The Secret of Micah and Matthew

In this video I look at Matthew's quote from Micah 5 in Matthew chapter 2 when the scribes tell Herod were the Christ is to be born. There's more going on that you might think.

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| How to Learn to Read the Bible as Literary Art |
Reading Biblical Narrative: An Introductory Guide (https://amzn.to/30LzaRa)
Narrative Art in the Bible (https://amzn.to/30RVGIb)
The Art of Biblical Narrative (https://amzn.to/3aDrIfk)
Old Testament Narrative: A Guide to Interpretation (https://amzn.to/38rcE2C)
The Poetics of Biblical Narrative (https://amzn.to/2Gh4cqE)

| Literary Structure |
Literary Structure of the Old Testament (https://amzn.to/30Jdm8X)
Style And Structure In Biblical Hebrew Narrative (https://amzn.to/2RDTTlQ)

| Genesis |
Creation: The Story of Beginnings - Grossman (https://amzn.to/2GlPwq9)
Abram to Abraham: A Literary Analysis of the Abraham Narrative - Grossman (https://amzn.to/2v7id7Z)
Narrative Art in Genesis - Fokkelman (https://amzn.to/2ulmd4t)
A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Part I) - Cassuto (https://amzn.to/2NOAhdt)
A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Part II) - Cassuto (https://amzn.to/2Gcuk6d)
Genesis: A Commentary - Waltke (https://amzn.to/2vaBvt7)
The Gospel of Genesis: Studies in Protology and Eschatology - Gage (https://amzn.to/2RGjRFo)
Abraham and All the Families of the Earth: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis 12-50 - Janzen (https://amzn.to/2TVyCqJ)
Genesis 1-15, Volume 1 - Wenham (https://amzn.to/2TQnYRO)
Genesis 16-50, Volume 2 - Wenham (https://amzn.to/3aDY21J)

| Transcription |
Matthew has opened his story with a genealogy locating Jesus in the family of Abraham and King David. Then Matthew narrates the strange circumstances of his birth with Mary as the seventh woman in the Bible to have a story told about their inability to conceive. With the previous 6 women (Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Samson's mother, Hannah, and Elisabeth, John the Baptist’s Mother), they were unable to conceive even though they were having sex with their husbands when God miraculously gives life.

But Mary, being the climactic seventh, has not even had sex and conceives. We’ll have a later video on the purpose of the barren women, but after the scene about Mary’s conception of Jesus and Joseph’s dream about not divorcing Mary, the narrator changes scenes from Mary and Joseph to Herod.

Foreigners, wise men, come to Herod and tell him that they’ve heard that there is a king of the Jews who was recently born but they don’t know where he is, like what city. Herod doesn’t either, he didn’t even know a king had been born, so he asks the priests and scribes. They correctly quote from Micah 5:2:

“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

As is often the case, there is a lot more going on than a simple prophecy saying that something is going to happen in the future. But to understand what’s going on we need to look at the book of Micah.

The book of Micah is organized in seven sections as explained by David Dorsey:

A - Coming Defeat and Destruction (chap 1)
A - Corruption of the people (chap 2)
C - Corruption of the leaders (chap 3)
X - Glorious future restoration (chap 4-5)
C’ - Corruption of leaders (chap 6)
B’ - Corruption of people (chap 7:1-7)
A’ - Future reversal of defeat and destruction (chap 7:8-20)

Micah has separate sections that condemn the people and leaders for sin. One of the unique features of Micah is what he condemns the leaders for. Micah has been the only prophet of the 12 minor prophets up to this point to condemn the leaders for attacking, killing their own people. In 3:1-3 Micah says, “

And I said:
Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?—
you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
and their flesh from off their bones,
who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.

These corrupt leaders were anti-leaders. The first job of a leader is to protect those whom he leads, and here, they are killing their people. And in response and instead of this leader, God will raise up a leader who is from the humble city of Bethlehem.

Note the contrast of consumption. The evil king consumes his people. In contrast God will provide a king from Bethlehem, a city whose name means house of bread. As a good ruler God does not consume his people but provides them with food. Okay now back to Matthew.