2010 – June 26 – Hope You Can Count On

Study from God’s Word… Micah, Chapters 3 – 5 … Passage for Reflection: Micah 5: 2 … NIV "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. "
Micah 5: 2 … NLT But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, One whose origins are from the distant past.

My Journal for Today: As Dr. Smith begins his devotional today by quoting the old Christmas carol, “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.” And here was Micah, some seven centuries before the event, prophesying that the birth of a “great One,” a Messiah, would be born into this world in that sleepy little hillside shepherd town, which God named through Micah as Bethlehem. And as we, who do believe that Yeshua, Ha-Mashiach [Hebrew for “Jesus, the Messiah”], know, that’s exactly what happened … again … some seven centuries later.

So, what’s up with this prediction; and why centuries before the coming of the One Who would fulfill it? And I believe LaGard Smith has the reason nailed. It is God’s way, though His prophet and His word to have one of those glorious “I told you so” predictions so right and so, so true in Scripture that it can not – or at least SHOULD NOT - be ignored as part of God’s plan and His design for mankind.

And if God could – and did – predict that Jesus, the Messiah, would come into that little sleepy suburb of Jerusalem over 7 centuries before it happened, how would we – or could we - deny that there will be another coming of Christ which will herald the advent of the celestial new Jerusalem, a literal heaven on earth, where mankind will live with the Savior forever.

What a hope and what a promise; and heaven is a hope you (and I) can count on because we’ve read about and seen the predictive power of God in action through prophets like Micah; and the prophesies which have come since Micah are even more powerful and wonderful than those to which Micah addressed himself centuries before the coming of the Christ child in Bethlehem.

Take heed, my dear ones. Christ is coming again; and He will usher in your heavenly home; and it will be so much more glorious than that little sleepy event heralded by Micah centuries before the shepherds gathered on the hillside to witness what Phillips Brooks wrote about in 1903 in his carol …

O holy Child of Bethlehem! … Descend to us, we pray!
Cast out our sin and enter in; … Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels; …The great glad tidings tell;
O, come to us, abide with us, … Our Lord, Emmanuel!

My Prayer for Today: O, Lord, what a prayer this is from the old Christmas song; and may we rest in its promise. Amen