Week 2    Day 3

    Listen:

The Inheritance of Judah—Bethlehem

Micah 5:2, 4. But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet from thee shall He go out to Me to be Ruler in Israel; and His goings out have been from ancient times, from the days of eternity... And He shall stand and shepherd in the strength of Jehovah, in the excellence of the name of Jehovah His God; and they shall sit down, for now shall He be great, even to the ends of the earth.

Matthew 2:6. And thou Bethlehem, [of] the land of Judah, art by no means the least among the governors of Judah, for out of thee shall come a Governor, who shall shepherd My people Israel.

John 7:40-42. Many of the crowd, therefore, hearing the word said, This is truly the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But others said, No, for will Christ come out of Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ comes out of the seed of David, and out of Bethlehem, the town where David was?

AC 4594. “That is, Bethlehem” means a new spiritual of the celestial raised up in place of [the former one]. This is clear from the meaning of “Bethlehem” as the spiritual of the celestial in the new state, for “Ephrath” [or Ephrata] is the spiritual of the celestial in the former state (4585), while [Rachel’s] burial there means the raising up of a new state (4593).

AC 4594:2. The reason why the Lord was born [in Bethlehem] and not elsewhere is that He alone was born a spiritual celestial man, but all others [are born] natural, with the capacity or potential to become either celestial or spiritual by regeneration from the Lord. The reason why the Lord was born a spiritual celestial man was so that He could make His Human Divine, and this according to order from the lowest degree to the highest, and might thus dispose into order all things in the heavens and in the hells. For the spiritual celestial is intermediate between the natural or external man and the rational or internal man (see above, n. 4585, 4592). Thus below it was the natural or external, and above it was the rational or internal.

AE 449:3. [T]he Lord was born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1, 5, 6) because He was born a king, and truth conjoined to good was with Him from birth. For every infant is born natural, and the natural, because it is next to the external senses and the world, is opened first, and with all men, the natural is ignorant of truth and desirous of evil. But in the Lord alone, the natural had a desire for good and a longing for truth. For the ruling affection in man, which is his soul, is from the father; and with the Lord, the affection or soul from the Father was the Divine Itself, which is the Divine good of the Divine love.

AC 4594:3. He who cannot grasp these things cannot possibly comprehend, by any revelation whatever, why the Lord was born at Bethlehem. For from the most ancient time “Ephratha” signified the spiritual of the celestial, and therefore afterwards “Bethlehem” had the same signification. This then is the reason why the following is said in David:

He promised to Jehovah, he vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, Surely I will not come into the tent of my house, I will not go upon the couch of my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes, slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob. Lo, we heard of Him in Ephrata, we found Him in the fields of the forest; we will go into His habitations, we will bow ourselves at His footstool (Ps. 132:2-7).

That these things were said of the Lord is very evident. “We heard of Him,” and “we found Him,” are expressed in the original language at the end of the words by the letter “H,” taken from the name Jehovah.

AE 700:9. “Ephrathah” means Bethlehem where the Lord was born, and it signifies the Word in respect to its natural sense, while “Bethlehem” signifies the Word in respect to its spiritual sense. And the Lord chose to be born there because He is the Word. “The fields of the forest” signify the things of the natural sense of the Word, thus of the sense of the letter; while “His habitations” signify the spiritual sense of the Word, also heaven, since heaven is in that sense. The “footstool” to which they shall bow themselves down signifies the natural sense of the Word, and thence also the church on earth, since the church is in that sense.

AC 4594:4. From these prophecies it was known to the Jewish people that the Messiah or Christ would be born at Bethlehem, as is evident in Matthew:

Herod, gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, inquired of them where the Christ (the Messiah) should be born; and they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea (Matt. 2:4, 5)....

For this reason also, and because He was from David, the Lord is called a “rod out of the stock of Jesse,” and the “root of Jesse” (Isa. 11:1, 10). For Jesse, David’s father, was a Bethlehemite, and David was born at Bethlehem and was anointed king there (1 Sam. 16:1-14; 17:12). Hence Bethlehem was called “the city of David” (Luke 2:4, 11; John 7:42). By David is especially represented the Lord as to His royalty or the Divine truth (n. 1888).

previous		next