O Little Town of Bethlehem!

4th Sunday in Advent, 12/23/18
Micah 5:2-5a


O Little Town of Bethlehem!
I. An unlikely town for history’s greatest birth
II. An unlikely home for history’s greatest ruler


There are just some Christmas hymns that you must sing, or your celebration of Christmas won’t be the same. For instance, you must sing, “Silent Night! Holy Night.” And what would Christmas be if you didn’t sing, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”? And rounding out the list of other obligatory Christmas hymns would be “Joy to the World” and the one that centers on the birthplace of our Savior, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

The origin of that famous Christmas hymn—O Little Town of Bethlehem— is interesting. The words were written by Philip Brooks in December 1868 for his Sunday School children at Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia. No doubt, he was inspired by a trip he had made to the Holy Land two years earlier. About that trip he wrote:

After an early dinner, we took our horses and rode to Bethlehem. It was only about two hours when we came to the town, situated on an eastern ridge of a range of hills, surrounded by its terraced gardens. It was a good-looking town, better built than any other we have seen in Palestine. Before dark, we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star. Somewhere in those fields we rode through where the shepherds must have been.

As Brooks recalled that ride, he wrote his famous hymn. A copy of it in the author’s handwriting is stored in the archives of Holy Trinity Church.

And tomorrow night we’ll sing it. It just wouldn’t seem like Christmas if we didn’t. But far more important than the words of the hymn are the words of our God on which the hymn is based. Our Savior’s birth in Bethlehem was no accident. God’s used his prophet Micah, who lived more than 700 years before Jesus was born, to foretell not only where the Savior would be born, but also who that Savior would be and what he would do.

As we stand on the threshold of another celebration of Christmas—on this final day in the season of Advent—let’s prepare our hearts for our Savior by paying attention to Micah’s prophecy and seeing it fulfilled when Jesus was born. Let’s do so, keeping in mind the title of that favorite Christmas hymn: “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” May our God bless our spiritual journey there as we ponder Micah’s words this morning.

Part I.

Have you ever been to Bowersville, OH? Do you even know where it is? It’s due east of here, and it sits just a little off of Interstate 71, on Ohio 72 just south of Jamestown. According to 2010 census, the population of Bowersville is 312—barely a dot on the map. But as small and insignificant as it is, when you enter town, there’s a plaque which proudly proclaims that Bowersville is the birthplace of Norman Vincent Peale, the author of the book, The Power of Positive Thinking. Decades ago, Peale’s self-help book was a best-seller. Quite an accomplishment for a man born in such a small town.

If scholars are correct, Bethlehem in Judea at the time Jesus was born was even smaller in population than Bowersville, OH. The estimate I see most often is that 200 people called Bethlehem home. It seems it was always just a small town. Micah states the obvious for people who were familiar with Bethlehem in Bible times when he describes it as “small among the clans of Judah.” That’s probably a reference to the fact that, in the days of Israel’s leader, Joshua, as the Holy Land was apportioned it to the Children of Israel, even though Bethlehem had already existed for 100s of years, it was too small even to mention.

And it didn’t help any that Bethlehem was known as a town where shepherds lived. I don’t imagine the mention of shepherding as an occupation carries any negative baggage with you and me, but it was a lowly occupation in Bible times. It was one of those jobs that you didn’t aspire to. I don’t imagine many parents encouraged their sons to pursue it. But by and large, that’s who lived in Bethlehem. It had been that way for 100s of years.

Not the kind of place we would choose for a notable birth. And if we were the ones making the plans to send a Savior into the world, I’m guessing a town like Bethlehem wouldn’t be on our radar. But it actually made the perfect place, in God’s way of planning, for the Savior to be born. There were no pretenses in Bethlehem. What you saw is what you got. I’m guessing the Bethlehemites didn’t claim to be anybody special.

They were simple, plain, humble folks. Perfect! Because that’s exactly who Jesus was and that’s exactly what he came to do. He came to humble himself. He was the almighty, eternal God, and yet he didn’t flaunt it before his fellow Jews. Instead, he hid it, for the most part. He came to this earth even for simple, humble people by becoming one for us. He became one of us to obey every one of God’s commandments perfectly for us. He became one of us to suffer and die as the punishment for our sins. He humbled himself, even to death on the cross. And his saving work started when he was born in Bethlehem.

O little town of Bethlehem—an unlikely town for history’s greatest birth.

I’m going to guess that all of us will gladly join in singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” tomorrow. In fact, if we don’t, it won’t seem like Christmas. We have no trouble singing about a lowly, humble town. But do we ever have difficulty singing the praises of the humble Savior born in it? Have you ever thought so much of yourself that a having a Savior who humbled himself even to death on the cross for you seemed a little extreme or even unnecessary? After all, your sins aren’t so many or so bad. Maybe another person’s are, but not yours. Or, have you ever become impatient with the Savior who humbled himself for you as you now wish that he would wield his almighty power a little bit in your life and make a few things better? In other words, on either side of things, there tend to be times in our lives when we’re disillusioned with a humble Savior born in a little town called Bethlehem. That’s when we need to go back and take a look at God’s promises of a Savior—just like the one in front of us. Jesus came exactly as God promised because God knew that’s exactly the kind of Savior we needed—One who humbled himself and took the world’s sins upon him. And when are thoughts are centered on that humble Savior, then we sing with joy in our hearts, “O little town of Bethlehem.”

Part II.

Ever since the mid-term elections more than a month ago, the media have been reporting on the efforts of our elected officials to jockey for prized positions especially in both houses of Congress. I’ve heard the names of politicians from nearly every state in the union except Hawaii. In fact, I couldn’t name an elected official from Hawaii if my life depended on it. Maybe that’s because I don’t associate Hawaii with US politics. When I think of Hawaii, I think of beaches, palm trees, warm weather, surfing.

Likewise Bethlehem. As I mentioned earlier, it was known for shepherds, but certainly not powerful people. There was one notable exception, however. King David was from Bethlehem. Micah lived 200 years after David, and, as far as we know, no other important people, let alone a king, came from Bethlehem since. It would remain that way for the next 700 years after Micah.

But then Bethlehem became the birthplace of history’s greatest ruler. Listen to Micah foretell it, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” This ruler’s origins would be “from of old.” Sounds odd, doesn’t it? That’s Micah’s way of stating that this ruler would be eternal—without beginning or end. In other words, he would be true God.

Micah also tells us that he would cause his brothers to return. The best way to understand that phrase is to see this ruler, Jesus, as the One who would redeem all people with his holy, precious blood and bring them together into his eternal kingdom by faith in him.

And, being a ruler born in a shepherd town, how appropriate that Micah foretells that Jesus will “shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord”! One of our most-loved pictures of Jesus is as our Good Shepherd. Micah here foretells it.

But make no mistake about it, people around the world would know who this humble ruler was and is. Micah states that “his greatness will reach the ends of the earth.” We’ve seen Micah’s words fulfilled as people from every nation, tribe and language will join us tomorrow and Tuesday in praising Jesus as the world’s only Savior from sin.

And that praise is appropriate, because it’s only through Jesus that we sinners have peace with the holy God. “And he will be their peace.” What we need most of all—the forgiveness of sins—Jesus won for us on Calvary’s cross and gives to us by faith in him. In fact, his peace now rules in our hearts as he assures us every day of our lives here on earth that he lives in us now so that we will live with him forever. And nothing can change that! It all started in a little town called Bethlehem, as Micah foretold.

O little town of Bethlehem—an unlikely home for history’s greatest ruler.

Are you prepared to celebrate the birth of the ruler born in Bethlehem? I pray that you are. By being prepared, I’m not speaking about the things you need to do at home or somewhere else. I’m talking about right here, in your heart. The truth is, many are the times when we don’t want Jesus to be a ruler born in Bethlehem. A helpless little infant suits us just fine, because such an infant demands nothing of us. But if Jesus is a ruler, our King, then he has a claim on our lives, and many are the times that we chafe under his rule. But recall that he is also the King of peace. He came to the little town of Bethlehem because he knows how often we violate his rule in our lives, so he came to live under that rule for us. And with his blood he redeemed us and by faith in him we are members of his kingdom. Under his loving, gracious rule, we can sing with joy on our lips and peace in our hearts, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” May your Lord Jesus give you a most blessed Christmas! Amen.