The Promise of Bethlehem
By Amitabh Singh
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah, Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.” - Micah 5:2 (NLT)
I envision Bethlehem as a sleepy, pastoral village. Flocks of sheep over the hills and star-filled night skies.
In the Christmas story, God is telling us that He is going to introduce us to someone who can relate and empathize with what we are going through – we don’t have to feel lonely or rejected – because God is saying – “I am going to have Him be born in a manger.”
“Born in a manger?” – A barn! That’s right!
This so hard for us to understand. A barn is no place for a baby to be born. We all know what mangers are really like. When we watch a Christmas play, we are watching a sanitized version of the Christmas story.
Look at the Christmas cards that we select. We like the lovely nativity scenes. The beautifully printed cards make it difficult for us to realize what really took place that first Christmas. In our sanitized version of the nativity scene, we purposely keep out all the animal smells and noises. The reality is too unpleasant to imagine.
In the ancient world, mangers were at times found within the house itself. There are wooden mangers that have survived generations that give us a glimpse as to what it was like inside those animal shelters.
Animals were regularly kept in homes at night. A small number of animals were housed, not in attached exterior sheds, but inside the house in one of the ground floor rooms. Here, animals, tools and agriculture produce were stored. In the same area, food was prepared - and not on electric stoves! The family sleeping quarters were on the second floor or upper room.
Being born in a manger was undoubtedly messy!
In the book of Matthew, Chapter 2, after Jesus was born, the wise men arrived asking, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
The wise men arrived in Jerusalem assuming that the Jewish leaders would be aware and excited about the birth of their Messiah – their saviour.
What they discovered instead was that King Herod and all of Jerusalem was troubled by the news brought by the wise men.
After having faced deception and hatred of King Herod, and his plot to kill Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph were forced to flee their homeland. Baby Jesus was born poor and homeless, and a refugee!
James Francis said it best in his work, “The Real Jesus”:
“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty.
Then for three years, he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never had an office. He never had a family or owned a home.
He never traveled two hundred miles from the place he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.
While he was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends deserted him. He was turned over to his enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had – his coat.
When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.
“Twenty” centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure for much of the human race.
All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of people as this “One Solitary Life.”
Bethlehem, as the birth place of Jesus, brought good news to everyone in the world. “Whosoever will” can now boldly come before Jesus and our lives can be changed.
This is the promise of Christmas.