Say the word ‘Bethlehem’ to almost any Christian, and they’ll immediately think happy thoughts of shepherds, a manger, and the birth of Jesus Christ. But Bethlehem wasn’t chosen by God as the location of Jesus’ birth merely on a whim – the town has a rich and tragic Old Testament history which makes it the perfect place for the Saviour to be born.

Bethlehem’s first appearance in the Bible comes as early as Genesis 35:16. There it is associated not with...