Micah 5:2

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me one that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting."

This clear predictive prophecy of the birth of the Christ in Bethlehem occurred in the eighth century B.C.; and the critical scholars have never dared to attribute the passage to some redactor after the event of Jesus' birth. However, they will still not believe it, affirming that Micah was here prophesying the birth of Israel's king David who succeeded Saul centuries earlier! "It refers to the time when David was being called to the kingship."[4] It would be difficult indeed to cite a clearer example of the stubborn and determined blindness of men determined not to believe in any prophecy. They make no appeal here to what they suppose Micah "thought," for it is a foregone certainty that Micah did not believe that he was prophesying the advent of a king who had already lived and died centuries earlier.

The true meaning of this passage was perfectly clear to the entire world for centuries before the Advent of the Son of God. When the wise men came from the east inquiring, "Where is he that is born king of the Jews"? and took the question up with Herod the Great, that monarch demanded of the Pharisees, "Where the Christ should be born."

"And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written through the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, art in no wise least among the princes of Judah:

For out of thee shall come forth a governor Who shall be the shepherd of my people Israel" (Matthew 2:5,6).

The entire religious hierarchy of ancient Israel understood perfectly the Messianic character of this prophecy and answered Herod accordingly, Testimony of such a nature is irrefutable as regards the true import of this verse.

"Which art little to be among the thousands of Judah ..." Matthew's account of this prophecy, as repeated by the Pharisees, has a significant variation, the origin of which is not known. It says, "Thou are NOT least ... etc." Jamieson understood the change to have been made by the inspired Matthew "by an independent testimony of the Spirit."[5] The prophecy is true both ways. As regarded its earthly importance, Bethlehem was "the least"; but as regarded its eternal importance as the birthplace of the Messiah, it was "NOT the least," being indeed the greatest of all.

"Bethlehem Ephrathah ..." Like many another prophecy, the words here guard against error. There was another Bethelehem in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15); and so the word Ephrathah "was included to designate just which Bethlehem was intended."[6] "Isaiah had foretold Jesus' virgin birth (7:14); Micah predicted his village birth."[7]

"Whose goings forth are from of old ..." This means far more than the fact that, "the new king will come from a good old family!" As Keil said:

"We must reject in the most unqualified manner the attempts (by commentators with a dread of miracles) to deprive the words of their deeper meaning...we must not exclude the idea of eternity in the stricter sense.[8] He who is to be born in time at Bethlehem hath an eternal existence.[9]

"From everlasting ..." The pre-existence of the Son of God prior to his earthly ministry is inherent in this. "The terms here used are such as to transcend the nature or achievements of any merely human leader, and could be completely fulfilled only in the Messiah."[10]

PREDICTIVE PROPHECIES OF THE BIBLE

We have frequently observed in this study the devious, illogical, and even ridiculous limits to which commentators will go to avoid finding any such thing as a predictive prophecy in the Bible; and it is a good time to note the utter and perpetual impossibility of their removing predictive prophecy from the Bible. There are 333 prophecies of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, some of which are in Micah, for example, that he would be born in Bethlehem. Some of the other Biblical prophecies of Christ are:

That he would be of the family of Shem.

That he would be of the seed of Abraham.

That he would come forth from Judah.

That he would descend from David.

That he would be crucified (long before crucifixion was known).

That they would pierce his hands and his feet.

That he would welcome the Gentiles.

That he would be despised and rejected of men.

That he would be betrayed by a friend.

That the price of his betrayal would be 30 pieces of silver.

That he would rise from the dead.

That they would make his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death.

That he would heal the blind, the deaf, and the lame.

That he would raise the dead.

That he would speak in parables.

That he would be called a Nazarene.

That the iniquity of us all would be laid upon him.

That he would come in triumph on an ass.

That he would be for the rise and fall of many in Israel.

That he would sit upon the throne of David.

That of the increase of his kingdom there would be no end.

That he would be both the son of David and the Lord of David.

That he would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

That he would proclaim release to the captives (in sin).

That they would cast lots for his vesture.

That they would divide his garments among them.

That they would look upon him whom they pierced.

Etc.

Our purpose here is not to list all 333 of the glorious prophecies of Christ, but merely to call attention to their exceedingly great number and to point out that the Old Testament Scriptures were translated into the Greek language (LXX) a quarter of a millennium before Christ was born, and that all of the ingenuity of the Devil himself cannot possibly get Jesus Christ out of Old Testament prophecy.

Over and beyond all of the verbal prophecies, there is a vast corpus of historical events which are inherently prophetic of the Messiah, apart from any verbal promise. Jonah, the type of Christ, who was a sign to the Ninevites, exhibited in his personal history dozens of prophecies of Christ, including the prophecy of his delivery from death after three days and three nights in the grave.

Isaac who carried the wood up the very hill where Jesus, in the fullness of time would be crucified, is a type of Jesus' carrying his cross up that very hill.

Judah giving his life for his brethren (offering it) shows the prophecy of the Lion of the tribe of Judah in the conduct of that patriarch.

Moses was the great type of Jesus Christ, there being a full hundred similarities in their lives, even some of their miracles exhibiting the most startling likeness. Moses' first miracle changed the water into blood; Christ's first miracle changed the water into wine.

David the king was a type of Christ, whose brethren rejected them both, and his contest with Goliath of Gath resembled the contest of Jesus with Satan, in each case, the enemy having his head cut off with his own sword!

To complete such a summary would be to draw upon practically every page of the Bible.

Not merely the verbal prophecies and the great patriarchal types alone, however, bore the message of the coming Holy One. All of the religious regalia of ancient Judaism were devoted to the same end. The veil in the tabernacle was a type of Christ. The golden candlestick typified His word. The table of showbread foretold the Lord's Supper; and the mercy seat sprinkled with blood foretold his death and suffering.

And even over and beyond all of these things, there were the mighty festivals of the Jewish religion, notably the Passover, designed exactly to identify the Lamb of God when he should come into the world, in that not a bone of him would be broken, and that through his vicarious suffering men might be redeemed.

Therefore, to those who have made it their mission in life to destroy the ageless conviction that the Old Testament accurately and circumstantially prophesied in the most amazing detail the Holy Christ coming into our world of sorrow to redeem it, to them let it be suggested that their task is absolutely hopeless. "The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not!" (John 1:5).