The Nativity story is filled with examples of God using the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary, and that includes both people and places. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah returns to the little town of Bethlehem and how it fulfilled an important prophecy about Jesus' birth with amazing accuracy. To introduce the conclusion of his message, Why Bethlehem Here's David. And ladies and gentlemen, I told you that this current series is based on a book and a movie called Why the Nativity.
I have failed to tell you that you can get that movie for yourself by going to our website. This Docudrama DVD is available from our website, and you can get it and have it available for your Christmas season. Many people are now setting aside a time each year to watch this movie because more clearly and more beautifully than you will find in most places, it tells the real story of Christmas. We delight to recommend it to you. And if you keep listening and keep watching on television, you will find out that we're making this available all over the country now in many different languages each year, adding more languages so that the movie, the film, the story of Christmas is available to the whole world.
Today, we're going to finish up our discussion of Bethlehem, a very important discussion because Bethlehem is at the core of numerous Bible prophecies. And are those prophecies to be believed? The history of what really happened. is so incredible because it validates what was written about this so many years before. Right now, here's part two of Why Bethlehem.
The first time Bethlehem is mentioned in the Old Testament Is in connection with the birth. of a son. And the last time it's mentioned in the New Testament. is in connection with the birth of a son. Jacob's son.
and the Son of God. Wilbur Smith. One of the great students of the Word of God says that no woman in the first thousand years of Hebrew history was loved with the passion and adoration that Rachel was loved by her husband, Jacob. For years, however, Rachel was tormented. in her life, because every time she would see her sister Leah give Jacob one son after another, and she herself was childless, she was tormented.
But then one day we continue to read in the book of Genesis, and in the 30th chapter of the book of Genesis, we read this story concerning this tormented woman. Then God remembered Rachel. That's a great phrase, isn't it? Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb, and she conceived and bore a son, and said, God has taken away my reproach.
So she called his name Joseph and said, The Lord shall add to me another son. And the Lord did give Rachel another son. But in giving birth to that son, Rachel, died.
Now, having read that, you may wonder what in the world that has to do with Christmas and what it has to do with Bethlehem, but stay with me for a moment. This is an amazing story for many reasons. As Rachel died, she called her son's name Ben Oni. Which in the Hebrew means Son of my sorrow. Centuries later, in this very place, Another would be born who would be called The man of sorrows.
This one who was born in the place Where Ben-Oni was born, would also carry our sorrows in his own body. And because of his birth, we now, when we lose someone in death, sorrow not as others who have no hope. And one day, because he was born where Ben-Oni was born, we will go to a place where there will never be any sorrow again forever and ever. Jacob never forgot the death of Rachel. In fact, when he finally died some thirty years later, he recalled with vivid detail the moment of sorrow in Bethlehem.
And that's the verse we read at the very beginning from Genesis chapter 48 and verse 7. Even after The sorrow of Rachel and the sorrow of Jacob The story continues. Eleven hundred years after Rachel's death, A prophet by the name of Jeremiah wrote these words in Jeremiah 31:15, Thus says the Lord. A voice was heard in Rama. Lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children.
Refusing to be comforted for her children because they are no more. Matthew in the New Testament connects the words of Jeremiah With another time of great sorrow in Bethlehem. Watch how this works. Matthew 2, 16 and 18 says this. Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry and sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all of its districts from two years old and under according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.
Now notice, then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more. Matthew connects The birth of Jesus. With the death of Rachel. Matthew looks back to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah takes us all the way back.
to Genesis. It's almost as if you start in the book of Genesis and you have a thread, and you connect that thread all through the scripture from Genesis all the way to Matthew. the story of the birth of Christ in the historic city of Bethlehem. Jeremiah calls forth the ghost of Rachel. to remember the sorrow and suffering that would one day take place, when the innocence were destroyed.
in Bethlehem. How in the world does one ever reconcile the glorious birth of our Savior with the bloody massacre of all of the male children under two years of age? Hear me carefully. In the contrast of death and life is the picture of redemption that is proclaimed in the birth of Jesus. Our God was not responsible for the massacre of those children, but he was responsible for sending one into the world who could, by his own life and death, make it possible for.
For those who die, physically to live eternally. And in the death of the babies and the birth of Jesus is the picture of why Jesus had to come into the world in the first place. Until we see our Lord's birth against the backdrop of the massacre in Bethlehem, we will never realize why it is so important for him to come. He came to rid us of the ugliness of sin, and there is no picture of the ugliness of sin like the infanticide. at Bethlehem.
Even today in our culture, when we read of little children Being tortured, or mothers killing their own offspring, or children being abducted, our hearts are filled with anger because it represents the ugliness of the world of sin. And here in this picture, of Bethlehem. is the killing of babies. And the birth of the baby, who will put an end to all of that ultimately. Bethlehem's not just an accident.
It's not just incidental. It's all a part of the sovereign plan of God. Bethlehem was a place of sorrow, but as you continue to read the Old Testament, it's also a place of selection. In the book of 1 Samuel, we read a story that's very familiar to most of us. It's the story of the selection of David to be the king of Israel.
We read in 1 Samuel 17:12, Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah. whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. And the man was old and advanced in years in the days of Saul. Little Bethlehem provided Israel with its most enduring hero. Samuel the prophet had come to Bethlehem, and the scripture says he had been sent there by Almighty God to select the king of Israel who would.
Succeed. The man-chosen king, Saul.
So David would be the first God-chosen king. The book of 1 Samuel records how the prophet came to the house of Jesse and he carefully sized up all of the young men of the household. His godly eye finally fell upon David. And the shepherd boy, who was out in the field and wasn't even in the house when the examination took place, the least likely to succeed here Samuel announced was the raw material of a popular king. Here stood one who was destined to be known as the man after God's own heart.
From Shepherd to King, what an amazing story that was. In Bethlehem, the king of Israel was selected.
Now, watch carefully. Bethlehem became known as the city of David. Jesus is called the Son of David. Through the city of Bethlehem flowed the lineage and descent of our Savior. And the night that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, another king was selected.
He wasn't selected to be king of Israel. He was selected to be king of kings and lord of lords. Isn't Bethlehem an interesting place? Not only a place of sorrow and selection. It's also a place of salvation.
One of the wonderful stories of the Old Testament is found in the four-chapter book called Ruth. And in Ruth chapter 4, verse 11, we read these words: All the people who were at the gate and the elders said, We are witnesses, the Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah. Who built the house of Israel, and may you prosper in Ephrata and be famous in Bethlehem. Here we are in Bethlehem again. From the time that Jacob spoke of Bethlehem as he was about to die.
There's no important reference to the city for many years, and then all of a sudden you open the book of Ruth, and here in this little book, the city of Bethlehem is mentioned seven times. The book of Ruth presents to us one of the most perfect pictures in all of the Old Testament of the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Boaz, a rich citizen of Bethlehem, was the near kinsman of Naomi and by law was bound to redeem the inheritance of the deceased relative and marry his widow. We read in Ruth 4:13, so Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. The words redeem, redemption, and kinsman redeemer occur 19 times in the four chapters of Ruth.
And Ruth is only mentioned one time in all of the New Testament. You'd be surprised where it is. You know where she's mentioned? in the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew chapter 1, verses 5 and 6.
Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed. By roof. Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. The whole story of the Old Testament leads up to the birth of Jesus.
In Bethlehem, was the story of Jacob. And Jesus was from the descent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the story of the selection of David comes David, and Jesus is called the son of David. And in the story of Ruth, we meet this. Woman.
And in the Genealogy of Jesus, she is mentioned as being in the line of descent of our Savior. And the one thing that connects all of these together is. Bethlehem. Why Bethlehem?
Well, the city of Bethlehem was prepared historically, and the city of Bethlehem was prepared symbolically. In Micah chapter 5 and verse 2, we have the Old Testament prophecy. That tells us that Jesus is going to be born in Bethlehem. And let's remind ourselves of what it says. You, O Bethlehem Ephrata, are only a small village in Judah.
Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.
Now, in the verse, you will see that Bethlehem has two names: Bethlehem. and Ephrita. Two names, two meanings. Bethlehem means and always has meant the house of bread. It's child.
Jesus would later be called. The bread of life, and he would say, I am the living bread which came down from heaven in John chapter 6. What other place but the house of bread would produce such a person as Jesus? But what about the other name? Bethlehem Ephrata.
And the word Ephrata is a much older name for the town of Bethlehem, and it means fruitfulness. Ephroth is a word that means to be fruitful.
So to a hungry time and a thirsting world came the bread of life, who teaches us to have a fruitful life in His behalf. Our Savior was born for the hungry as the bread of life. He was born for the helpless. And now He comes to us as our Savior.
So Bethlehem was prepared. Historically, Through Ruth and David and Rachel, and all the story of the Old Testament that finds its commonality in the city. And Bethlehem was prepared. symbolically by its very name. the house of bread where the bread of life would be born.
But perhaps the most amazing thing about this city is yet for us to discover. And that is that the city was prepared prophetically for the birth of Christ. We have alluded to Micah's prophecy, but I want you to catch the importance and the amazement of this prophetic utterance. because in many respects, Micah 5.2 may be the most amazing prophecy in all of the Bible. Micah said that Bethlehem, the least of all the cities in Judah, would become the birthplace of Christ.
Now hear me friends, Micah wrote that prophecy in 722 BC. Critics who want to destroy the Bible have zeroed in on Micah 5:2 and they've tried to find some way to get it out of the text. because it's a great embarrassment to them and there is no way for them to explain it. But they have not been able to undermine Micah's identification of the birthplace of our Lord. A prediction that was made at least 600 years before the birth of Jesus.
At the time of our Lord's birth, When Herod gathered the whole Jewish Sanhedrin together and inquired where Jesus was to be born, they responded in Matthew 2, 5 and 6, in Bethlehem of Judea, for it is written that way by the prophets, they said. Later on in the book of John, chapter 7 in verse 42, we read that the Jews of Palestine were still willing to admit that Micah spoke of the coming Messiah. Here they said that Christ comes from the seed of David, who was from the town of Bethlehem. All throughout the early part of the New Testament, we have verification that everyone believed that Bethlehem was the place where Jesus was to be born. Even as Micah had said it would be 600 years earlier.
Sometimes people say, well, maybe he wasn't born in Bethlehem. Maybe they just made that up.
Well, let me just tell you that five or six different times in the Nativity story, Bethlehem is mentioned as the place of the birth of Jesus. Luke, the historian, says that the holy family went down to Bethlehem and there Jesus was born. Luke 2, 4 and 5. The angels said that a Saviour had been born in the city of David, Luke 2.11. The shepherds said, Let us now go unto Bethlehem and see this thing which the Lord hath done, Luke 2.15.
Herod the Great sent the wise men Not to Jericho or Jerusalem. He sent them to Bethlehem to see the newborn babe. There was never any doubt on the part of the historians concerning the birth of Christ that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
So we have these two facts that we have to reconcile. Micah in 7:22 saying Jesus will be born in the city of Bethlehem, and all the historians who record the birth of Jesus telling us that that is exactly where he was indeed born.
Now, let me just try to help you understand the significance of this. and the awesomeness of this prophecy. When this prophecy was made, when Jesus was on this earth. three continents were known to man, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Asia was chosen.
But Asia has many countries. But one country is indicated, a little country known as Palestine of Syria. Here there were three districts in Palestine Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. It is Judea that is the correct one, and it is chosen by Micah in his prophecy. But here again, in Judea are many villages, literally thousands of little villages.
And Bethlehem is the one that is chosen out of all of the thousands of villages in Judah. The prophet reaches down 600 years before the event, puts his finger on a little obscure village in Judah and says, in that town, The Saviour will come. to be born. It's an amazing, amazing truth. And once again, all it does for those of us who study the scripture.
Is just draw big underlines under the truth that God's book is a miracle book. That this book is full of truth you can find nowhere else in all of the world. It is the book of God. And in the book of God, you have God's miraculous truth. Being spoken as if it had happened historically six centuries before it actually took place.
choosing from all of the continents The right one. and from the continent. the right country. and from the country the right district and from the district the right city. And then as if there's any doubt as to whether it is Bethlehem of Zebulun or Bethlehem of Judea, the prophet Micah says it is Bethlehem of Judah.
Aren't you glad that the message of Christmas rests on? accurate prophetic truth and historic Relevance. It is not some little Mickey Mouse story we thought up so we would have something to do around the Christmas tree. It is the story of God and his coming to this earth so profoundly preserved for us in the scripture that those of us who are Christ followers sit up and take notice that we're dealing with something in this book that is like nothing else the world knows. This is God's book.
This is God's truth. that Jesus Came. in Bethlehem. And so, some of us, as we get all of this historic information and try to wrap our arms around what we have heard, we find in our hearts saying, And so, what?
So, what? He was born in Bethlehem, so what? I think Phillips Brooks Captured it for us in the last line of that little Song he wrote. The hopes and fears. of all the years are met here in Bethlehem.
tonight. What happened when Jesus came in Bethlehem is the real story. Where he came is an interesting fact, but that he came is the exciting truth. That he loved us so much that when his father called to him from heaven and said, Son, I have a task for you to perform. I want you to leave the splendors of heaven and go down to that dirty speck called earth.
And there, I want you to live for 30 years and give your life a ransom for those who need to be saved so that I can bring them to my heaven. And the Bible says that Jesus said, Lo, in the book, in the volume of the book, it is written. I will do your will, O God. And Jesus stepped out of the corridors of heaven. And the book of Philippians says, He humbled himself, and he came to this earth, and he became a man, and he became obedient even unto death.
And he died on a cross so that you and I might be forgiven. I celebrate Bethlehem. My friends. Because I've been to Calvary. I celebrate The cradle.
Because I have stood beneath a cross. I celebrate the coming of Christ because my sins were forgiven as the result. of his coming. And the wonderful message of Christmas for all of us is not about all the details, though they're important for us to know, for they bring confidence to our faith. The important truth about Christmas is this.
The God so loved the world. that He gave His only begotten Son. that whosoever believes in him should not perish. but have everlasting life.
So let me ask you the question today. Have you believed in the Christ of Christmas? Have you put your trust in Him? Have you opened your heart? Have you allowed the birth of Christ to happen in your heart?
Did you know that the Jesus who was born in Bethlehem wants to be born in your heart? He wants to set up His home within your life and began to give you direction and strength. And I want to tell you, and it's fresh in my heart. That the mighty God who lives within you in the person of Jesus Christ is able to do above and beyond all that you will ask or think. And He will give you not only the forgiveness of your sin, but He will give you a friendship.
That is like no friendship you have ever known.
Well, Bethlehem is a very important place. A city where eternal life entered in to humanity. And it is an incredible study. Bethlehem, house of bread, and the bread of life was born in that city. Tomorrow we're going to answer the question, why there was no room in the inn.
A question that's often posed at the Christmas season. I'm not sure we have the ultimate final answer, but we have some good answers. Because they come from the Scripture. And I hope you'll join us tomorrow. Don't forget that Turning Point.
Presents a magazine every month called Turning Points Magazine and Devotional, and it is free for you to have, but you have to ask for it. When you ask for it, we'll send it to you and you'll receive it every month in your home. It's beautiful and it's geared to add value to your Christian life. Thank you for being a part of today's program. I'll see you next time right here on this Good Station.
Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. We love hearing how God is using this ministry in your life.
So please write to us at TurningPoint, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org/slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's helpful new 365-day devotional for 2026, A Closer Walk with Jesus. Yours for a gift of any amount.
You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet, or search in your app store for Turning Point Ministries to access our content. Visit davidjeremiah.org/slash radio for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series, Why the Nativity? on Turning Point with Dr.
David Jeremiah.
