“A Major Message from a
Minor Prophet”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. Our text is this morning’s Old Testament Reading, Micah’s prophecy of
the PLACE where the promised Messiah will be born, “A Major Message from a Minor
Prophet”: “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.” Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,
Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Memorizing those books of the Bible gives
confirmation students fits. The last twelve and the shortest books of the
Old Testament, commonly known as the “Minor Prophets.” Each so short that
some of the Minor Prophets are barely one page long; all together so short that
just one of the Major Prophets, such as Isaiah or Jeremiah, is much longer than
all twelve of the Minor Prophets put together. If you were to cut apart this Bible and lay the pages of the book of
the prophet Isaiah end to end, it would reach all the way to the peak of this
church. But the book of the prophet Micah would come about only to here
(gesture with hand at waist). Is that how YOU feel sometimes: minor, insignificant, unimportant
compared to others? The town of Bethlehem in Ephrathah was like that.
So small that it was actually in danger of losing its status as one of the towns
of Judah. Like today, when the government sometimes decrees that a small
town can no longer have its own post office, it seems in Micah’s time Bethlehem
was so small that it was on the verge of going out of existence, losing its
official status as one of the towns of Judah. Compared to the great city of Jerusalem, just ten miles to the north,
Bethlehem was insignificant, unimportant. But from the pen of the MINOR
prophet Micah comes a MAJOR message, a startling prophecy concerning this tiny
town: The promised Messiah, the long-awaited Savior, will not be born in the big
city, in grand and glorious Jerusalem, but in the region of Ephrathah, in a
humble little village called Bethlehem: “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.” Big things sometimes DO come in small packages. The MINOR prophet
Micah had a MAJOR message, foretelling in exact detail 700 years in advance the
birthplace of the Savior of the world. The little town of Bethlehem was
chosen by God for a great honor, to be the birthplace of his own Son. AND
in this same verse Micah tells us of ANOTHER big thing that came in a small
package that first Christmas: The little Babe of Bethlehem, laying in the
manger, so frail and weak, is actually GOD in human flesh, “whose origins are
from of old, from ancient times.” Micah may have only been a minor prophet, but he was SPECIAL, special
because God chose him to proclaim a major message, to predict the birthplace of
the Messiah; Bethlehem may have only been a tiny town, but it was SPECIAL,
special because God chose it to be the birthplace of his Son; the little Babe of
Bethlehem may have appeared like any other newborn, small and helpless, frail
and weak, but he was SPECIAL, special because in that Babe dwells all the
fullness of God, “whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” In the same way, though you may sometimes consider yourself minor,
insignificant, unimportant, you too are SPECIAL, special because Christ the Lord
was born for you, to be your Savior, to pay for your sins, to make things right
between you and God. Because of Christ’s birth, life, sacrificial death,
and resurrection, God forgives you all your sins. You are special because
God has chosen YOU to be his child. You are special because God sent his
own Son to make you his child. Though you may sometimes feel minor, like the MINOR prophet Micah, or
insignificant and unimportant, like the LITTLE town of Bethlehem, remember that
you are SPECIAL, because “unto you is born . . . in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord.” Like the little town of Bethlehem, God has chosen for his Son to be
“born” in you, born in your heart, cradled in the manger of faith. And
like the minor prophet Micah, God gives you a major message to share with the
world: Christ, the Savior, is born! So one thing this promise from Micah shows us is that God works in
places and through people that we may consider minor, insignificant,
unimportant. And this promise from Micah shows us that no one and no place
is ever minor or insignificant or unimportant to GOD. “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee
lie! “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting
light. “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in
thee tonight.” “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.” Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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