A Ruler from Bethlehem

Micah 5:1-5 Micah is best known for this passage. When the Magi arrived in Jerusalem looking for “he who had been born king of the Jews” they went to Herod to find out. Of course, he didn’t know so he called the chief priests and scribes (the experts) to ask them. In response, they paraphrased this passage in Micah. “ ‘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.’ ” (Matthew 2:6) But why Bethlehem? There are several reasons for this which we can draw from Micah’s prophecy and all of them highlight the hope of Christmas: that light shines in the darkness. I love how CS Lewis sets the stage for his book, “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.” When Lucy first arrives in Narnia through the wardrobe, it is snowing and cold. While that might appeal to the winter lovers out there and there is a sense of beauty to newly fallen snow, it gets old after a prolonged period of time. It’s why people up North look forward summer. In Narnia, however, Lucy finds that it is always winter. The cold and the gloom persist day after day. And the worst part of all, It is “always winter and never Christmas” as Mr. Tumnus explains to Lucy. This is the backdrop of the real Christmas story. Israel is stuck in winter. The prophets don’t put it quite like that. Instead, they speak of Israel being in exile, living under a foreign ruler. But even as the prophets warn of this exile, they always end their prophecies with the hope that is Christmas. Jesus is coming and the long winter of exile will end. And so we are invited to let this hope sink in. A look at Bethlehem provides us a window into this hope.