Last week we looked at a passage that tells about Jesus’ Second Advent. Our passage today talks about his first coming. There were many prophecies that told about the coming of the Messiah. This is one that we know fairly well. It tells us where the Messiah would be born: Bethlehem. This is one several prophecies Matthew cites to show that Jesus was indeed the Messiah who was foretold.

Fulfilled prophecy is one of the reasons we know that Jesus was the Messiah who was to come. During the Christmas season, we hear many of them. This particular prophecy was among those that the people of Jesus’ day knew well. When the Magi came to King Herod looking for the promised King, he asked the scholars where this king was to be born. They quoted Micah’s prophesy that this special Shepherd would be born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:6). The apostle Nathaniel also knew of this prophecy, which is why he was skeptical when told about Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:46).

We are used to understanding this prophecy from our vantagepoint. We also understand how it was useful to the Magi. What about those who first heard it? Why would God have Micah tell about a Savior who would not be born for another 700 years? I can see two reasons. First, God wanted to tell his people and the world that the Savior would come. He had to do it some time before Jesus came. And by doing it this far in advance (and often), the people would be looking for the Savior.

Second, these people were in a jam. Their city was about to be surrounded by the cruel Assyrians who were gobbling up kingdoms all around them. God’s people needed hope. They needed to know that they were not facing their personal end and the end of the people of God. They needed peace for their troubled hearts. In verse 5 we read that the one who was coming would be their peace. The Lord took them beyond their own situation to tell them about the one who would defeat the biggest enemy of the people of God. This One who was coming would not just face down the commander of an army. He would face down Satan, sin and death and give his people peace. He would be his people’s peace.

We face trials all the time. Some are big when we are in them and not so big later. Many of us lost power this week. That may not sound like a big thing, but it sure changes your life when it happens. We call out to God for heat and light and all the things that we need to live. But our deepest need is for a Savior and Ruler to rescue us from our sin and bring us back to God—to be our peace.

We face great trials: loss of job and livelihood, loss of relationships, life and death illnesses for us and our loved ones. When we face severe trials we cry out to God for healing, help and rescue. God hears and answers those prayers. But our deepest need is for the Savior to change our hearts and lives. God wants to give us hope today. He is supplying our needs. He is supplying our deepest need. We can have hope because the Savior has come.

Are you facing trials? God gives the deepest word of hope—not just to help you through the trial of the moment. There is a Savior to rescue you for eternity. He will be their peace (v5). He is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). Do you need peace? I do. Maybe you need peace from a trial of your own making. If you have a broken heart from a broken relationship, you probably have caused at least part of it. If you have a sinful addiction to something, a lust, a fear, an attachment to the wrong things, you will cause your own pain. This is true for me. God has a word for us this morning. We do not have to face the dragons of our sinfulness and slay them in order to be rescued and made whole again. That is what Jesus did. Jesus came, died and rose again to break the power of sin over us. He came to be our peace.

He did not come just so we would have a healing in body. He did not come just so we could be restored to a loved one. He does those things, but he came to be our peace, our Savior and our Lord. What keeps you from knowing his peace? Let him take it away. Let him heal it. Let him be your Lord and Savior. He will stand and shepherd his flock…and he will be their peace. This is God’s prophetic word of hope for us today.