Good news – Daily Inspirations has returned. Starting on Monday 1st December and taking us up to Christmas Eve. See below:
Our back catalogue is still available here. There are series from all across the bible, and you can either view the PDF files online or download at your leisure.
December 2025 – The Nativity, as Scripture tells it
Day 2: 2nd December – Micah 5:2-5a ‘A surprising Shepherd?’
The Advent story is full of surprises. In many ways we’re so familiar with it, that often those
surprises pass us by. We think of shepherds and angels and wise men and it all seems so… normal.
Which is odd, when you think about it!
Today’s passage from the prophet Micah likewise has its share of surprises. Any of us who’ve
attended traditional carol services over the years will recognise it – the promise that the new king
would come from Bethlehem.
That the town of King David should feature is, we might think, not unexpected. The great shepherd
king would prove the ancestor to an even greater Shepherd who would ‘stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the Lord’ (v3). This ruler would transcend even the boundaries of the nation: ‘his
greatness will reach to the ends of the earth’ (v4).
But there are hidden surprises here. The first is that prophecies of the new king’s birth refer both to
God honouring Galilee in the north of the country (in Isaiah), and also Bethlehem in the south (here
in Micah). Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries – one was of noble rank and lived at the court,
one lived in relative poverty and obscurity away from the corridors of power. How would this
conundrum be resolved?
God’s solution is simple, but beautiful: Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth (in Galilee), but had to
travel to Joseph’s ancestral hometown (Bethlehem) to pay Caesar’s poll tax. Galilee and Bethlehem – both prophecies fulfilled without contradiction.
The second surprise is that Bethlehem was chosen at all. It may have been linked to King David, but
in other respects it was a small, insignificant place. Its name means ‘house of bread’, and its main
business was to live up to its name – it provided the capital city of nearby Jerusalem with corn, and
also lambs for sacrifice.
Centuries later, the new ruler prophesied by Micah – the one born in ‘the house of bread’ – would
stand up and declare to the world: ‘I am the bread of life.’ This Great Shepherd would himself
become the ‘lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.’ You never really get away from the
place of your birth.
God knew what he was doing when Bethlehem was chosen. As we spend the next three weeks on
our annual pilgrimage to the stable situated in ‘the house of bread’, may we too be fed daily by the
Bread of Life, and fall in adoration before the Lamb of God. Bethlehem is just the beginning…
Day 1: 1st December – Isaiah 7:14 ‘God with us’
God with us. That’s really the whole ball game, isn’t it? Over the next 24 days, as we prepare
ourselves in this season of Advent, we’ll tell the ageless story afresh, and we’ll marvel again at the
wonder of it all: the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, the journey to Bethlehem, a young
carpenter and his pregnant wife, the stable and that glorious Christmas night.
But, in all the beauty and mystery of what is to come, nothing really summarises it better than this
one word which begins our journey: Emmanuel. God with us.
It was always the plan. God is not a distant deity, who winds the clock up and observes passively
while it runs. God is a ‘with’ kind of God at the very core of his being. It begins as God with himself:
‘the Word was with God’ (John 1:1) as the Spirit hovered over the waters (Genesis 1:2) – a Trinity of
love.
Then God with humanity, as originally intended. Humans made in his image, knowing true intimacy
with each other, and with their Creator. And the Lord comes walking into Eden in the cool of the day
to spend time with Adam and Eve, only to find the barriers up, and the pattern dislocated.
After that time, we are no longer with God – but even so, not everyone gets the memo. King David,
among others down the centuries, knew what it was like to experience God’s presence: ‘I will fear no
evil, for you are with me.’ (Psalm 23:4)
Somehow the promise never goes away, never disappears for good. God would be with us – in a
new way, for all time. It would take a miracle – the Virgin birth – but it would surely come to pass.
And seven centuries later, it does. God comes down to earth. God with us as never before. And this
divine Son grows up to utter this great promise: ‘My Spirit will be with you…. Abide in me.’ God with
us for all time.
There so much we can say about what the Christmas story means. But let’s start here – and maybe
let’s finish here, too. God is with us. May this beautiful, intimate, faithful God be with you today,
and throughout this season. And may this stir all of our hearts to joy and adoration. O come, o
come Emmanuel.