“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 of Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, of ancient days” (Micah 5:2).
This Old Testament Bible verse is joyous in tone and foretells something momentous coming forth from a relatively small dot on the map of Israel, faith leaders say.
God’s Word speaks history into being “years and sometimes centuries before it is acted out on the pages of time,” notes Christian website Knowing-Jesus.com.
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This “insignificant little town” in the region of Judah was “proclaimed to be the chosen place from whence the promised Messiah would come,” the website adds.
“Although this verse identifies the birthplace of Christ with astonishing accuracy,” it continues, “it further proclaims with equal authority that this coming ruler of Israel, who was the promised deliverer of God’s people, would be deity — God with us — Emmanuel…”
One faith leader from Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, said that this verse represents a promise kept by God.
“Micah 5:2 shows that God keeps his promises to us in minute detail,” Alex McFarland, president of McFarland Ministries, told Fox News Digital via email.
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“Written some 500 years before the birth of Christ, Micah tells us not only where the Messiah would be born, but that he would be of eternal, everlasting origin.”
“This gives us great comfort and reassurance,” added McFarland, who is also host of “Exploring the Word” on American Family Radio.
Another North Carolina faith leader said that not only was Christ’s birth a gift to mankind, but that hundreds of years prior to the blessed event, God was speaking though the prophets about it.
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Micah 5:2 not only “foretells of the Messiah’s birth” but the writer “also reminds us that he came forth from “ancient days,” Judge Phil Ginn, president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, told Fox News Digital via email.
“There is no birth story in the Gospel of John,” Ginn added.
“But John tells us this in his first chapter in verses 1-4: ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.'”
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Ginn continued, “So, when Micah says that the Messiah is coming forth ‘from of old,’ it simply means that even though Jesus came in the human form of a baby on that first Christmas long ago, if you could travel as far back into history as you can imagine, the very son of God will come walking out of the mist to greet you.”
He added, “He has no beginning, and he will have no end.”
Stay tuned for more Bible verses of the day during the Advent season. To see yesterday’s Bible verse, click here.