AP

Micah 5:2, 4-5a    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. …  He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.  And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.  And he will be their peace. …

Micah is reinforcing here the promise that was given to King David nearly three centuries earlier, that ‘Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever’ (2 Samuel 7:16).  Bethlehem, a small and insignificant town in Judah, was David’s ancestral home, so the prophet was making a ‘global’ statement about the promised Messiah.

However, when Jesus was born, this very verse is what was used by the Jewish leaders to direct the Magi in their search for the newborn King (Matthew 2:1-6).  The interesting thing for us is the amazing lengths to which the Sovereign LORD of ALL history and geography went to get the pregnant Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem in time for all this to happen according to HIS Plan!  It even required the civil king of the whole Empire, Caesar Augustus, to issue a decree requiring everyone to return to their ancestral home for a compulsory census!

Does your worldview centre on a God who can make a promise to David in 1,000 BC, reveal the specific details of its fulfilment to Micah in 700 BC, and then organise a king who thought HE ran the world to make decisions that made it all happen?  How comforting and reassuring such a reminder is to us as we see our world seeming to ‘fall apart’ under the pressure of the global Covid pandemic, widespread civil unrest and uncontrollable violence.

Is this THEOCENTRIC worldview reflected in your prayer life?  Moreover, knowing this, is JESUS, and HIS PRESENT place of AUTHORITY, POWER and MERCY at God’s Right Hand, the source of YOUR peace at this time?  And in the light of all this, do you experience DAILY a “peace that transcends all understanding” to  “guard YOUR heart and YOUR mind in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7)?