)!