Theme: Being a Community, Reaching the Community Title: God Values His Mission, Part 3 Micah 4:6-5:9 Aim: Following God s plan/mission in prophecy

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1 Theme: Being a Community, Reaching the Community Title: God Values His Mission, Part 3 Micah 4:6-5:9 Aim: Following God s plan/mission in prophecy about Jesus birth. Intro: The saying goes, that when it comes to realty, the most imp thing is location, location, location. The same is true in sports such as the location of a fastball, high & inside or low & outside; or a pass in football, where only the receiver can catch it, or a shot on goal in soccer, high corner, almost impossible to block. The same can be said in much of life where live, work, vacation, etc. And the saying is also true regarding the plan/mission of God carried out thru Christ. Location was/is of utmost imp, w/prophecy fulfilled & meaning deepened by location. Theme: Being a community, reaching the community. As a true community of faith, we must value most what God values most: His glory, unity, faith, love, humility, His Word, His Church, His mission. God highly values His mission, which is to gather a people of His own, establishing an eternal kingdom to share w/his redeemed/reconciled people. His mission is reconciliation & we must value, embrace & enter into His mission. Our part is to go tell it, tell others of Jesus, point others to Jesus. God s mission centers on Jesus Christ, God the Son, prophesied 1 st in Gen.3:15, the proto evangelium or 1 st gospel. He is promised again in God s covenant w/abraham that thru his seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen.22). The seed is Jesus Christ. Thru Abraham God raised up a nation into which the Messiah, Jesus, would be born, that He might be the Savior of the world. We could follow the prophecies of the Messiah thruout the OT, especially Isaiah (7:14, 9:6-7), perhaps best known of the Christmas prophecies: Behold, the virgin shall conceive & bear a son, & shall call His name Immanuel (God w/us). For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; & the government shall be upon His shoulder, & His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government & of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David & over His kingdom, to establish it & to uphold it w/justice & w/righteousness from this time forth & forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. We 1

2 can see in these prophecies God s plan/mission of relationship w/man & the gift of His Son to be our Savior & the King of His eternal kingdom God s promise-plan being foretold. But I d like to focus today on a more obscure prophecy found in Micah regarding the location of Jesus birth, which we know is Bethlehem, but why? Last week we looked at Gen.22 where God told Abraham to take the son of promise, Isaac, & offer him to God as a burnt sacrifice. Of course, that doesn t sound like God, does it? As others reasonably questioned that, I thought about it for several days. I wonder if God was aiming not only to test Abraham, which He did, but to pull Abraham away from his Chaldean background. In that culture they really did offer their children to their so-called gods, like Molech. But God was bringing a new nation into being & God would be the one providing the perfect sacrifice. Perhaps this testing was in part to serve as a turning point in Abraham s thinking. Well, Abraham s grandson, Jacob, who would father the 12 sons from whom would come the 12 tribes of Israel, which would settle in the Promised Land as the nation Israel, this Jacob (to be renamed Israel) married the love of his life, Rachel (for whom he had worked for his future father-inlaw 14 yrs). But Rachel was barren for some time until God remembered her & she bore a son, Joseph, then another, Benjamin. By this time Jacob decided to return to the land of his father/grandfather Canaan. When they neared Ephrath (or Bethlehem), Rachel went into labor & gave birth to Benjamin, but in doing so, she died, which naturally broke Jacob s heart. He buried her in Bethlehem, about 5 miles from what would become Jerusalem. Then Jacob (Israel) went a little further from there & pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder (Gen.35:21). So, the region of Bethlehem & the surrounding area had great significance for the children/nation of Israel. It s where they essentially had their beginning. Perhaps that s why God chose Bethlehem to be the place of the Savior s birth. We also know that David, the shepherd king, was born in Bethlehem, & as a young man was a shepherd of his father s flock in that region. David being such a beloved king gave further significance to Bethlehem & its surrounding area. The Messiah was to be a Son of David, in the lineage of David. In the gospels, Jesus was often called Son of David as people cried out 2

3 for His help. Joseph, Jesus earthly father, would take his pregnant wife to Bethlehem in order to register for the census ordered by Caesar Augustus, because Joseph was of the house & lineage of David. Perhaps Bethlehem was chosen because it was the city of David. But I think we may discover, in our text this morning, an even greater reason that Bethlehem & its surrounding area was chosen for the Savior s birth. Micah 4:6-5:6 [READ]. Micah prophesied sometime between 739 & 686 BC. His was a message of God s judgment of both the northern kingdom (comprised of 10 of the 12 tribes & so identified as Israel) & southern kingdom (comprised of the tribes of Benjamin & Judah & identified as Judah). The judgment of God was for their rebellion against Him & ended w/israel being conquered & taken into exile by Assyria (which would later be conquered by Babylon) & Judah being conquered by & exiled to Babylon. But in the midst of God s prophesied judgment we find hope: the promise of a remnant (which God has always kept), a return (from exile), & a redeemer a Messiah/ King. In this passage we find the promise of a remnant if vs6-7. The weakest were left in Israel by their conquerors/captors. But God was saying, I m in charge. I will reign over this weak remnant, because I have a plan/mission. In 4:9-5:1 & 5:5b-6, we have the promise of return. God was saying, Yes, you will be carried away to Babylon, & you will travail, but I will redeem you. I will bring you back. These captors don t know My thoughts; they don t understand My plan. 5:5b- 6 may refer to God s deliverance of Judah from the Assyrians. When Assyria had conquered the northern kingdom Israel, they were coming after Judah, but they were turned back by an act of God in response to King Hezekiah s prayer (II Kings 19). And so God s judgment against Judah was delayed, for His purposes, in His plan. God had/has a mission. The promise of a redeemer we find in 4:8 & 5:2-5a. Remember that Jacob settled in the area of the tower of Eder (Migdal Eder). In ancient times, it seems that towers were built in the countryside from which shepherds could watch their sheep. They were built all over, but this particular one seems to have taken on a particular significance. You can research it yourself online (type in Migdal Eder), but listen to this quote from Biblical Prophecy Tracker : The 3

4 Mishnah, Jewish sacred writings which include the Torah, describes Migdal Eder as the watchtower of the flock; the flocks that were specifically destined for the Passover sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem. Special shepherds, hired and taught by the Temple priests, cared for these flocks. The regulations specified that the flocks had to be within 5 miles of the Temple. (Bethlehem is 5 miles from Jerusalem & Migdal Eder was reportedly 1000 paces from Bethlehem, on the way to Jerusalem.) These watchtowers of the flock (Migdal Eder) were agricultural forts where the shepherds would watch over their flock from the second story and where they birthed the newborn lambs in the lower portion of the towers in the fields of Bethlehem. The shepherds would wrap the newborn lambs in swaddling cloths to protect the body of the lambs which would be offered as sacrifice at the Temple just five miles away in Jerusalem. Wrapped in swaddling cloths to keep the new lambs without spot or blemish, they would be laid in a manger until they had calmed down. I believe this is the very place where Jesus was born (not the stable outside the inn, where there was no room) the very birthplace of the nation of Israel. And most likely the shepherds to whom the angel announced the birth of the Savior (Luke2) were these special shepherds caring for the flocks of sheep to be sacrificed. They knew just where to go, & Jesus, the perfect sacrificial lamb, the ultimate Passover Lamb, was wrapped in those swaddling cloths & laid in that manger. John the Baptist declared of Jesus (John 1:29), Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! In Rev. 5:6, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who was the only one able to take & open the scroll of God s plan for the ages is strangely described as a Lamb as though it had been slain. God had/has a plan, a mission. Look how Micah further describes this One who would come forth from the Tower of the Flock 5:2, 4-5a. This One would be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. He would shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord & by His rule & shepherding His flock/people shall dwell secure, because He shall be great to the ends of the earth (by your seed, Abraham, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed). And, He shall be their peace. He is the Prince of Peace, who would bring 4

5 reconciliation between God & His people. God has a mission, which He is carrying out to the letter. There are at least 3 applications that I would urge you to apply in your lives: 1) If God has a mission which He is carrying out, don t you think He can care for you who are His child? Don t you think He has you in His hands? You can dwell secure in Him. 2) Be reconciled to God! If God s mission is reconciliation & He would go to such lengths to carry out that mission, to the extent that He wouldn t spare His own Son, but delivered Him up to be our Savior, then don t you want to receive the benefit of His sacrifice? Whosoever will to the Lord may come, but you have to come by faith & that faith must lead to surrender of your life to Christ as Lord. 3) Bro/sis, it s time for us to be on mission w/god! If He, from before the world began, had a plan/mission to gather to Himself a people whom He would reconcile/redeem, & He has brought us into His family through the Son of the promise, Jesus, then shouldn t we join Him in that mission & be His instruments to reach a lost & dying world w/the gospel/good news of His offer & provision of reconciliation? It s what we were made for. It is our mission. It s not impossible, but made possible by the One who has redeemed us & would use us as His instruments, His ambassadors of reconciliation God s mission is our mission & we must embrace it. 5