"But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5:2)
This was the stately language of the prophet, foretelling the coming of the Messiah. This was the passage to which the chief priests and scribes turned, when Herod called them together and demanded of them where Christ was to be born. "And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And you Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, are not the least among the princes of Juda, for out of you shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel." (Matthew 2:5-6)
They did not quote the last clause: "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5:2)
Why not? Their "higher criticism," no doubt, had explained away those words so fraught with the breath of eternity, and so full of spiritual meaning. To them perhaps that was but a bit of mystical poetry, which, according to their interpretation, the prophet had seen fit to attach to the weightier matters of practical prophecy.
That a ruler should arise, who would expel the Roman governor, soldiers, and tax-gatherers, and re-establish the glories of King David and Solomon was something that they believed, and looked forward to. They felt that to be practical.
It was something which their minds could grasp and they could look forward to with a feeling of its possibilities. They felt such a consummation was conceivable, and was something to which men of the practical trained intelligence that they felt they had attained, might look forward with some assurance of its realization.
As for the rest, however,--that was but the mystic veil thrown round a core of reality: just the rhetorical dress in which the fact of the coming Jewish supremacy was set forth, --that was all.
Yet, did it enter the minds of any of them that He who should be ruler in Israel was that little babe in Bethlehem? Who can tell? Perhaps. But if it did they had no thought of emulating the wise men in their adoration of an infant.
Indeed, they felt it would not do for them to commit themselves to anything so unreasonable. It would be quite time enough to acknowledge allegiance when He had come to years of maturity, when He had donned his armor, and summoned his men-at-arms about Him, and there was a reasonable certainty that He was about to drive the foreigner from the sacred soil of Palestine, and set up His kingdom.
When that time should arrive, and all this should be assured, then it would be time enough for them to take action. In the meantime it would be the part of wisdom for them to stand, calmly by--entirely neutral--and await the progress and development of events. They did so, and the outcome was such as to convince them of the entire wisdom of their policy.
If they had any hopes they were literally destroyed in the bud by the severe measures which Herod took. The incident of the quest of the wise men, the examination of the chief priests and scribes by Herod, his alarm and the cruel act in which his jealous fear resulted, passed from the minds of men, and became but an episode in the uncertain records of a troublous time.
It is thus, in centuries past, that men have ignored the accepted time, and so they do still. The Word of God is spread abroad now as never in the previous history of mankind. All the accessories which fulfill, explain, and illustrate the Scriptures are published in the view of men as never before; they are multiplying rapidly within the possible observation of all men.
And yet there are chief priests, scribes, and Herods, today as there were eighteen hundred years ago. It is no less evident now than then that not all learned men are wise. Then the wise men worshiped in humility and faith, but the learned gave information to the enemy. Wisdom will be justified of her children no less today than then.--Present Truth, May 7, 1896--Timeline: I-5 (Visit of the Magi)--Matthew 2:5-6.