And he shall stand and feed 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 5:1-4 (RSV)Read entire Scripture for Lesson Three HERE
To begin in reflection on this scripture, of course, my heart goes to the obvious…..”until the time when She who is in travail has brought forth…”
The scripture calling to mind an image of Our Lady bringing the Ruler of Israel, a ruler who will tend to their needs as a shepherd to a flock brings great consolation to God’s people today, as it must have then in the book of Micah. The scripture speaks of Majesty and connotes power from God. God’s people then being in “security” is what God wants for us today…… to trust in Him…to abandon all to Him…through our beautiful Blessed Mother Mary. He has entered the world through the Immaculate Virgin Mary to bring us peace and security.
Reading this scripture has generated many thoughts, just in the first verse — “you Bethlehem-Ephrathah, least among the clans of Judah”. — I had never before given any thought to the size of this city (or was it a town?); but it was fairly small, and rather insignificant to people of the time. And yet, it played such a role in salvation history!! Both King David and Jesus were born here — I confess that I had no idea that David came from Bethlehem prior to reading about this scripture. Why Bethlehem??? Perhaps this is God’s way of telling us that ALL are included in His plans; that no one is insignificant, we are all important to Him?
I think of Mary, a young woman from a poor family, living in Nazareth — a journey of 90 miles from Bethlehem (according to Google!). From what we know and understand about her, she was familiar with the scriptures and the foretelling of a messiah. What were her thoughts as she pondered Isaiah’s prophecy that said her child would be born in Bethlehem? She would not have her mother nearby at the time of childbirth to comfort her and give her support. Instead, she would be surrounded by strangers — little would she realize that it would be in a stable and surrounded by animals and shepherds!
“From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.” My first thoughts were that this referred to King David, but further reflection brought something else to mind. I recently participated in a Bible study where we reflected on the opening of John’s Gospel — “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” — and the opening of Genesis “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…” Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, was present at the time of creation — He was indeed “from old, from ancient times.”
After prayerful meditation on different verses in this scripture, and on Teresa Tomeo’s reflection, my mind and heart went to the “who are little to be among the clans of Judah from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel”, with regards to Bethlehem. We see in scripture how God always uses the meek and humble…..the “little” to bring His Great Works for us. We see this, continually, throughout scripture, and here, most significantly, at the onset of our salvation. Later in the scripture when we read, “for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth”, we go from the “littleness” of Bethlehem to “God’s Greatest to the ends of the earth”. The greatness that comes out of Bethlehem stretches from one end of the entire earth to the other!!
When we become little and humble before God, this is when He acts in us and accomplishes His Greatness through us…
I so enjoy your insights!! Keep them coming!
My first reflection immediately went to Mary and how it is through Mary humanity is reunited with God. Verse 3 – Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labour bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.
But Jesus didn’t come just for the Israelites, he came for ALL humanity. Verse 4 – He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord…. then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.
In each set of scriptures we’ve studied, Mary is being revealed by different aspects of her holiness. Unlike Adam & Eve, Mary is without sin and follows God’s guidance. Unlike Ahaz, Mary responds to God, opening herself to His miracle. Through her labour pains she brings Jesus to the world to pave the road to redemption back to God.
Building on Joan & Barbara’s reflections above, this could not have been easy for Mary. She had to have had doubts and fears, but she continuously and faithfully handed them over to God and let Him lead the way. Which for me ties in to today’s Called By Name reflection on Galatians 6:9. Each step along her journey, each “season” of saying yes to God gave Mary the strength to power through and endure. Mary was able to embrace God’s will and what a blessing it was not only for her but for us all!
I love the depictiion of our Blessed Mother you make here, Nikki, from today’s Called By Name reflection. Opening our hearts to God’s Will for us is not always easy, and we should use Mary, Our Blessed Mother, as our model on how to do this with strength, faith, and grace.
Verse 2 spoke to me today. “…the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, …” So much depended on Mary’s fiat. He gave them up until she agreed to be the Mother of Jesus. She agreed, not just to carry him in her womb, but to be His mother in all that entailed. It caused me to wonder, who is it, in my life, that depends on my fiat? Who depends on my saying yes to all that God is asking of me?
I love that, Lisa!……”Who is it,in my life, that depends on my fiat?”. I, actually, had a bit of an experience today that would benefit from your reflection here. Thank you for this, Lisa!
God it good!
Jesus. He is our promise. He is our shepherd. He is our stong tower. He is our peace. Where is Mary? She is the conduit, always pointing to her son and saying, “Listen to Him.”
The smallness of Bethlehem spoke to me tonight. How some little town could bring forth a ruler to be great over all the earth. Focusing on the smallness, my mind went to the mustard seed which led me to Matthew 17:20. How having faith the size of a mustard seed (which if you’ve ever used them in cooking, you know they are very small) can move mountains. Nothing is impossible for you if you have faith the size of a mustard seed.
Surely my faith is bigger than the size of a mustard seed, but sometimes things really do seem impossible. But that’s because they are impossible for ME. Impossible when I try to handle things all on my own. Mary didn’t handle things all on her own. She gave her will, her yes, up to God over and over again. Mary was made of mustard seeds. 🙂
I just need to hold onto my little mustard seed of faith. Feed it with the Grace Trifecta (totally stealing this from you Allison) prayer, sacraments & scripture and God will be able to move mountains through me.
“the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne..” God gave us free will and he will not take that away. The people of Israel feel that God has abandoned them, but, as we saw last week with Ahaz, the people have chosen to turn away from Him — they have abandoned God!
Micah reminds them that God has promised a messiah, foretold by Isaiah, who will be born of a woman. This messiah will lead them back to God. But, the people still did not have faith in God… Only Mary had complete trust in God and because of her faith in Him, she readily said yes. She never hesitated, just said yes, without knowing what she would be faced with in the years ahead. She trusted in God to take care of her and her child. Her son would be the shepherd who will gather the flock and lead them back to God.
Today what stood out to me was the first verse and how the strong city is surrounded and being attacked. In one translation it read that “The enemy will swing his club. He will hit the leader of Israel in the face.” Thankfully there is a promise of a great ruler who in verse 4 it said ” will lead them in the wonderful name of the Lord his God.”
This spoke to me so loudly today because in the last 24 hours, I’ve kind of felt the enemy surrounding and I’m feeling attacked. The enemy is striking at my face. Bad news is coming in from all my dear friends: Illness, death and anxiety. However, unlike the folks in Micah’s time, he had to tell people that the great ruler was on the way. Thank you God and thank you Mary for your fiat that I don’t have to wait on a future promise of hope.
Hope is alive and with us right now, even when we feel surrounded and attacked. We might be living in crazy times, but at least we aren’t going through it alone. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Mary and all the saints we need your intercession, peace and strength.
My first reaction was that this passage was not about Mary. But, then looking at verse 2, “But you, O Bethlehem Eph′rathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days”, I could see amazing parallels with Mary, who said “For He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid, From this day all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name”. Both Bethlehem and the Blessed Mother Mary are “little” or “lowly”. Both have the Lord God, the Almighty, doing great things for His own in a very personal way–“from you shall come forth for me” and “the Almighty has done great things for me”. And, both Bethlehem and the Blessed Mother Mary bring forth the Son of God–“from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel” and again “the Almighty has done great things for me”. For me, reflecting on Micah 5 while walking with Mary reminds me how good God is to the humble of heart.