This is the text for Sunday Night Live December 21st. As I have pondered this text, I have scratched my head a lot. Why is it that we seldom hear these words in Christmas sermons? Why is the tradgedy of the murder of the children in this story just passed over?
Ronnie
Matthew 2: 13-23
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “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.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 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. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “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.”
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Mt 2:13-23
An interesting question, Ronnie. I have never heard anyone preach on this scripture and dwell on all those young boys who were killed, so that Jesus might live and die later for our sins. One must wonder, what would have those young boys grown up to be? I don’t know why everyone glosses over the death of those children, other than the fact that most of us are so focused on the story of Jesus and don’t really LOOK at the rest of it.
I am looking forward to your message, and our music. God Bless.