URC Daily Devotion 9th February

Interestingly Bethlehem, small and insignificant though it was, pops up now and again in the history of God’s people.  Jacob’s wife Rachel, having died giving birth to Benjamin, was buried just outside Bethlehem (Gen 35:19).  The story of Ruth centres around  Bethlehem – Elimolech, husband of Naomi, came from Bethlehem but moved to Moab to avoid the famine. When he died, Ruth accompanied Naomi back to Bethlehem and married Boaz there. (Book of Ruth).  David was refreshed by water from the well at Bethlehem (2 Sam 23:14-16).  And then Micah drops into his prophecy that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem – and he does this some 700 or so years before the birth of Jesus.

In the Advent story, Herod’s chief priests and scribes were very aware of this prophecy – after all it may have been a tiny place but it was only a few miles from Jerusalem so they probably had it marked as a favourite on their SatNavs (Matt 2:3-6).  But they were probably pretty focussed on when the promised Messiah will put in an appearance and they probably knew the scriptures inside out anyway.  After all, God surely can’t want his people, his chosen people, to continue to live under these heathen Romans with their Gods and idols and ruthless soldiers.  He must surely be planning to sort this out pretty soon.  There’s been plenty of folk claiming to be ‘the One’, the Resistance, the Zealots have been making life difficult and lots of people have paid the price of these uprisings.  Surely the Messiah can’t be far away!

Little did they know just how close he was!