Title: Micah 5:2-5a
Author: user
Last saved by: Barb Bartz
Company: Martin Luther College

Back to Bethlehem
Micah 5:2-5a

	If your life were a car, who would be driving? If your life were a meeting, who would be the chairman? Maybe you’re a little annoyed by the question. “I'm in charge of my life,” might be your first response. “And that’s just the way I want it. The last thing I want is somebody else calling the shots, telling me what to do, taking away my freedom to do whatever I please.”

	If you feel that way, you’re not alone. We Americans value our right to do whatever we please very highly. Two hundred years ago, when (as we saw it) a king overstepped the bounds of his authority and tried to tell us what to do, we fought a war to get rid of him. And ever since, we’ve had little use for anybody who tried to take any of our freedom away.

	But there’s a problem. If I am completely free to do whatever I choose, then I am responsible for the choices I make. And I am responsible for what happens if I choose wrong. If nobody has any authority over me, then that means no one has the power to take care of me, to defend me from my enemies, to provide me with comfort and security. Life with no one but me in charge sounds exciting at first—until I think a little about what it means. Then, it becomes a little bit scary.

	God didn’t leave his Old Testament people, the nation of Israel, to live their lives with no one in charge.  He placed over them his own, divinely-appointed kings. The kings were supposed to care for the people, defend them from their enemies, and provide them with comfort and security - exactly the way a shepherd takes care of his sheep. Above all, the kings were supposed to provide spiritual leadership for the people, to point them in the right direction in their relationship to God.

	But there was a problem with this arrangement, too. Micah the prophet, through whom God gave us the words of our text, lived in the days of the kings of Judah - specifically, kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And it was clear that none of these kings could give the people the comfort and security they needed. Jotham, relatively speaking, was a good king. He tried to do the right thing. But he was powerless to stop Judah’s downhill slide into idolatry, and to keep out the armies of Aram, Judah’s enemy at the time. King Ahaz, who followed Jotham, was an unmitigated disaster. Ahaz opened the floodgates to the religious practices of the nations around Israel, practices that included human sacrifice. Ahaz even set up an Assyrian-style altar right in the temple of the Lord - which was tantamount to raising the Assyrian flag on a pole in front of the capital building. King Hezekiah, who followed Ahaz, was a good king - but he could stem the tide only for a little while. In spite of him, Judah’s downhill slide into complete destruction was only a matter of time.

	And are our kings today any better? Those with authority in our society, who wield power over us - what are they like? If our world is a runaway train, plunging down a slope of godlessness and immorality, then even the best of our leaders can do little more than slow the train down - just a little, and only for a little while. And the worst of our leaders? They seem to be shoveling more coal into the train’s boiler just as fast as they can. When we look at our leaders, we really don’t have any more reason for confidence than the Israelites had when they looked at theirs.

	But through the prophet Micah, God told his people -and tells us - that a solution is on the way. The solution is not to get rid of all authority, and for each of us to become a law unto himself. The solution is a ruler that God was preparing to send. This king would not be born in Jerusalem, like Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This one would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David. In other words, when he installed this king over his people, God was going to do it right. He was going back to the source: back to the little town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem had already given Israel the greatest king she had ever had - King David. It was where David’s great dynasty had begun years and years ago.

	But if you think David was a great king, Micah says, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! This new king will be so completely different from the rest that - did you notice? - in this text, Micah doesn’t even call him a king. He’s always “the ruler” - as if this one is so different from the rest that it’s an insult to call him by the same name. Instead of being a weak, corrupt embarrassment, like most of Israel’s kings, this ruler will “stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.” He will rule with the LORD’s own strength. For his subjects, he will collect people both from Israel, and from non-Israelite “brothers” - in other words, from people like you and me, who will hear about the glory and greatness of this ruler and come and join themselves to the people of God. And this ruler’s kingdom will span all of time and all of creation. This ruler will rule wherever the LORD rules. He will reign, not just in Israel, but “to the ends of the earth.”

	But how can one ruler possibly do all that? Simple. Unlike the Israelite kings, this ruler isn’t just God’s representative. This ruler is God. Micah says that you can trace this ruler’s origins back to Bethlehem, if you like. But you can trace them back even further, back before there was such a thing as time - back into “days of eternity.” For this ruler is God the Son, begotten of his Father from all eternity, born of the Virgin Mary. This ruler is Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.

	Now, do you want comfort? Do you want security? In this king, you have them. This ruler cares for you the way a shepherd does his flock, only better. He lays down his life for you. And a ruler who loves you that much, and who rules with the power of the LORD himself, certainly isn’t going to let you go without anything that you need. Do you want someone to fight your battles for you and defeat your enemies? This ruler defeated death for you, so that now death is nothing but a doorway through which you pass on your way into everlasting life.  

And do you want to know that there’s someone in control? Do you want sanity and direction in your life? Do you want a leader you can follow? Follow this leader. Let him be in charge. Let him sit in the driver’s seat of your life, and there will never be any doubt about your destination. Amen.