This article first appeared at Small Town Summits.
Peruse any “Top Christmas Hymns” list and you’ll find “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Every year, the song plays on radios and in shopping malls and is sung in churches around the world. This is so much the case, that if you were to ask a stranger on the street what they know about Bethlehem, you’d likely hear that it has something to do with Christmas, and that it was little.
The focus on Bethlehem’s smallness is not unique to the song. In Micah’s prophecy concerning the Christ who was to come, God emphasized how little Bethlehem was by comparison to other towns in Judah:
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. (Micah 5:2, emphasis mine)
This prophecy is glorious in that, close to 700 years before his arrival, God foretold where his promised Son would enter into our humanity. This was the promised Son of David, the One who would come and establish his kingdom on the earth and reign forever as the King of all Kings. And, in a mystery of mysteries, this King over all would be born in an obscure, tiny town—a town too little to be numbered, even in the small kingdom of Judah. Indeed, if you look at the list of cities and towns of Judah’s territory in Joshua 15, there are 115 cities and their villages listed in the territory of Judah, and Bethlehem does not even get an honorable mention. This town was tiny.
Why would God the Father choose such a small place for his Son to be born into our humanity?
There are probably thousands of reasons why God in his wisdom chose Bethlehem, but I want to offer three to you, for your joy. The small-town nature of Bethlehem demonstrates the nature of Jesus’s salvation, the nature of Jesus’s rule, and the nature of the King and his Kingdom.
1. The Nature of Jesus’s Salvation
Bethlehem demonstrates that there is no place or people too small or out of reach for Jesus’s salvation.
Bethlehem was too small to be considered by Judah, but not by God. In this prophecy, God begins by addressing Bethlehem directly: “But You, O Bethlehem ….” God had not forgotten little Bethlehem. It was a small and insignificant town in the eyes of man, but it had not escaped the eyes of God. She was not too small for a word from God. And more than that, she was not too small for God himself to visit.
Bethlehem, though small, had a large role to play in the display of the glory of Christ. The smallness of Bethlehem demonstrates in itself that there is no place too small for the salvation of God. There is no corner of creation that God does not see. And by his grace, as the Father sent Christ to Bethlehem, he now sends his people to the furthest and most forgotten and unseen reaches of the globe with the gospel of Christ. God sends his people, not only on the highways, but to the hedges to compel people to come into his house by faith in Christ (Luke 14:23).
Jesus’s choice of obscurity in his birth demonstrates that there is no place outside the notice of God and no people outside the reach of his salvation in Christ. No matter how forgotten by men, no matter how inconsequential a town or person may be, that town and that person still matter deeply to God.
2. The Nature of Jesus’s Rule
Bethlehem also demonstrates that there is no place beyond the scope of Jesus’s rule.
Micah’s prophecy, though addressed to Bethlehem, is not mainly about Bethlehem, but the Ruler who would come forth from that tiny town. His coming forth was from ancient days. This was the One who was in the beginning with God as God and through whom all things exist (John 1:1; 1 Cor. 8:6). The One who existed from all eternity as God the Son was humbling himself to “come forth” from Bethlehem so that he might be the Good Shepherd of his people and rule over them as their good King.
In verse 4, God adds about this coming Ruler, that
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. (Micah 5:4)
This King who was coming forth from little Bethlehem was coming to rule, and his greatness and his reign would extend to the ends of the earth. His beginning in obscurity was meaningful. This King’s reign would extend from the ends of the earth in Bethlehem to the ends of the earth everywhere. Jesus’s birth in a nook of the world showcases that there is no place in heaven or on earth that is excluded from his rule. The Lord Jesus Christ is King over all, from heaven to Bethlehem, and everywhere in-between.
3. The Nature of the King and His Kingdom
Finally, Bethlehem demonstrates the humble character of Christ and how he ushers in his kingdom.
Jesus could have come to the world he created in glory and strength. But instead, in his perfect wisdom, he came small and weak. He came as not as an adult, but as an infant. He came not to be served, but to serve. He came not to Jerusalem, but to Bethlehem.
Such is the nature of the King and his kingdom. He who existed in the form of God emptied himself in humility, all the way even to Bethlehem, and through Bethlehem, to the cross. He left the riches of Heaven for the poverty of even Bethlehem, so that we through his poverty might become rich with his righteousness and blessing.
God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to demonstrate his strength. Jesus’s glory is not most clearly seen in making the wise wiser or the strong stronger. If he came to bring what glittered on earth to glory, his glory would not be seen as clearly as it is in glorifying what has no earthly luster. After his birth in Bethlehem, Jesus chose to grow up in small-town Nazareth, of all places. He still in all of his resurrected glory identifies himself as from there (Acts 22:8). In his humility, Jesus came and associated with lowly people and dead-end places (John 1:46). That’s one of the glories he was demonstrating in choosing Bethlehem for this peculiar honor.
But God does not leave the weak in their weakness, or call us to humble ourselves so that we might be laid low forever. God calls us to humble ourselves before him now so that he might exalt us with Christ at the proper time. The kingdom begins like a mustard seed, but it eventually fills the whole earth (Mark 4:31-32). Jesus dignified Bethlehem forever with his presence, but Bethlehem’s glory pales in comparison to the glory of the City of God and the future glory of the small and insignificant people and places that put their trust in Christ.
The Lord Jesus, in his humility, came forth from Bethlehem, but he reigns forever in the City of God. He assumed our humanity and our small-town weakness, brought them into the grave, and came out the other side in glory. Jesus pioneered a road from Bethlehem to Zion, and now we proclaim him as the way to God for our small towns. We proclaim his rule over all people and all places, calling men and women everywhere to repent and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and for peace with God. God sent you to your small town so that Christ might bring from even there many sons to glory.
This Christmas, friend, may he whose going forth is from ancient days go forth from your small life and lips and his rule extend further to the ends of the earth because of your faithful witness.
There’s no person too far from his salvation, no place outside of his dominion, and he loves to use a small people like us to extend his gracious reign into small towns like Bethlehem.
Living In Between 