Around 5 BC, a crowd of Zoroastrian astrologers came to Jerusalem looking for “the newborn king of Judea,” Mt 2.2 freaking out the province largely because its paranoid king, Herod bar Antipater. Mt 2.3 They knew it was only a matter of time before Herod starting killing people over it. As he later did.
Figuring he oughta learn where Messiah was expected to come from, Herod turned to Jerusalem’s head priests and scribes.
- Matthew 2.4-9 KWL
- 4 Gathering all the head priests and scribes of the people,
- Herod was asking them, “Where’s Messiah born?”
- 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem, Judea. This was written by the prophet:
- 6 ‘You, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way the least of Judah’s rulers:
- A leader will come from you who will shepherd my people, Israel.’” Mc 5.2
- 7 Then Herod, secretly summoning the Zoroastrians, grilled them on the time the star appeared.
- 8 Sending them to Bethlehem, he said, “Go search carefully for the child.
- Once you find him, send news to me so I might also go bow before him.”
- 9 On hearing the king, they went.
The scribes answered with a loose translation of Micah 5.2, which pinpointed Jerusalem’s suburb of Bethlehem, about 3 kilometers away. The Canaanites called it Efratá/“fruitful,” but by the time Genesis was written the Hebrews had renamed it Beit LekhĂ©m/“bread house.” Ge 35.16, 19 Still, the Hebrews tended to refer to it as “Bethlehem-Efratá” to distinguish it from the other Bethlehem in the tribe of Zebulun. Js 19.15 Don’t mix up your Bethlehems. God didn’t.
Bethlehem was a small settlement; small enough to get skipped in various Old Testament censuses. But it wasn’t unknown. Israel’s judge Ivchán (the one with the 60 kids) was from there, Jg 12.8-10 and King David ben Jesse was from there. 1Sa 17.12 So the town had two great rulers come from it already.
The prophecies of Micah of MoreshĂ©t were largely about how the LORD was tired of the evil which went on in Israel, and he was coming down to Jerusalem and Samaria to sort things out. Mc 1.3 Micah figured the LORD was coming to judge—you know, that part of the cycle of history.
But in reading it, you’ll notice Micah wasn’t only talking about the LORD dealing with the issues and worries of the then-present day. The terms he used include a lot about final judgment, not just one judgment among many. Finally sorting out Israel, not just currently sorting things out. Stuff that happens in the last days, not just the usual near-future prophecies.
In other words, Micah includes some prophecies about Messiah and the End Times.
