Please be seated. Now if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Micah, chapter five. Micah's in the Old Testament, and you'll find this beginning on page 778. This morning for Advent, we turn to an Old Testament prophecy concerning the coming of Christ to bring peace to his people in a world of distress.
Now Micah, you may remember, was a prophet about 750 years before the coming of the baby in Bethlehem. And let me tell you just a little bit about him before we look at his prophecy together. In Micah, chapter one, verse one, we read that Micah is called Michael of Morisheth. He's known by the town he comes from.
It was a little town about 22 miles southwest of Jerusalem where farmers worked. And so he grew up and administered among, and came from, well, among farmers in Judah. His name means who is like Yahweh, or who is like the Lord. And at the very end of the book, in Micah, chapter seven, verse 18, there's this wonderful question and answer, who is a God like you?
Pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights instead fast love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Oh, who is a God like you? Let's play on Micah's name or Micah's name is a play on, well, what God is like. Micah, administered in Judah, that is in the southern kingdom.
By this time, the kingdom had been split into the northern kingdom with the Pent tribes and the southern kingdom of the two tribes. About the same time that he was ministering, there were two other prophets, somewhat better known, more famous. Isaiah was ministering in the south, and Hosea was ministering in the north. He was ministering at the same time as them, and then one thing the prophet, Jeremiah, tells us, and then we'll get to our passage.
Jeremiah tells us, who came just after Micah, in Jeremiah 26, 18. He tells us that the then king, King Hezekiah, listened to Micah and the words of his prophecy, and those words landed on his heart, and the king responded with respect towards God, and he sought the gracious favor of the Lord, and he received it. Now, I don't think there's anything more that a preacher could want than that. The word of God he preaches lands on the heart of his people and brings about a response of greater respect for the Lord, as well as a desire to know his grace and his favor and his blessing.
May the Lord make that so today as we hear this word through Micah the prophet. Let me invite you to give your attention to Micah chapter 5. We'll read verses 1 through just the first part of verse 5. This is the holy and inspired word of God.
Now, muster your troops. O daughter of troops, siege is laid against us. With a rod, they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem Ephritha, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from a hold from ancient days.
Therefore, he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure.
For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace. Amen, this is God's word. And he write it on our hearts.
Let's look at him in prayer. Our Father in heaven give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts to believe Jesus for his glory. In our good, in his name we pray. Amen.
Micah foretold a time of trouble among the people of God, but he also gave them hope. The hope that God's appointed ruler would come and bring them peace. Notice that need for peace in verse one. And the promised peacemaker in verses two through the end of our reading.
Two things then, the need for peace verse one. Here's the context. Israel faced well, hostility and humiliation and helplessness. Verse one, now muster your troops, so daughter of troops, siege is laid against us.
There's this call to action to gather the military because siege is upon them. The nation, a nation is hostile to them. Now scholars disagree about what Micah has in mind. The very near and soon hostility in his day of the Assyrian empire, which would destroy the 10 northern tribes in 722 BC.
Or if Micah has in mind the later hostility of the Babylonian empire, which destroyed the southern kingdom of Judah in 587 BC. Micah here uses the plural pronoun us, sieges laid against us, but that doesn't necessarily mean he personally endured the siege for what's alive when it happened, but that he identifies with his people facing hostile forces. He's in it with them. He's one of them, as you feel yourself as a believer, to be in it and with those persecuted Christians across the globe.
They're your family. Well, Micah feels that way, certainly, at the very least. But notice its nation against nation, isn't it? Once again, it's kingdom against kingdom, military against military.
This is the way of the world, and actually always has been since the rebellion of Adam and Eve against our creator, hostility between peoples. It's not unique to the people of God, of course. The Assyrian and the Babylonian, as well as the ancient Greek. And Roman empires were generally indiscriminate in doling out suffering, but certainly the cause of the people of God to suffer.
And so it's ever been. The world rages on just in the last 150 years. We had a civil war, very uncivil. And a world war, one.
And then a world war, two. And Korean, Vietnam, and the Cold War, and the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq, and the war in the U.K., Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria. The government just fell. And we could go on and on, piling up just in the last century, even this century war, and hostility.
Why is this? Well, as Paul described, following humanity in Titus chapter three, verse three, he says, for we ourselves. We're once foolish and disobedient, let us stray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others, and hating one another. That's still between neighbors, it's nothing new.
It's a symptom of the selfishness and self-centeredness of the human heart. It's a symptom of our first parents falling to rebellion against God. When as a result, they turned on one another, and well, husbands and wives and parents and children and brothers and sisters and neighbors and neighbors have been doing so ever since. They're not taking up swords and machine guns.
But hating one another and being hated by one another, it's the unnatural condition of mankind. But it sure seems natural in the fallen world. Now, notice in this passage, of course, that the hostility is directed against the people of God. That's Michael's concern here.
It's a form of persecution against God's chosen ones. And this, too, actually, is as it has been since the beginning, when Cain killed Abel, when Pharaoh oppressed Israel, when Goliath fought David and the Philistines thought they could destroy Israel, and when Herod murdered the little baby boys under the age of two in the city seeking to kill their king before he grew up to reign. And notice not only the hostility here, Michael's concern, but the humiliation. The end of verse one, with the rod, they strike the judge of Israel, that is the head of the nation.
They strike him on the cheek. That's an act of humiliation. They publicly seek to put him to shame. One terrible example of that, which is described by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 39, which looks ahead to the Babylonian Empire, and it's war against the people of God and Judah.
When Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of kings at Achaia of Judah. He slaughtered the sons, and then he had the eyes of Zetachiah put out so that the last thing he really saw on the earth was the death of his sons, the death of his inheritance, the death of his dynasty, the death of the future reign of a king and his line for the people of God. And then he was exiled in humiliation, suffering. So we should pause and just remember that we should never be surprised by hostility, the hostility of the world against the church or the humiliation some might seek to inflict on the people of God, or the sense of helplessness that the people of God might have as these things wash over them, a sense of helplessness, but not notice Micah foretells, not hopelessness.
He also not only foretold this, trouble and distress, but he foretold the peacemaker who would come and rescue and restore God's people. Even when things are bad, God's people always have hope. And this is the hope that he gave them in verses two through five. Notice four or five things he tells us about the Messiah, the Savior, the Shepherd, who will rule over the people and will be their security and their strength.
The security and strength of all who trusted him. Notice this peacemaker, this Messiah who brings peace. Well, the first place, notice the birthplace of the peacemaker, verse two, but you, O Bethlehem Ephritha, who are too little to be among the claims of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel. Here, notice the city is called by two names, Bethlehem and Ephritha.
Ephritha is the ancient name of this small town, about five and a half miles or so south of Jerusalem. It's the ancient name since the days of Judah and Rachel, where she was buried there. And it's called Ephritha to distinguish it probably from, there was another little town called Bethlehem, way up in the north near Galilee. And so we know which Bethlehem we're talking about here, Bethlehem Ephritha.
And notice, as Ralph Davis says, its primary significance is its very insignificance. That is, it's a tiny little place called too little to be among the clans of Judah. What's that getting at? Well, historians, archaeologists, estimate that the population in the days of Jesus of this little town was between 300 people and maybe 1,000.
But it was so small and insignificant in the days of Micah and Israel before that it's not even enlisted in Joshua chapter 15, which is one of those chapters you're reading along and you discover that the inheritance is being rolled out to the 12 tribes in Israel. They're all getting there allotted places. And it will tell you, in those places, are well, these cities and towns. There are over 100 cities and towns mentioned that belong to Judah listed as their inheritance in Joshua 15.
And Bethlehem Ephritha isn't even among them, because it's too little even to be accounted among them. But don't despise the small, the obscure, and seemingly insignificant. And after all, the Apostle Paul tells us, first Corinthians 1, John often shows what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He actually says that about us, not many of us were wise in the eyes of the world or rich or famous or well-known or prominent, not many.
So I'm sure, praise the Lord. They can be safe too. But most of us were pretty nothing. Bethlehem was a tiny little town.
But out of it came the ruler over Israel, even Jesus. Now, we can add what Micah doesn't, that it was called in the days of Jesus the city of David, because David was a Bethlehemite, how fitting them that when God's people haven't had their own king to rule over them, for half a millennium, that the final king, great David's greater son, would likewise come from the city of David called Bethlehem, from you Bethlehem. Shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel. Now, it's interesting that this prophecy is actually quoted in Matthew chapter 2.
When the wise men, you remember, came from the east seeking the one born to be king of the Jews. Well, they inquired of Herod, where the king of the Jews was born, and Herod inquired of the chief priests and the scribes, because they understood the Bible, the scripture, and what they did is they quoted to him, Micah chapter 5, verse 2. Now, here's an interesting thing to note. Who quotes the passage from Micah 5 to Herod?
Is it Christians? Now, it's not the words of Christians. It's the words of Jewish interpreters of the scripture saying that the Messiah is to come to Bethlehem. And so you're seeing in that passage that even in Jesus' own day, it was the expectation of the Bible teachers, of the religious leaders, that the Messiah would, in fact, come from Bethlehem based on Micah chapter 5.
So that the prophecy isn't something made up by Christians long after the fact to embellish the resume of Jesus. No, it was a long, established fact of knowledge among the people, even before he came. Notice also the double emphasis here, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler. Who is he come for?
He's come for God. That is, yes, Jesus came for us. Yes, he is a manual. God with us.
Yes, his name, Jesus means the Lord saves because he will save his people from their sins. And that is a wonderful promise for you and for me. But God says, you know what? He came first and foremost for me, for my purposes, for my sake, because this was my desire.
One wonderful thing it is that God's desires are not at cross purposes with our best hopes. No, why are we here, ask the Westminster Shorter Catechism, to glorify God and to enjoy him forever? We're here for him. We're also here to be blessed by him and enjoy him.
We might ask, why did the Messiah come? To glorify God so that then we could enjoy him forever. So we see the birthplace here of the Messiah, the peacemaker, but then don't get the wrong impression. Even Micah doesn't want you to think that he begins to exist at his conception.
No, no, no. We're told the origin of this peacemaker, the end of verse two, when it says whose coming forth is from a fold, from ancient days. That is, his coming forth is from eternity. At least that's the typical meaning of the phrase ancient days.
That is, it's a statement of his origin, recognizing his ancient and eternal existence. Or one way to say it is he doesn't have an origin. He doesn't have a beginning. He has always and eternally ever been.
He was of course certainly born into this world as a baby, but the baby born in Bethlehem is a person who pre-existed Bethlehem. And pre-existed even the earth upon which Bethlehem is located. He created it. He stands apart from the world.
And why does that matter? Because then he can be the solution for the world. He isn't a product ultimately of the world's own dysfunction. He isn't a cog in the machine of the world.
How, after all, can any of us be the answer to our problem when we ourselves are the problem? But as an outsider to the dysfunction of humanity, that is, having been born into this world, born of a woman, truly human, certainly like us in every way, yet without sin, born as mankind ought to be, as mankind was in the garden before sin. And so he can be the solution to the dysfunction of humanity. Because he's outside it.
To enter into it, certainly to experience its miseries, but to rescue us from our sin. His coming forth is from ancient days, even from as Daniel calls God, the ancient of days. Then thirdly, notice the timing of his peace, verse 3. Therefore, he that is God shall give them, that is the people of God up.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Now some see Mary here, the virgin who was with child. Others see she who was in labor as the nation of Israel itself. That is a kind of national mother of the Messiah in a manner of speaking.
I don't feel strongly about either. I think both are true. What's clear is that God himself will give them up until the time of the Messiah's birth. That is, Micah is telling the people writing, and they don't know this, writing over 700 years before he comes, that things are going to get bad, but you do have hope.
And we're going to have to wait for him until he comes. And until he comes, it will seem like God has given up on his people. In fact, it will get so bad you might be tempted to think God has given his people over to their enemies forever. But that's not true, Micah tells them.
Ahead of time, just until, so to speak, the coming of the Messiah. So you'll have to wait in hope. And while many a generation died from the days of Micah on, without seeing the fulfillment of Micah foretold in this world, God did not die, but carried on his plan. And now we, on the other side of the first advent of Christ, can look back with confidence that God did exactly what he said he would do, so that when we face our own weight, now for the second advent of the Lord Jesus, his second coming, we wait like they waited, yet we wait for the second advent.
And as we wait, generation after generation dies. But we can wait in hope, even with a greater confidence than Micah's generation, because we've seen that God says he will do what he says, and the Messiah has come. Now, God doesn't always do what he says he's gonna do, according to our time frame, of course, according to our expectations. I mean, as Gandalf said to Frodo about wizards in the movie version of the Fellowship of the Ring, also also it is true of God.
Gandalf said a wizard is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to. Well, so is with the Lord Jesus.
So it was that Mary and Joseph, her husband, didn't she with the crows but had not yet slept? Well, they were living in Nazareth, and they traveled to Bethlehem, so 90 miles south just before she went into labor. How do you, I've never been pregnant, but Moenas had seven babies, you carried them before they were born. How do you get a pregnant woman who's near the term, to travel 90 miles on foot or by mule or by donkey or by anything, so she could be in Bethlehem, so her child, the Messiah, can be born in Bethlehem, as foretold.
I don't think they had a strategy for that because I'm not sure that they had themselves been explicitly told where they should go and what they should do, and we don't know if they themselves knew the prophecy. They were certainly up way up in Nazareth, 90 miles north. But if you're God, it's not that difficult. You just prompt Caesar Augustus, the emperor of Rome, to call for a census and demand that all the Jews go back to their ancestral home to be registered in their hometown, and since Joseph was of the house and lineage of David, they had to travel to Bethlehem and they did to register in the city of David, and so at just the right time for the birth of Jesus.
And then notice the rest of the timing mentioned in the passage at the end of verse three. It says, then, after she who is ready to give birth gives birth, then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. So here's the promise. The peacemaker is going to come and rule over to Israel.
It doesn't say actually say in Israel. He's going to rule over Israel and his brothers, his spiritual siblings, that is, in his spiritual family, will return to the people of Israel. That certainly includes the repentance of many Jews who believed in him, and especially after his resurrection. But it includes the Gentiles too, as Paul tells us in the book of Romans, for we who are Gentiles are grafted into Israel, so that there is one people of God under one ruling shepherd, Jesus.
And it's wonderful that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers. He comes first, and then his brothers, and we might say his brothers and sisters, return to the family. And for the last 2000 years, this is what has been taking place, a great reunion of the family entering by faith into the household of God, a reunion that continues until the whole number of the elect are safely brought home to the family of God. And so let me just ask you, have you yourself turned or returned to the Lord, and joined his family.
Turn to him. And you will find him, Jesus, to be your faithful, loving, patient, forgiving elder brother in the household of God. Well, that's a bit about the timing, but now notice the manner of his peace, verse four, and he shall stand, and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord, his God. That is, he brings peace because he stands and shepherds the flock.
That is, he's always on duty. He doesn't sleep, he doesn't slumber. He's never sitting down, never taking a break, never neglecting his work. That was reading of one of our former ministers from the 1800s, as some of them did when they took sabbatical, they traveled to Israel to see the old place.
And it cites it on Christmas Eve. He was approaching Bethlehem, to be there on Christmas Day. And the shepherds out in the fields, he said, well, you couldn't see them. They apparently had dug a hole or widened a hole in the cave, and they were all down inside.
And they weren't visible, which also means they couldn't themselves see what was going on. Probably some of them were sleeping. Maybe every now and then, one of them was popping up to take a peek. Jesus isn't like that.
He doesn't slumber, he doesn't sleep, he doesn't lie down to rest. His eyes are never diverted from the cares of his people. He stands and shepherds his flock. And how can he be so diligently so faithful?
Because he doesn't notice in the strength of the Lord, and in the name of the Lord. That is, though, he came in human flesh with all its weakness. He did not fail as others do. You remember the first Adam failed in his duty, but the second Adam never failed in his duty.
You remember Israel failed in her responsibilities, but this son of Israel, the new Israel, personified in one person, never failed in his responsibilities. And whereas you and I continually fail. He never does. Because he lived independence upon the strength of God, and relied upon the Spirit of God, and stood and shepherded in the strength of his God.
And notice the benefit of that for you. The strength of his rule guarantees the security of his people, middle verse four. And they shall dwell secure. Because he is strong, even the weak are safe.
John 10 assures us, Jesus assures us, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. The saints dwell secure in the strong hands of Jesus.
And as Hebrew 7 puts it, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. This is true for his people, no matter where you are. You don't actually have to be in Israel for him to be your shepherd. Look at the end of verse four.
For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. This is no shepherd merely come for that ancient people Israel. But this is a shepherd who has come to purchase people for God from every tribe, and tongue, and nation, and language, and he did. And so certainly the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover at sea.
And all who are brought in will never be cast off or stolen away. They enjoy lasting security. That's the manner of his peace. And notice finally the nature of this peace, verse five.
And he shall be their peace. That is, it's not merely that he brings peace or makes peace, or keeps peace, or gives peace. Though he does all those things. But he himself is our peace.
Now it's true, of course, that he made peace by the blood of the cross, and thereby reconciles sinners to God, all who come to God and him, are reconciled by the blood of the cross. And it's also true that we have faith in him, have been justified through faith, and having been acquitted of our sins, and accounted righteous in him through faith in him. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus. That is, we're no longer viewed as God's enemies, but we have been reconciled and made God's friends through Christ.
But it's also true that he does give us peace. Peace I leave with you, John 14. He said, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give you. But not your hearts be troubled. Neither let them be afraid. Oh, there are things that might trouble, and things that might make you afraid in this world.
But you can have peace in the midst of those things through the peace that he gives. And it's also true that his spirit lives in us, so that we bear fruit, not only of love and joy, but also peace. And it's also true, as Micah is saying, that all of this peace is established upon him, and found in him, he who is himself the prince of peace. It's not ancillary to who he is.
It's not a byproduct or a bonus or an addendum. It's basic. He himself is our peace. So that through faith in him, you, all of you, through faith in him, through union with him, all of you who trusted in him are bound up with this prince of peace, and you shall have peace forevermore.
That's good news. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the gift of your own beloved son. May your benediction, your blessing of grace and peace, the wholeness of life and health forevermore, be ours in him and that hope sustain us in this world, in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Let's stand together and sing.