Midweek Advent Evening Prayer
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
“A Ruler from Bethlehem” (Micah 5:2-5a)
So which is it? “Too little” or “by no means least”? We’re talking about Bethlehem here. On the one hand, the prophet Micah says that Bethlehem is “too little to be among the clans of Judah.” But then on the other hand, in Matthew 2, we hear the chief priests and the elders saying that Bethlehem is “by no means least among the rulers of Judah.” So what gives here? This sounds like two opposite views about Bethlehem: on the one hand, “little,” and on the other hand, “by no means little.” Well, there is an answer to this riddle about the little town of Bethlehem, and the answer is–the connecting piece of the puzzle that makes both descriptions true, both “little” and “by no means little”–the answer is found in the one who is to come, namely, “A Ruler from Bethlehem.”
St. Matthew Lutheran Church 