The Little Town Of Bethlehem (part I)

By Odon Bulamba (summary only)

Micah 5:1

“Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops; they have laid siege against us; With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek."

This is talking about the town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a little town that was neglected by everyone. Remember Rahab’s story when she left Jericho? The Bible says she married an Israelite and moved to this town. God prepared this town a long time ago, but people were waiting for a king to be born in Israel. They knew that Jerusalem was the capital; they knew Jerusalem bred kings but God did something different, He said, “The one who will come in my name will come from Bethlehem”.

What does Bethlehem mean? Bethlehem is three words combined, so one word with three words in it. Beth means house, le is an abbreviation for Elohim which means God, and hem means bread. Together it means the house of God’s bread.

Why did God choose it? When Boaz went to the town of Bethlehem with Rahab the Bible says they started growing wheat. Bethlehem produced a lot of bread and everyone would come from Jerusalem to buy.

Everybody needs bread and everybody knew that Bethlehem had good bread. The Bible says, “Jesus Christ Himself is the bread of life,” John 6:35

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst".

Jesus Himself said, “I am the bread of life.” Because He is the bread of life and from the house of God it was therefore necessary for Him to be born in Bethlehem. This is why Bethlehem was chosen.

It’s the little things that people neglect and don’t care about that God makes into great things. Where man does not care about little things, this is where God shows His power. There are big churches and big groups led by wonderful people in man’s eyes, but God can leave those groups and bless the little groups. What is essential for God is when two or three are gathered together in His name, He is among them. God doesn’t need a lot of people but He needs people with sincere hearts and people who can surrender everything to Him, both body and soul.

Rahab worked very hard and was very patient waiting for the harvest because she had to wait for four seasons before she could harvest. It is the same with us, we are in the house of God and we are also in the house with the bread of God. How do you produce bread? Do you produce wheat, or do you produce other ingredients? God needs wheat. If you read the Bible you’ll see God is the seed. The seed is what gives life to the plant.

Most people today say that Jesus was born in December and only remember the little town of Bethlehem at this time of year, but as Christians we must think about God’s bread everyday because He says, “whoever is hungry can come and eat,” unfortunately we wait until December. If you read the Bible carefully you’ll see that Jesus wasn’t born in December. According to the Hebrew calendar Jesus was born in April.

Scientist did something with the Roman calendar so that Jesus would be born in December. What they call Christmas is not a Biblical word and I don’t know where they got it from. I tried to look it up in the Bible but found nothing, I also tried to ask some of God’s servants but they don’t know where it is written in the Bible. If you know about Rome you’ll see that there were a lot of gods and each god had a day where you would worship it. I don’t want to say anything more but this is where we get our days of the week Monday, Tuesday etc, and that is where the date of 25 December came from. This was one day where they would worship a tiny god. When the Catholic Church promoted this idea, all the people agreed to follow it.

So we see people worship what they don’t know. Sometimes people give their body and thoughts to something that is not alive. As for us Christians we must remember Jesus’ birth every day, not only in December.

SUMMARY

- Bethlehem means the house of God's bread
- Jesus had to be born there because He is the bread of life
- God raises up those things that the world neglects
- God needs people whose hearts, souls and entire life is submitted to Him
- We need to remember Jesus every day of the year