I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Micah 5:1-5a
Micah
5:1 Marshal your troops now, city of troops,
for a siege is laid against us.
They
will strike Israel’s ruler
on the cheek with a rod.
2
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans[b] 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.”
3
Therefore Israel will be abandoned
until the time when she who is in labor
bears a son,
and
the rest of his brothers return
to join the Israelites.
4
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.
5a
And he will be our peace
-- a few years ago, we took a trip
to Yellowstone National Park -- Kim and Judie had already been there before --
and so had Mama and Daddy -- and so I had all these stories and expectations on
what Yellowstone would look like and what I would see when I got there
-- we spent days driving across the
country to get there -- fighting traffic and sleeping in cheap hotels and eating
at crowded fast food restaurants -- but, finally, came the day I had been
anticipating for a long, long time -- we pulled up to the gate at Yellowstone
and showed our National Park Pass to the ranger at the gate -- she handed us a
couple maps of the park and told us to enjoy ourselves -- and we passed into
Yellowstone
-- and, it wasn’t what I expected --
I was expecting wilderness grandeur -- I was expecting isolated vistas -- herds
of animals -- and no people -- but that’s not what I found -- it was all paved
roads with lots of cars and lots of people -- there were long periods of just
following a line of twenty vehicles through the park at 5 miles an hour, vainly
looking for animals out the window
-- every now and then, you’d see a
crowd of people gathered up -- you’d see cars pulled over on the side of the
road and people everywhere and others parking and running to the site -- and we
quickly learned to do the same because that meant there would be a bison or an
elk or some other animal that we could see
-- it was a little disconcerting --
even when we’d stop to look at waterfalls or the many volcanic hot springs, we
had to fight crowds of people on trails and boardwalks -- all walking together
and talking loudly and stopping to take pictures or videos, regardless of what
anyone else was doing or if they were in your way or not -- it was simply not
what I imagined -- it was not the serene mountain grandeur -- the peace and
quiet and solitude I had expected
-- but there was one stop at a
waterfall that I went to alone -- it was well off the road, about a mile or so
down a trail -- we parked there and I got out of the vehicle and left the
others there and started on the trail -- and for the first time in days, I
experienced the peace and silence I had been longing for -- I was the only one
on the trail and the birds were singing and the wind was gently blowing and I
couldn’t hear the cars on the road -- I made my way to the waterfall and stood
there in the silence, watching the cascading water and listening to the sound
of it rushing through the gorge -- finally, I had found what I had been looking
for and hoping for the whole time
-- my experience in Yellowstone is
an apt illustration of our lives here on earth -- we rush through our lives,
surrounded by noise and the hustle and bustle of life -- we experience discord
and disharmony -- we have conflict and natural disasters -- we go through life
in constant stress and strife, but always looking for -- always hoping for --
peace and security that we never can seem to find
-- but the Bible promises that one
day, we will find peace and security -- one day, the conflicts will all end --
sin and death and our sin-cursed flesh will go away -- the curse will be lifted
-- and we will experience life as God intended
-- that is the day we long for --
that is the day we hope for -- that is the day that Micah speaks of here in
this passage as he prophesies the coming of the Messiah
II. Scripture Lesson (Micah 5:1-5a)
-- look back with me now at Micah 5,
beginning in verse 1
1 Marshal your troops now, city of troops,
for a siege is laid against us.
They will strike Israel’s ruler
on the cheek with a rod.
-- Micah is one of the twelve minor
prophets in the Old Testament -- and they’re called “minor” prophets, not
because their messages were minor, but because of the length of their books --
the books of the minor prophets contain only a handful of chapters as compared
to the major prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah -- but their prophecies are some
of the most notable in the whole Bible
-- Micah was a prophet during the
time the nation of Israel was divided into two countries -- Israel, or Samaria,
to the north and Judah in the south -- living in Judah during the reign of Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, he prophesied the coming destruction of both these nations
because of their idolatry and evil practices
-- in fact, that’s exactly what is
being prophesied in verse 1 -- in this verse, Micah is telling the city of
Jerusalem to get ready for war -- that a siege was coming against them -- and
that Israel’s ruler would be struck on the cheek with a rod -- meaning that
both Israel and Judah would be utterly conquered and destroyed
-- and we know from history that
this happened -- Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and Judah by the
Babylonians -- and their people were carried off into captivity in these
respective countries
-- this was a hard time for the
Israelites -- even the days leading up to the final siege of Jerusalem were
times of war and conflict -- famine was common and people were hungry and
destitute and worried -- they saw no hope -- they saw no future -- and their
fears were realized when Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem and destroyed
it in 587 BC, about two hundred years after Micah wrote these words
--
this was a hard prophecy that foretold of trouble and war and hostility for the
Jewish people -- this was the setting and context into which the next verse was
spoken
-- verse 2 -- “But…”
-- stop right there -- that is one
of my favorite words in scripture -- “but”
-- do you know what that word means?
-- it means something is changing -- it means that God is putting a comma where
we have put a period
-- for the people of Israel living
in the reality of Micah’s prophecy -- experiencing war and conflict and
violence -- going about their day with little food and no money -- they had no
hope -- they longed for peace and security -- they longed for an end to the
conflict -- they longed for better days and the restoration of Israel -- but
their hope was exhausted and they were on the verge of giving up -- they looked
around them and said, “Nothing is ever going to be right again”
-- but then the Lord God Almighty
Himself spoke from heaven and said, “Yes, this is what you are suffering as a
consequence of your sins against Me, but…
-- But…I am going to do something -- I am going to change your lives
-- I am going to make a difference and a way and a hope where you had none
before -- yes, you’re living this way now, but
just see what I am about to do”
-- read the whole verse with me now
2 “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.”
-- one thing to note here is that
verse 2 is a direct quote from God Himself -- if you’ll notice in your Bible,
this verse is in quotes -- these are not the words of Micah, but the words of
God Himself speaking to Micah -- God is speaking hope directly to the people of
Israel in the midst of their captivity and sins -- in this verse, God promises
the coming of the Messiah -- the Savior who will save the people from their
sins and restore Israel once again
-- we learn here that the Savior
will be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah -- a little town just outside of Jerusalem
-- out of this insignificant little village will come the One who will be the Savior
and Ruler over Israel -- whose coming was ordained from eternity itself
-- there are several things that we
need to see in this familiar Messianic prophecy that foretells the birth of
Jesus in Bethlehem at Christmas -- first, you’ll notice that the Messiah is
called the “ruler” and not the “king” -- that’s intentional -- there were pagan
associations with the term king, and it was Israel’s desire for a human king
that led to its eventual downfall -- this tells us that the Messiah is not
going to be an earthly king, but a ruler over His people like God -- ruling
with righteousness and holiness and justice
-- next, if you’ll notice there, the
Messiah will be ruler “over” Israel -- not “in” Israel -- this implies the
breadth of His reign -- He will rule over all the people of God, not just the
Jews and not just the people who are in the land of Israel itself -- His kingdom
will be greater than that of a single earthly nation -- His kingdom will
encompass all Creation and extend past the borders of Israel to the heavens and
the earth
-- and, finally, we see that the
coming of the Messiah was part of God’s will and purpose even before the
beginning of time -- this verse says that the Messiah will come out of
Bethlehem “for Me” -- for God -- the coming of the Messiah had been decreed by
God in the very beginning -- “from ancient times” -- what that means is that
even before the fall of man in the Garden of Eden -- even before the universe
was created -- God had ordained the coming of the Messiah who would rule over
Israel and all creation as the Lord and Savior and Deliverer of the world
-- “from ancient times” is better
translated as “from eternity” -- the Hebrew word used for “eternity” here was
only used in association with God Himself -- and when God says that the
Messiah’s origins are from of old, that makes it clear that the Messiah is none
other than God Himself -- the second person of the Holy Trinity -- Christ Jesus
-- this means that the One who will
be born in Bethlehem will be the eternal Son of God -- not an earthly king, as
the Israelites expected
-- this verse also makes it clear
that the Messiah was the ruler from time immortal -- from eternity -- in other
words, the Messiah who is being born in Bethlehem will not “become” the ruler
of Israel -- He has always been God and King since before there even was an
Israel or a world -- this prophecy is a realization of the coming of the King
to be our Immanuel -- God with us here on earth
-- verse 3
3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned
until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
to join the Israelites.
-- Micah prophesies here that Israel
will be abandoned -- despite what the other so-called prophets were saying in
his day, the nation would not survive -- they would be defeated -- they would
be destroyed -- God would, in essence, abandon them to the consequences of
their sins
-- time and time again, the nation
of Israel turned away from God -- they chose their own way -- they worshiped
idols in His place -- and they refused to put their faith and trust in God --
choosing to depend on foreign kings and idols for their deliverance -- because
of this, Micah writes, God is going to withdraw His presence from them and
leave them to their fate
-- in a similar way, when the Jewish
leaders rejected Jesus as their Messiah, God abandoned them by withdrawing His
presence from them and turning His attention to the Gentiles and to the Church
of Christ -- this will remain the case until the end times -- the time of
Jacob’s trouble -- the Tribulation period described in the book of Revelation
-- when the Jewish people will finally repent of their sin of unbelief and turn
back to God and to the true Messiah
-- Micah tells us that the time will
come when the “rest of his brothers will return to join the Israelites” -- this
foretells the time when the church of Christ will be united with the Messianic
Jews from the Tribulation period in the Millennial Kingdom -- the thousand-year
reign of Christ on earth
-- verse 4
4 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.
5a And he will be our peace
-- as you know, we are in the season
of Advent -- that word means “coming” -- and at this time of the year, we
celebrate the coming of Christ at Christmas -- the birth of the Messiah in the
little town of Bethlehem
-- but Micah speaks here of the
second Advent -- the return of the King -- the time when Christ will come again
and usher in His reign here on earth -- there are a couple characteristics of
the Messiah that we need to note in these verses
-- first, Micah tells us that the
Messiah will be our Shepherd -- this speaks of the role of the Messiah as our
ruler and our King -- it tells of how He will lead us and guide us and protect
us
-- Jesus made note of this in John
10:11 when He proclaimed to the people of Israel, “I am the Good Shepherd”
-- by using the phrase, “I Am” -- ego
eimi -- Jesus was declaring Himself divine -- saying He was the “I Am” --
the God who appeared to Moses in the Old Testament
-- He went on to say that He was “the
good shepherd" -- not "a" shepherd -- not just "I am the
shepherd" -- but "I am the GOOD shepherd"
-- by phrasing it this way, Jesus was
claiming the Messianic prophecy of Micah as His own -- He was claiming Himself
the Messiah -- it all goes back to that word, “Good”
-- remember the story of the rich
young ruler who came up to Jesus and wanted to know
how
to inherit eternal life? -- He greets Jesus as "Good teacher" -- and Jesus
responds by saying, "Why do you call me good? -- no one is good, except
God alone"
-- Jesus gets to the heart of the
matter -- to be good is to be God -- and if the young man wanted to inherit
eternal life -- if he wanted to enter into God's kingdom, then he had to
recognize Jesus as being more than just an upstanding moral teacher -- as more
than a man who knew God -- he had to recognize that Jesus was good -- that
Jesus was God
-- so, in John 10:11, when Jesus
says, “I am the good shepherd,” He is saying He is God and He is our Ruler --
He is proclaiming Himself as the Messiah -- the Shepherd prophesied by Micah
who would come to take care of His people as a shepherd looked after his flock
-- caring for them -- providing for them -- protecting them from all harm --
and keeping them safe and secure in His loving arms
-- the second characteristic of the
Messiah Micah mentions here is that we will live securely in the presence of
the Messiah and He will be our peace
-- we live in an insecure time -- I
remarked to Kim just a couple days ago about how I had no idea what I was doing
-- I had no idea what was going on in the world -- I had no idea what was going
to happen in the future -- it was all just up in the air and uncertain
-- with the coronavirus and the
election and the cyberwarfare and the natural disasters and everything else
going on, I feel less secure than ever before -- right now I can’t tell you if
the Government is going to shut down and if I’m going to go without a paycheck
for a few weeks or no -- I have no security in life at the moment -- no safe
harbor -- no rock to hold onto
-- I keep looking around for a
responsible adult to show me what to do -- to come in and take care of things
and make everything right again
-- that’s what the Messiah does --
that’s what knowing the Messiah does for us -- that’s what our faith gives us
-- security and peace and rest in His presence
-- Micah tells us that we can rest
secure because of the greatness of Christ and His kingdom -- we can rest secure
because we believe in the Messiah who will come again to establish His kingdom
and make all things right -- even now, in the midst of the chaos and
uncertainty of this world, we can rest secure in Him because we know He holds
all things and is looking out for us and interceding for us at the right hand
of God the Father Almighty
III. Closing
-- finally, Micah says that the
Messiah would be our peace
-- a couple weeks ago, we talked
about the prophecy from Isaiah that the Messiah would be known as the Prince of
Peace -- and how the peace that He brings with Him is the peace of shalom --
the peace of wholeness -- not just the absence of conflict, but the tangible
feeling of peace that fills us when all is right -- when all is restored --
when the curse is lifted once and for all
-- peace throughout eternity --
peace with God -- peace with men -- and peace within ourselves
-- the world hungers for this peace
-- we see that when we open our newspapers or the internet news sites and see
story after story of wars and rumors of war -- of crime and violence and
destruction -- the world longs for a true and lasting peace
-- it is the hope of that peace and
security that we find at Christmas, wrapped up in a baby born in a manger who
died for our sins on the cross of Calvary -- who rose from the dead on the
third day to ascend to the right hand of God the Father Almighty -- and who
promises to come back again one day -- He is the source of our security -- He
is the source of our peace -- for both are found only in the person of the
Messiah, Christ Jesus
-- this week, we will celebrate
Christmas -- this week, we will celebrate the coming of life and love and peace
into the world -- this week, we will celebrate the birth of our Savior even as
we look forward to the coming again of Jesus as our Lord and our King and our
Good Shepherd
-- we are the people of Christmas --
we are the people who hold within us the peace and hope that this world
desperately needs now -- it is up to us to help people see past the hustle and
bustle of the season -- past the conflict and the uncertainty of these dark
days -- and to help them see the light of the Lord Jesus Christ -- our Savior
and our God and our King
-- so, as we close now, remember the
words of the prophet Micah -- seek the peace you have from Christ deep within your
heart -- and share that peace with all you meet this week so that they might
come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, too
-- let us pray
