Micah 5:2, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem – Berris Patience – 2025 12 24

2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.” (NASB 1995)

Transcript:

(Disclaimer: AI generated transcript. Accuracy may vary)

Turn your attention to Micah chapter five, just looking at one verse, Micah chapter five in verse two. But as for you, Bethle Raha too little to be among the clans of Judah from you one will come forth for me to be a ruler in Israel is Times and coming Forth are from long ago, from days of eternity. Lord, I pray that you remind us again through your word of why we celebrate and who we are celebrating and for what purpose He came so that we can celebrate. Lord, may your Holy Spirit lead and direct my thoughts, my words, I may your word go forth with power and authority as is presented to your people for Christ’s sake. Amen. You speaking to you or to us tonight on the topic, oh, little town of Bethlehem, as we see here from our one verse in Micah chapter two, we’re familiar, very familiar with that statement. Good things come in small packages, good things come in small packages. And the expression suggests that some of the things that are most valuable to us are often small. For example, it’s that tiny wedding ring that that one young man goes on his knee and make the proposal that means the world to a young lady. For many, it’s a child. We have a 10 month old, almost 11 month old, 11-year-old, 6-year-old. It’s a child, a boy, or a girl that comes into the lives of parents, grandparents as well. And it makes a monumental difference. And you think this tiny creature, this tiny baby, can make such a huge impact and a huge difference in the lives of so many, especially those who he’s been or she has been birthed into the family of. For some it’s that parent, that single mom, that father thought, whether it’s mother or father, who at this time of the year, instead of seeing flowers and baskets and cards and food on the table, they have a plethora of bills on certain how they’re gonna pay these bills. Where is the money coming from to pay this bill, let alone have anything that is semblance of Christmas or what Christmas ought to look like from a celebrator standpoint until they receive that tiny envelope and in that tiny envelope has enough to pay their bills, to let them have food on the table and to let them have some kind of joy for the festive season. So the big things do come in small packages, and we are go, we will see that and we’re going to see that from this very small verse. This one verse that I read to you earlier from this one little town, this little town of Bethlehem came spiritual abundance came spiritual abundance, spiritual wealth came from this little town. And just a bit of background from this are for this passage for this book. The key words that you’ll find in the entire book of Micah are judgment and restoration of Judah. Throughout the book, Micah exposes the injustice of Judah and as well as the righteousness and justice of God. A portion of the book Indicts Israel and Judah for their specific sins. Another portion predicts The judgment that is coming and will come for these sins that they’re, they’re committing. And the remaining portion of the book is a message of hope and consolation to these very same people who are gonna be punished and chastised for constantly being disobedient to God. God’s justice will triumph and the divine deliverer will indeed come out of Judah. This is where we find ourselves in our pages, in the pages of Micah, the promise of the coming deliverer and where he will come from, the meaning of the names that are presented here, Bethlehem or Bethlehem, and Raha, the meanings one means house of bread, Bethlehem. Two Hebrew words fuss together, house and bread, house of food, and they come together and get house of the bread. And the other one, a prophet means truthfulness. So even within the names of these cities is already a prophetic, meaning that there is fruitfulness and bread that is coming from us. Of course, we know Jesus to be the bread of life. So the bread of life came from the house of bread, which is phenomenal. So both names imply that signify plenty and abundance rich in fruitfulness, remarkably important despite their uni importance according to this passage and other passage that we look at in the eyes of the other clans of Israel that is from this seemingly minor town, the most extraordinary person ever known will emerge. The most extraordinary, the most important person that I’ve ever raised. The face of this planet will come from this tiny, seemingly insignificant town of Bethlehem. So exceptional. This person will be that. He will be called the son of God. He will be called the God man. He’ll be both God, fully God and fully man. Abundance of spiritual blessing will come with him the greatest being, salvation to mankind, the spiritual restoration of Israel and the those whom God has called to his own in a set apart since before the foundation of the world. Paul, on this abundance of blessing, we’ve looked at Ephesians chapter one in depth some time ago, and Paul talks about the innumerable blessings that comes through Jesus Christ. It’s, it is unfathomable and because we’ve gone through it, long turn there. But Paul reminds us of the abundance of blessings that comes through Christ from this little insignificant town in Ephesians chapter one, verse three to seven. And the list of course continues throughout the rest of the chapter and it goes on into chapter two. And we’re still seeing that in chapter three, chapter four, uh, we’ll continue to see it in chapter five. So as all of these many blessings, these spiritual blessings are a result of the redeemer Jesus Christ coming from this little insignificant city in Bethlehem, how can we apply this to our lives? How can we look at this little and apply? We, we often look at ourselves as insignificant or lacking worth. And we’re not. You are not. You might not carry the same weight and we won’t carry the same weight as Jesus carried in coming into the world from this little, little town of Bethlehem. You might say, I don’t have enough theological training. I don’t have enough knowledge of scripture for me to be either teaching in the Sunday school or teaching in church or presenting the gospel to people. They’re gonna ask questions. I know what the gospel is. But my issue is when they ask these deep theological questions, I won’t know the answer. And those are valid. And of course that’s why we need to continually immerse ourselves in the word of God. But you need to remember that God gives grace to us and you are significant in God’s family. You’re not insignificant. And the fact that Jesus Christ came, and again, we saw this in Ephesians chapter one, chapter two, that he came and set you apart before the foundations of the world. He adopted you into his family. I don’t know how you can look at that, but the God who came from this insignificant town will look at you and say, you are that important that you are gonna be a part of my family. Even before I said that. There be life. That’s how significant we are in the eyes of God. That’s how significant we are as a church. We might think we’re small in numbers and we, we don’t have enough impact in the community. Let’s be faithful to God. That’s all he asks of us. That’s all he ask of us. And I don’t know what your situation is. You’re here. You might not be saved. Remember John six, verse 33, for the burden of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world Jesus Christ. That’s who he’s referring to. And of force. The response from this statement is, sir, give us this bread. We want this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst again. These verses reminds us our serves as a reminder to us that even in God’s wrath, God remembers mercy. And even with, with this town, this Bethlehem, Juda, Judah, even within God’s justice justified wrath, even though he’s just in executing, in executing punishment on the children of Israel for constantly sinning and rebelling against him, he’s still merciful, he’s still gracious. And we are reminded of this in my case, even though I’m gonna punish you for your sins through you, he’s gonna come the one that is gonna be the redeemer of the entire world. Even within God’s wrath, there’s mercy, there’s justice, there’s grace. God was determined to maintain his holiness. That’s why he has to act out in judgment. But he was also determined to fulfill his promise, the promise that was made through Abraham. And centuries before that he was determined to give hope. He was determined to send a redeemer who will restore and lavish on his people an abundance of spiritual blessings. He was determined to do that. He was faithful in doing that. And he did do that. That’s why we’re here tonight, celebrating our richness in Christ because of Jesus Christ coming into this world from this insignificant town to make a monumental difference in the world. And he’s still making that difference in the world. And we are his mouthpiece also in making a difference in telling others about Christ. So from this little town came great spiritual blessing, abundance of spiritual blessings. But from this little town came also a great ruler. We see this in our text. He will be a ruler in Israel, abundance, blessing, but a great ruler. And it’s the great ruler, not a great ruler because we’ve seen many of those are, they’ve been classified or categorized as great rulers. But this is the great ruler like the bread of life, the way, the truth, the life, the depiction of Bethlehem prominently high highlights the motive of loneliness. Humility, this element extends beyond the birth of Jesus Christ, the birth of this noble ruler, because he was not born in a manner where somebody who is a, the great ruler should have been born in, in a stable among animals was rejected because there was no room in the end, we just saw, heard that red, that’s not a prominent individual. They should be born in a palace. The the, the trumpets should be echoing. But tell me which person on this planet has ever been born where an innumerable amount of angels sang. It’s never happened before Jesus. It only happened to Jesus and it never will happen again. I guarantee you that the angels do rejoice in heaven though when someone comes to salvation in Jesus Christ. And that’s the closest you’ll get to that, the new birth. But again, they didn’t come out of heaven to rejoice. The angels came out of heaven and the the shepherds saw myriads of angels saying glory to God, praising God because he sent his son into this world in humility. And even to the death of the cross, he showed that humility naturally it’s appropriate that this theme, this theme of humility and loneliness serves as the foundation of this small town. And it reflects the, the nature and the characteristics of this great ruler, the Son of God in numbers chapter one, we won’t turn their verses five to 16 and chapter 10, verse four, that’s where Micah is picking up from you. You weren’t even, you’re not even named. You’re not even worthy to be named among the clans of Israel where there’s dividing and separating. So in these verses, we learned that each tribe had its thousands of fighting men, thousands with each thousand having an appointed leader. Bethlehem was so insignificant that they could not contribute to this arrangement. They couldn’t. They were so small. And that’s what Micah is saying here, you’re, they were so small that you couldn’t even contribute to a thousand for a thousand men to fight for the cause of what they were fighting for. And that’s why they were called the least among the thousands. And what makes this information so fascinating is this, although there were the least among Judah, although there were specks among their surrounding territories and their neighbors came, one man who outweighed not just the thousands but in Judah, but the thousands in Israel, one man outweigh the thousands of tribes in Israel out of this, again insignificant town came the redeemer of mankind. If the city of Bethlehem was to brag, if the city of Bethlehem was to boast, when they read Mic five two and other prophetic verses, and especially when Jesus actually came into this world, they would say to the other tribe in your faces, we have the great ruler. He came out of us, he came out of our tribe. To them, this was the poster rising. If you’re a basketballer, a poster rising, slam dunk, this was the winning shot. This was the thing that would be engraved in their minds for all time and in their hearts for all time. This is the small becoming great. This is the poor becoming rich. This is the unknown becoming known. This is the unpopular becoming the center of attention, the center of attraction. It is around her hills that I mentioned earlier, that these angels sang glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace to whom God’s favor will dwell. Micah states that this ruler, his coming forth is from of old. It’s in every age. It’s from the foundation of the world. He was the hope. He was the salvation of the world. From that promise that was made after Adam sin in Genesis three 15 to the manifestation in the flesh. Some thousands years later from ancients of days, we sing the song from everlasting to everlasting. Your God, in in essence, in short, what Micah is saying here, the one that is going to come and redeem his people, the one that is gonna come and redeem not only Judah but Israel and the world, he will be God. He will be the ancient of days. He will be God in the flesh. That’s the emphasis there. He will not be an ordinary man. That’s what Micah is trying to get across. He’s not going to be an ordinary man. And we see that also in Isaiah, the mighty God. The government will be on his shoulder. He will be the mighty God. He is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the eternal God coming to dwell among men. And I think this message is, is so overlooked and so missed every single Christmas because we don’t really fathom God who created this world, the God who said, let there be light. The God who created everything that we have seen and and even what we can’t see. The God who made everything came as a tiny baby to redeem us. The all powerful, all knowing God came as a tiny baby to redeem his own, to redeem those whom he created. I, I don’t think we fathom that and I don’t think we focus on that enough this time of the year. And that’s why gatherings like this is so vital because it reminds us of what we ought to be celebrating and who we ought to be celebrating. Isaiah echoes these very words about the redeemer of mankind. Isaiah to identify him as a the great ruler, and Isaiah said, the government will be on his shoulder. Isaiah proclaims that he is the mighty God, the conquering king. Isaiah extols him as the everlasting father. That’s the same prediction of the birth of Jesus Christ, of the Son that Isaiah predicts that will be born to us. He’s exalted as the great ruler, the one who brings perfect peace, the great God of all comfort, the one who excites awe and wonder in the lives of all who acknowledges him as Lord. And as we look to celebrate yet another Christmas, couple hours away, I’ll ask you this question. Are these questions that we have to ponder on not just Christmas time, but in every day of our lives, but especially as we look at the festive season? Who or what is it that is ruling in your hearts as we seek to celebrate, as you look to celebrate? Is Christ on the throne? Still on the throne, which he is sovereignly? But is he the one ruling in your hearts as we enjoy the festivities or has he been pushed aside? Have we become like that Inkeeper who couldn’t care less because look, my I am, I’m full. There’s no room. Have we pushed him aside? Tucked away to make room for something else is either preeminent one in your lives this and every Christmas and every day of your life is either preeminent one. Paul tells us that Christ in everything, he is the preeminent one. Colossians chapter one, verse 18 is the one who came to make you spiritually rich, still ruling and reigning in your hearts. See, we’ve lost the meaning of Christmas through materialism and there’s a ti there’s a place for that. But everything we do as believers has to be under the umbrella. Of course, glorifying God, A television interviewer walks, was walking the streets of Tokyo at Christmas time. And much like this is a, an illustration, it’s not a personal story being shared here, by the way, much as it is in North America and so many other parts of the world. Christmas shopping is a big commercialized success in Japan. The interviewer stopped one young man on the sidewalk and asked, what is the meaning of Christmas? Laughing She respond. Or a young woman, sorry, laughing. She respond. I don’t know. Is that the day Jesus, Jesus died? And there is some truth to this answer, obviously, because we have turned Christmas into the Cru, not even the crucifixion, the death of Christ because he’s, he’s drowned out. He is. He is forgotten in Christian homes. And I we understand. I’m not talking about the world. We expect this from the world. Of course they’re not gonna talk about Jesus. Of course. They’re not gonna want anything to do with Christmas. I’m talking about us who have been saved by the grace of God like this young woman. Oh, is that the death? Is that the day he died from this little town came, this great ruler came spiritual abundance of blessings. But from this town came the great purpose. Jesus Christ. As we wrap up, Jesus Christ came to save Matthew 1 21. That’s embedded in his name. That’s why he was named Jesus. It means savior because he was save his people from their sins. That’s the great, one of the great purposes to which he came. Jesus came to restore from this tiny town, came to restore, to reconcile us back to God, to make peace with God. He might say, well, are we at war with God? Well, by default, if you’re not at peace, you’re at war with God. You’re enemies of God. Ephesians tells us this, he came to restore Ephesians two 16, Colossians one 20, but he also came to rule again. Matthew 1 21 in Philippians chapter two, he is our divine king. He is our Lord. And we praise God for Christmas, a story or a poem by Joseph Bailey reads, praise him for the incarnation. Praise him for the word became who was made flesh. I will not sing of shepherds watching flocks on frosty heights or angels. Coors, I will not sing of a stable bear in Bethlehem or lowing, oxen wise men, trailing stars with gold, frankincense, and mer. Tonight I will sing praises to the father who stood on heaven’s through threshold and said farewell to his son, his only son, as he stepped across the stars to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. I was sing praise to the infinite eternal son who became flesh, who became a baby, who would one day be executed for my crime. Praise him in the heavens. Praise him in the stable. Praise him in your hearts. That’s the purpose to which Jesus came. And I pray as we continue to celebrate you, do the gifts, do the those things. But remember Jesus Christ. Don’t kill him outta Christmas because he came to save us. May we never ever forget that. Father, we’re so grateful for this one verse, this one passage scripture. Of course, there are so many others that speak to you coming even outside of the New Testament. And Lord, again, as we look to celebrate another Christmas season, may we not lose sight of the purpose for which you came. May we reflect on the spiritual blessings that you have lavished upon us like we have read and we’ve seen in Ephesians through your servant Paul, may those be of comfort and joy to our hearts as we celebrate and even as we open the gifts and the food and all the other festivities that comes along with the season where we continue to make Christ the sovereign preeminent one in our lives and tell him and showcase him to the world around us. As we continue to serve you, may we do so faithfully and wholeheartedly through the leading and directing of your spirit for Christ’s sake. Amen.