O Little Town of Bethlehem
Scriptures:
Micah 5, Also: John 7:40-41, Micah 4:11-12, 1 Samuel 17:12a
Jewish Expectations of the Messiah:
John 7:40-41 - Ancient Jewish people knew that Jesus was from Galilee, and argued among themselves since they knew the Messiah was supposed to come from Bethlehem (not Galilee).
How did the Jews know the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem? The prophecy in Micah!
Micah 5:2 - prophecies the Messiah being born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2 mirrors Micah 4 - judgement is coming, BUT hope (the Messiah) is coming too!
Micah 4:11-12 - the picture here is Israel being gathered like threshing wheat.
Micah 5:1 - gather the troops for the coming judgement!
Micah 5:4 - the Jews knew God said the “bad guys” will come and crush you, but a “hero” is coming too! His greatness will cover the earth.
Ancient Jews knew a hero was coming, hadn't come yet, and that he would crush the enemy and reign forever.
We can see this prophecy is fulfilled by Jesus in hindsight, but the Jews missed many things about Jesus due to the expectations they had.
JEWISH EXPECTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH:
The hero from Bethlehem will come with “earthly greatness.”
The name ”Ephratha” - mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:12a and Micah had expectations that the Messiah would be great and mighty, glorious and powerful like King David.
“Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem…”
The ancient Jews only thought of King David as the great warrior…they missed the connection of Jesus to David the lowly shepherd boy.
Jews assumed he would crush human enemies. But Jesus crushed the ultimate enemy (sin & darkness). — When you crush the ultimate enemy, THEN you crush the lesser human enemies, because they can be redeemed and come under the Lordship of Jesus.
The significance of Bethlehem is that God became lowly to rescue the lowly.
We easily gravitate towards earthly greatness, but the heroes of the kingdom are the meek and lowly.
Demands/Expectations of the Christmas Season:
As we lean towards earthly greatness, we fall into putting heavy demands on ourselves.
There’s no time that this sense of heavy demand is greater than at Christmas!
demands to give / receive gifts…
demands to go to parties and make small talk…
all good things, but creates a sense of being overwhelmed by the season
As we fall into a trap of putting heavy demands on ourselves, we start to fall into another trap of envisioning God putting heavy demands on us.
Satan wants you to fall into a trap of feeling like your failing to perform for God means you need to stay away from him.
BUT God says come to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest!
Example - if we feel anxious or depressed, we start to feel guilty for feeling bad. (“Why don’t I have enough faith to feel better right now?”) Feeling completely unworthy…
The story of Bethlehem and Christmas is God coming for the lowly or unworthy. - Feeling unworthy is not a disqualifier. When you feel “unworthy” you’re feeling that lowliness!
God doesn’t look at how we’re “feeling” and discard us because of that.
We are not disqualified from Kingdom stuff just because we feel unworthy.
Invitation: Don’t let feeling disqualified stop you from doing good work in the kingdom. God is for the unworthy and for the ones who feel broken.