From Old, Even From Everlasting

Good morning. Well we are only 4 days from Christmas Day. I was going to say until we celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus, but we should be doing that year-round. But yes, Christmas is the day we have set aside to remember what great miracle occurred. God became fully man and fully God so that we could have a restored relationship with Him. And He did this is the form of a baby born to a virgin and her husband.

Micah 5:1–5 ~ But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”

What if we could predict with confidence who would win the U.S. Presidential race two years from now? After the mess the polling organizations made in the last presidential election, we could make a fortune. But what if we could predict with certainty the name of the person to be elected President 700 years from now? The prophet Micah told us of a Messiah who would be born in a little town called Bethlehem, and he made his prediction 700 years in advance. Micah predicted:

1.  A Great Ruler Will Be Preceded by National Distress and Divine Judgement (Micah 5:1). In verse 1, Jerusalem is told to mobilize her army and prepare for siege, for the Israelites were going be encompassed by enemies who would strike their king. That is exactly what happened. 

      The people of Israel disregarded the Lord’s prophets and disobeyed His precepts. A series of weak and wicked kings dragged the nation into a moral and military abyss until Judah fell to besieging Babylon. 

      Later Israel experienced a series of humiliations—the tyranny of Antiochus, political confusion by the Hasmoneans, defeat by the Romans, and the despotism of half-insane Herod the Great, at which point Christ came. Sooner or later, our sins find us out (Num. 32:23; Prov. 14:24).

 

2. The Ruler Would Be Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2a). There were two Bethlehems in Israel in those days, one in the area of Zebulun, and the other near Jerusalem. The ancient name of the latter was Ephrathah (Gen. 35:19). Micah was being quite specific, and he especially noted the town’s smallness. 

      One of the most remarkable demographic trends of the past century has been the global shift to urbanization, but large cities have been around from antiquity. The first city to reach one million was Rome about 130 years before Christ. You would have thought the Messiah would have been born in Rome, Alexandria, or Jerusalem. But He came in tiny Bethlehem, and Micah was chosen to reveal that information to us, for he was a small town prophet who ministered to small towns. 

      We think bigger is better, but the Bible tells us to despise not the day of small things. “Little is much when God is in it; / Labor not for wealth or fame. / There’s a crown, and you can win it, / When you go in Jesus’ name.” 

      Edward Payson, a 19th century preacher in Portland, Maine, had but one hearer one stormy Sunday. Payson preached his sermon, however, as carefully as though the building had been thronged. Later his solitary listener called on him. “I was led to the Savior through that service,” he said. “For whenever you talked about sin and salvation, I glanced around to see to whom you referred, but since there was no one there but me, I had no alternative but to lay every word to my own heart and conscience!”

 

3. The Ruler Is Eternal (Micah 5:2b). “His goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (kjv). Our Lord’s miraculous conception in Nazareth and His birth in Bethlehem didn’t mark the beginning of His existence. He once told the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am.” See John 1:1.

 

4. The Messiah Will Be a Threefold Ruler

A. He Is Our Shepherd (v. 4). John 10:14-15
14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me- 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father-and I lay down my life for the sheep.

B. He Is Our Security Verse 4 in the niv reads: “And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.” This has millennial implications, but even now we can live securely in Him, and His greatness reaches to the ends of the earth.

C. He Is Our Serenity Verse 5 tells us He is our peace—not just that He will establish peace, make peace, or impart peace. He is our peace. 

      Isaiah 9:6
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Eph 2:12-18
 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Conclusion: Seven hundred years before His birth, the little town of Bethlehem was chosen as the town of His nativity. Still now, 2,000 years later, we celebrate the birth of Him whose goings forth have been of old, even from everlasting. And His greatness reaches to the ends of the earth. Does it reach into your heart?
 

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.