CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

End of Year Joy by John Clayton  Good article by John Clayton

December 5, 2010

25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX.  77373

www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm

PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS:

God’s will for our congregation                                         Various friends, relatives and co-workers

Our nation and leaders                                                        Our military and their families

BETHLEHEM’S TEARS

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning.  Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Matthew 2:18).

We often think of this holiday season as a time of peace and joy, based in part on peace on earth, good will toward men.  That is both the way we read the birth story of Jesus and sing it.  Nothing wrong with that.  This is my favorite time of the year, especially the religious music.  But there is a darker side to Christmas that we often ignore.  One we are familiar with and will look at now.  Another is more subtle which we will look at next week.

We are familiar with the visit of the Magi, the gifts they brought, their returning home by another route, Joseph and Mary fleeing to Egypt with Jesus, and Herod the Great ordering the deaths of baby boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem.  There are not many songs that refer to this and most are unfamiliar to us (1). 

Over the years we have looked at how Matthew used Old Testament texts to find the fulfillment of scripture in the birth of Jesus.  We have looked at the context of Isaiah 7:14 and the threats that King Ahaz faced and his refusal to trust God (2).  Another text is that of Hosea 11:1 where Matthew takes the prophet’s referral to Egypt and the Exodus and applies it to Jesus.  In the context of the death of the boys of Bethlehem, Matthew uses Jeremiah 31 to show a fulfillment of the event.  Let’s take a look at both Bethlehem and Jeremiah.

When the wise men came to Jerusalem wanting to see the newborn King of the Jews, Herod asked the religious leaders where the Messiah would be born.  They quoted Micah 5:2 stating that it was Bethlehem.  Micah describes it this way: “Bethlehem Ephrathah” (5:2).  We know Bethlehem as the hometown of King David and the birthplace of Jesus, but beyond that we probably haven’t thought much about it.  There are some events that happened in Bethlehem that are recorded in scripture, and most of them involved negative events (3).

The first time Bethlehem is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 35:35-40.  Here on the way to Ephrath which was another name for Bethlehem, Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel began to deliver her second child Benjamin.  She died in childbirth and was buried on the road to Bethlehem.  This plays a role in understanding Jeremiah.

We find Bethlehem mentioned again in the time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  In Judges 17, a Levite from Bethlehem became a priest first to an individual and then to a tribe (chapter 18).  Dan wiped out a town and settled in it and used the idol that the Levite had made.  Then in Judges 19-21, it was a Levite who had a concubine who fled and when home to Bethlehem.  He traveled there and then began his journey back when he stopped at an Israelite town where the men ended up abusing the concubine throughout the night (4).

In the Book of Ruth, Naomi returns to Bethlehem a widow who has also lost her two sons.  One of her daughter-in-laws returned with her and eventually married and had a son in the line of David.  In one of the battles that David was in, he had a desire for water from a well in Bethlehem.  Three of his mighty men fought their way to the well and brought him back water, which he would not drink because of their risks (see 2 Samuel 23:16-17). 

A common theme throughout all of these stories is death or the risk of death.  This brings us to Jeremiah 31.  Jeremiah wrote at the end of the period of the kings in Jerusalem before the fall to Babylon.  He was the last prophet in Jerusalem, and he was ignored.  Chapter 31 is a hopeful chapter.  It speaks of God’s everlasting love for His people (vs. 3) and that there would be joy again in the land when they returned from captivity.  He also announced that a new covenant would happen as well (vs. 31-34), which the Hebrew writer states was fulfilled in Christ (see Hebrews 8).  God through Jeremiah states that His promises would be fulfilled and used creation as a witness to this (vs. 35-37).

Jeremiah 31:15 is the text that Matthew uses.  At the time, the people recognized the power of Babylon.  Babylon invaded Israel three times between 605 and 586 B.C.  The Book of Lamentations is a lament over the loss of the city and the Temple.  Ramah is a place in the tribe of Benjamin which was occasionally aligned with Judah.  The people were weeping as they watched their children die or being carried off by the Babylonians.  There was no comfort for the people.  Verse 16 states that they were to restrain their mourning because they would return to the land.  Again we see death involved in Jeremiah’s day.  Rachel is mourning for her children who are no more.  Everyone understood the contrast between Rachel’s death and now the death of Rachel’s children in Benjamin (5). 

Matthew used Jeremiah’s text to connect the parents of Bethlehem with a past event where death was involved in a horrible way.  It was a time of mourning with no comfort.  We have often heard it said that it is not natural for children to die before their parents, but it happens.  Children drown or die in fires.  Young men and women die in war.  Parents have difficulty finding comfort because it isn’t the way it is suppose to be.  Today, we could use this text for parents who have lost a child.  It gives us a glimpse into the horror of Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. 

While Matthew sees it as a fulfillment, reading a little further in Jeremiah’s text we find a new hope.  “From expected death comes unexpected new life” is a theme running through Matthew (6), just as it was in the days of Jeremiah.  We too look forward to the day when death shall be no more (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).  Rachel will mourn no more.  Mourning in the birth story of Jesus is turned into joy in His resurrection.

                                                                                                                                                George B. Mearns

(1) The Coventry Song is the most familiar though we are familiar with it based on its tune rather than its words.

(2) Isaiah’s context begins in 7:1 and runs through at least 9:6.

(3) Thoughts for this come from Verlyn D. Verbrugge, A Not-So-Silent Night, Kregel, 2009, chapter 3.

(4) Matthew J. Marohl has an interesting take on this story, suggesting that while the woman did not respond to the Levite, that his chopping her into twelve pieces might have been an ancient honor killing.  See Joseph’s Dilemma, Cascade Books, 2008, chapter 3.

(5) Randy Chestnutt, Isaiah in Matthew, Pepperdine Bible Lectureship, 2010.

(6) Marohl, ibid., chapter 4.