Bethlehem #2

Bethlehem is a small town in the hill country of Judah, about five miles south of Jerusalem, whose modest size belied its outsized role in the biblical story. Long before it produced a king, a widowed Moabite woman named Ruth gleaned in its barley fields and married a landowner named Boaz; when their son Obed was born, the women of the town told Naomi, “There is a son born to Naomi… he is the father of Jesse, the father of David” (Ruth 4:17). Bethlehem’s association with kingship, and ultimately with a far greater King, begins in that quiet harvest scene.

City of David

It was to Bethlehem that God sent the prophet Samuel, grieved over Saul’s failure as king, with instructions to anoint one of Jesse’s sons instead. Samuel is drawn to the impressive older brothers, but the Lord tells him, “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). The youngest son, David, is summoned from tending sheep, and Samuel anoints him there in front of his family (1 Samuel 16:1-13). Bethlehem, also called Ephrathah, thereafter carries the name “the city of David” throughout the Old Testament, even after David’s throne is established in Jerusalem.

Birthplace of Jesus

Centuries later the prophet Micah named this same small town as the birthplace of Israel’s promised ruler: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). Matthew reads the prophecy as fulfilled when the chief priests and scribes, questioned by Herod, quote it to identify where the Messiah was to be born (Matthew 2:1-6). Luke tells the fuller story: Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem for a Roman census, and finding no room at the inn, Mary lays her newborn son in a manger (Luke 2:4-7). An angel announces the birth to shepherds keeping watch nearby — “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11) — and a heavenly host praises God, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). The shepherds go and find the child exactly as described, then spread the news through the town (Luke 2:15-17).

Today

Located in the West Bank a short drive from Jerusalem, Bethlehem remains a major site of Christian pilgrimage, though today the large majority of its residents are Muslim. The Church of the Nativity, begun under the emperor Constantine in the fourth century and rebuilt under Justinian in the sixth, stands over a cave grotto venerated since at least the second century as the traditional site of Jesus’ birth, making it among the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. A silver star set into the grotto floor marks the traditional spot, and nearby “Shepherds’ Fields” near the village of Beit Sahour is shown to visitors as the traditional location of the angelic announcement, though, as with many such sites, the precise spot cannot be confirmed with certainty.