The One To Be Ruler

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting." (1)

Bethlehem of Judah, also called Ephrath, was the birthplace of David, and the place where Rachel, Jacob's wife, died and was buried. (2). The Jews recognized this prophecy to be Messianic, and in response to Herod's request as to where the Messiah was to be born, they quoted the passage in Micah. (3)

Micah clearly proclaims the preexistence of the One to be born in Bethlehem who would become the Ruler in Israel. The "goings forth" of Christ reach to eternity in the past and to eternity in the future. "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 nothing was made that was made... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (4) From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ has been one with the Father.

Some Jews were questioning Jesus and He said to them, " 'Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.' Then the Jews said to Him, 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?' Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.' " (5) "Silence fell upon the vast assembly. The name of God, given to Moses to express the idea of the eternal presence, had been claimed as His own by this Galilean Rabbi. He had announced Himself to be the self-existent One, He who had been promised to Israel, 'whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity.' " (6)

"The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The Virgin's name was Mary. And having come in the angel said to her, 'Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!' " (7) The story of Joseph and Mary and the birth of Jesus is recorded in the first and second chapters of Luke. Joseph and Mary were dwellers among the hills of Galilee. How could the Promised One be born in Bethlehem?

Here again, God in His own way and time fulfilled the prophecy through Caesar Augustus, ruler of Rome. "And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered... So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child... And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger." (8)

1. Micah 5:2.
2. See Genesis 35:19.
3. See also Matthew 2:3-6.
4. John 1:1-3, 14.
5. John 8:56-58.
6. Desire of Ages, pp. 469, 470.
7. Luke 1:26-28.
8. Luke 2:1-7.