The Promised King, Part 2 - Pastor Tom Loghry
Pastor Tom digs into the Old Testament to explore the promises that foreshadowed Christ’s birth.
Transcript:
Marshall your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will rule over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. Therefore, Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty and the name of the Lord, his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.
Come see what I've done. It's an invitation familiar to many parents. And the results of our children's work can vary in possibilities. It can range anywhere from something terrible to inspiring. Using the living room wall as a canvas for their crayon creation falls on the terrible end of the spectrum. Constructing an Eiffel Tower out of toothpicks falls on the inspiring end of the spectrum. We usually are most impressed when our kids, or really anyone, is able to take something very ordinary and do something awesome with it. It reveals their genius. It reveals their creativity. It's something that actually follows God's own pattern of activity. He brings humans forth out of the dust of the earth. He uses a childless geriatric couple to bring forth a new nation. He makes a shepherd boy king. So it comes as no surprise that his promised Messiah, the promised King of David, would arise from someplace small. And we see this foretold in Micah 5, verses 1 through 4. Now the prophet Micah lived during the 700s BC. So you're talking about 700 years before Christ was born. And Micah had some bad news for the the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. At this point, the nation had split in two. So you had the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And throughout the course of his book, he tells them that they should anticipate being overthrown by the Assyrians, the northern kingdom, and that the southern kingdom is eventually going to be overcome by the Babylonians. And it seems as though verse number one here in chapter five is hinting towards that. It says, Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod. Micah might be anticipating what's to happen in 586 B.C. when Jerusalem falls. And speaking of the ruler of Israel being struck on the cheek with a rod, he's prophesying that the rule of Israel is going to be basically insulted. And in 2 Kings 24, we see how Jehoiachin was compelled to surrender Jerusalem. We see that later on, King Zedekiah was put to shame by his own sons being killed before him, and then his eyes being put out. So it's difficult to know with specificity which one of these things specifically fulfills what Micah is referring to here.
But there's plenty of material that fulfills what he's anticipating. So at the outset of chapter 5, it seems kind of a grim picture. The city of Jerusalem is going to be under siege. The ruler is going to be put to shame. But then we have a 180 degree turn here in verse 2. Micah sets before his audience hope, the hope of salvation, deliverance from a small place called Bethlehem Ephrathah. Now, pretty much everyone here, I'd be willing to bet, has heard of Bethlehem. But some of us might not be familiar with Bethlehem Ephrathah. Now, we ask. Why the appendage of this second name, Ephrathah? It's a mouthful. Well, the reason was is that there was actually two Bethlehems in the land of Israel. There was a Bethlehem in the land that was given to the tribe of Zebulun. And then there's the Bethlehem that is in the land given to the tribe of Judah just on the outskirts of Jerusalem. And people known as the Ephathrites, this is Jewish people, Ephathrites lived in Bethlehem. So this is being used in order to clarify what Bethlehem is being spoken about here. It'd be like talking about Scituate, Rhode Island, not Scituate, Massachusetts. Now there's something that's kind of interesting about this place, Bethlehem Ephrathah. It's small. It's not a major city, town, it's just a small place, but it's significant. Even just starting with its name, we have a hint of its significance. The name Bethlehem means house of bread. Ephrathrah, that means fruitful. So it's as though it's anticipating that something good's going to come forth from this place. And in fact, we know that something good has already come forth from it. Bethlehem Ephrathah is the hometown of King David. In 1 Samuel 17:12, it says, now David was the son of an Ephrathrite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem and Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul's time, he was very old. So. Bethlehem is the hometown of David. You'll remember last week that David was given a promise that one of his sons would arise to rule forever. In 1 Chronicles 17, verses 11 through 12. It says, when your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, this is God speaking to David, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons. And I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me. And I will establish his throne forever.
So it's on the basis of that anticipation that this promised king of the line of David would emerge. Combined with Micah's prophecy here, that we find the Jewish people anticipating for the Messiah to come from Bethlehem. And this is exactly what the priests and scribes tell Herod when he inquires with them, where would the Messiah be born? And they tell him in Bethlehem. We also see. this commented on in John 7:42 Jesus goes to the city of Jerusalem and the people are really struck by him but they're like this guy can't be the Messiah because he's from Galilee now we know that Jesus grew up in Nazareth and probably by the time he's in Jerusalem he has a Galilean accent Jesus is actually from a real place. He had things like accents and traditions and culture, all that. He was a real human being. So they didn't know Jesus, though. They didn't know Jesus' complete story. And so they suppose that he was born in Nazareth in Galilee. He was actually born in Bethlehem. But their whole comment there basically they too were expecting that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. Micah notes here also that besides the fact that Bethlehem Ephrathah is small, that it's small among the clans of Judah. This reminds us of an even older promise that was given. There is a promise given to the tribe of Judah before the promise that was given to David in 1 Chronicles 17. We find it in Genesis 49:10. Now in Genesis 49:10, Jacob is blessing his sons and when he goes to bless Judah, he says this, the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come, and the obedience of the nations shall be his." Now, I just want you to wrap your mind around this. We have this prophecy that's given. It wasn't given in the lifetime of Jesus. It wasn't given even just 100 years before Jesus was born. This was given 1,500 years before Jesus was born. It'd be like someone who lived in 500 AD predicting something that's happening today. It's incredible. It's divine. And in fact, I think we can say that we've seen this fulfilled at least in part, if not in whole, yet. The promises is that the obedience of the nation shall be his. Well, we know that there remains to be powers and nations that are opposed against God. And yet we look across this world and what do we see? But that Christianity is the largest religious group in the world. There are 2.3 to 2.6 billion Christians in the world. And while at times here in America we can kind of feel like maybe the church is going through a sort of depression, that is not the case in other parts of the world. The church is growing by leaps and bounds.
Now, doesn't that just seem like an awful great coincidence? That Jesus, who is said to be the fulfillment, that Jesus, the one who is said to be the Messiah, has gained the allegiance of peoples of all tribes and tongues across the world. It's pointing all the way back to this prophecy that's given. Now we see another detail that's introduced here as well by Micah. He gives a location, Bethlehem, and he says in verse 2, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel whose origins are from old, from ancient times. Now isn't that weird? How is it possible that this one who would emerge be one who is from ancient times? No one was living long enough to be from ancient times. And yet, when we look to the person of Jesus, and we hear his testimony, he testifies that his origins are of old, going back beyond his birth in Bethlehem. In John 1:1, we have the Apostle John testifying to this. He says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, when John is speaking about the Word, he's speaking about Jesus. That becomes clear as the passage goes on. So he's saying that in the very beginning, the Son existed, and was with God, and the Son was God. Later on in John's Gospel, he records Jesus saying this in John 8:58. Jesus says, very truly I tell you, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am. Now there's no other way really that Micah's prophecy could be fulfilled unless this is actually the case. How could someone be from ancient times, from of old, unless they could actually pre-exist their human existence? As is the case with Jesus. Because the Son of God took on human flesh and became one of us. So Micah says that we're to expect someone that's from ancient times. And what's also fitting here is that as we look in John's Gospel is that we see Jesus refer to himself as the bread of life in John 6. Again, just another fitting detail, given his birthplace, the house of bread, a fruitful place. That fruit is the bread of life. Now, as Micah goes along here, you read in verse 2, well that's really great news, that this ruler would arise. But in verse 3, we kind of have some bad news, it seems. It says, therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. So what's being anticipated here is there's going to be a bit of suffering.
Now we know that the people of Israel are sent into exile. The northern kingdom is overcome by the Assyrians, and they never come back. The southern tribe of Judah is taken into Babylon. And everything is left in disarray. It's a very painful experience to be stripped from your home to undergo that sort of suffering. And so when it speaks of the one who's going through these labor pains, it's recalling the suffering of the people of Israel. You can even go back further that it recalls the labor pains of Rachel when she gave birth to Benjamin, because she was actually buried in Bethlehem. We find that in Genesis 35. So we have all this crossing between these details of Rachel's suffering, the suffering of Israel as they're going into exile. But labor gives way to birth. people return from exile. But more than this, more than the people returning from exile, more than Rachel's birth pains, what this is pointing towards is Mary's giving birth to Jesus. And I said last week of how Jesus brings true fulfillment to all things, everything that we find in the Old Testament, Jesus truly fulfills to the nth degree. What Micah says they should anticipate is that there's one who is to be born. Now, when we look to one of his contemporaries, Isaiah, who lived in the 700s BC as well, we find similar testimony to a promised birth. In Isaiah 9, verses 6 through 7, he says, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given. and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. And notice how what Isaiah's prophesying here fulfills precisely what was being anticipated in 1 Chronicles 17, what God told David. Isaiah's just picking that up once again, saying this will come to pass through this child that is to be born. We see also in Isaiah 7:14, where he says, therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel. Now at the time when Isaiah wrote that, there was an immediate fulfillment of that in Israel's history. as a sign of the times. But again, this is another prophecy which Jesus brings to true and complete fulfillment.
Both Micah and Isaiah are saying to the people of Israel, expect for a ruler to be born who will actually fulfill the promise given to David. So Micah has used the word ruler. But now here in verse four, he introduces the terminology of shepherd. And this was a common way that the Jewish people conceived of their rulers as shepherds. Now you could have good shepherds and bad shepherds, but all the same, they thought of their leaders as shepherds. And they had a bunch of bad shepherds. But this one who is to come is going to be a good shepherd. He's one who's going to shepherd the flock, it says in verse 4, in the strength of the Lord, and in the majesty of the name of the Lord is God. Now again, this shepherd king that's being anticipated is actually God himself in the flesh. So if we switch back over to the prophet Isaiah, we find him speaking about God in these terms of being the shepherd of his people. Now Isaiah 40, this is a passage that is really strongly linked with the promised coming of the Messiah, John the Baptist, a man of the wilderness. So I throw that verse in there just to kind of clue you in on that context. Isaiah 40 verse 3, and then we jump down to verses 9 through 11. It says, Voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout. Lift it up, do not be afraid. Say to the towns of Judah, here is your God. He comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young." So you have Micah anticipating the birth of this ruler, the emergence of this ruler. who would shepherd the people of Israel. And we have Isaiah saying, it’s God who is going to shepherd his people, who's going to care for him. And who can fulfill this expectation but Jesus Christ, the one who is fully God and is fully man?
Again, we go to the Gospel of John in John 10:14. And Jesus says this of himself. He says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. Now Micah says that under the care of this shepherd, the people will live securely. If the people are living securely, if they enjoy security, then they enjoy peace because they are under the shepherd's rule and protection. And in fact, this is a rule that's going to be so great that its greatness will reach the ends of the earth. Now in speaking of the extent of the rule of this promised one to come, Micah is just harmonizing with promises given elsewhere. We find Psalm 2, this is one of the royal Psalms, in Psalm 2 verses 6 through 8. It says, I will proclaim the Lord's decree. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have become your father. Ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth. your possession. Now what this reminds us of is that there is going to be no dark corner that the light of this promised one to come is not going to reach. He's going to be a shepherd for all people. We have a hint of this when we go back to Isaiah 9. And we look at verses 1 through 3. It says, nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future, he will honor Galilee of the nations by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan. All this is pointing beyond the nation of Israel. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. And those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder." Now what's interesting is that Jesus refers to this passage in Matthew 4 verses 15 through 16 when He's engaging in his Galilean ministry. And of course, when we go back to John 1, and we hear the apostle describing the word incarnate as being that light which has come into the world and overcome the darkness. And so we look at all this, and the way we ought to reply is, is by saying, come see what God has done.
That's what we should be inspired to say to others who are completely oblivious to all of this. From the ashes of a fallen kingdom, a dispossessed people under Roman occupation, God brought forth our Messiah. In the little town of Bethlehem, the Son of God was born, having always existed. but now completely partaking in human existence. The mighty God became one of us, an infant child in his mother's arms. He was born to be our king, by the kind of king who prefers to be known as our shepherd, because he cares for us. He loves every sheep of his flock. and his flock is growing. The crook of his shepherd's staff is grabbing the globe, is reaching the ends of the earth. God has acted decisively, for unto us the Son is given. But this is just the beginning, not the end of all that God means to do. Jesus was not just born to be born. He was not crucified for the thrill of it. He was not raised from the dead for a good story. He was not given a throne so he could be comfortable. God begins with Jesus because he means to get to you. The Kingdom of God is not made up of streets, towers, domes, or arenas. The Kingdom of God is not things. The Kingdom of God is people. God's people. And all the heavenly beings who are servants of God. If Jesus is ruling, who is saying, yes, Lord? In response, if Jesus is the shepherd, who is he guiding and moving? It is us, brothers and sisters. God has acted in Christ, and now he means to act through us as we have been joined to Christ. Now it goes without saying that this is more incredible than constructing the Eiffel Tower out of toothpicks. It's amazing that God would do anything with us. But God will do it. He is doing it. We deny the power of God when we insist we are too weak and that this world is too big. You are very weak. I am very weak. But God will use you and me. This is the way of God. Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 1 verses 26 through 30. He says, brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are. So that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, that is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Look to Bethlehem. Look at the manger. See what God has done. Now look in the mirror. Look at one another and see what God will do. Let's pray.
Dear Father. It is amazing the way in which you work. bring complete fulfillment to all of your promises. of how 1,500 years before Christ was born, He gave the promise to Judah that the scepter would not leave his family, but that it would be fulfilled and won to come who would rule and reign. So how you promised David that one of his sons would establish his throne forever. And how you kept that promise, Father, even when David's sons were disobedient and one king after another was a failure again and again. And of how, Father, in your sovereignty, you brought all things together so that Christ would be born. in Bethlehem. and that by the sending of your son you would bring to completion all of your promises. That one who is the son of David would be our king. And that in fact you, O God, would be our king. Because the Son of God took on human flesh. And father, in viewing. which is the magnitude of what you've accomplished. I press upon us, Father, the continuing presence of your power, that you can work through us, that you can work through Rockland Community Church, and in all the churches in Rhode Island, Father, as we depend upon you. that you can work through us to accomplish your will, despite how great the odds may seem to be stacked against us. Give us faith, Father, we pray. We ask that you would give us your peace, knowing that Christ is indeed King. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed the sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we celebrate the Advent season. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)