Birthplace of the King
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf. (Micah 5:2)
Beth-le-hem means “house of bread” in Hebrew. Insignificant as a tiny loaf of bread . . . yet the Lord, through the writing of a minor prophet eight centuries earlier, puts his finger on Bethlehem and announces that this place will be famous. Why, that’s like the President addressing Muleshoe, Texas, or Pea Ridge, Arkansas, saying, “From you there will come forth a great person.”
In fact, it seems so insignificant that for centuries men questioned the writings of Micah. How could it be that Bethlehem, “the house of bread,” insignificant as a grain of wheat, would be the seed plot—the birthplace of one who “will arise and shepherd His flock” and “be our peace” (Micah 5:4–5 NASB)?
You see, no one cared about the writings of Micah. I can picture pompous Augustus sitting securely on his throne, in charge of the Roman world, thinking he had made a decision that was altogether original and unique. But looking back, we realize he was running the errands of a minor prophet named Micah.
Augustus had no earthly idea that a teenaged pregnant girl named Mary living in Nazareth with Joseph, her carpenter husband-to-be, was about to bear a son named Jesus, who would be the Savior of the world. But the world was about to find out that infant named Jesus was really the significance of that era, not Caesar. The spotlight of redemption’s history would fall on Bethlehem, not Rome. Luke tells us:
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. (Luke 2:1–2 NASB)
The most significant event of the centuries took place in an enclosed patio made into a stable in an insignificant “loaf-of-bread” city, Bethlehem. I wonder what Mary thought. Haven’t you wondered that when you have read the story? Haven’t you wondered what went through her mind as she saw that little One? The most significant thing that happened didn’t happen in Caesar’s court, Quirinius’s palace or among the plans of the Jewish zealots to overthrow Rome. The most significant thing happened in a manger.
