32 | To the Jew First
MICAH 5:2
MESSIAH IN PROPHECY
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the
clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.”
There were two Bethlehems, one in the south of Israel and one
in the north. The adding of Ephrathah indicates that this is the
Bethlehem that is approximately five miles south of Jerusalem
and is the ancestral home of Ruth and King David (Ruth 1:1-2;
4:11). The word Bethlehem literally means the “house of bread,”
and it is possible that the city was somehow linked to the baking
of bread. Bethlehem was known as a city close to Jerusalem
where animals for sacrifice were raised.
Micah alludes to the passage in Genesis 49:10 where Jacob
predicts that the ruler of Israel would come from the tribe of
Judah: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s
staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall
be the obedience of the peoples.” Judah was the fourth son of
Jacob, not the first. So God is apparently upsetting the usual order
of inheritance by telling the Jewish people that their ultimate ruler
would come from the descendants of the fourth son of Israel.
Although the Hebrew Bible uses two different terms which
are translated as “ruler” in Genesis 49:10 and in Micah 5:2, the
point is clear. Whoever this ruler is would profoundly impact the
Jewish people since he would be the predicted ruler of Jacob’s
prophecy and the royal son who would rule the Jewish people
forever (2 Samuel 7:13ff). The first word, “mikedem” may be
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