Peter Barnes | Micah 5:1-5a
SERMON NOTES
THE COMING MESSIAH
Micah 5:1-5a
– Alec Motyer: ‘Old Testament history is one long cry for something better’. B. B. Warfield said that the Old Testament is a room ‘fully furnished but dimly lit’.
1. Affliction comes first.
– 5:1; like Job 16:10. Bruce Waltke says that he is looking ahead to 701 B.C. but it fits rather better with the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587-6 B.C. – see Jer.39:5-7.
2. Unexpected hope through the divine ruler.
– 5:2. Zion (Jerusalem) is central to God’s plan – read 4:2 – but nearby Bethlehem is the key.
– ‘O little town of Bethlehem,/ How still we see thee lie’. It is not mentioned in Joshua 15:1-63. See Judges 6:15. Hence the cross.
– Yet who comes from Bethlehem? It is a king, yes, but more; it is the king. The expression is somewhat ambiguous. The NIV says He is ‘from ancient times’, the NKJV ‘from everlasting’ as in Psalm 90:2.
3. After abandonment, restoration.
– 5:3-5a. Calvin says the woman is Zion personified as in Micah 4:9-10, but Dale Ralph Davis says it ultimately refers to the Virgin Mary.
(a) He shall gather His brothers in unity – 5:3; Heb.2:11-12, 17. This is an enlarged Israel.
(b) Christ will shepherd them in the strength of the Lord – 5:4; John 10:16. They will be secure in Him.
(c) He will rule the world – 5:4; Ps.2:8; 22:27.
(d) He shall be His people’s peace – 5:5a; Col.1:20; Eph.2:14.