Road Trippin With Rachael

And You, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. – Matthew 2:6 (CSB)

There is night in history that is considered to be more holy than any other night: the night that Christ is born. Born in a lowly manger in the little town of Bethlehem, the angels come to announce his birth. The birth of the Savior makes this night holy. What of the place? What value is added to this most holy night by it happening in Bethlehem?

We are going to be explore this today. I’m going to focusing on three major points during this blog: the significance of Bethlehem, how Judah plays into the lineage of Christ, and spend some time focusing on the verse from Matthew which is a quote from Micah 5:2. I’ll also be posting this lesson on my YouTube Channel, Road Trippin with Rachael, if that is how you learn better.

Why Bethlehem?

Bethlehem holds a significant place within the overall story of Scripture up through the birth of Jesus. The question is why? Why is there this small, insignificant town that plays such a large role in scripture?

I’m glad you asked! The answer actually has two different parts and to understand them, we need to look at each of them individually.

Language matters, and the way that a word is constructed has its own significance. If we were to look to Paul – it’s a running joke in evangelicalism that Paul makes up words. Hebrew isn’t any different. Bethlehem is a Hebrew word that is a compound word made out of two words: “House” and “Bread” or House of Bread. In a practical sense, this would indicate that Bethlehem is located in an area that produced a plethora of grain to make bread. But it actually plays a much larger theological part of the overall story of scripture. It means that Bethlehem is a place of sustenance, a place of life, and place of provision. The appropriate place for the Bread of Life to come from (John 6:35). Out of the house of bread comes the Bread of Life – Jesus -on this most holy of nights. It is symbolic of what was going to come out of it. Poetic, isn’t it?

Second, this is the town that David came from. David was the second king of Israel while it was still united as a single country – it was after David’s grandson came to the thrown that the country divided between Israel and Judah. David was from the Bethlehem, and was of the tribe of Judah. His life is recorded throughout I & II Samuel, and Bethlehem is often referred to as the City of David, despite its small size. Jesus’ genealogies both show that he comes from David through his mother and through his earthly father, Joseph. David is often portrayed as being a Type – meaning that he displayed some of the characteristics of Christ, and he was meant to point people to the coming king. It is significant that the most well respected king who was a man after God’s own heart would come from the same place that God and King would come from.

The Significance of Judah

Here we meet another man from the line that will lead to Jesus: Judah. Judah is significant as a character, because like David, he is flawed – but also like David, he is also redeemed. He plays a significant role because of the blessing that he receives from his father Jacob at the end of his father’s life (Genesis 49:8-12). Judah was the 4th son, who was born to Jacob and Leah: remember that Leah was the wife Jacob didn’t want, and spent most of her marriage fighting with her sister for her husband’s affection.

Judah ends up receiving a blessing that should have gone to his other brothers. However, as I said Judah was flawed. Reuben was sexually perverse, while Simeon and Levi were murderers. God can redeem anyone and anything, but the heart has to be repentant, and these three men weren’t. Judah sinned against his daughter-in-law and he recognized his sin and repented. He also repented of the part that he played in Joseph being sent off to Egypt while he was a young man.

Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. Judah is a young lion – my son, you return from the kill. He crouches; he lies down like a lion or a lioness – who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah or the staff from between his feet until he whose right it is come and obedience of the peoples belongs to him. He ties his donkey to a vine, and the colt of his donkey to the choice vine. He washes his clothes in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk. – Genesis 49:8-12 (CSB)

Here we see more significance about Judah. Mainly that this is a tribe that is going to be full of warriors. This is true, that there were many mighty warriors who came out of Judah – not always because they were successful on a physical battlefield, but they were able to survive all the different fields of battle that they find themselves in. Kings are going to come out of Judah. Not only will it be a tribe full of kings, but kings that are going to rule continuously. If you go back through history and read through I & II Kings and I & II Chronicles one of the major details that comes through is that Judah always has a king that came from David, who was part of the tribe of Judah. The comparison to a lion is intentional, because the tribe of Judah didn’t go looking for war. It was always in response that Judah would attack. Now, we are painting in broad strokes with that statement – there were definitely kings that decided to display their power on the battlefield, but it wasn’t the norm until the corruption took complete root and God stopped bringing about good kings.

We have a picture of who Judah is, his significance, and who his descendants become. All of which are meant to point the people to a future king of the tribe of Judah who whose scepter won’t leave, and who would become the Good Shepherd who keeps his staff with him.

A Look at Micah 5:2

Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times. (CSB)

The verse that is at the opening of this post is taken from Matthew, however, that was Matthew quoting Micah 5:2. If it hasn’t come across yet, I have a high view of the Old Testament and will always argue that we are able to have and understand the New Testament because of the Old. That applies here as well. As we look at this verse there are a few things we see that have already been mentioned.

• Bethlehem is small and not worth mentioning out of the towns in Judah’s lands
• Much like David – who was also not worth mentioning when Samuel came to anoint one of Jesse’s sons (I Samuel 16: 5-12)
• Messiah will come from Bethlehem, and will be of the ancestry of David (Jeremiah 33:17, Matthew 1:2-16)

If it sounds like this is being repetitive, that is because it is. In the same way that your teachers would repeat information that would be on the test/final, so too does God have the writers of scripture repeat information that he wanted to hammer into the heads of his followers. He inspired the writers of the New Testament to quote the Old, to help Jewish believers see how Jesus is the fulfillment of the the prophecies, AND to help the Greek/Gentile believers see the whole story of who God is. Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and when we take the time to look at it, to study it, and to see how God has woven this beautiful story of how he is involved in the lives of people throughout history, and how he was consistently pointing to the coming of Jesus.

Final Thoughts

God has told us repeatedly, not only who Jesus is, but also where he was going to come. He tells us the family that he will be coming from, and that he is going to be coming to a humble beginning. The New Testament recognizes that there is value that comes from the Old Testament, and even today should not be ignored, because of what it tells us about Jesus, but also because of what it tells us of the Person of God. God didn’t hide his plan from us – he told us what was to come. He cared, and called his people to repentance because there was going to be a son of David who would be a king who would forever rule.

I hope that you have found this edifying and that it gives you pause to think about and discuss in your small groups or in your own study. We will see you for the next carol when we look at Angels We Have Heard On High!