Notes of Faith December 10, 2024
A Fruitful Messiah
And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.”
Ruth 4:11
The prophet Micah referred to the town of Bethlehem as “Bethlehem Ephrathah” (Micah 5:2). Ephrathah was identified as “the father of Bethlehem” (1 Chronicles 4:4), and the Ephrathites were the dominant clan. Jesse, the father of King David, was an Ephrathite (1 Samuel 17:12). So the town of Bethlehem became known as “Bethlehem [of] Ephrathah.”
The name Ephrathah came from a word meaning “to bear fruit, to bring forth, to grow, to increase.” When the elders of Bethlehem confirmed that Boaz would take Ruth as his wife, they used the fruitfulness of Rachel and Leah, Jacob’s wives, as the image of fruitfulness they desired for Boaz and Ruth: “May you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.” They didn’t know that the fruit of Boaz and Ruth’s union would be the Messiah to be born centuries later in Bethlehem (Matthew 1:5).
And the fruitfulness of Ephrathah continues today as Christ is “the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).
May we, the spiritual fruit born of Christ, scatter the seed of the gospel, and be fruitful, some producing 30, 60, or 100 times the fruit planted in us.
Seek the blesser, not the blessing, the Giver, not the gift!
Be a blessing to someone this Christmas!
Pastor Dale