Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Micah 5:2-4 | Date: April 14, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

In your Bibles, if you will, turn to the Prophet Micah. Continuing our studies on Messianic prophecy, we’ll conclude this evening the studies in this prophet, Micah. Last time we left off at verse 8 of chapter 4. We’ll go back and pick up beginning with verse 9, but for now let’s begin with the focus of our attention beginning with verse 2 of chapter 5.

Micah 5 verses 2 through 4: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel, and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.”

You may remember that the prophet Micah, we have essentially three oracles, each marked off by the call to “hear”: chapter 1 and verse 2, chapter 3 and verse 1, and then again in chapter 6 and verse 1, “hear what the Lord says.” Each of these marks out the major divisions of his prophecies. Each of these three prophecies, as I’ve mentioned, carries both notes of judgment and hope, and each of them begins with judgment and ends with hope. And we saw in chapters 1 and 2, it was largely a message of judgment all through chapter 1 and almost all the way through chapter 2 until the last couple of verses, 12 and 13, and then we find this brief message of hope where this breaker king will break his way through and bring deliverance to his people.

Then chapter 3 and verse 1 begins again with a note of judgment, but here in this section of his prophecy, it’s weighted a little different. Whereas in chapters 1 and 2, it was mostly judgment and then just a brief note of hope, here we have chapter 3, which is largely a note of judgment, but then almost all of chapters 4 and 5 focus on this matter of hope that is promised to Israel. There’s a third section of his prophecy that we will not get to. It is not explicitly a messianic prophecy. Chapters 6 and 7 end with a marvelous prophecy of gospel promise, but we won’t be getting to that in this series. Chapter 7, verses 18 and following says, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us.” Just a marvelous passage. But because it’s not explicitly messianic, it doesn’t fit into our series, and I’ll let it go at that.

Last time we left off then at chapter 4 and verse 8. Beginning with verse 9, we have a brief glimpse of Judah lamenting because they’ve been told that they’re going to be exiled to Babylon. Chapter 4, verse 9: “Now, why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished? That pain, has pain seized you like a woman in labor? Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country. You shall go to Babylon.”

So here we have one of many prophecies in the prophets telling Judah, the southern kingdom, that what has happened to the northern kingdom—carried off to Assyria—is going to happen to you. Exile is going to come to you because of your disobedience, your unfaithfulness to the covenant, and it will be Babylon that comes and carries you away.

Now, I think it’s difficult for us—we keep bumping into this, and I should at least mention something about it—it’s difficult for us to understand and to grasp the significance of the exile. Some have gone so far as to say all of the Old Testament to that point has been building toward that, and everything after is looking back to it. God had promised Israel several things. He promised Israel a land. He promised Israel a temple, and this is where he would dwell in their midst. This was the mark of God’s presence among his people. He also promised Israel a king, a Davidic son who would reign. And now with the exile, all of that seems to collapse, and it seems to be gone. It seems that everything that God has promised them has just fallen to the ground, and there’s seemingly no way for it ever to come to pass after all. God’s promise has failed.

So it’s just a devastating moment for Israel, for the southern kingdom. God has said this now; he’s warned them, he’s warned them, he’s warned them over the centuries. Their disobedience persisted and now he’s going to bring Babylon to carry them away from their land. But then we have verse 10, the last part of the verse: “There you shall be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.” And then in verses 11 and following, again we have this note of trouble that’s going to come for Israel. Verse 11: “Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, ‘Let her be defiled, let her eyes gaze upon Zion.'”

Now this is not Assyria, this is Babylon who’s coming, probably talking about some of the devastation that Nebuchadnezzar is going to bring, but it’s probably also prospective of a coming trouble for Israel. That’s common in the prophets that we find over and again. You find that in Ezekiel and Joel and Zechariah and other places as well, where a future trouble for Israel comes and they’re going to be in desperate straits. But here it’s looking primarily at Babylon coming against Israel.

Verses 12 and 13—by the way, verse 11 says “many nations,” not just Babylon. That’s why I say it’s probably prospective of something more that is coming. That’s common in the prophets. When you look at a specific prophecy that’s coming, very often it’s not just “this is that,” but it’s “this is that, and that’s prospective of that as well,” and there’s a fuller fulfillment coming. I think that’s probably what’s going on here. Verses 12 and 13: these nations coming against Israel have no idea what they are about to experience. They don’t have any idea what God has in mind for them. So in verse 11, they’re saying, “let’s go make a spectacle of Israel. We’ll plow them under,” so to speak. And what they don’t understand, we find here, is that God’s going to plow them under. Verse 12: “They do not know the thoughts of the Lord, they do not understand His plan, that He has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, I will make your hoofs bronze, and you shall beat in pieces many peoples, and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.”

And then we come to chapter 5 and verse 1. By the way, in the Hebrew text, this is the last verse of chapter 4. There’s a chapter division after this verse, after what ours is, chapter 5, verse 1, and I think that makes better sense. This goes with that. So this is the climax, then, of Israel’s sorrow. Israel’s judge is smacked with a rod across the face. Whether it’s literal or whether it’s symbolic, this is pointing obviously to the utter helplessness of the king of Israel, probably referring to the humiliation of King Zedekiah, Israel’s last king, from the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. This is not, though some have wondered, a prophecy of Jesus. He was never smitten on the cheek with a rod. But it’s probably an allusion to Nebuchadnezzar’s harsh treatment of Zedekiah. And again, it’s probably prospective. Israel is under threat, they’re helpless, and the king is so helpless he can’t even protect his own face. Smacked across the face with a rod.

A New King Is Promised

All right, so that brings us to what has been prophesied is going to come to Israel. But again, the focus is not on that. The focus is on this hope, and it begins with chapter 5 and verse 2. A new king is promised, and there’s going to be a great reversal. We keep seeing this in the prophets: that this trouble is going to come, there’s going to be defeat, and there’s going to be helplessness, and then there’s going to be this great reversal. And it focuses on, as we keep seeing, this king who’s promised to come.

And so we have it again in chapter 5 verse 2: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” All right, so we have a ruler coming from Israel. This term that’s used here, translated “ruler,” is a general term for ruler—someone who rules and someone who’s in charge. It’s something that’s often used even in a negative sense of a tyrant kind of a thing. This is a ruler who’s going to be in charge. That’s the idea.

In verse 4, he’s called a shepherd, which is clearly a—well, it says verse four, “he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord.” Shepherd is regularly in the prophets a term for the king of Israel. This is almost certainly then referring back to the Nathan oracle in 2 Samuel chapter 7, when God promises to David that he will have a son who will reign in his place. 2 Samuel 7 verse 8: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I took you from the pasture,'” he says to David, “‘from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people.'”

So he says this ruler will come forth “for me.” This is God’s appointed king. He’s vice-regent. He doesn’t reign on his own. He’s reigning in God’s stead. This is what we’ve seen, you remember, in Messianic prophecy all the way from Genesis chapter 1 onward: that God has intended to establish his reign and his rule in the earth. But he is going to do it through his human king that he’s appointed for that position. And so this is that one who is coming, and it says then he will come from Bethlehem Ephrathah.

Bethlehem is, of course, the name of the town, if it’s big enough to even call it a town. Ephrathah, that’s the larger district. We needed to distinguish that because there are two Bethlehems in the general area, one up in Galilee and one in Judah as well. This one, of course, is the one in Judah, in the south. It’s a small village about five miles southwest of Jerusalem. This is the home, of course, of Naomi; also the home of Boaz and Ruth as well, and of course it’s made famous because it was eventually the home of David who became king.

He says here Bethlehem is too little to be among the clans of Judah. It’s just a tiny, insignificant little nothing of a town. In Joshua chapter 15, we have recorded for us 46 of the cities that Joshua conquered on his way into the land. Bethlehem is not even mentioned. It’s just not worth mentioning. It’s such a little place. That’s what he has in mind here. Of course, as I mentioned, this town has become famous because it was the birthplace of King David. But when we find in 1 Samuel 17 verse 12, David’s father Jesse is introduced as an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah. That’s the Bethlehem we’re talking about here.

And so likewise, David’s greater son will come from Bethlehem as well. The idea is that another David is coming. Not only is he David’s son, but he will be born in Bethlehem just like David was. Another Davidic king, David’s greater son, is coming. So it’s picking up, it’s tying into a huge stream of prophecy that we’ve already seen in the Old Testament. Out of tiny little Bethlehem will come a ruler who will establish the kingdom of God, and it tells us he will exercise worldwide dominion. So Bethlehem may be a tiny town, but it will prove not to be so insignificant after all. Out of Bethlehem will come a world ruler. Verse 4: “he will be great to the ends of the earth.”

This is just one of those many times we find in the Scriptures where God just, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, He just loves to take the weak to confound the strong, or to take the foolish and confound the wise. It’s just another example of that. Out of little Bethlehem is going to come this world ruler, a promised king, descended from David to rule the world, and he will be great to the ends of the earth.

Now one reason that this is significant and that this prophecy is important is because it demonstrates for us the accuracy and the detailed specificity of Old Testament prophecy. One of the men at church this morning and I were talking about this, that you see some of this in the Old Testament, hundreds of years in advance, specifying details like this, and you think, “Who in the world could ever do this?” This is way beyond a lucky guess. This is God speaking ahead of time, announcing his intentions of what he will do, and bringing them about. We see this come to pass, of course, in Matthew chapter 2, when wise men come to Jerusalem looking for the infant, or for the baby Jesus, and they come to Herod, and Herod asks, “Where is this baby to be born?” And, well, the prophets say, and they cite Micah chapter 5 verse 2, “he’ll be born in Bethlehem.” It’s kind of one of those things. Bethlehem? Why Bethlehem? We’ll see a little bit more about that in a minute. But it’s an important thing to notice that this kind of thing is not difficult if you’re the one who’s writing history. And God does that, and he’s carrying out his purpose, so it’s no problem, as he says in the prophet Isaiah, to announce the end from the beginning.

Now, verse 2, we have more about the origins of this ruler, Shepherd King. It’s not just from Bethlehem. “From you Bethlehem shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” Now, what is this talking about? He’s come forth from Bethlehem, and he’s coming forth from of old, from ancient days. Some have referred this back to 2 Samuel chapter 7, the Davidic promise. That’s a minority view. That might be the view of our translators in the ESV here, because they translate this “from ancient days” rather than “from of old.” Traditionally, this has been understood as His coming forth not only from Bethlehem, but from eternity, from ancient days of eternity, from eternal days. In fact, the same Hebrew expression that’s used here is used in other contexts with reference to God and His eternality.

I think the traditional understanding is the correct one, that He has come from eternity. That’s the view taken that you’ll find in the New American Standard Bible, Christian Standard Bible. It’s the view taken from the translators of the King James Version, and there are some other places in the Old Testament, I think, that bear that out. The Septuagint, by the way, takes that view as well and translates it into the Greek, that this is from of old, from eternity, is the idea.

So, verse 2 again: he comes from Bethlehem, that is, he’s a Davidic son. That’s his humanity. And he comes from eternity. That’s his deity. So we have the two natures of the Messiah. He’s eternal, comes forth from ancient days, from eternity. And he comes from Bethlehem. So here we have the incarnate Son of God. David’s son, yes, but also God the Son come—the eternal Son of God coming and born in Bethlehem.

This is another mark of the inspiration of the scriptures. I was just chatting about this with my wife on the way here this evening. Who would come up with this kind of stuff? Who would have imagined that, okay, David’s got an expectation that a son will come and he’ll be a great ruler, and then someone comes along and says it’ll be, he will be born in Bethlehem? And then he also says, but his birth in Bethlehem will not be his beginning; he’s actually come forth from way back in eternity past. Now who would come up with that? More than that, who would understand it before the fact?

Now you and I look back at that, and we know Bethlehem, and we know Incarnation, we’ve got the New Testament teaching of the two natures of Christ, and we’ve got it all put together and sorted out. Before that, who would come up with this? And after the fact, you look back and you say, it was there all along. And it’s just another trait of the inspiration of Scripture to see God has been announcing what he will do all along.

Now you have this idea of the divine Messiah popping up regularly in the messianic prophecies, and not only a divine Messiah, but the two natures of Messiah as well. The divine Messiah we have in places like Psalm 110, verse 1, where David writes, “The Lord said to my Lord.” We’ve got the deity of both, and that’s the question Jesus posed to the Pharisees in Matthew’s Gospel, that you can’t look at that prophecy—everybody recognizes it as a Messianic prophecy—you can’t look at that without recognizing the deity of the Messiah. You have it in other places as well, but we also have both of those coming together in some prophecies.

We have that here in Micah 5 and verse 2. He comes from Bethlehem. He comes from eternity. We find it, you might remember, in Psalm 45, that this one is the one who is addressed: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” And yet he worships God. He’s a Davidic son. He is the son of God as well. We will see it when we get to the book of Isaiah several times: Isaiah 7:14, the virgin-born son. He’s the son of David, and yet he is named Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah chapter 9, the Davidic son, the child who was born, his name is the mighty God. We find it in Isaiah chapter 11, where he is the root and the shoot of Jesse. We find it other places as well.

This is what some have called the very soul of the Old Testament hope—that this Davidic king is not just another David. He’s another David and way beyond that, he is God come to the rescue. And that is the way Matthew takes it in Matthew chapters 1 and 2 when he cites these prophecies that they may be fulfilled and so on. And Jesus is the fulfillment of the expectation of David’s son to come. And he is the fulfillment of the expectation of God come to the rescue. In one birth and in one person we have the arrival of God coming and the arrival of David’s son to rescue.

So it’s a marvelous prophecy: a promised king descended from David and yet he’s the eternal God coming to the rescue of his people and coming to rule the world. Marvelous expectation. Now there’s still more here about his origins. I’m looking at the clock, see if I have time for it. Let’s try. Verse two again: “From you shall come forth to me, for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” So we have a dual coming forth. He comes forth from Bethlehem and he comes forth from eternity. Now that at the very least indicates his eternality as I’ve mentioned. But there may be more to this and I suspect, I really think that there is.

What does it mean to come forth from eternity? The word that is used here speaks of the act of coming forth. And his coming forth has been from eternity. He has been coming forth from eternal days. Now, traditionally this has been understood in terms of the doctrine of the eternal generation of Christ. He’s eternal, but he has been going forth eternally, proceeding from the Father. The Son is from the Father. This gets into the relations of the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. We all know, of course, that these three are equal, co-equal, and yet there’s an ordering in the Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit—not a subordination, but an ordering of the Trinity in terms of their procession. The Son is from the Father. The Spirit is from the Son and the Father. Never, never do we see those reversed.

And so you find expressions in the New Testament like, Jesus is the “only begotten” of the Father. That term indicates this, I think, this doctrine of eternal generation that’s been questioned over the recent decades, but in recent years it’s been championed again. And I think very effectively that the Nicene understanding of this or the early church fathers was correct, that this eternal generation is found in the term “the only begotten Son.” And you never see it the other way: the Father coming from the Son.

And it’s not just the begotten language; you have it with other things as well. Father, Son—you never find that reversed. Christ is the Son, the word of the Father. Never do you find the Father is the word of the Son. The Son is the image of the Father. Never do you see that the Father is the image of the Son. We find other expressions like the Son is the light of the Father, the fullness, the radiance of His glory. Never do you see it the other way, that the Father is the radiance of the Son’s glory. It’s always this “from-ness” that goes on in the term. And this is what determines and identifies the relations of the three persons of the Trinity.

So you put these together: Jesus, or the Son of God, is from the Father, proceeding from the Father, and yet he’s eternal. And the only way to put that together is to come up with something like eternal generation. He’s from the Father, but it’s always been that way. And it’s an important matter for the early church theologians, simply because this is what distinguishes the relations between the three persons of the Trinity without ending up with tritheism. How do you have three persons without three beings? And the answer is, he’s not made, he’s begotten. He comes from the Father. And I think that’s indicated here as well.

We have other language about that in the New Testament. Hebrews 1 verse 3 is one of them. There are other passages as well. One of my, I think one of the most conclusive of this is in John chapter 5 verse 26, where Jesus says that the Father has life in himself; that is, he has aseity, his self-existence, independent existence. And then he says—and this is fascinating, just mind-bending—he has granted the Son to have life in himself. Now, if you can just grasp what “life in himself” is—aseity, independent existence—and then say that was granted to him? How is self-existence granted? And I think it’s this matter of the eternal generation of the Son, that his relationship to the Father is that of proceeding from him eternally. I think the early church theologians were dead right on this, and I think Micah chapter 5 is an indication of that. I don’t think it’s the main verse for it, but I do think it’s reflective of it.

You might remember that we’ve talked before, years ago, about the early Christological controversies in the early centuries. You had this infamous man by the name of Arius who comes up and says that there was a time when the Son was not; the Son was made. And then we have the Nicene Creed, which is still recited today, which has been identified with—that all branches of the Christian church have identified with: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.” And then this language that you’ve heard—in fact, it’s in our hymnal, in one of the Christmas carols from one of Wesley’s hymns: “God from God, light from light, true God from true God,” and then “begotten, not made.” That was aimed at Arius. “Begotten, not made,” and then that famous Homoousios statement: “consubstantial with the Father.” One with the Father, and yet, light from light, God from God. They’re trying to grapple with putting together all of these details: that the Son is eternal, He’s equal with the Father, and yet, in terms of their relations, what distinguishes them is that He is from the Father. Well, we’ll develop that more some other time if you’d like. But I think that’s reflected here in verse two as well.

Verse three: this ruler who’s promised in verse two will not come immediately. It will not prevent the time of punishment that’s been announced. Verse three: “therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.” He shall give them up. That is, they’ll be abandoned. They’ll be without a shepherd king, and they’ll be given over to their enemies. Now that is a reference back to chapter 4 and verse 10, where you remember we just read: “Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country. You shall go to Babylon, there you shall be rescued. The Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.”

So we have this time of abandonment where the people are let go, they have no king of their own, but he will be born in Bethlehem. And by the way, I said I’d get back to this, that this ruler, this king is to be born in Bethlehem and not Jerusalem presupposes that the Davidic dynasty has failed. It’s gone. Otherwise he’d have been born in Jerusalem. That he’s born in Bethlehem presupposes this abandonment that he’s speaking of here, and that’s the case. God has given them up, and it says he’ll give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. “She who is in labor.” We read that, and at first glance we probably think that means Mary. That’s probably not the case. Chapter 4, verses 9 and 10 speak of Israel in labor giving birth to the Messiah. I think that’s the idea there.

So Israel’s loss of a king and her subjection to the enemies will continue until the birth of her promised ruler. Israel was without a king from her exile until the birth of this king. And then it says, “then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.” So the rest of the ruler’s brothers, he says, will then return from exile, join the Israelites who are remaining in Judah, and they’ll be restored, reunified, made a covenant nation again. A common theme in the prophets.

Verse four, wonderful verse. His arrival will mark a new day. Israel’s sorrow will come to an end. “He shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord. In the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall dwell secure. For now he shall be great until the ends of the earth.” He shall stand, that is he’ll establish himself as a ruler. He’ll take charge in order to accomplish what God has purposed for him. And it says he will shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord as his father David did. He’ll provide, he’ll protect, he’ll lead, he’ll be in charge. And they will dwell secure, for now he will be great to the ends of the earth.

Conditions Of The Earth During His Rule

Verses five to nine, then we have some further description of the conditions of the earth during his rule, somewhat like we had back in chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. Verses 5 and 6 speak of the Messiah’s protection of his people. “He shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise up against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men. They shall shepherd the land of Assyria with a sword, the land of Nimrod at its”—that’s Babylon—”at its entrances and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border.”

And then verses 7 to 9 speak of the prosperity that will be experienced under the king’s leadership. “Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which delay not for man nor wait for the children of men. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there’s none to deliver. Your hands shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.”

So we have the ruler coming. He’s great to the ends of the earth. He’s come from Bethlehem, he has come from eternity, and now he has brought the kingdom of God to bear on the earth. Micah 5 identifies the place of the birth as Bethlehem, but otherwise it’s another of many prophecies that God will send David’s son. It adds to the important detail that we find in many others as well, that David’s son is also David’s Lord, and he will bring God’s kingdom to earth, fulfill all of the promises, and his people will be safe because he will reign to the ends of the earth.

And I just have to read the statement again. I just love the way it sounds: “Now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.” I can’t wait. What a wonderful day that will be.

All right, let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us, please?

Our Father, we thank you for the living hope that was introduced through our songs this morning and has been illustrated all throughout the day, culminating in the wonderful reflection tonight of this great ruler, both son of God and son of man. We thank you that his favorite expression was that “son of man,” indicating his humanity, but also ever reaching back into the book of Daniel, seeing him approach the ancient of days and receive an everlasting dominion.

We thank you that we have been included in that inheritance. We pray that we would draw hope and endurance as we look forward to that time when we all will leave this earth unless Christ would return first. We remember those that are drawing near to that point of entering the glory that you have promised for them and their inheritance. We pray that we would look forward to that time without fear and dread, but knowing that our Savior has purchased for us the security that we so long for and that we will possess by his grace.

We’ll thank you for glorifying your name through us as we minister peace and hope to a lost world around us that so desperately is seeking but not finding this peace in every other place. We pray that you would bless the gospel, help us to be effective ministers of the gospel of peace to them. In Jesus’ name we pray.