Micah 5:1-5

When we open the book of Micah, we're transported back c.2710 years to a land far away and to an alien culture. We're transported back to Jerusalem. Israel has been a great nation, but now is divided and threatened by greater empires. Its ruling class are wealthy beyond the imagination of ordinary people – and they're getting richer by exploiting the workers. They bribe the judges and kill those who oppose them.

Meanwhile the religious leaders are no better. They're in the pockets of the rich – they only say what the rich want to hear. We can see all of this if we glance back to 3:9-11

And into this situation comes the prophet Micah. And he comes with an unpopular message, but a message from God – 3:8 & 12

So, although in one sense, the book of Micah takes us to a strange land & culture, yet it is, perhaps not so very different after all – it's not the same, but there are similarities. One of the most significant similarities is that the prophetic voice of the church has been silent for too long. Silent, not as regards politics – the bishops and leaders have always been willing to preach a kind of Christianised socialism. No, the church has been silent about Jesus. And though Micah spoke 700 years before Jesus, Jesus is right at the heart of his message.

Before we plunge into the detail of Micah's prophecy, we need to understand how prophecy worked.

When we look at the world around us, we're familiar with the idea that God uses a basic design in different kinds of plants or animals:

So a tiny speedwell plant has leaves and stems and flowers. So does a massive chestnut tree.

Or take the hip joint of a mouse. It's a ball-and-socket joint just as is the hip joint of an elephant.

The same basic pattern is repeated in a bigger plant or animal. In a similar way, one prophecy can apply to a particular local event that will take place soon, but also a much bigger universal event that will take place many, many years in the future. Sometimes, as here in Micah 5, the prophecy is all about a person. And in this case, it's all about a ruler.

First of all, v1, we hear about the humiliation of the present ruler

Marshal your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod.

The city is Jerusalem. It's 701BC. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has attacked the fortified cities of Judah, and has captured them. King Hezekiah is afraid that Jerusalem will be next, so he begs Sennacherib to back off, and even strips the temple of gold & silver to bribe him. Hezekiah was supposed to rule Israel with the rod of justice and wisdom. Instead, he's abandoned his faith in God and has resorted to bribery. So Micah and Isaiah slap Hezekiah in the face with a rebuke from God. But then from v2 – v5 God promises that a new a great ruler is coming.

And these verses show us the humility & glory of the new ruler

First, he will come from the little town of Bethlehem.

v2, you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler of Israel.

One of the wonderful things about God is that he loves to take people from ordinary backgrounds and use them for his glory.  In the NT, Paul wrote about this to the proud Corinthians, 

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

From Bethlehem – born in a cattle shed, laid in a feeding trough – comes for God one who will be ruler of God's people. Such is the humility of Jesus.

But second, he comes from eternity

At the end of v2, we read something really odd about this ruler: his origins are from old, from ancient times. This child didn't begin to exist when his mother conceived – he was already already there. As the footnote to v2 puts it, he was 'from days of eternity'.

The apostle John put it this way, 'He was with God in the beginning'. Jesus himself said, 'I came from the Father and entered the world.'

So this new ruler comes into the world from the unparalleled majesty, glory and opulence of heaven. And he comes into the world via an insignificant, little town in Israel – Bethlehem.

But now, for a moment in v3, we return to Micah's own day, where Micah's contemporaries are told that there's going to be a long, hard wait for their great new ruler. Therefore, Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labour gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.

God's nation, Israel, was in a bad way – rebellious, unjust, worshipping false gods – a thoroughly wicked community. And God's had enough. His patience has run out. He's turning his back on Israel and sending them away into exile in Babylon. And although many of the Israelites eventually returned to their land, God did not return to them until the day when 'she who was in labour gave birth' – not until the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, the new ruler of God's people, did God return to his people. And yet, despite the long wait, the Jewish people never gave up hoping and looking for their new ruler – their Messiah, their Christ. For 700 years, they kept looking, kept hoping.

But when the day finally came, God announced it to non-Jews – to wise men from the east. And they arrived in Jerusalem and started asking around, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.'

When paranoid king Herod heard about this, he was rattled. So he called together the Jewish religious teachers and chief priests, and asked them where the Christ was to be born. Well, they all knew the answer to that one – “In Bethlehem, of course, because the prophet Micah said so” And they quote v2.

So the long wait was over. Jesus the Christ is born in Bethlehem. God's people have their new ruler.And now we can learn some more about him from v4:

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.

We've already seen where Jesus the Christ comes from – heaven via Bethlehem. Now we see what he's is – Jesus is the strong shepherd of God's flock.

Every England football fan looks back to the days of Sir Alf Ramsey, and longs for another manager like him – another manager who will bring the glory of world cup victory back tot he home of football. Every Jew of Jesus' day looked back to King David and longed for another king like him – another king who would bring back the glory days to Israel. David – the shepherd boy who was born in Bethlehem. Who was the humble youngest brother, and yet became the shepherd of God's flock – caring for his people, leading them and providing for them. “Oh for those days to return – Oh for another David.”

Well, the message of Micah is that a greater king than David has been born. Jesus was the good shepherd – the great shepherd of the sheep.  The one who stood in the strength of the LORD and in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.

And because his strength came from the LORD, he was able to establish forever what David only managed for a brief period: this strong shepherd brings security and peace, vv4 & 5

You see the problem for Israel was that God had turned his back on them. He had left them to their own evil devices, and the consequences were that they became slaves and victims of war.

The exile, the slavery, the wars were only symptoms of the real disease – and that was their rejection of God. If they wanted security & peace with each other, they first had to have security & peace with God. And that's what the great shepherd has come to bring.

In John 10, Jesus says, 'I am the good shepherd.'  And we can see the work that Good Shepherd Jesus came to do if we just turn over to Micah 7. This is the climax to the book, where Micah turns to God in praise & wonder:  v14: Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasture lands.

At this point, Micah is talking only about the Israelites, and how God will shepherd them. But then he turns to the nations who see what God is doing in Israel and become ashamed of their behaviour. And they too come trembling out of their dens, v17, they turn to the LORD our God.

This great shepherd of the sheep will bring together a multinational community who will live securely and at peace with each other because, v18, of what God is like:

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?

You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy.

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.