“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” Matthew 2:6, Micah 5:2
Bethlehem currently is a city of just under 30,000 people on the west bank, south of Jerusalem. It is an ancient city going back more than 3000 years, and was at one point destroyed by the Romans, and then rebuilt by Constantine.
King David was from Bethlehem, he reigned somewhere between 900 and 800 BC
The quote above is from the Old Testament prophet named “Micah” which was written about 700 BC.
It is also found in Matthew’s gospel which was written by Matthew (one of Jesus’ twelve disciples) possibly as early as 40-50 AD.
The reason Matthew mentions this quote from the prophet Micah, is because he is telling the story of the “Magi”, the “wise men” who brought their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Three valuable gifts from possibly three wise men? Matthew does not mention how many wise men came from the east following the star, but all the songs say three (including mine!).
These wise men, where exactly they were from we don’t know, maybe China, or somewhere else, but they were definitely not Jewish people. They were foreigners. But despite not being Jewish or from anywhere that was known for faith in the one true God, here they were, with expensive gifts, looking for God’s son, and they wanted to worship him!
So first, they went to Herod, the Jewish King at the time of Jesus’ birth. It made sense to them to ask him where they would find the newborn king that was clearly announced by this special star in heaven.
But Herod was caught by surprise (I don’t think he liked surprises). For some reason, he had not even the slightest inclination that a new king, a godly King, had been born in his country, God’s country. He was clearly not too interested in religious affairs, and suddenly needed the help of other wise men, the religious leaders of his land, to answer the question these strange but important travellers had asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east, and we have come to worship him.”
How did Herod find the answer?
He had to get his old (but expensive- well he was the current King!) bible off the shelf and dust it off, and with the help of these religious leaders and bible teachers, looked up what had been written 700 years before (and kept preserved by those who knew it was important.)
There it was, towards the end of his Old Testament, in Micah’s prophetic writings, chapter 5, “Out of you (Bethlehem) will come a ruler of my people Israel”.
With that information, those travellers, the wise men, or “magi” went from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and found the baby Jesus and worshipped him.
God gave those wise men a beautiful star in heaven to follow, but without the Bible, they may never have found Jesus.
