Micah the prophet reveals a bright gem of a prophecy, a hope of deliverance and blessing against the backdrop of dark times: the hometown of the coming Messiah is prophetically revealed. This was no mere guess, but an inspired revelation of which the subsequent history has proved to be entirely accurate.

Some 750 years after this prophecy was written, we read in Matthew’s Gospel of a troublesome stir among the political and religious elite of Jerusalem (Mt. 2:1–3). King Herod, an Edomite by birth, a Jew by profession, demanded of the chief priests and scribes where Messiah would be born. Without any apparent hesitation on their part, they answered him from Micah’s prophecy. Their quotation of this ancient oracle should have stopped Herod in his tracks. Not only would the coming “Ruler in Israel” be born in Bethlehem, but His goings forth were “from everlasting”—He would be a divine Person.

The spiritual state of the Jewish religious leaders was dreadful in that they were able to point Herod to the prophecy but it apparently had no moral effect upon their own souls. It does not appear that they followed up the message of the Magi. They searched the Scriptures but did not let the Scriptures search their own heart. This is a danger for all who handle the Bible in a cold intellectual way. We need to be dependent upon the Holy Spirit and have an exercised conscience. The priests and scribes seemed to simply fade from the scene.

May we not be indifferent in our reading of the Scriptures, but with thankful reverence seek to know more about the wonderful Ruler born in the little town of Bethlehem!