Christmas: Hope For Our Future (12/21/24)
"A
voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they were no more" (Matt 2:18).
These words of the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled at the time of the Lord's birth when Herod sought to kill all the male children under the age of two in Bethlehem. In fact, they are quoted verbatim in the New Testament as though to drive home the point. But what point? Surely not just that Herod had done this wicked thing, nor just that the words had been fulfilled.
The point seldom recognized is that the Lord Himself, as a tiny child, was a survivor.. All His peers in Bethlehem were slaughtered in an attempt on His life. And even though He survived, who can say how well He was treated as a tiny child in a day when human life was regarded as cheap by most people? Surely children were even more defenseless in Ancient Israel than they are today. (NCL 1996)
EDM: Now let’s look at the actual quote from Jeremiah:
Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her
children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
Thus says the Lord:
Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears;
for there is a reward for your work,
says the Lord:
they shall come back from the land of the
enemy;
there is hope for your future,
says the Lord:
your children shall come back to their own country. (Jeremiah 31: 15-17)
Why
mention this at such a joyous time of year? Because it is worth remembering that the Lord Jesus came into the world in a time of great darkness - when the definition of reality for most was confined to all the information coming to them from their senses. When we believe this to be all there is to life, we are enveloped in darkness. “And the earth was without form and void. And darkness was on the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1: 2)
Before regeneration (spiritual rebirth), while we are still in the dark this way as to the purpose of our life…the most
important thing to know is how close the Lord is to us in that state. As we start to assent to their being something more (Let there be Light), our first step out of the darkness and into the light is the recognition that there is an inner self and an outer self. That our outer self (the body) exists to serve the inner self (the spirit), and not the other way around.
Our theology teaches us something remarkable in this regard…that if we simply start there (the acknowledgement that we have a dual existence) the Light begins to break through. As this first pinprick of light starts to
shine into the darkness of our mind, we begin to be willing to be led by something higher (the birth of innocence with us). We begin what will be our journey back from the land of the enemy, and start to recognize that (with the Lord) there is hope for our future!
Merry Christmas!
Pastor Ethan
