Micah 5:2

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2008

Introduction

One of the many prophecies that told of a coming Savior came from the prophet Micah, who wrote about 700 years before Christ.

The prophecy was that the Savior would come from a small town named Bethlehem.

(Micah 5:2) "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."

Bethlehem –Beyth Lechem – “house of bread”

Ephrathah – ‘Ephraath – “place of fruitfulness”; this was an ancient name for Bethlehem (Gen. 35:19)

little – tsa‘iyr – little, insignificant, young

Bethlehem (Google Earth footage) has never been a huge city. Six miles to the north of Bethlehem is the city of Jerusalem with 750,000 people. Fullerton has 125,000 people. Today Bethlehem has a population of 30,000 people.

This little place was the place where Jacob’s wife Rachel died and was buried.

Bethlehem was the birthplace of David the shepherd boy, and the place where the prophet Samuel anointed David to be king.

Bethlehem was where Jesus would be born, 700 years after the prophecy of Micah.

Lesson

God uses little things

Gideon faced an army of 150,000 Midianites and was told to gather his own army. He was able to get 32,000 men together. God told Gideon that he had too many people. It wasn’t until Gideon got his army down to a LITTLE group of 300 men that God was able to work and bring a great deliverance.

When the Jews came back from the Babylonian captivity and began to rebuild their temple, some began to complain about how insignificant the new temple seemed compared to Solomon’s temple.

The prophet Zechariah rebuked the people for “despising the days of small things” (Zech 4:10).

(Zec 4:10 NKJV) For who has despised the day of small things?

The prophet Haggai knew that the people were ashamed at how “small” the new temple seemed (Hag. 2:3),

(Hag 2:3 NKJV) …is this not in your eyes as nothing?

yet God said,

(Hag 2:9 NKJV) 'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,'

Jesus would teach one day in this “little” place.

Do you feel small and insignificant?

Do you sometimes wonder if God could ever use you?

Little is good. Humble is good. Peter wrote,

(1 Pet 5:5b NKJV) …be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."

Be careful when you feel God tugging on your sleeve and your response is, “I’m not big enough” or “smart enough” or “strong enough”. You might just be the right person that God wants to use.

ruler – mashal – to rule, have dominion, reign

King David came from Bethlehem. This future ruler would also come from Bethlehem.

:2 Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."

whose goings forth – mowtsa’ah – origin, place of going out from

from of old – qedem – east, antiquity, that which is before; ancient time

everlasting – ‘owlam – long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, ancient

This was a person who came from eternity.

Did you know that Jesus is in the Old Testament? He’s the person known as “The Angel of the LORD”, or literally “the Messenger of Yahweh”.

He appeared to Abraham when he was going to sacrifice his only begotten son on Mount Moriah (Gen. 22).

He spoke to Moses out of the burning bush (Ex. 3:2).

He was the one who called Gideon to deliver the Israelites (Judg. 6).

Jesus said,

(John 8:58 NKJV) Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."

This is what took place in a place called Bethlehem, the eternal God had taken on human flesh and was born in a manger.

In the New Testament:

(John 1:1-3 NKJV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. {2} He was in the beginning with God. {3} All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

(John 1:14 NKJV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Can you imagine Mary handling this newborn baby, who was an ancient being who stepped out of eternity, a being who has always existed?

There is a plan

God knows what He’s doing.

The coming of Jesus was a carefully planned event.

The death of Jesus on a cross was also a carefully planned event.

It was the very reason He came. He came to die for our sins.

There are no mistakes

We have a hard time with the difficulties of our lives. We can’t help but think that they are some sort of cosmic accidents.

I’m not sure there are any mistakes with God.

The problem is only due to our lack of understanding.

Learn to look at God’s perspective

He lives outside of time. He sees and knows everything.

My dad used to have a pilot’s license.

When you go flying on a cloudy day, you learn something interesting.

What seems gloomy and dark down on the ground isn’t necessarily the way it is up in the air.

If you get above the clouds, you find that it’s a bright sunny day.

We need to get our heads out of our lowly perspective every once in a while.

Lesson

Live for the eternal

Don’t get lost in the view from the ground.

Illustration

The Call of the Barnyard

A flock of wild ducks were flying in formation, heading south for the winter. They formed a beautiful V in the sky, and were admired by everyone who saw them from below. One day, Wally, one of the wild ducks in the formation, spotted something on the ground that caught his eye. It was a barnyard with a flock of tame ducks who lived on the farm. They were waddling around on the ground, quacking merrily and eating corn that was thrown on the ground for them every day. Wally liked what he saw. “It sure would be nice to have some of that corn,” he thought to himself. “And all this flying is very tiring. I’d like to just waddle around for a while.” So after thinking it over a while, Wally left the formation of wild ducks, made a sharp dive to the left, and headed for the barnyard. He landed among the tame ducks, and began to waddle around and quack merrily. He also started eating corn. The formation of wild ducks continued their journey south, but Wally didn’t care. “I’ll rejoin them when they come back north in a few months, he said to himself. Several months went by and sure enough, Wally looked up and spotted the flock of wild ducks in formation, heading north. They looked beautiful up there. And Wally was tired of the barnyard. It was muddy and everywhere he waddled, nothing but duck doo. “It’s time to leave,” said Wally. So Wally flapped his wings furiously and tried to get airborne. But he had gained some weight from all his corn-eating, and he hadn’t exercised his wings much either. He finally got off the ground, but he was flying too low and slammed into the side of the barn. He fell to the ground with a thud and said to himself, “Oh, well, I’ll just wait until they fly south in a few months. Then I’ll rejoin them and become a wild duck again.” But when the flock flew overhead once more, Wally again tried to lift himself out of the barnyard. He simply didn’t have the strength. Every winter and every spring, he saw his wild duck friends flying overhead, and they would call out to him. But his attempts to leave were all in vain. Eventually Wally no longer paid any attention to the wild ducks flying overhead. He hardly even noticed them. He had, after all, become a barnyard duck.

Edited from More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice. Copyright 1995 by Youth Specialties, Inc.

It’s hard to get perspective when you’ve become a barnyard duck. All you see clearly is what’s on the ground.

We need to learn to get back in the air and soar with the wild ducks.

There’s a bright sun shining above those clouds.

It’s easy to get caught in our “Fullerton” perspective.

Don’t forget about God’s perspective.