The New Testament’s Use of the Old Testament [Part 4 in the Series]: Matthew’s use of Micah 5:2, and the Ruler being born in Bethlehem

It has been over a month since my last post in my series regarding the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament. At that time, I looked at the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 and argued that in its original context, Isaiah 53 is about the purified remnant of Israel and that by quoting from Isaiah 53, the New Testament writers were saying that the death and resurrection of Jesus fulfilled that passage, not in the sense of a prediction finally coming true 500 years later, but in the sense that God’s salvation purposes that He had begun back with His covenant with Abraham had come to their full realization. You can read those posts here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

In addition to that, I have also written about Isaiah 7:14 in its original context and how Matthew uses Isaiah 7:14 in the infancy narrative in his Gospel. You can read those posts here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

In this post, I want to tackle another instance in which Matthew quotes the Old Testament in his infancy narrative. Since I explained in Part 1 of this series my basic understanding of what the New Testament writers were doing when they quoted the Old Testament, I’m just going to jump right into the details of Matthew 2:6 (where he quotes Micah 5:2) and Matthew 2:15 (where he quotes Hosea 11:1). If you don’t want to re-read Part 1, here is my view in a nutshell. Whenever a New Testament writers quotes from the Old Testament, the best thing to do is to (1) go back to that verse in the Old Testament, (2) read that verse in its original context and understand what that context is, and then (3) return to the New Testament passage and re-read it in light of the original Old Testament context.

With that said, let’s jump in and see what we can find.

Matthew 2:6 Quotes Micah 5:2
Matthew 2:1-12 is the story of the Magi from “the east” going to see the baby Jesus. In the story, we are told that, upon seeing a star they go to Jerusalem and ask where is new king of the Jews who had been born was. This question basically made an already paranoid King Herod even more paranoid. And so, he consulted the chief priests and scribes and asked them where the long-awaited messiah was supposed to be born. They told him that it was to be in Bethlehem, because Micah 5:2 says, “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”

Herod sends the Magi to Bethlehem and tells them to tell him if they find anything to let him know. They make their way to Bethlehem, find Jesus, but then are warned by God in a dream not to tell Herod, so they head home by another way and don’t go back through Jerusalem.

Now even though there is obviously a predictive element in the way the scribes interpret Micah 5:2, we do not want to treat Micah 5:2 as if it were some Nostradamus-type prediction. We still want to go back and read Micah 5:2 in its own context. When we do that, this is what we find…

Micah 5:2 in Context
The prophet Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah. Both prophesied about both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah in the middle of the 8^th century BC. In Micah 1-3, Micah prophesies that the northern kingdom of Israel was soon going to suffer judgment for its idolatry and oppression of the poor and that it was going to be destroyed and its people scattered among the nations. That being said, he also makes it clear that the southern kingdom of Judah wasn’t looking too good either and that at some point in the future it too would suffer judgment.

As it turned out, Israel was, in fact, destroyed in 721 BC by Assyria and Judah, even though it survived as a nation, ended up being oppressed by Assyria. Judah’s ultimate punishment wouldn’t come until 587 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would destroy Jerusalem and take the Jews into exile. So to be clear, the prophecies of Micah 1-3 were fulfilled in the 8^th century BC.

When we turn to Micah 4, though, the scene shifts to what scholars call the “eschatological future.” In Micah 4:1-8, Micah prophesies about what the latter days in which God’s salvation would go out to all the earth. Micah says that in those latter days the mountain of YHWH (i.e. the Temple) would be established as the highest mountain and the nations would come to that mountain to worship YHWH. The lame would be healed, the remnant would be gathered, there would be peace, and YHWH would be king and rule the nations.

So far, so good—but then we get Micah 4:9-13! Lo and behold, after telling about that future time when YHWH is king and the nations are coming to Jerusalem to worship YHWH, Micah then essentially says, “Oh, but we’re not there yet, are we? You are going to go into exile in Babylon! Right now, nations are gathered against you! Right now, things look bad for you! But don’t worry—this is all part of God’s plan. You will be delivered…but this exile has to happen first!”

The reason why Micah 4:9-5:1 is so surprising is that the setting is clearly that of Judah going into the Babylonian exile around 587 BC—a good 150 or so years after the events in Micah 1-3. Without getting off in the weeds, here’s the point Micah is making: both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah have to suffer exile among the nations before YHWH’s salvation in that eschatological future is to come.

All of that is the set up and lead into Micah 5:2. After prophesying about the coming Babylonian exile for Judah in 4:9-5:1, Micah returns in 5:2-15 to the theme of salvation and restoration he spoke of in Micah 4:1-8. And this is why he speaks of a ruler being born in Bethlehem. He says this ruler will “shepherd” the flock of YHWH and will bring peace. And he reiterates that the “remnant of Jacob” would be among that nations and that at that time (“On that day”) YHWH would completely purge idolatry from their midst.

In short, Micah’s prophecy in 5:2 about a ruler being born in Bethlehem is set within a larger context of God’s ultimate salvation of the remnant of His people and the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant in which He promised that it would be through the nation of Israel that He would eventually bless the nations and redeem the entire world. Micah’s prophecy in 5:2 was essentially saying, “This is how God is going to make good on His promises to Abraham! This has been the plan all along: because Israel and Judah are sinful and have broken God’s covenant with them that was made at Sinai, they have to suffer the consequences for breaking the Mosaic covenant! But God is still going to be faithful to His covenant with Abraham and He’s going to fulfill His covenant promise through a Davidic Messiah. The birth of that Messiah will be the sign that God’s salvation has come to all nations.

Back to Matthew 2:1-12
Once you realize all that is in the context of Micah 4-5, you will realize all that is in the backdrop of what we see in Matthew 2:1-12 and the story of the Magi. First, we see, in the figures of the Magi, the nations coming to Jerusalem. Second, we also see them then going to Bethlehem to worship/pay homage to the King of the Jews, the Messiah. So what Matthew is doing is combining Micah’s prophecy about the nations coming to the mountain of YHWH to worship YHWH (Micah 4:1-2) and his prophecy about the birth of the ruler being born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). By doing this, not only is Matthew declaring that Jesus is, in fact, the long-awaited Messiah, and not only is he saying that with the birth of Jesus the “latter days” of God’s eschatological future had begun in which the nations would come and worship YHWH, but he is declaring that Jesus the Messiah is on par with YHWH, the God of Israel, for the Magi end up worshipping him.

And so, as you can see, there is a whole lot more to Matthew’s quoting of Micah 5:2 than just a simplistic, “Hey this prediction came true finally!” The quotation of Micah 5:2 opens up multiple layers of meaning and texture to the story of Jesus and how the entire Old Testament story comes to its climax in him.