‘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.’
Micah 5:2 NIVUK
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: ‘ “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”’
Matthew 2:3-6 NIVUK
Much of modern European history turns on the fateful day of 26th April 1986. That is the day when the Chernobyl 4 nuclear reactor blew up, hurling a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere that ruined both lives and livelihoods.
It isn’t safe to go to Chernobyl. Every visitor there takes a Geiger counter to measure their radiation dosage. It is a place of death and desolation.
And yet only a few years ago, the United Nations Environmental Programme wrote this about Chernobyl:
Researchers have found the land surrounding the plant, which has been largely off limits to humans for three decades, has become a haven for wildlife, with lynx, bison, deer and other animals roaming through thick forests. This so-called Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ), which covers 2,800 square km of northern Ukraine, now represents the third-largest nature reserve in mainland Europe and has become an iconic – if accidental – experiment in rewilding.
So in a place linked with mass deaths and poisoned for generations, nature is fighting back.
And winning.
What we see here in these verses is something that, although not quite as unlikely as Chernobyl recovering, is still completely unexpected.
So let’s start our examination of this very famous verse by looking at the place.
For us, Bethlehem is indelibly inked with the birth of Jesus. And also tourism. Many thousands of tourists flock there every year. And perhaps also archaeology.
What we don’t realise is that it had a reputation before Jesus was born there.
And it wasn’t altogether good.
This town was originally founded by Canaanites. Its first name was ‘Bit-Lahmi’, meaning ‘Temple of Lahmi’ – Lahmi being a Canaanite fertility god. It was only when the Israelites conquered Canaan that its name was changed to ‘Bet Lehem’, meaning ‘House of Plenty’, or ‘House of Food’.
So basically the Israelites had kept the name, and changed it a little to disassociate it from the pagan worship that had gone on there.
Maybe you’re wondering why I’m dipping into the etymology of the name ‘Bethlehem’. Look at the verse. Micah calls this town: ‘Bethlehem Ephrathah’, which means ‘House of Plenty’ and ‘Place of Fruitfulness’. What happens when places are recognised as being full of plenty and fruitfulness? They get bigger. They become greater. People flock to them for a better life.
But that wasn’t happening to Bethlehem.
It was among the smallest and the least of the clans of Judah.
Bethlehem was a historically significant place for the Jews.
Rachel, the most beloved of Jacob’s wives, died there (Genesis 35:19).
Ruth, the great-grandmother of Israel’s greatest king, met her husband Boaz there, and Boaz had been born there (see Ruth).
David was from there, and was called from there (1 Samuel 16).
When he was on the run from Saul, three of his mighty men broke through enemy lines and brought him a drink from the well in Bethlehem (2 Samuel 23:13-17, 1 Chronicles 11:15-19).
Yet for all its historical significance, Bethlehem was still considered the least – and the least significant – of all the towns of Judah.
Why?
Perhaps because it’s glory days were, at this point in history, all in the past. Perhaps because it had a reputation, but that reputation was no longer deserved.
Perhaps because it was now a disappointment.
When I was a teenager, a band from Glasgow by the name of Del Amitri were very popular, despite most of their songs being quite depressing. But they wrote one song with a chorus that is very appropriate for this verse:
Look into the mirror
Do you recognise someone?
Is it who you always hoped you would become
When you were young?
This requires searing, white-hot honesty. Do you feel like a Bethlehem today: someone whose best days are behind them, who is coasting by on a reputation that is no longer deserved? When you look in the mirror, do you have that nagging feeling that you are no longer the person you need to be?
Then this message is for you. Because we have seen the place – a disappointing small town that had seen better days. Now let’s see the person.
Someone was coming that would change everything.
There is a small international airport in Ayrshire, Scotland. It’s an odd place, to be honest. It used to be an air force base, so it has a massive runway which, for many years, was the only place in Scotland that a jumbo jet could land (this is no longer the case), a tiny warehouse-like terminal building and oddly good transportation connections, yet not very many flights per day.
However, Prestwick airport has one outstanding claim to fame. It is the only place in the UK where Elvis Presley set foot. Because, on 3rd March 1962, while the airport was still a US Air Force base, Elvis’ plane stopped at Prestwick for a refuelling break to take him home from his army posting in Germany.
One man's visit made a small town famous.
Christmas did that to Bethlehem.
But why?
Because of who came:
Jesus.
And these verses make plain who Jesus is:
He is the Messiah.
In fact, during the Christmas story, when Herod is seeking information from the Jewish scribes with the expressed intention of killing Jesus, they quote this verse:
When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: ‘ “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”’
Matthew 2:4-6 NIVUK
Moreover, it is quite remarkable that Jesus was born there to fulfil these verses, because His earthly mother and father were not from Bethlehem – they were Galileans, but related to David by birth. And the Bible is clear: God was prepared to go to the extent of manipulating the will of a pagan dictator and use his greatly despised poll tax to send Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem:
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.
Luke 2:1-4 NIVUK
This is nothing short of remarkable: that God would bend the will of a cruel, hard-hearted emperor like Caesar Augustus and use him to fulfil the Divine Plan. And yet that is exactly what He did.
Moreover, this prophecy is absolutely Messianic in nature. Verse 4 goes on to say this:
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 NIVUK
In other words, He will be a shepherd-king, just like his ancestor David. And what had Jesus to say about this?
‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:11 NIVUK
Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’ ‘Am I a Jew?’ Pilate replied. ‘Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?’ Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’
John 18:33-36 NIVUK
Jesus subtly and determinedly declares Himself to be the shepherd-king – the greater David – who will rescue His people from their greatest enemy. And just in case there is any doubt:
The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you – I am he.’
John 4:25-26 NIVUK
So this insignificant town, which had long seen better days and whose reputation was fading fast, will be the place where everything the Jews have longed for over centuries will finally take place – the Messiah will come.
The redemption of Bethlehem leads to our redemption.
So we see the place – a historical town whose glory had long faded – and we’ve seen the person – the Messiah and Saviour of the world. But these verses also speak of a plan. They say they Jesus’ origins are of old, from ancient times.
For that to be true, God’s plan must not be something that He scribbled down quickly on a napkin in a crowded restaurant, or sketched out quickly on a blackboard.
No, this plan was thoroughly premeditated.
And the New Testament agrees with this:
In the beginning was the Word, 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 NIVUK
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:15-20 NIVUK
This verse, in a relatively obscure minor prophet that we quickly skip over to get to the ‘good’ bits of the Bible, does not stand alone. The whole counsel of Scripture teaches that from the very beginning it was always God’s purpose to redeem us from our sins and failures. Always. He has never intended – not even for one millisecond – to leave us to rot in our own filth and shame.
The God who turned around the ‘Little Town of Bethlehem’ decided from the beginning of time that He would offer us the same opportunity.
And that is what Christmas is all about. It is about Jesus coming to this earth to make all things new – to make us new.
All we have to do is let Him.
When I was a boy, I would never have dreamed of getting off the train at Finnieston in Glasgow. Finnieston had been an industrial site. There had been shipyards and a dock there. But the shipyards shut down when they could no longer build ships with a deep enough draught because of the depth of the River Clyde. And so Finnieston became a picture of post-industrial poverty.
Until Glasgow City Council came up with a superb idea. Firstly, they cleaned up the site. Secondly, they had a garden festival on the site – and that really was something very special.
Then they got sponsors and built a huge exhibition and concert space.
Now the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre has three great venues, is regularly packed and brings in millions to the city budget every year. They even held a UN Climate Change conference there.
All it took was someone with a vision for change.
Christmas is not just about celebrating traditions, whether in our culture, our church or our family. If that is all it’s about, then we have totally missed the point.
Christmas is about change: about God recognising our needy state and coming down to raise us up. Christmas is about second chances: about getting the chance to live again.
Christmas is the time when God took a poor town with a poor reputation, sent His Son to be born there and changed everything for it.
And this Christmas, He can do the same for you.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, forgive me if I have been coasting by on a past reputation that is no longer deserved. I confess this to You and ask that You would come into my heart this Christmas and renew me once more. Amen.
Questions
1. What do we know about Bethlehem? Why did God choose this place for the Messiah to be born? What does this teach us about what He can do for us?
2. Are you living off a past reputation that is no longer deserved? How can you change this?
3. How does the fact that God planned your salvation from all eternity make you feel?
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