PT-2 A Promised King

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/31/2015 10:03 PM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-2 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.”

We pretty much went over what the first two verses of this prophecy were about in our last SD, and so today we will try and see what verses 3-5a is saying.  We want to look at what Dr. Wiersbe has to say from his commentary at this point:  “In this prophecy, Micah reveals a number of important facts about the Messiah.  To begin with, He is eternal God, for His ‘goings out are from old…from days of eternity (see NIV Margin).  Jesus stepped out of eternity into human history, sent by the father to die for the sins of the world (1 John 4:14).  But He is also truly a man, for He is born as a human child.  We have here the miracle of the Incarnation (John 1:14).”  Now those who are following the Spiritual Diaries on the book of John have seen this as we looked at the first chapter of John’s gospel, and we have also looked many times at the key verses in the book of John which tells us exactly why John wrote this book:  “30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31  but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  This is why John wrote his book as stated, to tell others exactly who Jesus was and Micah was prophesying about the coming Messiah in these verses.

One may wonder why it was that the very Son of God chose to be born in Bethlehem, and not a major city like Athens of Rome or Jerusalem.  In my Christmas message I tried to answer that question by stating that it is my belief that the prophecy of Micah 5:2 was fulfilled by Jesus Christ being born in the same cave that the Passover Lambs were born in for John said of Jesus “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and Paul writes in “1Co 5:7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”  Jesus died exactly when the Passover Lambs were sacrificed for as we read here His is our Passover.  Now when Jesus comes in victory the second time He will not come to Bethlehem, for Zachariah tells us exactly where He will land along with an angel talking to His disciples in the first chapter of Acts.  Jesus will come down on the Mt. of Olives where He was taken up into heaven.

Dr. Wiersbe writes “However, before He can stand as a Shepherd and care for His flock, His own people must reject Him.  Between the cross and the Kingdom Age, Israel will be ‘given up’ by the Lord until the time when Jesus returns and the nation is ‘born’ into her kingdom (see Isa. 66:8).  The King will reign to the ends of the earth and will bring peace to all nations.  Today, of course, Christ gives peace to all who will come to Him by faith (Matt. 11:28-30; Rom. 5:1).”

Micah gave the people of his day an encouraging message, but they did not pay much attention to it.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Whenever a prophet foretold the future, it was to awaken the people to their responsibilities in the present.  Bible prophecy isn’t entertainment for the curious; it’s encouragement for the serious.” 

I love the prophetic Word of God, but God has and continues to teach me things like Dr. Wiersbe just stated and that is it is not entertainment.

Happy New Year to all, on we hope and pray that the Lord will return to take His bride to heaven this year.

12/31/2015 10:56 PM