The Prophecy Puzzle
4th Sunday in Advent
(December 24, 2006)
Rev. Steven D. Spencer
Micah 5:2-4
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." 3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth 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.
Introduction
If you’d like to frustrate somebody let me tell you how to do it. Take two 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles, take half the pieces out of each of the boxes, mix those halves together, then wrap it up and put them under the Christmas Tree, label them to your favorite relatives. Imagine the frustration! The pieces just don’t fit. When you do get a couple pieces to fit together, two different pictures seem to emerge. And there’s seems to be no way for those two groups of pieces and those two pictures to fit together correctly.
That’s the way I imagine the first hearers of our Old Testament prophecies must have felt. There seem to be contradictions in those prophecies. In fact, I’ve been told that some Jewish scholars actually looked for two different Messiahs, a suffering servant and a glorious king, because they couldn’t see how the prophecies could be fulfilled in one person. Even the prophets themselves didn’t see how it all fit. The Apostle Peter wrote, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Peter 1:10,11).
Let’s follow the example of the prophets and search carefully and with great care to learn more about our Savior. But it’s a lot easier for us dealing with this Prophecy Puzzle, because can look at the finished picture. We can look at Christ and see more clearly how this prophetic puzzle answers and see how it fits together.
I. The first puzzle is that He will be a ruler, yet He will come from Bethlehem.
We look at the finished picture and say, “Of course He was born in Bethlehem.” We know that in Luke 2: Caesar Augustus issued that census be taken so Joseph and Mary went up from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. This location is important for us. It’s one of those things that confirm to us, that when we pick up the Bible, it’s really God’s Word. How could anyone other than the Holy Spirit know 700 years before it happened that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem?
But the location is only part of the story. Bethlehem was great King David’s hometown, but it never was anything more than a small, insignificant village. It was like Pratum usually not much happening there. Yet the ruler would come from Bethlehem?
To appreciate the apparent contradiction we need a sense of history. In 2007 we celebrate 30 years of being a congregation. In April of 1847 the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod was formed. That’s over one hundred and fifty-nine years ago that’s a long time! Now imagine twice that time.
That’s the kind of time that had passed since the shepherd boy David had been born in Bethlehem. For over 300 years, kings weren’t born in Bethlehem. They were born in Jerusalem. Micah saying the king would be born in Bethlehem would be similar to me foretelling that the president elected in 2306 will have been born in a log cabin in Kentucky, just like Abraham Lincoln. A humble birth like that happened in the hoary past, but not any more.
But this promise that God would use insignificant Bethlehem is so comforting. In our gospel lesson today (Luke 1:39-55), we heard Mary sing that our God “lifts up the lowly.” Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:28, 29 tells us that our “God chose the weak things of this world to humble the strong, the foolish to humble the wise.” What comfort this is if we confess to God that we too are weak and foolish and insignificant! For God chooses the weak and the lowly and the insignificant. He chose Bethlehem, and He has chosen us. Yes, lowly Bethlehem would be the birthplace of this ruler, and lowly Christians like us will also be used in this Ruler’s plan of salvation.
II. The second puzzle is that this King will be born.
Verse 3 mentions “she who is in labor gives birth.” But verse 2 says his “origins are from of old, from ancient times.” In the Hebrew it reads, “From days of eternity”. How could He be born, and have that starting time for his life, and yet be in existence back in previous days, all the way back to eternity? How the brethren in the Old Testament must have struggled with this! But we see the fulfillment in Jesus, don’t we? We see clearly the King that is to save us had to be more than just a man. He had to be God Himself. Our Epistle Lesson points out (Hebrews 10:5-10), God took on a body, such as ours, so that he could offer the one sacrifice that could pay for our sins, once for all.
III. The third puzzle is the reference to “she who is in labor.”
Micah is only seven chapters long. I would encourage you to read through it. Is there any other reference to some woman who is pregnant? I didn’t see it! This reference and others makes me think Isaiah and Micah may have shared a condo! Not only are they contemporary prophets, but also so much of their prophecies are intertwined. Micah hadn’t mentioned a pregnant woman before, but Isaiah had. “The virgin will be with child and give birth to a son and shall give him the name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This reference to the woman, with no man mentioned in Micah by the way is understandable when we look at the fulfillment. The Savior was not conceived in the normal way. His conception was a miracle. He was conceived in Mary’s womb not as a sinful human being, but as “the holy one…the Son of God.” Only the Holy One could be our Savior.
IV. The fourth puzzle is the fact that his brothers are abandoned.
It is easy to understand why God abandoned the Israelites as a whole. They had abandoned Him and worshipped other gods. But what about the believers among the Israelites? What about those believers who experienced the destruction of Jerusalem? Why were they abandoned by God?
This is a puzzle piece not fully explained to us in the New Testament either. What a blessing that “Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers” (Hebrews 2:11)! But if we are brothers and sisters of the King, then why does it seem God abandons us sometimes? Why do we suffer? Why is it so common that loved ones die at Christmastime? Why doesn’t God answer our prayers? God doesn’t explain, He just announces that this is a puzzle that we have to endure. Acts 14:22 says: “We shall through much hardship enter the kingdom of God.” At times, we will feel abandoned by God. But that doesn’t change the fact that the King has called us His family and He will come and gather us to Himself in eternity.
V. The fifth puzzle piece is that He will be a Shepherd.
“He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God” (Micah 5:4). Look at the way Micah described the leaders of God’s people at his time.
“Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice, 2 you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; 3 who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?” (Micah 3:1-3)
Micah wasn’t accusing the leaders of being cannibals. He was saying that rather than being shepherds of God’s people, they were using that position of authority to harm the flock.
But the coming King of Glory would shepherd His people. In St. John’s Gospel the 10th chapter we see what that means. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and He doesn’t run away when the going gets tough. He didn’t come to “get something” from God’s people. He came that they might “have life, and that more abundantly” (John 10:10). He submitted Himself to us by laying down His life for us.
He will shepherd his people “in the strength of the LORD his God.” In John 10 Jesus says He has the authority from the Father not only to lay down His life, but to take it up again (10:18). If He has the power to raise Himself from the dead, He also has the power to raise you up. “No one can snatch [you] out his hand” (John 10:28).
So it’s no surprise that according to the NIV “they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth” (Micah 5:4). When a powerful King is ruling in our behalf, we have no reason to be afraid. We will not be moved from our safe place at His side, no matter what the tragedy or trouble we may face. That is our confidence as Christians. That’s what we can claim because by faith because this prophecy puzzle is a clear picture of who Jesus is.
Conclusion
Micah says: “And he will be their peace” (Micah 5:2). The people of Micah’s day didn’t enjoy peace here on earth. Jerusalem was besieged (Micah 5:1). It became “a heap of rubble” (Micah 3:12). But with the coming of the King of Glory, you and I have peace. He is peace personified! Can you say with certainty what will happen to you when you die? Yes! You know that God is at peace with you, because the King of Glory has made you holy through the sacrifice of His body once for all (Hebrews 10:10). When you die, you will be with God in heaven, for He is at peace with you. Jesus is your guarantee.
And Jesus is also our peace with one another. We know that we are sinners who sin against each other. It’s easy to hold a grudge. But if the King of Glory has forgiven our brothers or sisters, then how can we, who have experienced that same forgiveness, not also forgive those who sin against us? Jesus is our peace with God and with one another.
There’s so much to see in this Old Testament prophecy puzzle! God’s Old Testament people saw much and longed for the Messiah’s coming. The whole Old Testament points to the cross. It was a puzzle for them, but for you, it is the picture of your salvation. For what they hoped for you have seen with the eyes of faith. For the Lord is come, let earth receive her king. In Jesus name, Amen!