Advent – Day 5

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” – Micah 5:2

Little town of Bethlehem. We sing it in our carols, and we teach it to our children. It’s where the hopes and fears of all the years are met, where the morning stars proclaim the savior’s birth. And it’s probably one of the most-well known ancient cities. Ask anyone what happened in Bethlehem, and it’s a safe to say the majority of people could answer that question correctly. 

But it wasn’t always that way. In the days of Jesus’ birth, Bethlehem was an insignificant town. Specifically, the Bethlehem of Jesus’ birth was known as Bethlehem Ephrathah. The latter part of the name denoted the district, and as Dr. Thomas Constable wrote, this helped “distinguish this Bethlehem from other Bethlehems in the Promised Land.” This Bethlehem was also the hometown of David, which is why Joseph (a descendant of David) returns here during the census. 

Bethlehem certainly wasn’t where anyone expected a king to hail from. Yet in God’s compassion, he sent his son to be born in this sleepy pastoral town. Approximately 700 years ago, Micah 5:2 prophesied that the messiah would come out of Bethlehem. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

Now 7 centuries later, we remember Bethlehem and celebrate the divine event that occurred there. Jesus’ birth changed Bethlehem from a lowly town to a place of monumental historical (and eternal) importance. This itself is a providential picture of what Jesus does for us. He receives us in our lowly state and then redeems and transforms us.

In The Expositor’s Bible: The Book of the Twelve Prophets, Vol. I, George Adam Smith writes, “We may conceive how such a promise would affect the crushed peasants for whom Micah wrote. A Saviour, who was one of themselves, not born up there in the capital, foster-brother of the very nobles who oppressed them, but born among the people, sharer of their toils and of their wrongs!—it would bring hope to every broken heart among the disinherited poor of Israel. Yet meantime, be it observed, this was a promise, not for the peasants only, but for the whole people.”

The promise of the birth in Bethlehem is a promise for us all. And it is this promise we remember during the Advent season. Jesus wasn’t born among the powerful or the kings or the authorities. He was born among the lowly and the common and the insignificant. He was born to peasants and shepherds. He was born to us, and he is a Savior who is familiar with our suffering and our sorrow. He is acquainted with our tender longings. He can empathize with our trials and can sit with us in our pain, because he sat in the lowly places too.

Today, take some time to reflect on the fact that Jesus arrived in an insignificant, common town, rather than a place of power and prominence. What does this mean for your personally? How does the place of Jesus’ birth further reveal the depths of the kindness of God? Dear Lord, thank you for your great compassion and for sending your son to be born in the town of Bethlehem. You sent him from a throne in Heaven, to the mess of a manger, and he came, willing, humble, and servant-hearted. We receive that gift today with a heart of immense gratitude.  

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