Sunday School

Customary for this day, our OT scripture is Micah 5:2-5a:

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
    who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
    from ancient days.

Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.

And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth;

and he shall be the one of peace.

For Micah, prophesying doom for God’s people in the eighth century B.C., the passage has nothing to do with Jesus. But toward the end of the first century A.D. our Christian evangelist Matthew picks it up as early scriptural messianic prophecy and includes it in his gospel. The wise men have come to Jerusalem seeking the newborn king of the Jews and of course they call on King Herod, obviously figuring the newborn one will be in the palace. Herod is horrified, and inquires of his counselors where the messiah is to be born. They tell him "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: 'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.'" (Matthew 2:5,6).

Matthew, who seems to be a Jew writing for a Jewish Christian church, is big on using Hebrew scripture to prove that Jesus was the long-expected messiah. This approach, he believes, will be understood and convincing to them. The verse above is only one of about half a dozen Old Testament passages that Matthew uses in his first two chapters alone. I think we’ll have a look at all of them in our Adult Sunday School class this morning.

TW+