"From Bethlehem Comes A Gift Of Hope" (Audio) - Dec 19, 2004 Text: Micah 5:1-4
Title: "From Bethlehem Comes a Gift of Hope" Text: Micah 5:2-4
December 19, 2004 Larry Kirk
FROM BETHLEHEM COMES A GIFT OF HOPE
David Aikman worked for more than twenty years as a respected journalist. Then, a few years ago, he took some time off and wrote a book titled Hope: the Heart's Great Quest. Through extensive study and interaction with people he came to the conclusion that every human heart yearns for hope. He also said that there is a special connection between hope and Christian faith. He writes:
Hope is the distinguishing feature of Christianity compared to any other belief system. . . . In New Testament times, the two other prevailing philosophies did not offer hope. Stoics were educated, civilized, thoughtful, and kindly but were grieved at the condition of humankind and were unable to do anything else but live in quiet dignity. Meanwhile, the Epicureans simply sought pleasure. So people were cynics or hedonists. Christianity changed the prevailing attitude.
(The Revelation of Hope @ www.hfe.org )
Christianity brings hope. That's certainly one of the messages of the prophets who foretold the birth of Christ. This morning we are looking at Micah 5:2. It's one of the great Christmas prophecies. Part of the power of this prophecy is that in it . . .
God Revealed the Place of Jesus’ Birth Before His Birth to Strengthen Our Hope in Him
Micah's prophecy was given just before the Hebrew people went into exile. At that time it might have seemed God's promises were buried in the rubble that the Babylonians left behind them. Throughout the history of the Bible's story that has been a familiar problem. The story seems to come to a dead end, often because of the bad choices of its key characters. And then, once again, God demonstrates that the fulfillment of His promises does not depend on the performance of His people or the circumstances in the world. That's the way it was with this prophecy.
Micah's Prophecy Promises God's Faithfulness in Spite of Human Appearances
Micah 5:1 says: “Marshal your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod.” Here Micah is predicting the siege of Jerusalem and the fact that Israel's king would be defeated. Then, in verse 2, comes a message of hope: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." This was not a promise about an ordinary king but about Christ, the King of kings. He was a king who existed before the days of Micah and who will come at a yet future time, who will be not only a king but a shepherd in God's service and whose greatness, as verse 4 says, will reach to the ends of the earth.
Now, fast forward roughly 700 years to the first Christmas. A lot has happened since Micah's prophecy. The Hebrew people in the kingdom of Judah were carried away as captives to Babylon, but after 70 years they returned. They rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple of God. But times have been tough. Just as Daniel prophesied, great kingdoms have risen and fallen, Babylon, the Medes and Persians, the Greeks. Now the Romans are ruling the Hebrew people. One day there is a flurry of activity, and a caravan shows up in Jerusalem. They are wise men from the East.
Matthew 2 says they arrive asking a question: “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed. He called together all of the best biblical scholars and asked them where the Christ was to be born. They answered, “In Bethlehem . . . for thus it is written by the prophet.” The scholars knew where the Savior was to be born, because the prophet Micah, writing some 700 years earlier, had foretold the place of His birth.
Matthew’s account points to the significance of this prophecy. The whole Bible is one great story. It's God's love story of redemption. The heart of the story is the promise of a Savior. The fulfillment of the promise is Jesus Christ.
The Fact That the Place of the Birth of Christ Was Foretold Is a Reflection of the Bible's Divine Inspiration
Recently two major news magazines, Time and Newsweek, both featured cover stories about the birth of Christ. Each article presented itself as a thoughtful examination of the truth about Christmas. But when I read them, what I discovered was that both articles were very misleading. Both suggested that the Bible's story of Christmas is full of contradictions. Listen to how Time magazine put it:
Matthew and Luke diverge in conspicuous ways on details of the event [the birth of Christ]. In Matthew's nativity, the angelic annunciation is made to Joseph while Luke's is to Mary. Matthew's offers wise men and a star and puts the baby Jesus in a house: Luke's prefers shepherds and a manger. Both place the birthin Bethlehem, but they disagree totally on how it came to be there. (Time, December 13, 2004, p. 51)
Listen to the key words used. Matthew and Luke “diverge in conspicuous ways” and they “disagree totally.” It surprised me to read this, because to say that the stories in the Bible contradict each other is clearly untrue.
There's certainly no contradiction in that one announcement is made to Joseph and another to Mary. There were two announcements.
And there's no contradiction between the story of the shepherds and the story of the Wise Men. Scholars and pastors have pointed out for years that although our popular manger scenes show the Magi at the birth of Christ, that's not really what the Bible teaches. The Bible is clear that the shepherds came to the manger the night of the birth. The Wise Men came at some undetermined time after the birth and found Mary and Joseph in a house. Since Bethlehem was the ancestral home of Joseph, there are any number of possible reasons why Mary and Joseph decided to settle there for a while, so that when the Magi came some time later they found them in a home. There is no contradiction.
There's no contradiction on how the birth came to be in Bethlehem. Read the two stories for yourself. You will see that Matthew can't contradict Luke on the issue of how Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem because Matthew doesn't say anything at all about their travel there.
Imagine someone saying to you, “I saw Larry driving to church on Williamson Boulevard this morning. Someone else says, “When I got to church, Larry was in the parking lot.” Is that a contradiction?
The Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke complement each other. Each adds details that the other does not supply, but there is no contradiction between the two at all. Together they tell how the prophecy of Micah was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus.
The Book of Luke Tells Us That God Used a Roman Census to Fulfill the Prophecy of Micah
Luke 2:1-4 reads: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.”
Here's what Time said about the census Luke mentions:
Luke's description of an empire-wide census at the time of Jesus' birth, with Palestine's part conducted by the Syrian governor Quirinius, seems inaccurate. There is no other record of a census in Palestine at the time, and Quirinius was not yet governor. But, he did administer an infamous census on Augustus' behalf some 12 years later. (December 13, 2004, p. 57)
I find it painful to read such things, because I know thousands of people will read that and not know any better than to believe it. Those people will still trim their trees and sing the carols, but something of the heart of the hope that the Christmas message could bring them will be lost.
The truth is there is no historic evidence that contradicts the story told in the Bible, and a lot that confirms it.
First of all, Luke says that this was the first census that took place when Quirinius was governor. That means Luke was aware of the census that took place twelve years later. He is not confusing the censuses or mixing them up but is very intentionally saying this was an earlier census.
What about the issue of Quirinius not being governor until later? The official title for a governor was legatus. It's interesting that is not the word used in Luke 2. The word used in Luke 2 just means the one in charge of something. It's very possible, even if Quirinius did not become the official “governor” until later that he was already in charge of the region for the Roman government. Is there any evidence that that might have been the case? Yes. At least two historical sources outside the Bible identify Quirinius as a highly placed military commander who was in charge of various military expeditions in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire during a period of time that included the birth of Christ. It would not be strange for Emperor Augustus to order a trusted military commander to oversee a census in a volatile part of the world with which he was familiar. The word Luke uses to describe Quirinius was appropriate for someone who was put in charge of the census even if he was not yet the official governor of the region.
Now, what about the objection that outside of the gospel of Luke there is no record of a census at this time? Well, there are a lot of historical details mentioned in the Bible that have not yet been corroborated by archaeological finds or other ancient historical records, but that doesn't prove they never happened. To claim they never occurred is to offer an argument from silence that has often been proven wrong in time.
Did you know that until 1961, apart from the Bible and references based on the Bible, there wasn't a single historical record that the Roman governor Pontius Pilate even existed. Then, in 1961, archaeologists digging in the Mediterranean city of Caesarea found an inscription in Latin that read “Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea, has presented the Tiberium to the Caesareans.” That was the first archaeological discovery of a historical reference to Pilate outside the Bible.
One of the most famous archaeologists of all time, William Ramsay, studied the historical accuracy of Luke. Based on every aspect of Luke's writing that could be verified by other sources, he concluded, “Luke's history is unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness.” (Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, p.108)
When it comes to the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy, what Luke tells us about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem because of a census ordered by Augustus actually makes perfect sense. Records indicate that the Romans in general and Augustus in particular took censuses regularly.
One archaeological finding shows a cycle of census-taking that repeated every fourteen years. They did this regularly to assess taxes to pay their armies being posted in all these countries and to cover the cost of road and bridge building and other improvements. The Encyclopedia Britannia says it was sometimes done as often as every five years. We don't have records today of every census or every year that they took one. When they did initiate a census, it often took several years to complete. So the truth is there is no good reason to deny the truthfulness of what Luke telling us, namely that it was a census process that caused Mary and Joseph to end up in Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus and the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy.
For Time and Newsweek not to give any serious mention to these well-known facts and explanations and instead to simply dismiss the Bible as historically inaccurate is quite unreasonable. Their own theory is a bit outlandish. They suggest that Luke and Matthew made up their accounts in order to compete with pagan religions. These articles suggest the gospel writers lied about Jesus to get pagans to believe in Him when He said such things as “The truth shall set you free.”
We must recognize that in these kinds of articles there is a bias against Christian faith. One of the Christmas stories predicts it. The close of Luke 2 tells the story of an old man named Simeon who sees Mary and Jesus when the child is eight days old. Luke 2:34-35 says: “Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” When you pick up a magazine at the newsstand, tune into a special program on television, or sign up for a course at the local college and the subject of that article, program, or course is God, Jesus, or the Bible, don't expect Christian faith to get fair and thoughtful treatment. The prejudice against the miraculous intervention of God in the story of Jesus is strong.
We need to understand that the miraculous is what Christmas is all about. The heart of the Christmas message is that God became incarnate. That in itself is the greatest of all miracles. God, the creator, became one of us. He entered our world to redeem us and reconcile us to Himself. In a great little book simply titled Miracle, C.S. Lewis wrote this: “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation. They say that God became man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this (p. 109).
If you understand and believe the Christmas message of the incarnation, then it's not at all difficult to believe that it was predicted by the prophets in the Bible, that it happened by a virgin birth, that it resulted in a miraculous life, that it led to a resurrection from the dead, that it added up to redemption for all who believe, and that it changed the world for time and eternity. If you don't believe the message of Christmas, then there is a lot that you have to work extra hard to try to explain away.
God wants you to believe in Him, to really believe and find hope in Him. God revealed the place of Jesus’ birth before His birth to strengthen our hope in Him.
In the same passage, for the same reason, God revealed the purpose of Jesus’ birth.
God Revealed the Purpose of Jesus’ Birth to Strengthen Our Hope in Him
Look at Micah 5:3-4: “Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.” Notice several things.
Israel would be abandoned for a time. This was speaking about the dispersion of the Jewish people after they were led into captivity by the Babylonians and Assyrians.
Then the time would come when there would be a regathering of the people of Israel. “Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.”
There was a partial regathering of the scattered tribes of Israel seventy years after the captivity in Babylon. But this is speaking about a regathering of Israel after the birth of the Savior. The prophets saw these great events as mountain peaks off in the distance of time. In the distance of time they all merged into one. They didn't see the deep valley of time between the mountain peaks of prophecy. Actually there are thousands of years between the first and second halves of verse 3. The ultimate hope of the promise is that one day all of God's people will be gathered together under the lordship off the King of kings.
The heart of the prophecy is a description of Christ, and at the heart of that description is the truth that . . .
Christ Came into Our World to Be a Shepherd for His People
Verse 4 tells us that the purpose for His coming was to shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord. Now you might say, “I thought Jesus came to save His people from their sins.” Christ did come to save His people from their sins. There is no contradiction here. This is part of it. In John 10:11 Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd, I lay down my life for my sheep.”
Five times in John 10 alone Jesus says He lays down His life for His sheep. Throughout His life Jesus was laying down His life for us. That's why He was born in humility in Bethlehem. He gave everything. He laid aside all of His rights and humbled Himself to redeem us. In the end He lay down His life on the cross and willingly died to pay for our sins. He rose again to be our Savior, our sovereign, and our shepherd. We don't have to earn our way into a relationship with Him or a place in His kingdom. We just have to believe in him. That's the one condition. It's faith. By faith we turn and trust Him. You talk to Him in your heart. You say, I'm trusting in You. You are Lord, and You came and died and rose again for me. I believe that, and I'm trusting You to be my Lord and Savior.
Micah 5:4 says: “He will shepherd his flock.” The question you need to ask is, “Am I part of that flock? Do I belong to the flock that has Christ for its shepherd?” If you've received Him as Savior, then you belong to the flock that He shepherds.
Verse 4 continues: “He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.” The ultimate fulfillment of the promise is that one day God's people will live in peace, in harmony with His precepts, enjoying His presence in His place. And His place will not just extend to the Garden of Eden or the land of Canaan but to the ends of the earth.
This Promise Is Both a Present Reality and a Future Hope
Think of a river that flows into the ocean. You can put a canoe into Spruce Creek out past I-95 and paddle all the way to Ponce Inlet and out into the ocean. Well, picture a river like that as the river of history and the ocean as the ultimate fulfillment of the promises of God in the kingdom of Christ, an ocean full of righteousness and peace and joy and grace.
As you canoe down the creek, you start off in fresh water, but something interesting happens as you get closer to the ocean. You get to the place where the saltwater from the ocean flows back up into the creek, and there is suddenly (at least it seems that way) a mingling of saltwater and fresh. You can smell the saltwater, you can sense the difference -- the ocean is flowing back up into the river. The Bible tells us that Christmas is not just another bend in the river. It marks the point where the great ocean of the kingdom of God has already pressed up into the river of history.
As you travel down the river of history, there are many important bends: Creation, the Fall, the Flood, the calling of Abraham, the deliverance of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt, the conquest of the Promised Land, the rise of the kings of Israel, the ultimate fall of those kingdoms and the exile to Assyria and Babylon, the return and rebuilding of the temple, the great prophets who foretold the coming of Christ—all are important bends in the river. But Christmas is not just another bend in the river. With the coming of Christmas, the ocean of the age to come has reached up into the river of history to give us hope, to lift our spirits now.
That's why the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that, as people living this side of the life of Jesus, we are people “on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.”
This river analogy is helpful not just for understanding the Bible's story, but it is also important and helpful for living your life today. What the Bible says is that, in this present age, we can already taste some of the goodness and grace of the age to come and the kingdom of God.
A lot of things are wrong with the world right now. A lot of things are wrong with us. The Bible is clear and honest about that. We need to be honest about that too. But we can live as imperfect people in an imperfect world and already be tasting the savor and the flavor of the kingdom of God that is promised in fullness for a future age. You can experience Jesus Christ as your Savior and shepherd, present with you, caring for you, leading you, and providing for you today. There is a verse in Hebrews 6 that talks about people in this present age “tasting the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age.” The age to come is not here yet. We have no illusions about that. But we can taste some of its goodness and power today.
Taste it! Taste as much of the kingdom of God as you can. How do you do that? You do that by building a spiritual relationship with Christ the King. Open up your heart and life and invite the King to come and take possession. Let your inner life become a kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 10:5 the apostle Paul says: “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Something is going to rule your thought life, and whatever rules your thought life will end up ruling your whole life. Make sure the interior kingdom of your thought life is in harmony with the lordship of Jesus Christ.
If He is your king and shepherd and you are part of His flock, listen to Him, take time to listen to His words in the Scriptures and to be led by His Spirit in your heart. He is the king who will shepherd you. That means He will guide you in good ways. But you have to believe in His love and listen to His voice.
You can believe in His love because He demonstrated it in His life and on the cross. He has told you time and time again that He loves you. You can believe in His love. You can listen to His voice. You hear His voice in the Scriptures, and He speaks by His Spirit in your heart. Listen and obey. When you fail to obey, for we all do, confess your sins, but confess also His forgiveness for your sins and the promise of His love, His presence, and His help.
Let Christ be the Shepherd King who rules your heart with His amazing love for the glory of God. You will live with great hope, and you will taste, in this life, the goodness of the kingdom of God.