When things look bleak, you need hope. The prophet Micah has warned of the severity of God’s coming judgment, things look very bleak. Then into the darkness comes hope from an unexpected place. God’s ways are not our ways. Help is going to come from a place too small to even have a traffic light or a roundabout!
Help is coming from Bethlehem Ephrathah. We probably don’t realise what a small place this was, because we live the other side of the one who came from there and made us aware of it. Bethlehem was so small, that Micah has to add the district “Ephrathah” so that people knew which Bethlehem. It was so small that it was not numbered in the list of towns when then land was divided up (Joshua 15).
Yet, despite being so small, some remarkable people had come from there, Boaz and then King David! Micah now promises people who are facing losing everything, that God is not done with them. There is hope! A ruler is going to come from Bethlehem once more (Micah 5:2). We are probably used to hearing these words around Christmas and so we miss the enormity of it. Here is God, 700 years before the birth of Christ, promising the place of the birth of Jesus! And when the time came, He caused the most powerful man in the world (Caesar Augustus) to organise a census so that Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem in time for the birth!
What else do we learn about this rescuing ruler?
“He shall stand and shepherd his flock…they shall dwell secure” (Micah 5:4)
Doesn’t that sound like the one which said “I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:11, 27-28).
What an encouragement it must have been to hear that promise for the first time, as God’s people faced bleak times, 700 years of hardship. But the hope in God’s promise kept a small number who kept looking forward. People like Simeon and Anna, who were expecting this rescuing ruler and were not disappointed. What an encouragement for us today, as we face bleak times, to know that the one who made wonderful promises about the future that were fulfilled 700 years later still makes wonderful promises for our future. Even here in Micah, we see a hint of it because we are told that Jesus shall reign to the ends of the earth (Micah 5:4).
Even though we can’t see it, just like the people waiting for Christ’s first coming, we can trust His Word for the future. Here is hope for the future. Our rescuing king, the Lord Jesus will reign forever, and all those who trust Him will be secure in Him forever. Here is hope for the bleakest of times. He is the one to follow today, listen to His voice and find the hope He gives.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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