The 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 “the
father of Bethlehem” (1 Chronicles 4:4), and
Ephrathites
were the dominant clan. Jesse, father of King David, was
an Ephrathite (1 Samuel 17:12). The town of Bethlehem
became known as “Bethlehem [of]
Ephrathah.”
The name Ephrathah came from the
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).
"A machine can do work;
only a life can bear fruit."
Andrew Murray
