2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be their peace.
She had been through the offices of many counsellors and therapists. They had all offered her some relief from the creeping anxiety which so persistently gripped her life. I think a couple generations ago she would have been diagnosed with “hysteria.” That is not a word we use anymore and that is a good thing. Medication kept the worst of it under control for her, but such medications don’t deliver health, they ameliorate the more difficult symptoms, most of the time. So, she took them faithfully but still needed to talk.
Our conversations were always a delicate balance. It was good to talk about these things, but they could easily slip into a downward spiral of reinforcing fears. She needed to be redirected when that happened, to hear of something larger and outside the collapsing walls of her anxiety. We spoke of Jesus then. She had a hunger to know more of him. He is a rock and refuge for her. He is strong and he cares for her. He is great to the ends of the earth. He stands and shepherds his flock in the strength of the LORD. Nothing is stronger than her Savior and no one cares for her like He does. She could cling to that.
Micah recalls an ancient name for Bethlehem in this text: Ephrathah. It shows up in several narratives around King David. Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth was said to be from Ephrath. But the first we hear of this name is that Rachel, the wife of Jacob, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, died giving birth to Benjamin and was buried there. Her tomb seems to have been marked. Jeremiah saw a vision of the people of God marching out into exile in Babylon, past the village of Bethlehem. He envisioned Rachel weeping for her children (Jer. 31:15). There is a sadness associated with this name in the biblical witness. Ephrathah has been the place of much weeping, fear, and sorrow. But now it will have another connotation for the people of God. From Ephrathah will come the mighty deliverer of God’s people.
To this Ephrathah, to your Ephrathah, Jesus has come. He was born here to be a ruler in Israel, One whose name is great to the ends of the earth. He came to be our peace. He comes because your tears and sorrows call him.