I came across this in my Bible reading today:
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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 And he shall be their peace. – Micah 5:2-5
O little town of Bethlehem. The prophecies about Jesus are specific enough to have drawn the dots of connection for many, but obscure enough that he was not some famous show during his life. This is God’s plan – largely for the benefit of those who would read the Word afterword. Because we can see that God’s plan is in no way accidental, but has been planned from the beginning of time. God knew the timing, the place, and even the gifts in his birth. But he would know too, his death, the betrayal, and the timing of his resurrection. Its all according to God’s plan because God is all-knowing and all-powerful. All things come to pass according to his purposes.
The fruits of these labors are illuminated here – he will shepherd the flock, he’ll be the head of his church, because his fame would grow, and has grown, to the ends of the earth. And in his kingdom is eternal peace, for now we, like the sheep in Psalm 23, can lie down in green pastures. It’s crucial to know that sheep don’t really lie down, they can’t – it’s dangerous. If a wolf is near they won’t have time to get away – but our security in Christ is such that we can freely lie down, we are safe here, and though we may walk through the shadow of the valley of death, we will fear no evil – not even death itself.
The concept of how God has revealed himself over time is an important one. Some will say that God is revealing himself over time in our own conscience or in culture – and that can be fluid and progress as man progresses. That is a convenient way to think, but everything we know about Jesus in the Word speaks against this. God’s Word is specific, it is accurate and reliable – and it’s from here, his revealed Word, that we know anything at all about the person of Jesus. His character, his actions are only recorded with any meaning here, by the gospel writers, commissioned by Christ himself to be his apostles, teachers of his actions and words to the church and to the world at large. What, then, do we trust? Our feelings are often just what we want to be true – though God’s Word will rub against much of what culture tells us, it is the Word of God himself, and why would we not trust him over our own personal or cultural intuitions?