Tag: Tribulation

the best of times, the worst of times: bethlehem and ramah

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Happy New Year!

It is customary for many in our faith community to approach the new year with — in football lingo — a spiritual ‘fresh set of downs.’ So what’s one of the first plays we run? Right. We advance with a new Bible reading plan, right? My goal in 2025 is to tackle the New Testament along with the Psalms. Okay, enough with the football jargon.

So [opening my Bible], Matthew it is.

Matthew’s opening scenes are familiar for obvious reasons. My Advent meditations covered these passages and I quickly find myself here once again. I also spoke at a local church’s Christmas banquet using the same birth narrative as found in the first gospel. You may have read a version of it recently (“Keeping Jesus Out In Front“). I know this passage pretty well.

But, as is often the case for students of the Book, something can jump off the page that you’ve never seen before. You know what I’m talking about. That is what happened to me this morning.

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Matthew 2:16

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
“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 2:17-18

In the same carol as “glad tidings of comfort and joy” is this tragic verse of inconsolable grief and sorrow.

How do you reconcile “good news of great joy” with “weeping in Ramah” …in the same breath?

Not even ten verses earlier, Matthew goes out of his way to stack superlatives in describing the mood of the Magi when they found themselves on the right track to find Baby Jesus. The rejoiced exceedingly with great joy! The wise men were so deliriously happy they couldn’t contain themselves. High fives, back slaps, whoops and hollers commenced!

But things looked a whole lot different in Ramah and other surrounding towns.

Herod was furious. The Magi had agreed to bring him the baby king straightaway, but they changed the script on him and kept the child’s identity and location a state secret. Hotheaded Herod was beside himself.

Who is this baby???

He would show them. Herod ordered a genocide of all the baby boys in the region and suddenly Judea’s Silent Night, Holy Night turned into terror. Like Egypt during the plague of darkness and death, only wails and loud weeping were heard across the land.

Okay. I didn’t like where this was going, but the Holy Spirit made me look. Here’s what I wrote in my Bible journal:

God will permit the deaths of innocents as he carries the story of redemption forward. There is weeping in Ramah though there be good news elsewhere.

Guido Reni’s Massacre of the Innocents

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times indeed. You can’t visit Bethlehem without hearing the wails of Ramah. That’s just how it is in this sad, tragic, very broken world.

Yesterday, in New Orleans, thousands were gathered on Bourbon Street to ring in the new year and enjoy the atmosphere around college football playoff game. Then, frenzy. Moments before a white pickup truck tore through a crowd of people, the streets were teeming with festive joy and frivolity. Seconds later, the sound of screams and sirens filled the night. Fifteen dead, dozens injured.

So what do we do with that paragraph I wrote? God permits the deaths of innocents, etc. How do we frame those words to people who are in shock over such a senseless act of terror? People who are likely to cancel you straight up for trying to pull the God-is-still-sovereign card.

I confess I want to keep my mouth shut. Just bury my nose in a book and don’t address it. But can we? There is the matter of timing, of course. Maybe don’t bring up Jimmy Carter’s political blunders on the day he died? There’s also the matter of courtesy. Waiting to be invited into the discussion instead of barging in and pontificating.

For the purposes of this post, I am speaking of an event that happened 2000 years ago not something that happened yesterday. The truth still remains, however. God does permit evil to bare its fangs now and then, but only in keeping with two incontrovertible rules:

  • God must win in spite of how everything looks right now.
  • the devil and his kingdom must be destroyed because it has been declared so from the beginning, and God can’t lie.

This world is broken and mercilessly mean, yes, but remember: God is broken-hearted by it; and he is the ONLY one with the power to change things.

Ramah is real. Rachel weeping for her children is our lot in this life. Evil people will do evil things and, I believe, 2025 is going to be filled with more evil and more weeping than in years past. Ramah is hard. Ramah is real.

But so is Bethlehem. “Jesus Joy” is real also.

Herod was the devil in Ramah, to be sure. But let’s not miss the bigger Story: Jesus still got born, shepherds told the news, souls got saved, the Church was born, Christ is exalted, the devil and his demons will burn in the lake of fire forever, and our King from heaven will return to dwell with us. And so shall we forever be with the Lord…in the eternal best of times. Weeping may last through the night, but the Man of Joy gets the final say.

Selah, beloved.

There Is A River For Her

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Reading this morning about the potential for a dramatic shift in the way of life many of us have enjoyed…upheaval…shemitah…a great shaking coming…homeland military maneuvers…and I found my heart seize momentarily and my pulse quicken. And just then, these comforting words:

“There is a River whose streams make glad the City of God…God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.” (Psa 46:4,5)

I’m glad to be of the “she” (His Bride) who will come through to the other side of fierce tribulation prepared and adorned for glory eternal!

In gracious goodness, God-our-Help has provided His people with a River. He is that River! A River teeming with Life (Ezekiel 47:6-9); a River that, for whoever would wade into its currents, drawn to the waters by faith in Jesus, will carry her through the worst of the Dark Lord’s fury and safely deposit her at the Throne of Refuge (Revelation 22:1)! 

So, in the words of @ScottyWardSmith who tweeted just now, I’m going to “chillax and worship: Providence, not happenstance, rules.“

Selah.

God Is Not Finished

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If you’ve managed to string together some years of living, you can’t deny the times you’ve stood at a crucial crossroad and asked, “How will I get through this?”

And yet, here you are.

There’ve been some Goliaths here and there, some Waterloos, a Gethsemane or two, and perhaps even a dark night of the soul to spice things up. But you made it. You’re here and in one piece. Yes, you’ve accumulated your share of scars, a wine cellar of bottled tears, and there might even be a hint of PTSD, but the fact remains, you came through. It wasn’t bootstraps or fine breeding that got you through, either. It was God.

I’ll tie a bow on this four-part “God Is Not…” series with this final faith-building installment. In preparation for whatever Everests or Hades that loom before us in 2015, whatever crises of belief to assay our faith, God has already won the day and we are citizens of His unshakable Kingdom.

So what have we learned about God-in-crisis? What is the climate in the throne room when the fury of hell is unleashed? What can we expect from Him as the days grow more uncertain, as frightening darkness encroaches, as alarms are sounding, when even the experts are turning to gloom-and-doom forecasts?

We’ve learned that:

  • God Is not nervous in the least

    • The Psalmist says He even “laughs” in the face of the would-be oppressors – but smiles on His own, because

  • God is not aloof and uncaring

    • He looks intimately upon us as we toil and strive against the onslaught of waves – and He’s not at a loss…for words. He will stand and shout at the storm “Enough!” and carry us through.

  • And, God is not handicapped

    • All the resources of glory are at His disposal and in full operation to countermand the wickedness of evil’s hate against His own. He is not self-absorbed but “will fight for you.” (Exodus 14:14)

And the word that feeds our soul today is,

  • God Is Not Finished

Paul, the apostle of suffering, said he’d been shipwrecked three times, was once set adrift at sea and, at other times, experienced “dangers at sea” – all in one paragraph (2 Cor 11:25,26). He and the sea didn’t get along too well, it would seem.

Acts 27 gives a harrowing account of one such shipwreck. Luke accurately recounts that Paul was a carefully-guarded prisoner and was loaded onto a cargo ship for an appointment with Caesar in Rome. His case as an insurrectionist against Rome was going to be reviewed by a Roman court with Caesar himself presiding.

It wasn’t the best time to be sailing on the contrary Mediterranean and Paul suggested to the captain they might find a harbor to winter in. The captain considered it but sought other counsel and was told the ship was sturdy to face whatever the sea could throw at it and, besides, weren’t they under some time constraints to deliver their charge? You guessed it. They pushed on – straight into the teeth of a nor’easter.

For two whole weeks they battled and toiled and despaired. They didn’t see the sun for fourteen straight days but fought through night-like conditions 24 hours a day, without food as the all-hands-on-deck situation kept them active and occupied. This was a once-in-a-lifetime storm that terrorized even the most hardened veteran sailors. And there was Paul.

Nearly two weeks of this and Paul was in his quarters one night when he was visited by an Angel who told him,

Don’t fear this storm, Paul. You will not die and none of the other 276 men will die, either. You are destined to speak to Caesar and to Caesar you will go!”

Paul believed God and shared this news with the crew later that night.

“Men,” he said, “God has told me we will not die. Look, you haven’t eaten in two weeks, so eat!”

It was a strange thing to say. The boat was still being lashed by rains and wind and the waves remained mountains of fury against them, but in the midst of it all, as Paul surely had to shout to be heard, there was the promise of deliverance – and the respite of food.

I think we’re in a calm before the storm hits. Indeed it’s coming and it’ll be unlike any past storm we’ve come through before. I believe we’ve foolishly pushed out from Crete instead of listening to the warnings of God, trusting rather in the size and seaworthiness of our vessels. Consequently, there are frightening days ahead – days of peril and dashed hopes. But even in this, God is not absent. His hands are not tied. He will come and save us because we have islands to save and Caesars to stand before and Romes to invade and snakes to shake off our hands – because Acts doesn’t finish with chapter 27 but moves seamlessly into chapter 28.

But the cost will be high.

Remember, it is not the storm – or the size of it – that dictates the outcome. That’s the Lord’s call. Some of us will have to swim for our lives, some will cling to planks and others will have to fight for mere scraps (Acts 27:44) – but God has spoken, He is not finished, and we will make it to shore.

Amen.

• • • •

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home:

Under the shadow of thy throne,
thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received her frame,
from everlasting thou art God,
to endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night
before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
bears all its sons away;
they fly, forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guide while troubles last,
and our eternal home!

- Isaac Watts