But You, O Bethlehem

Chuckle: "A young preacher who was a guest preacher for a city church, in the absence of the pastor, prayed thusly for the pastor: 'May the pastor of this church be filled with fresh veal and zigor!"

Quote: "Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is so gentle as real strength." --Ralph W. Sockman

"But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past" (Micah 5:2 NLT).

Today, we hear the prophetic voices from 700 B.C., foretelling not only the birth of Jesus, but the very village where He would be born. Ephrathah was the district in which Bethlehem was located. This is just one more tile in the mosaic of prophecy pointing to the day when God Himself, in the form of His Son, would enter our world as flesh and blood to live among us and to identify with us.

The promised "ruler" is Jesus, the Messiah. The promised eternal King would be from the lineage of King David, who would come to live as a man. Bethlehem was also the place of David's birth and his ancestors lived there. "This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of King David and of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1 NLT).

Jesus' existence can be traced to a time before the world was created. His eternal presence is revealed by the apostle John: "In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:1-3 NLT). Although eternal, Jesus Christ entered the stage of human history as the Christ Child, Jesus of Nazareth.

So, the prophecy of Micah helps us understand God's master plan for His Son to enter the world as a human being in the most humble of circumstances. Jesus made His entry into the world by being born in a stable to poverty-stricken parents in a small village called Bethlehem. There He was placed in an animal feed trough called a manger. This is the way God chose to send the King of Kings and Lord of Lords into this world to save us from the penalty of our sins and to give us the best life here on earth. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10 NIV).

Love, Jerry & Dotse