SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/30/2015
9:59 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 A Promised King
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Micah 5:1-5a
Message of
the verses: “1 "Now muster yourselves in troops,
daughter of troops; They have laid siege against us; With a rod they will smite
the judge of Israel on the cheek. 2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too
little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be
ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of
eternity." 3 Therefore
He will give them up until the time When she who is in labor has borne a child.
Then the remainder of His brethren Will return to the sons of Israel. 4 And He
will arise and shepherd His flock In the strength of the LORD, In the majesty
of the name of the LORD His God. And they will remain, Because at that time He
will be great To the ends of the earth. 5 This One will be our peace.”
I want to first of all quote John Gill as he
outlines what we will be looking at as we look at this fifth chapter in the
book of Micah: “This chapter begins with
a prophecy of the siege of Jerusalem, #Mic 5:1; and then follows another
concerning the place of the Messiah’s birth, #Mic 5:2; and of the case of the
Jews, either before or after it, #Mic 5:3; and of Christ’s office as a
shepherd, and of his grandeur in the world, #Mic 5:4; and of his being a
peacemaker, and protector of his people from their enemies, #Mic 5:5,6; and of
his people, the great increase of them, and their usefulness, and also of their
courage, strength, and prowess, #Mic 5:7-9; likewise that the Lord will remove
from them their vain confidence, and all occasion of it, and whatsoever illicit
arts and practices were found among them; and all idolatry, and the instruments
of it, #Mic 5:10-14; and the chapter is concluded with a threatening of
vengeance to the Heathens, #Mic 5:15.”
As Gill states the first verses speaks of the siege
on Jerusalem and this verse does not speak of the troops that Judah has, but of
the troops that the Babylonians have when they begin their siege on
Jerusalem. I want to quote an endnote
from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary at this point.
“It is unwise to make Micah 5:1 a prophecy of what happened to Jesus
during His trial, although He was slapped in the face, beaten with a reed, and
scourged (Matt. 27:30; Mark 15:19; John 19:3).
The context of Micah 5:1 is definitely the siege of Jerusalem, not the
trial of Jesus.” Now I for one am glad
for this note for when I read this verse it made me think of the trial that
Jesus went through, and when He was slapped in His face.
When we studied the book of 2 Kings we learned what
had happened to King Zedekiah as he and his family tried to slip out of
Jerusalem when the siege was going on with the Babylonians. They were overtaken
and then the Babylonians killed his sons in front of him and then caused him to
go blind and took him to Babylonian.
Now as I was reading these verses this time I was stricken
by the great contrast between verses one and two. Dr. Wiersbe writes: “The fact that Micah 5:2 is in contrast to
verse 1 (‘But, thou, Bethlehem’) is another proof that verse 1 is not speaking
about Jesus; for verses 2-5 definitely refer to Messiah. God selected the ‘little town of Bethlehem’
as the place where the King of the Jews was to be born. It was this prophecy that the priests shared
with the magi who came to Jerusalem looking for the King (Matt. 2:1-12).”
In Genesis 35:16-20 we read the story of how Rachel,
Jacob’s favorite wife gave birth to their last son. Rachel died giving birth to this son and
named him “Ben-oni” which means “son of my sorrow.” It was very near Bethlehem
that Rachel died and was buried. Now Jacob
changed his name to Benjamin, which means “son of my right hand.” Now as we look at the two names given to
Jacob and Rachel’s son we can picture our Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Wiersbe writes: “These two names remind
us of our Lord’s suffering and glory, the cross and the throne at the Father’s
right hand.”
More history of Bethlehem was that Ruth came there
as the daughter-in-law of Naomi, Ruth being a Moabite and is in the blood line
of Jesus Christ. Remember the people of
Moab began when one of Lot’s daughter got her father drunk and slept with him
and she had a son whom she name Moab. I
have to say that what I seen in this story is Romans 8:28 “And we know that God
causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who
are called according to His purpose.”
Ruth fell in love with Boas and they had a child who became the father
of King David and all of this happened in Bethlehem. David was given a promise
by God in 2 Samuel chapter seven that the Messiah would come through his line
and it did as both Mary and Joseph came through the line of David. Now when we look at John 7:42 we read that
the Jews knew that their Messiah would be born in Bethlehem: “"Has not the Scripture said that the
Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village
where David was?"” With that we
will stop and do some more from these verses in our next SD on Micah.
12/30/2015 10:31 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment