In today’s world, so much of our significance comes from size, numbers, and reach. We live in a world where size is significant, and numbers matter. Even though most of us know it means nothing, we are drawn to things that appear substantial because they are bigger. People are naturally drawn to the city because it has a perception of life. We follow people and look to them often for influence, not because they are successful, but because they have followers on social media. Our world is built to shape us into thinking that numbers matter and that size means significance. Facebook tells us how many friends we have, Instagram tells us how many people follow us and how many we follow; and if we see a friend who has more than we might expect, we find ourselves thinking – impressive. The reality is, even though I see it, I find myself considering it because our world has made us constantly think about numbers and reference them. I am continually checking how many followers our socials have, how many visitors our website gets, and how our posts are doing. We have been fooled into thinking it matters when the only thing that matters is often what we miss.

We long for some significance, even though most of our lives are marked by the ordinary and the mundane. We get on with it, doing our best in work, life, and family – in whatever spheres we find ourselves living. We live ordinary lives, and for most of us, we are happy just as we are. Yet, in culture, we have young people whose dreams of a career are not to be a Doctor but to be an influencer, a YouTuber, and to have online significance rather than to make a difference. The reality is that almost all of us have ever known is the ordinary, and that is okay. Consider this part of the city that we call home; it, too, can often feel like an unseen place, easily forgotten and written off. Yet, if there is any other season in the church that reminds us that to God the insignificant is significant, it is Advent. It is this season of preparation, longing, and waiting in which we remember the coming of God, and that he will come again; that we remember that he went in the ordinary and unseen places to begin something extraordinary – because that is how god works. It is this season that reminds us that God is not impressed by our significance; he is not impressed by the number of followers we have or the influence we think we can have. God is a God who works in the ordinary and chooses to build from places of insignificance.

We see that so clearly in the story of Christmas and in the season of Advent. We see it so clearly here in these few short, significant verses, where Micah foretold the Birth of the King. God gave him the knowledge of the location in which the King would be born, and it was not a palace that was named, nor a capital, nor even a place of significance – it was an unknown village, from an insignificant part of the country – Bethlehem. God chose to act in a seemingly insignificant place because that is the way God works. Why? Because it shows his power, majesty, and Glory, as in everything he does, he confronts the ways of the world. God chose Bethlehem because it shows the world that God will work from places the world will not see, and amid a people the world will probably ignore. Hope begins in Bethlehem, and that reminds us that God can – and will – do something anywhere, amid any people, if we are willing to let Him. God is faithful, good, and all-powerful: He shows that power by making great promises and then fulfilling them through places and people that the world chooses to overlook. Why? Because it shows that all God does is because of who God is! Thus, in our waiting today, as we live day by day in the wilderness, with hope and showing hope, we are invited to trust in the King who has come near into our ordinary to do something extraordinary.

1 A Small Place Chosen by God (v.2)

It is from the small place that God will do the greatest of things. Not just physically but metaphorically – it’s not through the powers and thrones of this world that the Kingdom of God will advance, but rather through the ordinary people. Those whom history will forget are those in whom God most often works: the willing and the ordinary, the faithful and the fruitful. In a way, we are all Bethlehem in the eyes of the world, because the eyes of the world will be laid upon very few of us. Yet, God sees us! God calls us! God loves us! And when we come to faith in Christ, God will use us to do something significant. Thus, when we see prophecies like these words from Isaiah, we rejoice in the many truths they can teach us.

1.1 God has a Plan for the World

Primarily, that God had a plan for the redemption of the world, from before the beginning of the world, through Jesus. Yet, perhaps more subtly, and often lost in what Bethlehem represents in terms of the way God chooses to work in the world. Bethlehem is named precisely because it is small, obscure and easy to pass by. Bethlehem is a prophetic declaration of God’s plan of redemption that will unfold from the birth of the Messiah foretold, right through to his enacting of the plan of Salvation. From the Manger to the Cross – it is all an outworking of the truth of Bethlehem. A tension which Micah shows so beautifully, not just in the name but additionally in the information: ” little among the clans of Judah,” yet chosen by God as the place that History would remember.

1.2 God’s Standards are Not Ours

God does not need a place to be important in the world or culture; he acts when he chooses to act and where he chooses to act, because he is God. Thus, in the grand plan of redemption to bring renewal to the world, God decides to begin where the world would never look to confront the world and its ways. This is the way of the Kingdom, that the Church born in the upper room would have spread across the globe today in power and love and Advent as a season helps us to remember the truth of Bethlehem, as the Spirit prompts us to look again at places and people we might have learned to dismiss. Perhaps even to look at ourselves again and, in prayer, ponder what God might do. We might find ourselves waiting in places that feel small, insignificant, and difficult.

1.3 Waiting Shapes Redemption

Those are precisely the places where God works. How do we know? The bible is full of them! Consider: Abraham in Haran (Genesis 12:1–4), where God’s redemptive plan begins with one old barren couple who he told form which the nations would be blessed; or Joseph in prison (Genesis 39–41), he had years of waiting in obscurity, for a crime he did not commit, and then by providence God used him to be a blessing to the world; Then there is Moses in Midian (Exodus 2:15–3:12): God calls His deliverer not from Pharaoh’s palace but from obscurity as a shepherd in exile among a foreign people; then think about the brith of the church in the upper room (Acts 1-2), as God began the final stage of his plan of redemption with the bird of the church, did the world even notice? No, but one day they would.

2 A Ruler Who Comes from God (v.2)

Do you notice that Micah does not just tell us where, he also tells us the what and the why: who this ruler is and where his authority originates. The summary – this is all from God. This ruler foretold is not a prediction of some human power, president to come and rule a nation; it’s not the origin story of someone self-made, not elected; nor a general who will seize power and shape the world by force; nor is it even the prediction of power by political manoeuvring that we are so used to in today’s world. No! He comes “from you for me,” says the Lord. His flesh will be of us, but his authority will come from another place. His authority is given, not taken. His kingship is his essence, not grasped.

2.1 From of Old Speaks Only Of One

Just in case there is any confusion about what the prophet might mean, Micah hammers the point home even more when he says that this ruler’s beginnings are “from of old, from ancient days.” As in from before all was, was the one of whom he speaks. Do you see it? Can we grasp the audacity and majesty of what the prophet is forgetting – God is the only one from ancient of days. Furthermore, it is being made clear to all who will hear that this is not some reactive plan. God did not wake up one day, surprised by the state of the world; this was always to be the plan. This is not God reacting to the failure of His people or the chaos of the world: this is God enacting the next stage of the plan that was always the plan because he knew the state of the world. This Ruler of which Micah speaks is from the very heart of God’s plan for the world, is the outworking of a promise that stretches back before Bethlehem, to before Abraham even walked with God. In this season of Advent, we are reminded that our hope is grounded in the reality that God has always known what He is doing, and that is why the Cross is good news; that is why a symbol that should have represented the worst that the world had to offer has become the symbol that unites every Christian. The cross would always be the pinnacle moment in God’s redemptive movement, because it was the ultimate display in how the way God works in the world is the outworking of Bethlehem, that which the world meant for evil God turned towards good and Glory.

2.2 Our Waiting understood through the lens of the Cross

Yet, all who stood around the cross had no idea about what God was going to do. In the three days they waited, they were overcome with wonder as they pondered where God was, what had happened and what might unfold in the moments to come. While we wait, God works, and because this ruler foretold comes from beyond this world, we can trust him without waiting. In it, we are often tempted to believe that God has gone quiet; that whatever it is we are going through or find ourselves facing does not matter, cannot matter, or even that God is not entirely in control. The prophet Micah reminds us that delay is never absence, and silence is not forgetfulness. It is simply the waiting in which God will work. God’s work in the world, and the Kingdom that Christ will establish in each of us and through us, are not reactive movements to the world in crisis, but part of God’s eternal plan and purpose. Advent teaches us to trust and know the Goodness of God in every situation and know that the Kingdom will never advance by the means of the world: the sword, political power, more spectacle, or force. It advances through means which show the character of God and His Goodness in every season—covenant, patience, and obedience from His children. Let’s be clear, the ruler spoken of has no desire to impress the world – he is here to redeem it, and then one day rule it.

3 A Shepherd Who Stands with His People (v.3–4)

What Micah does next is both beautiful and deeply pastoral. Having spoken about a ruler who comes from God and whose origins stretch back beyond time itself, to give us a sense of the majesty and power of the one whom he foretells, suddenly everything shifts in imagery and ethics. Why? Again, to comfort and confront, to comfort those for whom this King will come, and to engage those who understand rule and power in different ways. This ruler will not reign like the kings of this earth; he will be the essence of what kings were called to be under God – A shepherd. This King will not simply rule over his people: He will care for them, attend to them, and be present among them in every situation. This is a ruler like nothing the world has ever known because he is spoken of in ways the world has never experienced rule before; this is a ruler who leads not from afar but among his people. He will keep watch, committed, and faithful to his flock. He will lead his people by being among his people.

3.1 A Strength that the World Cannot Understand

Suddenly, strength looks so different because it is being expressed not through the lens of the world but through the lens of heaven. Through what we know to be the lens of the Cross and Kingdom. Jesus himself declared that he was the shepherd and servant king. Jesus himself stated that there was no greater act of service in love than laying down your life for another, then he went to the Cross. Micah foretold that true strength would be shown as presence and care, not power and might, as the world wants us to believe. Micah foretold it, and Jesus confirmed on the Cross.

3.2 He Shall Stand With Us Always

The phrase “he shall stand,” gives us the picture of a shepherd who does not abandon the flock when danger comes or when the journey becomes hard. He is consistent, and that imagery of consistency is given in his stance. In fact, it provides us with an image of presence and consistency, no matter the road, route, or response of the world. This ruler will stand with his people, something not said in hope – but spoken as true! This leader is Jesus, and if we have grown up in the Scriptures, then when we hear this sort of language, our minds have probably moved to Psalm 23, with all of its beauty, truth, and comfort echoing in the background. The Lord is the Shepherd who leads, provides, restores, and guides his people through every season of life. Jesus is the Shepherd who leads, provides, restores, and guides his people through every season of life. He does not promise the absence of valleys, but his presence within them. He walks with his people through the darkest places to lead us to where God wants us to be. Jesus is faithful and present among his people. The shepherd-king Micah speaks of in God’s redemptive plan is Jesus, who gave us life by his service.

3.3 An Image of the Faithful Shepherd King

And that is where this promise becomes even more real for each of us today, whatever we are in or whatever we are going through. Psalm 23 was never written for the perfect life; it was written to reflect life in this world with God. It is a psalm for anxious hearts and weary shoulders: “I will fear no evil, for you are with me”is not the language of escapism, but of trust, trust because of presence. It is a confident assurance that even now, as we walk among tired streets, as we seek to live faithfully amid failing and decaying institutions that have lost sight of Jesus, as we live in uncertain days, as we feel the weight of worry about our futures and the stress and strains of life, and so much more! That amid it all we can know: the presence of God remains unchanged, because God is unchanging. This shepherd-king is always with us; he will never leave us or forsake us, nor is he far off, surveying from a safe place – he is with us.

Let’s say that: Our God is never far off, he is faithful, present, and good. Like the Shepherd in Psalm 23, whatever God is calling us to, he is right there with us on the journey towards it. In our weary and wounded places, that promise will become all the more real and lived. Christ does not abandon his people in their waiting. He stands with us, goes before us, and remains with us as he leads us into whatever is next. This we must learn to delight in and wait in and know that in our waiting God does his deepest work in us, and then through us.

4 A Peace That Flows from His Reign (v.5a)

Then, right at the end of our passage, we are met with one of the simplest yet profound moments as Micah tells us not only what this King will do, but also how he will be. Micah declares the essence of his reign: “He shall be their peace.” Peace here is not spoken of in abstraction, Micah is not speaking of peace as a philosophy; nor peace as a political slogan – No, this is something far more potent, far more tangible, it is peace as a person. This is not the peace because of the absence of something that disturbs us. It is peace because things are being restored. That which was broken will be made whole under the rule and reign of God. If there is something this land can relate to, it is the folly of shallow peace that lacks wholeness. We have known peace when many things stopped, yet so many things were left unfinished. It has been a peace that lacks wholeness. Felt in lives, carried in communities and marking every aspect of our cultures today. Why? Because the peace Micah is speaking of can only come from God!

4.1 True Peace that Passes All Understanding

This is true peace that passes all understanding. And, it comes only from one place – faith in Christ. Why? Because Christ will come to restore all things – including us. It is Shalom, and that is far more about the presence of something, rather than its absence. We are to understand this peace that Micah speaks of through the lens of Eden, of Shalom! As wholeness, health, welfare, safety, integrity, fullness, harmony, friendliness, trust, and ease.¹ It is being in good relationships with God, with one’s community, and with oneself, because of what Christ has done. Do you see the difference between this peace in a person, and the way our world defines peace? This is not a fragile peace that depends on everyone behaving, the globe cooperating, or political stability with economic improvement. This is peace that flows from the reign of the Shepherd-King because he is all-powerful and all good. How? Because when this King begins his rule in our lives and the world, peace is not something he sets out to achieve; it is something he brings by being who he is – all knowing, all powerful, all sovereign, and all good.

4.2 Knowing Peace this Advent

Advent reminds us that true peace comes only through the reign of Christ. His reign of peace began at his first coming, and will be fulfilled in his second, and that is why our waiting has such purpose. We are not simply waiting for better circumstances; we are waiting for the inauguration of his Kingdom in fullness, the new earth as Eden with the restoration of all things in us and around us. In Christ, we have experienced it tangibly now, yet we know there is more to come! That is the tension of Advent: something received by faith, and having the joy in knowing we await something far more. We live in the overlap of the ages, in the in-between of Christ’s Advents. We live knowing that the King has come and the Spirit has been poured out upon the Church at Pentecost; we live knowing that the Gospel has taken root, hope is growing, and God is transforming lives. Yet, we see every day how the world still groans for something more. We feel it in our own hearts, the pain of life in this broken world, as our streets still carry the weight of brokenness. It is to this reality of the in-between that Micah speaks when he says: “He shall be their peace.” Not because Jesus makes life easy or gives us the material things to make life better; this is not about health or wealth.

4.3 Peace that is Given Cannot be Removed

This is peace that comes from the presence of the King who is faithful and good, whose presence is more and better than anything the world has to offer. I love how C.S. Lewis captured this as he describes the reality of life with God by faith in Christ in this in-between; he wrote that life with God is “not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties.” This is exactly what this Shepherd-King offers his people as they wait, peace by presence in every circumstance. While we wait in the wilderness in the presence of Christ, we know the peace of Christ. Thus, as we, and therefore a people who can rest, even as they wait. “He shall be their peace,” now we can understand that peace is not an idea but a person.

5 | Conclusion | Waiting with Trust, Not Fear

Today, Bethlehem stands before us as both a comfort and a challenge. It teaches us not to despise small beginnings, nor to doubt our own beginning, because God so often does his most excellent work where the world sees nothing at all. What matters is that we have faith in Christ, and then, in the Spirit, we are willing to get on with the work of the great commission. In Christ, we can delight in knowing that our waiting is never wasted time.

5.1 While We Wait

The world may not realise it or believe it, but by the work of the Spirit, we live with the quiet assurance that God is at work, even when we cannot yet see the outcome. While we wait, God work! While we wait, God is at work in us, among us, and through us for His glory and our good. Yet, forming us into a people who trust him rather than fear the future. We wait actively, not passively, because the God who chose Bethlehem has not forgotten our place, his people, or this moment we find ourselves in. Even though it feels bleak, and the challenges before us seem overwhelming, we can know that our God is greater still.

5.2 Looking Again to the Unseen Places

In this season of Advent, we are invited to look again to that unknown place, that insignificant place that the world might ignore. That perhaps even our institutional churches might ignore and trust that God is at work. To know that what God did then, he is doing today if we are willing to let him – among us and through us in our place and in this season. The question that lingers honestly before us today: Do you know him, and do you know his peace? Because hopeful waiting is learning to trust God exactly where we are: because that is where he has put us to advance his kingdom, shine his light and cry out to the world:

Christ has come.

Christ will come again.

So we wait — with active hope.

1. Standing for Shalom: Peace as the Heart of God – Matthew Root. https://matthewroot.ca/2022/09/30/standing-for-shalom-peace-as-the-heart-of-god/ ↩