The Bethlehem Candle - December 12, 2018 - Advent Midweek 2 - Text: Micah 5:2

Text: "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 (Micah 5:2)."

Last week we began our look at the Advent Wreath as a teaching tool, and as a way to prepare ourselves, our hearts and our minds for our great and grand Christmas morning celebration. Last week we talked about the foundation, the base of the Advent Wreath being a circle with greenery. The circle, which has no beginning point and no ending point reminds us that the foundation of our upcoming celebration is our eternal God who lives in the eternal present and has no beginning and no end. The green reminds us that our God is also a living God. Although we celebrate Jesus, God in flesh, His life and death, we also celebrate His resurrection and the fact that we do worship a living God.
 

Today we move on to the second candle. The second candle reminds us of the place of birth of the one prophesied last week. The second candle is the Bethlehem candle. The name of the town, Bethlehem, means house of bread or bread of life. Bethlehem or Bethlehem Ephrathah was a small town in the southern part of Judea. According to the Prophet Micah, Bethlehem was considered “too little to be among the clans of Judah,” yet was big enough to be the place for the birth of the Savior of the world.
 

So, although we may not know much about this small Judean town of Bethlehem we do know what we are told. Bethlehem is a town of the clan of Judah. And Bethlehem is as this Prophecy states, the town of the promised line of descent. Remember God’s promise to Jacob that through the line of Judah the Savior of the world would be born.
 

We also know that this town of Bethlehem was the home town of King David. Throughout the Old Testament we are also told that the Savior would come from the royal line of King David and thus, since King David was from the town of Bethlehem the Savior would be born in this town as well.
 

Finally, again, the town of Bethlehem was a little town. After doing a little research the estimates of the size of Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus are from 300 to 1000 people. Most historians believe the population to be under a thousand. Personally I believe the population to be on the low side even around 300 especially the way the town is described by the Scripture writers.
 

Micah prophesies that the one who will come forth from Bethlehem, the Savior, will be the Ancient of Days. What does this mean to be the Ancient of Days? As we understand that Jesus is true God with no beginning this would well qualify Him to be considered and called the Ancient of Days. As Jesus tells the Pharisees at one point, “before Abraham was I am.” Indeed, that Jesus is true God born in human flesh He is from even before the beginning of our earthly creation and time.
 

As we confess in our creeds, Jesus is true God conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. As true God, as we said, He has no beginning and certainly He has no ending which, again, would also qualify Him to be considered the Ancient of Days even an eternal ruler.
 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem the town of David. He was born from the line of David, and although He was not born to be an earthly king, He is King, our eternal King in heaven. Jesus was born of the line of David, but He did not come to be served but serve and give His life as a ransom for us all.
 

As we are told in the Revelation of John, ultimately every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. Indeed, Jesus is our heavenly King, our eternal King whose rule will be forever and ever.
 

As we move to this second week in Advent, the Advent Wreath history lesson continues. We have the foundation of our wreath as we have the very foundation of our lives as Christians in our eternal, living God. It is God, the Ancient of Days who lives outside of time in the eternal present who, knowing all that would happen, because of His great love for us, created all things out of nothing, knowing that the perfect world He would create would fall into sin and knowing that He would have to redeem the sin infected world by giving His life.
 

And so God promised to redeem, buy back, pay the price He set for sin by promising to send a Savior, a Redeemer, One who would redeem, that is trade His life for ours. We have heard the promise of the coming Savior a promise which could only be fulfilled in God taking on human flesh and blood, because only God could be born and live in perfection, which was God’s first command to all His creation and which command Eve and Adam broke.
 

We have heard the promise of the place of birth of the Savior a small town, a town considered to little to be of the clan of Judah. Although the Savior was born of noble blood that blood line no longer meant anything, at least anything while living in this world. But of course, we are clued into the fact that this Savior was not sent to be a social/political Savior as many heros of the Jewish faith had been throughout the history of Israel. Indeed, time and time again as Israel rejected God He allowed for them to suffer the consequences of their sin and to be disciplined, and time and time again He would have pity on them as they would repent and He would send an earthly, a social/political Savior. But all these actions merely pointed to the One ultimate fulfillment, the One ultimate Savior a spiritual Savior from sin and eternal spiritual punishment and death.
 

So, this week we continue to prepare ourselves, our hearts and our minds. As you continue to hear me say, we do not celebrate yet, not until December 25. In order to have a joyous, great and grand celebration we take the time to plan so that we do not fall short in our celebration. We take the time to prepare, to be reminded of our part in these plans. We take the time to be reminded that all that we will celebrate will be for us and for our good, for our spiritual well-being.
 

And when we do celebrate we will celebrate for the full twelve days of Christmas, from Christmas Day until Epiphany, the day we will celebrate the visit of the Magi, the first Gentiles to see the newborn King.
 

We will celebrate the fulfillment of all history in the person of God in flesh, Jesus. The purpose of the prophecies of old are that they point us to the One to be born. The One to be born must be the One to fulfill all the prophecies. Should the One born not fulfill any one of the prophecies then He would not be the One promised. Indeed, the odds of one man accidentally fulfilling all the prophecies concerning the coming Savior are rather astronomical. Yet, Jesus came fulfilling all the prophecies of the Old Testament so that we can know for certain that He is the One promised from of old, the Ancient of Days.
 

Finally, when we celebrate we will rejoice in God’s gifts; faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. God’s love for us is seen in that knowing what would happen, knowing what He would have to suffer for us His children, He created us anyway. God’s love is seen in His giving up the glory of heaven in order to take on flesh and blood, in order to be born under the law, in order to obey all the laws and commands of God, perfectly for us, in our place. God’s love is seen in Jesus living perfectly for us in our place and then trading His perfection for our imperfection. What we deserve Jesus took for us. What Jesus deserves He gives to us, freely because of His love for us.
 

We have lighted the second of the four weekly candles. In essence we are half way to our Christmas celebration. We rejoice in God’s great love for us. We rejoice in God’s gifts of forgiveness, faith, strengthening of faith, life and eternal salvation. We rejoice, bow down and worship our eternal God and King, Christ the Lord. We rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.