Wednesday 8th December - out of Bethlehem

Micah 5:2-5

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.
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.
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.
And he shall be their peace.
When the Assyrian comes into our land
and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven shepherds
and eight princes of men;

So how small is yesterday’s heavy work making you feel? Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah and the same background and themes are there in this prophecy – the abandonment of the land, a birth marking the time, a new age to come.

The tone, though, is quite different. Isaiah can be overwhelming, baroque, a major prophet in every sense of word. He was, according to tradition, of royal blood, and the city is his stage. Enter Micah of Moresheth: a younger man, from the countryside, direct enough in his prophecy but lyrical where Isaiah is epic. It seems appropriate that he should be the one not just to grasp, as Isaiah did, that a great messianic Son would be born, but that with God it is human weakness that is most easily the channel of divine strength.

It is or course, a Davidic them, but one easily forgotten as memories of the shepherd boy were overlain by the animals of his kingship. Micah brings back the shepherd theme, and old metaphor for kingship evocatively recalled: the Son of David will watch over Israel as once David did his flock. As alarms go, this one is quieter, but just as insistent.

Micah’s insight is that God’s concern with the great sweep of history is mediated through small things. With the tincture ‘for thy sake’, as George Herbert puts it, ‘nothing can be too mean’; and however complex and tragic the world around us our tiny part of the story is still of ultimate significance and can be used by God to effect.

I was struggling with this recently, and wondering where on earth my own vocation lay. Then Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life turned my attention to Acts 13:36: ‘David served God’s purpose in his generation.’ If you’re called David, it has to grab you. The simple message is that our calling is to be faithful where we are: and see what happens. And since not just David but the Son of David, Son of Man, Son of God is holding the shepherd’s staff, a great deal indeed can happen if we let it.

In your prayer time today, why not list all of the activities, groups, and social networks to which you belong. Pray for each group, and ask God to show you how to serve his purpose in those groups, in your generation.

This entry was posted on 10/12/2010 at 10:13 am and is filed under Paul's diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.