Micah 5.2-5a
Bethlehem, home of David, shall produce another ruler of Israel, who comes from old stock, like in ancient days.
From Micah’s prophecy we can read the things that he and the people he spoke to, were looking for in a Saviour.
To understand this better, remember that Israel is far from its ‘glory days’ when David ruled. Of course the ‘good ole’ days usually get much better after time passes, and one can conveniently forget the not so good parts of the old days. The downfall of Israel though is more than just inner decay, and wishful remembrances. The people have been conquered by their enemies, they serve a foreign ruler, and they cannot openly and freely worship their God, the God of Abraham, who with Moses leading,brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
The prophets have made it abundantly clear that the reason the people have fallen so hard and deep is that they have not been true to their God. They have forgotten the deliverance God provided,the food in the wilderness, the reasons to worship God, the reasons not to take advantage of each other or their neighbours, or even their enemies.
Instead they have been sinful.
Well we know that every person in every generation is a sinful being, and cannot free themselves. We also believe that God does not put us into harm’s way, as punishment for our sins. We do not carry forward the faith so often reflected in the Old Testament, that if we are good, God favours us, and if we are bad, God punishes us.
We believe that people are not punished for their sins, so much as people suffer their (and other people’s)sins.
God holds us in favour, no matter what. But God does want us to behave well in response, to reflect for all around us the save Grace that God extends to us.
We are not in exile, least not 75% o f the world’s population. Nor are we ruled by a foreign ruler, least not 5% the world’s population. Nor are we ruled by an evil and sinful ruler, least not 0%of the world’s population. (These statistics are not scientifically established, they are just wild guesses, but statements of truth none the less.)
Micah speaks to a people who are in exile, who need hope of redemption and deliverance from the horrors of their time. The best promise they hand on to is the promise of political deliverance.
God will bring a ruler who will rule like David did.
Until that ruler is born, though, the God will give the people up to their enemies.
But when his mother gives him birth,then, from this small clan among the people of Abraham, his kindred will return to their homeland. And this ruler will feed his flock.
This is the image of David, the Shepherd, leading his people as a nation, as he did when he was younger and worked as a shepherd for his father.
The benefit for this small clan, and for all the people of God, will be that they will live securely; they shall live in peace, brought by this ruler.
This was the hope of the people, as presented by Micah as the promise to them, which God provided to them, which they had desperate need of. They needed the hope. They needed the political saviour, or so they thought.
They waited, hoped, and fought a revolution or two, hoping to realize this promise given by God, a promise that fueled them and renewed them and gave them reason to go on, even in the worst of times.
Hundreds of years later, they still waited.
The writers of the Gospels, the scholars of the early Church, for centuries, understood that this and similar Old Testament passages were in fact prophecies about Jesus. For Jesus was a descendant of David, born in Bethlehem, of a small clam, and though the hoped for political freedom did not arrive, they understood that Jesus brought a freedom,greater than any political freedom; a freedom greater than any one time. Jesus brought freedom from chaos and evil, and from sin and the consequence of being separated from God because we are not good enough for God.
(Jesus redeemed us, but God had been doing this all along. Jesus made it clearly so, obvious … yet it remains a matter of faith, not proof. How else is God to communicate this message: that God loves us, other than to demonstrate it as a human being living among us on earth. So God loves us. The challenge of life is NOT to see if we can be good enough to earn God’s love and Grace. The challenge of life is, realizing, believing,trusting that God already loves and redeems us, … the real challenge is to life this, to live out of this love, to live this love out. How are we doing at that?)
Knowing that God, as demonstrated by God as Jesus born, living, dying, resurrected among us … knowing and trusting that God has redeemed us, is for us, loves us: This is true freedom. This is true peace. A freedom and peace for all people of all time.
Micah almost for sure had no idea that so many millennia later we would place such a hope as foretold in his words; but he would probably not mind either.
Even given this hope, promise and real peace provided by Christ, after weeks of stress and late nights, horrors of what is, and enemies that want me dead and gone. I still need sleep. So a nap.
A peaceful nap in the wilderness, in warmth, with freedom to ski, take photos, write, and work to make life better …all in all to live well, despite my enemies evil wishes.
But one human body is only able to do so much for so long, and then it also needs rest, peace, recovery … and hope that God will end also these trials and tribulations brought on by my enemies;lies and their ancient need to scapegoat instead of taking responsibility for their own sin. It ruins lives, corrupts the youth and children and burns a wide swath of destruction through the community, church and far beyond.
So while some will look for political freedom, a benevolent ruler, which would be wonderful, I am thankful already for a bit of sunlight, a bit of warmth, and a bit of peace … all which make fora small opportunity to take a short nap.
I’ll leave that for you to calculate how exactly that fits in the notes for Micah.