Advent: A Ruler from Bethlehem

The Christmas Carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, captures the thrust of the prophecy in Micah 5:

“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.” (Micah 5:2)

Bethlehem Ephrathah, a small and seemingly insignificant clan in Judah, we are told will be the source of significant change for Israel. The town was just 5 miles south of the great city of Jerusalem, which had been given the vision of the nations streaming to it to worship the LORD, leading to worldwide peace (Micah 4:1-5). This is a tremendous vision but the values God requires of his people “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8) were lacking.

This vision is therefore pushed into the future but not dismissed! Micah 5 starts with Jerusalem sieged and about to be humiliated because of the people’s sin. Verse 2 begins with “But” – with God there is always a but! Hope will come surprisingly from outside. God says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah… out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Like David who was from Bethlehem, least and a nobody forgotten by his father when the prophet Samuel came to choose the new king, the Messiah will come and rule for God.

In contrast to the main city and its present distress, lowly Bethlehem will produce a Messiah, a king who will triumph and reverse the defeat of Micah 5:1. For us, we read this prophecy with the Messiah having now come. His name is Jesus. Bethlehem was chosen by God to display Jesus’ inauspicious and most auspicious origins, which go back not only to David but even to eternity. He too was considered a nobody, despised and rejected (Isaiah 53). But Jesus, transforming our hearts to embrace his values, is the way the great vision will become a reality.

“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.” (Micah 5:4)

The writer of O Little Town of Bethlehem, Phillips Brooks, visited Bethlehem in 1865. He was inspired by the peaceful and humble atmosphere of the town, which was then under Ottoman rule, and he wrote the carol as a reflection on the birth of Jesus.

As we approach Christmas, let us reflect on the richness of the lines,

“Yet in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light;
the hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.

We hear the Christmas angels,
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Emmanuel!”