Mic 4:8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
Mic 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Mat 2:5,6 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
This section in Micah is a prophesy of the coming messiah and God gathering his people back to himself. Even when the wise men come to Herod to inquire about the child’s whereabouts his chief priests and scribes point to this passage to help Herod identify where the messiah would be found. He was to be born in Bethlehem Ephratah. This was common knowledge among the Jews at the time and why there was so much expectation about the coming messiah. Interestingly the prophesy in Mic 4:8 is addressed to the tower of the flock.
Bethlehem wasn’t just the city of David, but it also had significance as the place where the flocks and herds were raised for the temple sacrifices. When the Jews would travel from all over to come to Jerusalem for the three required feasts each year they wouldn’t bring sacrificial animals with them, but would go to the temple and purchase them there. At a place north of Bethlehem in an area commonly known as Ephratah was a place called in Hebrew Migdal Eder, the tower of the flock, where specially provisioned shepherds would raise the sheep for the temple sacrifices. These were not ordinary men or ordinary shepherds. They were under direct rabbinical oversight because they had to certify the lambs that were born as either acceptable for sacrifice or not. They kept the flocks in the field all year round which was not common for ordinary flocks of sheep. And when the ewes were ready to lamb they would take them to a special place in the tower for birthing. The tower was a high place where the shepherds could watch for predators and enemy attacks to protect the sheep. In the lower level was a clean place with birthing stalls where the ewes were brought to lamb. When the lambs were born they were swaddled with strips of cloth until they settled down so that they wouldn’t hurt or blemish themselves by thrashing around. Once they were swaddled they were laid in a depression in the ground called a manger until they could be certified for sacrifice. Once certified the lambs were raised with special care until their time to be taken to the temple. Migdal Eder has a long and rich history in relation to Jewish history stretching all the way back to the birth of Benjamin and the subsequent death of Rachel through the time of Jesus’ birth.
When Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem she was ready to have her baby. Whether there was no space for the couple or whether they had to find a place to give birth outside of the common living areas in order not to cause anyone to become ritually unclean, they had to find an alternative. It is quite likely that rather than going to a dirty cave or barn with common animals that they went to Migdal Edar because it was a clean place specifically designed for birthing. The description of the birth of Jesus by the angels is consistent with the birthing process at the tower. According to Micah Migdal Eder was also the place where the angels announced the birth to the shepherds when they told them to go find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger (Luk 2:12). The shepherds would have immediately known where to find the baby in that case. This location for his birth would fulfill the prophesy that Jesus would be the ultimate sacrificial lamb of God. He would have been born in the place where the passover lambs were born and looked after by the shepherds who cared for those sacrificial lambs.