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Reformed Politics (What is Reformed Anyway #6) (King’s Cross)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

One of the marks of the Reformed faith was a great political reformation. This is why it is sometimes called the “Magisterial Reformation.” The Pope and Roman church had slowly claimed political power, but the Reformers insisted that Scripture clearly taught that all power was given to Jesus Christ and therefore, directly and delegated to magistrates, pastors, and parents for particular tasks by Him. 

The Text: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world’” (Mt. 28:18-20).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This text at the end of Matthew’s gospel is called the Great Commission because it was the final charge that Jesus gave the disciples before ascending into heaven. There is an indicative statement of fact which drives the command, followed by a final promise. The indicative statement is “all authority/power is given” to Jesus in heaven and on earth (Mt. 28:18). The same word for “power/authority” is used in Romans 13:1-2 to refer to political rulers and magistrates and again in Titus 3:1. His disciples are to “therefore” go (Mt. 28:19). The disciples of Christ are to go and disciple the “nations” because Christ has been given all authority in heaven and earth. Some point out that “nations” (ethne) can simply refer to Gentiles/non-Jews and therefore dispute the political ramifications of this Great Commission, but it certainly also refers to specific nations (e.g. Acts 2:5, 10:35, 13:19, 17:26). When the apostles were persecuted by the Jewish authorities, they quoted Psalm 2 which describes the nations and their kings gathered against the Lord and His Christ, and they refer to Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel (Acts 4:25-27). The disciples were commanded to go and disciple those nations by two means: baptizing in the triune name and teaching everything Jesus has commanded (Mt. 28:20). 

THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE OF POWER & LIMITED GOVERNMENT

Since all authority has been given to Jesus Christ, all earthly authority is delegated authority from Jesus Christ. This is why wherever Christians are urged to submit to and obey earthly authorities, it is always “in the Lord” or “as to Christ” (Eph. 5:22, 6:1, 6:6-9, 1 Pet. 2:13, Heb. 13:17). No earthly authority is absolute (e.g. Acts 5:29, Dan. 3, 6). This means that all righteous government is limited by God’s Word, which is the foundational argument for Lex Rex. Since the primary task God has given to the civil magistrate is a ministry of violence: the sword of justice to punish evildoers (Rom. 13:4), it is especially important that civil government be limited. Political rulers who reject the limits of God’s Word are arrogant and act like beasts and monsters (Dan. 4, 7). This is what happens when civil governments begin meddling for example in markets, healthcare, and education. A righteous ruler really is like rain coming down upon mown grass and delivers the poor and needy, but he does this by establishing equal weights and measures and punishing true criminals (Ps. 72). 

COVENANT THEOLOGY & CIVIL GOVERNMENT

The Reformers noticed that in addition to the great Covenants of Grace, there were also political covenants in Scripture: Abraham made a “covenant” with Abimelech (Gen. 21:27), Isaac did the same (Gen. 26:28), and Jacob made a covenant with Laban (Gen. 31:44). Later, Jonathan and David made a covenant (1 Sam. 20:16, 23:18), as did Ben-Hadad and King Ahab (1 Kgs. 20:34). Therefore, the Reformers reasoned that nations exist as covenant entities before God, established on particular constitutions or customs between rulers and people. It was on this basis that Christians generally teach submission and honor to civil authorities, and at the same time, as may occasionally happen in a marriage covenant, certain high-handed abuses may warrant the people dissolving the covenant and forming a new one. The rudimentary elements of this system of government were worked out in the feudal arrangements of the Middle Ages, with increasing formality, as seen in the signing of the Magna Charta in 1215 and the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, claiming independence from England. The Scottish Presbyterians under John Knox worked this covenant theology out in the 16th ad 17th centuries to the point of being called “covenanters.” It was many of these Scots-Irish who colonized America, and took issue with King George breaking his covenant-charters with the colonies, resulting in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution of 1789.  

CONCLUSIONS

America was founded as a distinctly Protestant Christian Republic. When the War for Independence broke out, King George referred to it as the “presbyterian revolt.” A republic is a representative form of government with constitutional checks and balances. This goes back to the nation of Israel which chose rulers over 1000s, 100s, 50s, and 10s (Ex. 18:21), as well as Greece and Rome which attempted various forms of “mixed government,” seeking to balance the tendency to veer between anarchy and tyranny. 

Our mission remains the same as when Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven: disciple all of the nations, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded. While we have fallen a long way from the broad Protestant consensus of early America, and we might wish for a more explicit acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus in our land, our Constitution is not “godless” as many claim, since it does acknowledge Sunday as the Christian Sabbath and the birth of Jesus Christ, the “Lord” of these United States and all nations.

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State of the Church 2024 – On Hard Work & Holy Ambition (King’s Cross)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

In our day, it is commonplace to hear messages on the need for work/life balance, the need for “me time,” and the dangers of workaholics, ambition, and stress. And I am convinced that 99% of it is a siren song for laziness, apathy, selfishness, and cowardice. 

The Lord created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, and our Lord Jesus remade the world in three days and rested on the first day, re-affirming the Sabbath principle and transforming the first day into the Christian Sabbath (cf. Heb. 4:9-10). But the Kingdom of God is taken by a kind of holy violence, that is, great struggle and ambition (Mt. 11:12). 

The Text: “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom…” (Mt. 20:20-28).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

One time Mrs. Zebedee and her two sons came to worship Christ, and she asked for her sons to be given places of honor at His right and left hand (Mt. 20:20-21). Jesus gently corrected her, insisting that she didn’t quite know what she was asking for (Mt. 20:22), but His question in return did not utterly reject the request. He asked whether James and John would be able to endure the suffering that would be required for that kind of glory and authority (Mt. 20:22). When they replied in the affirmative, Jesus granted at least that – they would drink His cup and endure His baptism, but those places of authority were prepared by His Father (Mt. 20:22-23). 

While the other ten were upset with James and John for even making the request (probably envious that they had not asked first), Jesus did not rebuke the brothers but exhorted them all to give up every semblance of Gentile power-grabbing (Mt. 20:24-25). Instead, His disciples must be committed to the greatness that comes through long service and suffering (Mt. 20:26-27). This greatness is principally illustrated and accomplished by the suffering service of Christ Himself, who gave His life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28). 

HOLY AMBITION

Jesus does not say that desiring greatness and authority is wrong or foolish. Instead, He simply insists on two things: first, the only path to greatness is faithful suffering, and second, the results are in God’s hands. But if Jesus is the prime example, this does not mean that Christians should hope for minimal earthly impact or influence. Rather, if Jesus has been given the name that is above all other names through His obedient suffering, all Christians should seek to emulate that obedience to gain greatness under His name. For example, Paul says that he outpaced all the other apostles in his zeal for the kingdom, but it was God’s grace that enabled him (1 Cor. 15:10). It’s true that we ought rather be janitors in the Kingdom of God than dwell in tents of wickedness (Ps. 84:10), but that doesn’t mean our goal should be mediocre. Our goal should be to work hard for the King, enduring all trouble and difficulty gladly for His sake, and let Him use us where He will.   

FAITHFUL WITH LITTLE

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the talents, praising the servants who invested what was given to them and doubled the master’s money: “well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Mt. 25:21, 23). But the servant who buried his talent in the ground and merely returned what was given is called wicked and slothful, his one talent is stripped from him, and he is cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 25:26-30). And his most heinous sin is his view of the master as a hard and greedy man, which is why he is cast into Hell. But God is not hard and greedy; He is generous and bountiful. 

APPLICATIONS

We need Christians who know that their Father is a generous God who will give abundantly more than we ask or think – because He has already given us His son – and therefore, they study, work, and build with a holy ambition and deep, joyful expectation. 

The way God made the world requires the necessity of study and service first. There is a caricature of some of the younger generations (e.g. “Gen Z”) of a sort of entitlement mentality, insisting on easy, high paying jobs without proving your wisdom or worth. These are people who quit jobs after a few days or weeks because they are “hard” and they don’t feel very “appreciated.” This should be a completely foreign notion for Christians. We need young men hungry for vocations of leadership in politics and the corporate world. This is call for Daniels and Josephs, which is to say, these are paths of suffering, persecution, hardship, often with real leadership and authority, though only rarely with much temporal glory. 

This is why we have put such a premium on Christian education. But it is not enough to merely remove our kids from the public schools. We really do want our sons and daughters to be full of knowledge and wisdom, and this requires wisdom to know how to raise the bar while remember their frame. Related, while our sons and daughters are called to different vocations, this does not mean that our daughters need be less educated. Let us have wives and daughters as ambitious as Mrs. Zebedee and sons like her sons. 

We need young men hungry for pastoral ministry and missionary work. Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Mt. 9:37-38). It has always been the case, since at least the time of Jesus, that unbelievers are more eager to come into the kingdom than believers are to welcome them in. But there is a particular glory in the sacrifices of those who give their lives to proclaim the gospel because it imitates the life of the One who has received all glory and honor.

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Gold In the Genealogies (By Prophet Bards Foretold #3)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

The texts we are going to look at today are the genealogies of Christ, and other passages related to them, but the theme of this message will be on the promises of God. The fact of genealogies in Scripture are often nothing more than an obstacle to Christians in their Bible reading, but this is not the way to think of them. The genealogies are vast and intimidating mountain ranges, but what we need to realize is that there are actually rich veins of gold there. Like the land of Havilah, the gold is good there (Gen. 2:12). 

THE TEXT

“THE book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren . . .” (Matthew 1:1–2). 

“And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli . . .” (Luke 3:23). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

One of the more obvious facts about the genealogies of Matthew and Luke is that they are different. A common solution is to say that one of them is the line of Joseph, and the other the line of Mary. But this doesn’t really solve the problem because the lines are not entirely different. And besides, both claim to be the line of Joseph (Matt. 1:16; Luke 3:23). And because we don’t examine the problem closely, what God gave as a testimony to the fact that He is a covenant-keeping God is used by us as a way of rattling our faith instead of establishing it.

A genealogical line is called a stirp. Luke traces the Lord’s descent all the way back to Adam. Matthew gives us His line from the time of Abraham. We know that Matthew relied on a written account because in verse 1 he mentions the book. Luke follows Genesis 5 and 10, including Canaan between Arphaxad and Shelah, in line with the Septuagint. The stirps in Luke and Matthew run basically the same from Abraham to David. They then diverge from David to the Exile. Matthew goes through Solomon, and Luke goes through someone named Nathan (1 Chron. 3:5). They join up again in Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, before splitting up again. Then they both arrive at Joseph of Nazareth. So that is our central problem. There are some other very minor glitches which can be easily resolved, and so we won’t bother with those here.

But we should face the problem. It is not normal for the patrilineal lines of two brothers, Solomon and Nathan, to land on one individual, Joseph, a millennium later. Still less can distinct stirps converge, diverge, and then converge again. And if we try to solve the problem with a Joseph/Mary division, we just flip the problem over to the other side. Do we want to explain the divergences or the convergences? We have to explain either way.    

EXCOMMUNICATED FROM THE LINE

Matthew omits four ancestors of Christ from his account—Ahaziah, Jehoash, Amaziah, and Jehoiakim. This is not arbitrary or capricious. The first three of these were removed because of the curse pronounced by Elijah. Ahab’s line, to the fourth generation, were expunged, as Moses said. (Ex. 20:3-6).

“‘Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free” (1 Kings 21:21, NKJV).

And Jehoiakim was a really bad actor, and he fell under Jeremiah’s curse:

“Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost” (Jeremiah 36:30).

So Matthew excludes illegitimate kings or kings who disqualified themselves and were cursed.   

THE VARIABLE OF ADOPTION

According to Matthew, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel. According to Luke, Neri was the father of Shealtiel. Which was it? Again, a prophetic curse pronounced on Jeconiah helps us out. 

“Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30). 

We are told in 1 Chron. 3:16 that Jeconiah had a son, Zedekiah (likely named after his great-uncle). But the very next verse (1 Chron. 3:17) lists seven sons of Jeconiah, none of whom were Zedekiah. While captive in Babylon, according to an ancient source, Jeconiah had married a woman named Tamar, and their son Zedekiah died young and without issue. Jeconiah then adopted her sons by a previous marriage, from the time when she was married to Neri, and Shealtiel becomes the crown prince. Neri was descended from Nathan, that mysterious son of David. Thus Jeremiah’s curse is fulfilled, and Matthew and Luke are both right. 

JOSEPH’S FATHER?

Was Joseph’s father Jacob or Heli? The best explanation comes from a second century source (Sextus Julius Africanus) who knew descendants of the Lord’s brother James. He said that the discrepancy was the result of a levirate marriage. Heli had died without issue, and so his brother Jacob raised up seed for him—by law a child of Heli, and biologically a son of Jacob.

HOW TO MINE FOR GOLD

At the risk of causing your eyes to glaze over a little bit more, I will conclude with just a little bit more. For the ancients, they used to keep careful track of the genealogies. They did this because they were looking intently for the way in which God would fulfill His promises. At the end of Ruth, this blessing is pronounced by the elders of Bethlehem.

“And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.” (Ruth 4:12, 18-22).

Pharez had a twin, Zarah, who was the first born twin who came out second. He was marked by a scarlet thread around his wrist. Generations later, Zarah had a descendent, a man named Achan, who stole some things in the battle of Jericho. He and his whole royal line were wiped out as a result. Rahab, who had marked her house with a scarlet rope, came out into Israel, and married a man named Salmon. Their son was Boaz, who later married Ruth. The thing that this illustrates is that these men and women of faith were tracking with the genealogies carefully. They were looking for the Christ. 

“And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16).

“And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,” (Luke 3:23).

So always look for the Christ. Always look to the Christ. He is the desire of nations. He is risen with healing in His wings. He is the gold in the land of Havilah.

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By Prophet Bards Foretold 2: Virgin Born

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INTRODUCTION

Scripture is quite clear that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. But what was the point? Why is this important?

THE TEXT

“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:22–23). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

We learn from the scriptural narrative in several places that our Lord’s mother was a true virgin. In the gospel of Luke, we are told that the angel Gabriel was sent with a message to a virgin named Mary (Luke 1:27). She is called a virgin twice in that one verse (parthenos). When the angel tells her that she will conceive a child who will have a never-ending kingdom, she asks a most reasonable question. How can she conceive when she does not know a man (Luke 1:34)? In short, how can she become a mother as she is a virgin? Gabriel replies that the thing will happen as the result of a miracle wrought by the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35).

In our text, when Joseph found out that Mary was “with child,” he drew the natural and obvious conclusion, which was that Mary must not be a virgin. But because he was a righteous man, resolved to put her away quietly. But an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to marry her because her pregnancy was the result of a miracle. The name to be given to the child was Jesus, because He was going to save His people from their sins. Remember this. And then the thing is summed up by our text. The prophet Isaiah had predicted this when he prophesied that a virgin would conceive a child, and bear a son, and that son would be called Emmanuel. Matthew adds the gloss that Emmanuel means “God with us.”  

YOUNG WOMAN OR VIRGIN?

The prophecy is found in Isaiah 7, and the context is this. In the days of Ahaz, the king of Syria and the king of the northern kingdom of Israel came up against Jerusalem. They could not prevail against the city (Is. 7:1), but the heart of the king was still badly shaken, along with the hearts of the people (Is. 7: 2). They trembled like trees in a stiff wind. But God in His kindness sent the prophet Isaiah to give a word of encouragement to the king (Is. 7:3-9). Within one lifetime, the powers that the king was so worried about would be out of the picture. Don’t worry about them. Ahaz—not a man of faith—was apparently still troubled, and so God graciously tells him to ask for a sign (Is. 7:10-11). But Ahaz still holds back (Is 7:12), although he made it sound pious. And so Isaiah insists upon giving him a sign anyway, and the words of our prophecy are taken from that sign (Is. 7:14-16).

There are two layers to this sign. In the Hebrew, the word for virgin here is almah, which can mean virgin, but it can also mean young woman. The meaning is not exclusively virgin. A young woman will conceive and bear a son, and before that son has grown to the maturity that can refuse evil and choose evil—within just a few years—the kings that Ahaz was so worried about would no longer a threat. That was the sign. The young woman concerned was herself a prophetess (Is. 8:3), and she was married to Isaiah. And the prophet went to the prophetess, and she conceived a son. His name was Mahershalalhashbaz, and the prophecy of the previous chapter was in the first instance fulfilled in him (Is. 8:4). Damascus and Samaria would be a spent force before young Maher (let us call him) could say mama or papa.

PROPHECY & TYPE

So this was an explicit prophecy, for the benefit of Ahaz, but it was also a type . . . for the benefit of all the sons of men. Let us not be like Ahaz, and disbelieve the sign. In addition to being the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prediction, the prophetess was also a type. She was a type of Mary, and Mary was the antitype. And here is where it gets interesting.

Isaiah’s ministry was around 700 B.C. The Septuagint, the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, was translated several centuries before Christ. And in the LXX, the word almah in Isaiah 7:14 is rendered as parthenos, and parthenos means virgin, only virgin, and nothing but virgin. There was therefore a widespread expectation among the Jews that there was an aspect of this prophecy that was yet to be fulfilled, and that expectation was not the result of interactions with Christians—because they would not arrive for a century or two more. 

WHY HIS NAME WAS EMMANUEL

Everything in the gospel comes down to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was this Jesus, and what did this Jesus do? He was God in the flesh, and He died on the cross as a perfect atoning sacrifice for the sins of all His people. The person and work of Christ. 

The virgin birth is important to the identity of Jesus. Our text in Matthew links the virgin birth to the fact that the one so born was going to be called Emmanuel. The sacrificial body of Christ had to be spotless in order for it to be any good as a sacrifice, as we shall see in a moment. But it also had to be spotless in order for the most holy Word of God to be united to it. How can a holy God become a true man without also becoming a false and sinful man. Because sin is passed down covenantally through the fathers, the problem was solved through the virgin birth.     

WHY HIS NAME WAS JESUS

The angel of the Lord told Joseph in his dream that the baby was to be named Jesus. The reason for this is that He was going to save His people from their sins. Jesus means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” But in order to accomplish that salvation, He had to be a sacrifice, He had to be a spotless sacrifice, and He had to be a representative sacrifice. 

A sacrifice: “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

A spotless sacrifice: “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19).

A representative sacrifice: “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many” (Romans 5:15).

The birth of the baby Jesus was truly remarkable. In that day, on that day, your salvation and mine was born into the world.

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Rachel’s Tears (Shadows of Bethlehem #2) (CCD)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

The hallmark of Christmas is joy. Ear to ear grins. Hot chocolate mustaches. Gleeful shouts as presents are unwrapped. But your joy, true joy, is given to you by the grief of the Man of sorrows. The story of Christ’s birth, which brought glad tidings and peace on earth, is swiftly followed by a grisly tale of the ravenous wolf of sin.

THE TEXT

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Matthew 2:16-18

TYRANNICAL BRUTES

The slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem is staggering. Herod stands in a long line of brutes who use their throne to slaughter the innocent. Pharaoh killed the Hebrew infants. Saul deputized Doeg (an Edomite like Herod) slaughtered the priests in Nob for helping David. Nebuchadnezzar starved the Jews of Jerusalem (during the two year siege, circa 587BC), and then as he marched them off to exile he brutally slaughtered many of them (Cf. Lam. 2:19-22, Ps 137:8-9, 2 Ki. 25:20-21).

The thing which set Herod off was the wise men refusing to cooperate with his design to destroy the Christ-child. Herod had been informed that Bethlehem was prophesied to be the birthplace of the new davidic king (Micah 5:2), and he knew that the star had appeared less than two years before, implying the baby was no older than that. Caesar Augustus is said to have stated that he’d rather be one of Herod’s swine than one of his sons. Herod’s brutality was well-known. But in the slaughter of Bethlehem’s sons, his wicked wrath is put on full and gruesome display.

Adam & Eve submitted to the Serpent, and reduced mankind to the level of brute. The first tyrant bludgeoned his brother. Man’s depravity always leads to murder. It leads to devouring others. The coming of Christ the King is good news, and this is put in stark relief when contrasted with the reign of Man in bondage to sin and Satan. Herod is the City of Man. He is a mirror held up to us to see the depravity of the human heart. But in Christ, the Kingdom of God has come upon us

WEEPING EXILES

Matthew tells us that this slaughter was a fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy in Jeremiah 31:15, “Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.”

When the Babylonians took the Jews into exile, they released Jeremiah at Ramah: “Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon (Jer 40:1).” Jeremiah then is taken down to Egypt by a remnant of Jewish leaders (Jer. 42-43). Meanwhile, Jerusalem’s young men in particular were being cruelly slaughtered at Riblah (Jer. 52:27). There are echoes of Jeremiah in the story of Joseph whisking his wife and son down to Egypt (in fulfillment of another prophecy, Cf. Mt. 2:15), while Herod’s henchmen slaughter Bethlehem’s boys.

This is the context for Jeremiah’s prophecy. His prophecy had a two-fold fulfillment; first in the events that shortly followed his prophecy. But these events themselves become a type of the slaughter of Bethlehem’s sons. Both Nebuchadnezzar & Herod are non-davidic kings slaughtering the sons of Israel. A theme we’ll revisit in a future sermon. For now, it suits our purpose to simply make mention of it.

Though Israel dwells in the land the Lord promised her, it is clear that they are still in exile, still under siege, still in need of the deliverance of the Messiah. Bethlehem’s mothers mourned once more, for their sons were cut down, and would not grow up like plants around their tables (Ps. 144:12). The deuteronomic blessings were not to be found. Only the curses. They sowed in tears once more (Ps. 126). Ramah once more heard cries of grief & untimely death.

BENONI

Jeremiah’s mention of Rachel takes us further back into the story of redemption: “And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day (Gen. 35:16-20).”

As Rachel was expiring from childbirth she named her son Benoni: son of my sorrows. And then Jacob’s cherished wife dies. Jacob had worked under Laban’s tyrannical demands for fourteen years in order to claim Rachel as his bride. She’d been barren for long years before bringing forth his beloved son Joseph. And now his bride perished in anguished sorrow. Jacob buried her in Bethlehem (Ramah is relatively nearby to Bethlehem). Rachel had prayed, “Give me children or I die” and it was in bringing forth her second son that she died. This baby boy was both a son of sorrow and a son of his father’s right hand.

One other thread is worth tracing here. Saul came from the tribe of Benjamin, but instead of reigning at Yahweh’s right hand, he becomes a son of grief, while David becomes a true son of the right hand (Ps. 110:1). The Benjamites were famous slingers, but when a giant threatens Israel and her Benjamite king, a funny thing that happens. David (of Judah) deftly wields the sling to kill Goliath. David is a better Benjamite than Saul.

Herod is the king of the Jews who slaughters and devours his people, akin to Saul. Meanwhile, Jesus is, of course, a new David, a son of David come to lay down His life and give Himself as food for His people.

NEW COVENANT GLORY

Rachel’s weeping gives birth to a Son of the right hand. This world is full of sorrows, but the coming of Christ was the death knell for all sorrow and all suffering. The misery of God’s people was great. Their weeping was heard afar off. But now a Savior had been born in Bethlehem. He would take all their griefs and sorrows upon & unto Himself. All the tears which all of God’s people have sown, will turn into shouts of joy.

Jeremiah not only describes Rachel’s weeping over the death of Judah, he invites her to dry her tears (Jer. 31:16), comforting her with a revelation of new life. New life through a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34). But this new covenant would be bought with innocent blood. Jesus, the only son who survived Herod’s slaughter of Bethlehem’s boys, would still be slaughtered by another Herod. So He would, in all ways, be acquainted with our grief, share in our suffering, and die as one of us.

Weeping may endure for the night. But the morning brings joy. And now, in Christ, the eternal day has dawned. David’s throne is filled. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. The sun of righteousness arises, with healing in His wings. This is the comfort for your every sorrow. This is the grace for all your sins. This is the Good News of Great Joy which is for all people. Christ is born in Bethlehem.

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