A COMING ATROCITY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

This is what the Lord says:

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

Jeremiah 31:15

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Through the first fourteen verses of Jeremiah 31, we find words of great encouragement and hope for the Israelites who were in the midst of a seventy year exile in Babylon, the judgment imposed upon them for their sinful disobedience and disrespect unto God. You’ll recall that God’s people had chosen to worship false gods and idols in direct violation of God’s command not to do so. They willingly and willfully turned their backs on God and so God showed them what life would be like, separated from Him and their homeland.

But the captivity would not last forever as God promised to make the way clear for the Israelites to return home after the seventy years were up so that they could rebuild their towns, their homes, their lives, and their relationship with God. Once again, they would be His people and He would be their God.

The story for the Israelites would have a happy ending but there were more dark days ahead. For as we get to verse 15 of Jeremiah 31, we get a glimpse into a coming atrocity, nestled within God’s words of deliverance and restoration. Look again at this verse:

This is what the Lord says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”  Jeremiah 31:15

What was Lord talking about?

It wouldn’t be clear until some 600 years later what was being foretold. Fast forward to that time, just after Jesus had been born.

Magi, seeking to find and worship the newborn King of the Jews, showed up in Jerusalem after traveling from their homeland in the east. Once there, they drew the attention of the Roman king Herod who sought their company to discuss the quest they were on. Desiring to kill Jesus if he could locate Him, Herod concocted a ruse, making it appear to the Magi that he wanted to worship Jesus just as they did. To that end, he commanded the Magi to report back to him after they had found Jesus, information he would use to eliminate this other king who had been born, a king who posed a challenge to him and his rule.

Well, as the story goes, the Magi went to Bethlehem and found Jesus, worshiping Him and giving Him their finest gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh but before they could return to Herod, they received word through a dream to not go back to Jerusalem and to return home via a different route. Around the same time frame, Joseph was receiving his own direction through a dream as an angel of the Lord appeared and provided the following warning and guidance:

“Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” Matthew 2:13

And so Joseph and Mary left Bethlehem to Egypt so they could keep Jesus safe and free from Herod’s murderous intent.

Well, Herod’s original plan had been thwarted by the Lord but the Roman ruler was not about to give up easily. He came up with a Plan B that was horrific and atrocious:

 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

“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 2:16-18

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

If Herod couldn’t pinpoint where Jesus was at, he would simply kill all the boys two and under in what was the most appalling mass execution in the Bible because of the ages of the victims.

Think about it.

An entire population of future Bethlehem males were wiped out in one event and a town was left to weep and mourn the loss with some, like Rachel, refusing to be comforted. It was a massacre that leaves one troubled, even as we read about it today as the level of evil manifested in ordering and carrying out the act is incomprehensible.

We can only pray that there is never a repeat of what took place in a little town called Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago and we should all be in prayer for God’s protection and covering to be on all our world’s children, today and forever more.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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