"Now you are releasing your servant, Master, According to your word, in peace;
Seven hundred years before this event took place, before this young couple made their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, at this critical point of pregnancy. Seven hundred years earlier a prophet had said, "And thou Bethlehem, though you are little among the provinces in Judea, yet out of thee shall come He whose goings forth has been from everlasting" ( Micah 5:2 ). The prophet had predicted that Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the Messiah.