Text : Micah 5:1-6 ; Matthew 2:1-6
Title : God brings Ultimate Significance out of
Insignificance and Weakness!
Merry Christmas everyone! We, of all
people have a strong reason to say this, for with Christ’s birth everything has changed for us. The
true Light has come into the
world , and as Isaiah says : “ The
people who walked in darkness have seen
a great light ; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has
shined” (9:2). Like the Shepherds we
have seen Christ by faith. We have believed
that He is God’s Messiah who deals
effectively with the sin of the
world (and my sin) , now and in the days
to come. He was born to deal with the oppression that the fall
has brought about . He was born to deal with our great adversary , Satan
. He was born to set us free ; He was born to
make us holy ; He was born to take us to heaven.
On this Christmas morning I have chosen for
us Micah
5:1-6 , a well- known text from the OT. It is a well
known, but also a very obscure text, which if you would read without understanding
the immediate context (the days that Micah prophesied) , or within the greater context ( the Bible) , it would leave you confused.
So what I want to do is to help us to understand the historical context. From there I want you to see that God
delights to glorify Himself through what
appears to be weak and foolish, and then by way of application send you away with a
strengthened confidence that
you may indeed continue to
have strong confidence and trust
in Christ’s person and work for you and for the world !
THE
CONTEXT :
v.1. Micah prophesies in the same days as Isaiah (1:1). He observes
the present distress of Israel -in this
case the Assyrian invasion of 701 B.C. "With a rod
they strike the judge (ruler/ king) of Israel on the cheek"
, is an image of Hezekiah's total humiliation before the Assyrians (see 2 Kings 18 ; Isaiah 36). At this
time even mighty Babylon (see reference to the
land of Nimrod in v.6)
was in subjection to Assyria.
"Muster
your troops", is a summons not
to lose hope, but to exercise faith against all hope, for Micah says
that God will intervene in due time.
v.2 It is
therefore in the context of
Israel's humiliation and the demonstration of her powerlessness against Assyria
that this great messianic
prophecy is given. God will send a ruler,
a king “ whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.” He will come from the house of David, which presently in
701 BC is a former shadow of itself. In her own strength she cannot stand before her enemy.
v.3 & 4 : This time of weakness will last until the Messiah comes. What may surprise
you is that we are talking here about a period of 700 years from this prophecy to the birth of Jesus
the Messiah. That may sound like
eternity. Remember however that God's
timing is very different to ours. The apostle Peter reminds us in this regard that we should not overlook this one fact …
“that with the Lord one day
is as a thousand years and a
thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some
count slowness, but is patient to you…” (2 Peter 3:9,10) . Don’t be tempted to think
of everything in terms of the scope of
our own lives. God sees history on a
much grander scale! You and I are
reminded that we are not infinite. Our lives in the grander scheme of things are of minute proportion.
So , Micah says that when
the Messiah comes, the effects
shall be apparent: He will
shepherd His flock ; they shall be secure … He will be their peace ! The
"rest of his brothers" most likely refers to the ingathering of the Gentiles - a process already underway, but yet to be consummated in history.
v.5
&6 "The
Assyrian" represents the enemies of the kingdom of God. Understand that the future is presented here in the terms of the prophets' own world and experience. But
what is clear from Micah’s
prophecy and from the message of the
entire Bible is that the victory and the rule and the kingdom will be Christ's ! Naturally
He will accomplish this
through the involvement and
participation of His people and His leaders. He uses
Abraham, and Moses and the
Judges of Israel . He even uses pagan
kings ( e.g. Cyrus in Isaiah 45) to accomplish His purposes. God
will raise up people to do whatever He desires . “ Seven” (v.5) is the number of perfection and “eight” is one more than that! The Messiah's kingdom
will have all the leaders we need and the very best of them; the enemy will be
no match for them. Jesus will
reign! All this actually needs to be read in wider context e.g. Micah 4
where we read of the golden
age ushered in by the Messiah. The
golden age is the messianic age, the
consummation of the kingdom of God in the world will be brought to pass by the
rule of this coming King.
I trust
that you are beginning to see something
that you haven’t perhaps consciously seen before . This is all happening now! The
Messiah has come. His kingdom is forcefully advancing in this world amidst many enemies. Don’t
get lost in the details . Don’t let wars in Syria and Mali detract you. Don’t let the corruption of
governments and of people steal your joy. You need to hear and see the
Bible's great vision concerning the reign of Christ in this world and through His church.
Wherever He comes into the life
of people and communities He brings peace. Swords are beaten to plowshares and spears into pruning hooks (Micah 4:3) . The body of Christ is the army of God that pulls down the
stronghold of the enemy who is
symbolically here the Assyrian.
That is what we see here before us in the prophecy of Micah . And what I want
you to see now is that God brings
life out of insignificance and obscurity. You can only see this by faith through the careful meditation
upon the Word of God , and with the help of the Holy Spirit, who opens our spiritual eyes to these things.
If you do not see this by faith , you
will miss it. Unfortunately we fallen human beings are always looking for the “WOW” factor
. That is what the Pharisees and scribes
and people of Israel were looking for –
a Jewish ruler who would conquer the nations for the glory of Israel . That was not God’s plan
at all !
A
surprising Observation : The Messiah will conquer through Insignificance !
The chief priests and the scribes in
Matthew 2 knew that Micah 5 was a
clear reference to the Messiah. So when
Herod the king wanted to know where
this messianic King was to be born
(after the visit of the three wise men from the east) , King Herod was plainly
told : He will be born in Bethlehem! So it was written by the prophet.
So it
was determined in the holy Scriptures by
the God who
holds the future of the world and all its peoples in His hand. And in this regard He had predestined that His eternal Son would be miraculously was born in Bethlehem.
His mother would be an
insignificant peasant woman
from Nazareth. She became pregnant
by divine design.
The human reason why Jesus was born in Bethlehem (and not in Nazareth in Galilee) was because of a decree
that went out from the Roman Caesar
Augustus, that all the world should be
registered. This required each head of the household to return to his place of
birth. Joseph the husband of Mary needed to return to Bethlehem
with his young family, and with a
highly pregnant Mary. And so it came to pass that Jesus
of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem, and not in Nazareth.
The divine reason why Jesus
was born in Bethlehem was according to God’s design .
This is what He had put into the mouth of
His servant Micah. Not Caesar Augustus , not Quirinius the governor of Syria , not King
Herod the present corrupt king of Israel whose design it was to kill
Jesus could resist this divine design. It had to happen as the
prophet had said ! Christ had to be born
in Bethlehem , the city of David
But not only did the chief priests and the scribes know this. It appears as if many
of the common people of Israel also knew this ! Once
, when people were divided in their
opinion about who Jesus was, some
observed: "Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of
David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" (John
7:42).
So both the spiritual leaders and the people
knew that Micah 5 predicted the coming of the Ruler – Messiah who would be king
in Israel. He would come at a time when
Israel was politically insignificant and downtrodden. This was substantially
true for these 700 years. What they could not see because of the darkness of their
own hearts was that this insignificant baby born to insignificant parents in an
insignificant town, in an insignificant stable was much more, and infinitely more
than they with human eyes and reason could conceive.
Application:
Dear people, don’t stumble at the thought of insignificance and obscurity. Don’t look for the WOW factor. Look for the
faithful, consistent testimony of Scripture
concerning the true nature of the
Messiah in His humble birth , His humble
life and terrible death.
Why does God do this? Because He will share His glory with no one else! When God acts, no man will have reason to boast. Note – God chooses Bethlehem and not Jerusalem!
In fact, the city of Jerusalem becomes the city of shame. She not
only killed the prophets in her long history,
but she became the city of the earthly grave of the Messiah. She was the city that Jesus wept
over. She was the city that submitted Him to the cruelest torture and forms of execution.
In Bethlehem, God did not choose the local Hilton hotel. As a
matter of fact the was no room at the local inn
(because so many others had come to register). God chose a stable for His
Son to be born in. No one gets
the glory. No one gets to sainthood
because they made space in their
home for a humble family from Nazareth
who had come to be registered in the
census.
God glorifies Himself in the things that are not. He comes to us through the despised and the insignificant –
and THAT is the reason why most people cannot see Him! To most people this is
offensive and scandalous’
This is precisely what the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in 1
Corinthians 1:27-31 :
But
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is
weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose 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. And because of him you
are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who
boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Invitation
And now,
I call upon you on this Christmas
day to
put your faith fully in Christ.
·
Do
not be intimidated by Christ’s obscurity
in the Scriptures. Marvel that you are able to see Him in these sacred pages.
·
Do
not look for more than what is revealed.
Don’t look for the WOW factor.
Trust Him with all your heart. What He
has showed you now is sufficient.
·
Do
not be intimidated by the picture that this world presents to you in the daily
news. Remember that God promised Micah to deliver His people in the worst of times . He does it again and
again. In fact , the time when Christ came
was the worst of times for Israel as they were groaning under the Roman
yoke.
·
Do
not be surprised that the church suffers in the midst of all these things. In
the midst of all these things God (Immanuel) is with us! Remember that Jesus said in John’s gospel : “
In this world you will have trouble , but
take heart, I have overcome the world.”
·
Remember that God
will get the glory. Not towns and
cities, not human kings - no
one shares His glory! The angels had it right : "Glory to God in the highest!" Not glory to us.
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