A voice was heard in Ramah
Weeping and loud lamentation
Rachel weeping for her children
She refused to be comforted
Because they are no more
–Matthew 2:18
When Jesus was born it was not a silent night. All was not calm and all was not bright, and the world did not sleep in heavenly peace. Jesus was born into a violent and dangerous world. Wars and rumors of war, revolutions and reprisals, conspiracies and bloody purges, despotic tyrants and violent insurgents were all part of the order and disorder of the day. And the birth of Jesus was the catalyst for one of the most infamous crimes in history: Herod’s Slaughter of the Innocents. And why? Because whenever and wherever Jesus is heralded as king, he is a threat to the empires of the age. Christmas is a clash of kingdoms; the empire of heaven crashing into the empires of power. And along with angels singing, there is also Rachel Weeping.
Very true!
We have been meditating on the Advent and all that was happening at that time. It was definitely not a nice cozy Christmas card picture.
Hundreds of people being displaced most having to walk for maybe hundreds of miles.
Fear of being singled out by the Romans for no particular reason except maybe they did not like the way you looked at them.
Unstable economy because of the upheaval.
Evil men in power.
No family members to help with the birth of your first child. No nice warm home. Just a dirty stinky stable.
And much more that makes you really wonder why God picked that time in history for Jesus to come.
And why the others had to suffer with geonocide of their children.
“She refused to be conforted” because “they are no more”. Herod Phillip II was now king (over Judea), and now, when their ‘scepter’ had finally departed, even now also to include Judean Jews also. They could no longer weep for their own comfort, nor, be fcrced with having to also acknowledge their true King had been born (at the same time of fulfillment of their well known prophesy concerning their Messiah’s coming, even in Bethlehem, and therefore, the ushering in of their departing of the Judean Scepter also, as a result). Messiah MUST come forth FIRST, so weeping now only acknowledged the facts now clearly before them;, especially as to king Herod Phillip II (second son of Herod the GREAT to also be so named) who had become the first occupant of the ‘room of his father’ and, shortly thereafter, allowed something his father would never have allowed happen especially to that sacred land Judea, even for fear of prophesy of their true King birth fulfillment surely to soon afterwards surely come to pass there.