"Advent: Called with Tears" Matthew 2:16-18 Sunday Morning Worship Service

The word of God now, Matthew 2, verses 16 through 18.

Matthew 2:16–18

Matthew 2, 16 through 18, I'll read it.

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.

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.

The United States has its own trail of tears.

It's a network in the National Park Service that stretches of over 5,100 miles of trails that were used in the 1830s for the forced relocation of over 125,000 Indians.

They were moved from Michigan, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, even Louisiana, across the country.

Our government passed what became known as the Indian Removal Act, which gave the military the authority to forcibly evict any Indian on property if he didn't have a government-issued license to be on that property.

As I mentioned, 125,000 were forcibly removed, one of whom sued.

The U.S.

Supreme Court ruled in his favor, declaring the entire law to be unconstitutional, and President Andrew Jackson famously said, the Supreme Court has made its ruling.

Now let's see them enforce it.

Many of the Indians had to walk over 2,000 miles across our country.

Over a third of them likely died on the journey.

Today, we remember this is the trail of tears.

One that starts in Genesis and works its way through the scriptures all the way to the book of Matthew and all the way in to the future kingdom of God on earth.

Our encounter with this trail of tears doesn't start at the beginning of it.

Rather, it starts in Matthew 2, verse 16.

Matthew 2:16

And so it's best to survey this passage before we go and look at the trail as a whole.

Herod, wicked, so-called King Herod.

Actually, he was a governor.

He took the name King for himself.

But he was a governor, better known as the butcher of Bethlehem, had had an encounter with the wise men from Persia a few days before this verse, where men had journeyed, telling him that they had seen a star indicating that a king was born in Israel.

The new king, the savior, the Messiah had been born.

And these people had come from Bethlehem or come to Bethlehem from Babylon or Persia to worship this newborn king, and they entered Israel and went to Herod's palace and asked him where the one who was the rightful king of Israel was born.

Herod did not respond well to this, of course.

You remember he ascertained that this child, the prophecy pointed to a child who would be the rightful king of Israel, which Herod rejected.

And so Herod lied to the wise men.

He told the wise men that the baby would be born in Bethlehem, go find him and then report back to me, Herod tells him, so that I too can come worship him.

Of course, Herod desired no such thing.

He didn't want to go worship them.

He wanted to go slaughter the baby.

That's what he wanted to do, to put him to death.

This is not out of character for Herod.

As I mentioned, he's a the last few weeks we've talked about how he is barbaric.

He's pathological.

He had murdered many of his rivals to the throne, including his brother-in-law, who was high priest of Israel at the time.

Herod married into the high priest's family.

This is one of the ways he consolidated his own power.

And he murdered off those who were rivals of the throne.

This particular brother-in-law of his, he viewed as a rival, and so he had him harassed and surveilled by his own henchmen until finally his brother-in-law was determined to flee Israel for his own life and safety.

Herod's mother-in-law, the mother of his wife, lived in Jericho, was very wealthy, and so Herod, when he received news that his rival, his brother-in-law, was going to flee Israel for Egypt.

Herod approached his mother-in-law and asked if they could throw him a farewell party.

They arranged for one in Jericho at his mother-in-law's house, a very extravagant house, very wealthy, a large pool, and historians tell us that Herod went swimming with his brother-in-law at his farewell party.

It was a pool party, I guess.

And Herod rolled over on him in the pool and drowned him at his farewell party, keeping him from fleeing to Egypt.

When Pastor Steve and I talked about that story, and Steve told me, yeah, and that that was the brother of the wife that Herod actually liked.

You should see how he treated the rest of his family.

Many Jews had fled to Egypt for refuge under Cleopatra then.

In fact, I mentioned a few weeks ago there were more Jews living in Egypt, perhaps during this time period, than in Israel itself.

Herod murdered all kinds of people to maintain his control.

In fact, he had declared that at his death, the oldest person in every Israelite household should be put to death as well.

He commanded his army that when he died, slaughter one person in every house, choose the oldest.

The reason he gave for doing this is when Caesar Augustus heard of Herod's death.

He wanted Caesar Augustus to also hear that all of Israel mourned for his passing.

That's the person we're dealing with.

So he would think nothing of telling the wise men to go to Bethlehem and report back to me so that I can go and kill this baby.

That wouldn't even slow him down.

That's not the most brutal thing he had thought of that day.

The historian Macrobius, who is a 5th century historian, this is the earliest date I can find for the story, so it could be apocryphal, but I think it captures Herod's spirit.

Well, when Herod sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to find the children there who were two years or under to put them to death.

The story goes that one of the soldiers told Herod that your wife took your baby son to Bethlehem yesterday to also look for the king.

I mean, so many people from Jerusalem had followed to Bethlehem looking for this newborn king, your wife among them.

When we find her with your baby son, should we put your son to death as well?

To which Herod said yes.

And the story goes that Caesar Augustus, when he heard that, quipped that it is better to be Herod's hog than his son.

This is the story we encounter in Matthew 2.

When Herod realized, it says in verse 16, that he had indeed been tricked by the wise men.

This would not take long to figure out.

Bethlehem is five miles away from Jerusalem.

There's really only one way in.

The wise men must have continued further west towards Egypt, or they could have gone over the bluffs of the hill, over towards the Dead Sea.

That way, there's no roads that way.

It would have been a very difficult journey.

Shepherds made it.

It would have been an unusual journey for powerful, influential kingmakers like these wise men were to try to leave Israel that way.

Nevertheless, they must have done something like that.

They did not bring their entourage back through Jerusalem.

And so when a second day goes by, Herod realizes they've obviously escaped.

They've obviously escaped.

Bethlehem is tiny.

Maybe 300, 500 people lived there.

It would not have taken a lot of work to find the baby.

So Herod realizes he's been tricked.

He then sends his soldiers there, it says, in verse 16, and orders all of the male children in that region.

And the word that region includes Bethlehem, three to five hundred, and the area around it, the villages.

And, you know, there's not really even villages that direction.

Shepherds and their families.

He wanted all of the children killed.

It says who were two years older.

Remember, the Jews tell they track age a little bit differently than we do.

You know, on your 365th day of life, you become one year old.

My children will sometimes ask you, what time of day was I born?

So that means I'm not really seven until 10.52 p.m.

The Jews go backwards for this.

So the Jews, the day of your birth, you're one year old.

They don't have the, they don't do the days, weeks, and months kind of thing.

The day of your birth, you're a one-year-old.

So when it says, all the babies two years old or younger, it's likely kind of our equivalent of one year old or younger.

And I tell you that just to make the point that these are innocent, innocent little children here.

We're not even talking about toddlers.

In other words, they can't run away.

Most of them can't speak.

If they can walk, they toddle.

They would have been in the crib or in the arms of a parent, perhaps laying on the floor.

That's where you would find somebody that age.

That's who Herod sent soldiers to go kill.

Most historians say it was perhaps a dozen in Bethlehem.

A dozen maybe were put to death this way.

That's a high number.

If you think of a town with 500 people, I don't know how many babies are there, maybe two dozen, and it's just the male children have cut that in half.

But what's interesting is after the slaughter of the infants, verse 17, this was fulfilled what was spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah.

Now, this is an interesting phrase here because the question is why does God allow the babies to be slaughtered while Jesus escapes to Egypt?

And the answer that Matthew gives, as he's looking here at the carnage in the streets of Bethlehem, the answer Matthew gives is because of fulfilled prophecy.

But Matthew himself realizes the astonishing nature of what he's saying because he words it differently than he does the other fulfilled prophecies in this chapter.

If you just draw your eyes up to chapter 2, verse 23, the Savior will be, will live in Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled.

Or at the end of verse 15, the Savior would remain to Egypt, go to Egypt, so that the prophecy would be fulfilled that was spoken of by the prophets.

Matthew is looking at these other prophecies and saying, this happened in order to fulfill the prophecy.

In other words, God sovereignly directed events to fulfill the prophecy.

But now he turns and looks at the slaughter of the infants, and he can't even bring himself to say that.

He recognizes that the infants are slaughtered under the sovereignty of God and the authority of God.

God is sovereign over all things in the world, even evil, but still Matthew hesitates before connecting the dots straight to that.

He doesn't say this happened so that the prophecy was fulfilled.

He switches voices here.

It becomes passive, very awkward in the English, verse 17, then was fulfilled.

He's separating this demonic act from the sovereignty of God, just a hair here, just a hair.

It still fulfills the prophecy, it still fills up what was traced in the Old Testament.

And it is still exceedingly wicked.

What prophecy is he talking about?

Well, he says there was a voice in Ramah weeping in loud lamentation.

Rachel weeping for her children.

She refused to be comforted because they are no more.

Rachel has been dead for thousands of years.

By using this language, Matthew is placing us on this very well-known trail of tears in the Old Testament.

Rachel is known for her weeping.

She is known as the mother of Israel.

She was Jacob's wife, Jacob, who wrestled with the angel of the Lord and was renamed Israel, had 12 sons, and so Jacob, having his name changed, literally is the father Israel.

The twelve tribes come from Jacob.

Jacob's beloved wife, not his only wife, but his beloved wife, was Rachel, who is known as the mother of Israel.

Even though Jacob had 12 sons and one daughter, Rachel mothered two of them.

She was not the mother of Israel in terms of numerical superiority, but she is the mother of Israel in one very important way.

She was Jacob, Israel's beloved wife.

She is the one who weeps for her children.

She is the one who marks out this trail of tears through scriptures that winds its way up to Matthew 2.

But I want to start at the beginning of this trail.

We have six stations along it, but let's start at the beginning of it first.

This trail of tears begins with idolatry.

Rachel, when we meet her, we meet her at a well.

She is with sheep.

Jacob is out looking for a wife.

Because of God's promise that he would bring the Savior into the world through Abraham and through Jacob's father Isaac.

Jacob did not want to marry a Canaanite woman.

This is something that Isaac made him promise that he would not do.

He couldn't marry a Canaanite.

So he had to marry somebody who was not a Canaanite.

So he chooses someone who is related to his mother.

He goes back to look for a wife in the family of his mother.

He goes back to his mother's village.

He encounters sheep at a well, and he sees Rachel watering the sheep.

Do you remember what Jacob did?

He wept.

He wept and declared his undying affection for Rachel.

This is love at first sight among the sheep.

He goes home to Rachel's family and declares to Laban, Rachel's father, that you are my people.

I cannot marry in the Canaanite world.

God's promise is being passed down.

I must marry into my father's family.

Let me work here.

And Laban tells him, Why would you?

We're family.

Why would you work without pay?

Tell me what your pay will be.

And Jacob says, All right, I'm glad you asked.

Let me work for Rachel.

And Laban says, Go for it.

And Jacob works for seven years.

And then it is the wedding night.

And in that world, there'd be a wedding probably in some kind of gathered courtyard there.

There would be a dinner afterwards.

There's a tent right there as well where you would go to consummate the wedding.

This is a world without electric lighting, and it is a world with veils, wedding veils, and it is also a world with alcohol.

And Jacob marries the woman he thinks is Rachel, goes into the tent, comes out of the tent, and lo and behold, it was Leah.

He goes back to Laban and says, Why did you do this to me?

And Laban says, Hey, seven more years.

So Rachel and Jacob, you could say it this way: they had a dating relationship that lasted 14 years, seven of which he was married to her sister.

This is not the way you should find a spouse, by the way.

When Jacob finally has two wives, some children, and some livestock.

In fact, depending on how you read Genesis, you could say he swindled Laban out of all of his flock, or hey, he was just a shrewd breeder.

Jacob finally leaves, and he leaves by sneaking away to try to get back to the promised land.

But his journey back to the promised land is interrupted when it is discovered that Rachel stole the idols from her family.

Remember, the only reason Jacob went there was to marry a woman who was not a pagan Canaanite.

And instead he escapes with not one but two wives that come from an idol worshiping family.

As they were making their getaway, it was critical that they escaped without Laban knowing they were getting away because of all the flocks that Jacob was taking with him.

Laban comes home and realizes his goats and his sheep are gone and he's upset about that, realizes that his daughters are gone and he's upset about that, but he's gonna let those things slide, and then he realizes that his idols are gone, and that he cannot abide.

So he rounds his army up and he chases down Jacob.

It takes him a week to catch Jacob, and perhaps you know the story.

He catches Jacob and he demands his idols back.

Jacob says, I swear I didn't take any idols.

I mean the whole reason I came to you was to get a family that's not pagan.

I don't have your idols.

And Laban goes tent by tent, bag by bag, person by person, through Jacob's camp and cannot find the idols anywhere.

Do you remember where Rachel hid them?

On her camel, and then she sat down on top of them, and when her father asked her to come down, she said, I can't because it's the time of women is upon me, father.

That's Rachel's line to her dad to keep her from getting off of the pile of idols she's sitting on.

The story of Rachel as the mother of Israel certainly starts with idolatry, and we will see this stop.

Again, this is the complicated history of Israel.

Israel has a long-lasting relationship with idolatry.

Yahweh is the one true God, and oh, they believed that.

They would declare that up and down that Yahweh is the one true God, but they also line their streets with idols.

They worship at the Asherah pole, they allow idols to be moved in under Manasseh into the temple.

Balaam was right.

Balaam said, You will not be able to defeat Israel with an army, but you can defeat Israel with women and idols.

And that's because of Israel's birth story.

Israel was literally birthed in the bed of idols.

The second stop on our tour here is not just idolatry, but Rachel's desire for children.

Perhaps the most infamous part of Rachel's life is her really insatiable desire for children.

Remember, she is Jacob's second wife, although she is the one that Jacob loves the most.

But Leah, meanwhile, is popping out kids left and right.

Leah had four sons.

Initially, she would have more, but she had four initially.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah.

They all came from Jacob and Leah.

And Rachel gets angry at this, remember?

Leah has four sons.

And the whole point of marriage, do you remember why they are married anyway?

Was to pass down the line of the Savior, to pass down the Abrahamic promise.

That's why they're married.

And so, of course, Rachel wants children.

That's what they're doing here.

But Leah is having child after child after child.

And so Rachel gets angry at Jacob.

She envies her sister, Genesis 30.

You don't need to turn there, you can just listen.

Genesis 30, verse 1.

Genesis 30:1

Rachel yells at Jacob and says, Give me children or I shall die.

And Jacob responds with anger towards Rachel.

And says, What?

Am I in the place of God who has closed your womb?

He's reminding her, not so subtly, that she's the idol worshiper here.

Don't get mad at me for something God is doing.

This is not a good conflict resolution for marriage.

The wife angry at the husband for an act of God, and the husband telling the wife, that's because you don't worship the same God I do.

Jacob was angry at Rachel.

Do you remember what Rachel did?

She said, Fine.

Sleep with my slave.

And Jacob did.

And fathered two children through Rachel's slave.

That's where Dan and Napolee came from.

And Leah sees this.

And she tells Jacob, take my slave too.

And that's where more children come from.

That's where Asher comes from.

That's where Gad comes from.

And there's a story with the Mandrakes.

This whole thing is ridiculous.

Or one of Leah's sons is bringing back mandarinks.

I don't even know what a mandrake is.

He's bringing back mandarinks, and Rachel sees it and says, Give me some of your son's mandrakes.

And Leah says, you took my husband, because Jacob loves her more than Leah.

Now you'll take my fruit also.

And so they make a deal.

Rachel says, Fine.

I'll let my husband lie with you if you give me some of your fruit.

And so Leah runs out and meets Jacob coming back in.

And that is where their fifth son comes from, Issachar.

And then their sixth son, Zebulun.

The family's getting filled out.

It's after all of that.

Oh, and a daughter, by the way, in there too, to Leah.

After all that is where Rachel finally has her first son.

Joseph.

Do you remember what Rachel prays as soon as Joseph is born?

Lord, give me more children.

A prayer that God does not answer for many, many years.

The rest of the family gets there.

Jacob ends up with 11 sons and one daughter, and still Rachel praying for more children.

Finally, after all of this, many years have passed.

Rachel falls pregnant a second time.

And this time gives birth to a child that she names Ben-Oni, son of my tears, son of my weeping, son of my pain, son of my trial, however you translate that, because as she's giving birth to Ben-Oni, she is screaming out in anguish and she ends up dying in childbirth.

That's Rachel's death story.

She enters the pages of Scripture with a satchel full of idols and a desire for children.

She leaves her earthly life, giving birth to a child that she names Son of my mourning, son of my trial.

This leads to the third step.

The third station, Rachel's Trail of Tears, is a loss of her children.

After all of her desire for children, for so long, Ben Ani is born.

Rachel dies.

Jacob steps in and renames Ben Ani, thankfully.

You can imagine being raised son of my trials.

Where'd you get that name?

My mom died giving birth to me.

Jacob renames him Benjamin, which means son of my right hand.

They become his two favorite children because Rachel was his favorite wife.

Joseph and Benjamin are Jacob's favorites.

He has 12 sons, but he has two sons, really.

The other ten sons conspire against Joseph.

They're not going to kill the little Benjamin, but they are definitely going to kill Joseph.

The other ten sons have had it with Joseph being the favorite.

Joseph doesn't help by showing up and saying, Hey, I had dreams.

You guys are all worshiping me.

Okay.

Yeah, we'll worship you all, right?

Here's our shrine out here.

Let's go take a look at it.

They purpose to kill Joseph.

And of course, Joseph gets slowed into slavery.

We looked at this story last week.

Joseph is taken off to Egypt.

They assume that he's dead.

They left him in a pit to die.

They assume an animal got him.

There's no way he could have escaped.

They assume he's dead.

And the rest of the family thinks Joseph has died.

And the loss of children keeps going for this.

Do you remember?

Joseph instead goes to Egypt, where he's elevated in the family.

The ten children and Jacob their father, and Jacob their father, are starving to death with a famine.

They go to Israel to Egypt to get food.

Joseph captures the family, lets them go, but keeps Simeon in jail and says, You need to go back to your dad.

And bring me back, Benjamin.

Bring me back the youngest child.

These ten children don't recognize Joseph, of course.

Joseph's in a disguise.

He looks like Egyptian.

It would never occur to them that he is their brother that they murdered.

And Joseph sends them away and says, I'm going to keep Simeon in jail and in custody until you bring me back Benjamin.

They go back to Jacob.

Remember they tell Jacob?

Hey, Dad, Simeon is in jail in Egypt, and they won't let him go unless we show them Benjamin.

And remember what Jacob says?

Simeon's gonna die.

Sorry about that.

His two favorite kids, Joseph and Benjamin, Joseph already dead.

No way I'm gonna send Benjamin to Egypt.

But of course that happens, and Benjamin gets sent to Egypt.

Joseph sees Benjamin and he weeps so loudly, he clears the house out, and the scripture says that people could hear him weeping on the streets outside of Pharaoh's palace.

This is Rachel's children.

They're lost now, they're stuck in exile.

Rachel, as she wept in her death, as she wept, it was she was losing her physical children, but more than that, she's losing her spiritual children as well.

The promise that there would be the Savior, the promise that Abraham's covenant would be established and the people would be rooted in Israel is gone now.

Both of her children, Joseph and Benjamin, are in exile.

They're lost spiritually, they're lost physically to her, and they are in exile.

No promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob remains, no Messiah, no hope, which leads to our fourth stop, exile.

This is not where the trail runs dry here.

I want you to turn in your Bibles, and I do want you to turn here to see this with your own eyes to Genesis, or to Jeremiah chapter 31.

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

It's page 658 if you're using your pew Bible, and I do encourage you to turn there.

Jeremiah chapter 31.

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

There's four chapters in the book of Jeremiah, known as the book of consolation.

Jeremiah is a book of prophecy to Judah and Benjamin about going into exile.

The whole book of Jeremiah is a series of judgments against Judah and Benjamin, telling them that because of their idolatry, they are going off to exile.

They will end up in Babylon, they will end up in Persia because they're idol worshippers, God tells them.

You won't repent, you're losing the promised land.

The ten tribes of the north have already been exiled.

They're gone.

Israel, long gone.

170 years or whatever before Jeremiah, Israel is in captivity.

They're gone.

Taken off to Assyria.

And now only two tribes remain: Benjamin and Judah, and they also are going to be taken into captivity.

But in the middle of those prophecies, Jeremiah 32-33, four chapters that are called the book of consolation because they provide comfort in despair.

This comfort comes because Israel will go into captivity.

Jeremiah 31, verse 2, the people who survived the sword will find grace in the wilderness when Israel sought for rest.

Jeremiah 31:2

Yahweh appeared to Israel back when they were in Egypt before and gave them hope, it says.

Verse 4, again I will build you and you will be built, O virgin Israel.

Again you will adorn yourself with tambourines and go forth making merry again, verse 5.

Again you'll plant vineyards in the mountains of Samaria.

Your people will enjoy the fruit, verse 6.

Again there will be a day when the watchman will call on Ephraim.

Arise and let us go to Zion, to Yahweh, our God.

So notice where the consolation is coming from.

God is saying there will be a time where you will be back in this land.

It sounds so positive, though, doesn't it?

Like, look, look to all the good things that will happen after exile, Israel.

Imagine you're a parent and you're telling your kids, we're gonna go to such and such a camp, or we're gonna go visit such and such a family member, and your child says, I don't want to go.

I don't like that place, I'm not going.

So what do you, as a parent, you say, Okay, you are going, but I've got good news for you.

We're only gonna be gone for a week, and then we're gonna come home.

Your dog will still be here, your friends will still be here.

We are going, but think of all the good things you'll see in a week.

That's what you say.

That does not mean that you're not going on the trip.

No, it means you are going on a trip.

If the parent tells the child, look at how happy your dog will be to see you in a week, that means you're going on the trip, my little kid.

That's the way God is speaking to Benjamin and Judah here.

Oh, you are going on a trip, and just marvel about how marvelous the land will be when you return.

But you are going away.

You are going to Babylon.

Pack your bags and learn Chaldean, because you're going to Babylon.

Verse 7, sing aloud with gladness for Jacob.

Raise shouts for the chief of the nations, proclaim, give praise, and say, Oh Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

I will gather them from the north, God says.

Though they labor together, the blind and the lame, verse eight, I will gather them together.

And verse nine, with weeping they will come, with pleas from mercy I will lead them back.

God says, They are going to exile, and it will be filled with tears.

How is Israel supposed to respond to being sent off to exile?

Verse 15, thus says Yahweh, a voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping.

Rachel is weeping for her children.

She refuses to be comforted because they are no more.

This is the scene about exile.

And exile is so far flung from us.

We can think of like the trail of tears, or we could think even of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

You picture the families gathered together at the train station, maybe putting on the train cars where they will go away.

You see their neighbors waving at them, their neighbors saying goodbye, and the people getting on the train weeping.

That's the scene here.

They know they're going to death.

They're going to the Babylonians, they're going to a foreign land.

Most of them will die.

What is their attitude supposed to be?

The Babylonians queued them up in Ramah.

Ramah's a little village.

The Babylonians, Jeremiah 40 says, took all that was left in Judah and Benjamin and put them in lines in Ramah and marched them off to Babylon to die.

So what sound do you hear when you go to Ramah?

You hear a weeping.

And Jeremiah says, it's as if Rachel herself has resurrected from the grave to see the scene, and she weeps over it herself.

Remember, Rachel had two sons, Joseph, who had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, two tribes, and Benjamin.

Manasseh and Ephraim became the north, Benjamin became the south.

And Benjamin was almost wiped out.

The Israelites themselves tried to eliminate Benjamin at the end of the book of Judges.

They dwindled down to a couple hundred people.

The only reason Benjamin still exists as a tribe is because Judah took care of Benjamin.

Benjamin became so small and had to get refuge under the wing of Judah.

If that's not a picture of Messianicope, I don't know what is, because the Savior did not come from Joseph.

He did not come from Benjamin.

The savior comes from Judah.

And Judah protects his little brother Benjamin, his half-brother Benjamin.

But now they're both in exile.

Ephraim is gone.

Manasseh is gone.

They're in Assyria.

Benjamin queuing up in Ramah.

Ramah is a little border city, a little border village, a couple hundred people, a tiny, tiny place.

It's on the border between north and south in Israel.

The ten tribes of the north, the two tribes of the south, they're bordered, the checkpoint in the border, it would be Ramah.

Hardly anybody lives there except the border patrol kind of place.

That's Ramah.

And that's where the Babylonians took them and lined them up at the very place.

I mean, are you getting the image of this?

The very place where Rachel's two children will leave the promised land forever is where they're queued up to walk away.

And Rachel herself rises out of the grave and is wailing uncontrollably about this.

She left this world weeping right there.

Do you know, according to 1 Samuel, that she was buried right there?

They're cuing these people up right where she was buried.

And so her spirit comes out of the ground.

Not literally, of course, don't think that Jeremiah means literally she resurrects here, but it's as if her spirit comes out of the ground and she's weeping over her people.

All of her labor was in vain.

Her cry to Jacob back in Genesis, give me children or I die, meaningless.

All of her effort, all of her desires, all of her sorrows, all of her suffering is meaningless because the Israelites are out of the promised land.

Oh, these are the different kinds of tears than the death of a loved, uh, death of a baby infant.

I know many parents have had baby infants who have died, and that is certainly a tragic, tragic grief.

There's such expectation that is seems voided, but this is a different kind of grief.

This is a kind of grief that very few people know.

This is the kind of grief of parents who bury an adult son who rebelled against the Lord, an adult son who went into a life of immorality, and it ended up costing him his life.

That's this kind of tears.

Uncontrollable wailing.

Parents looking at themselves and going, where did we go wrong?

How could he grow up?

And now we have to bury him because of how wicked he became.

That's Rachel's tears here.

Joseph wouldn't let go of the idols.

And now he's gone.

Benjamin wouldn't let go of the idols, and now he's gone.

The mother weeps and asks, Why must it be my child who is caught in the thicket?

Why must it be my child that God sacrifices as the Passover lamb?

Why couldn't God send another child to die here for the Israelites?

Why would it have to be mine?

That's these tears, and that leads to the next station here on this trail of tears is the promised return.

The promised return.

As I mentioned, this section of scripture is called the book of consolation because it describes the ultimate return of Israel.

There will be weeping, but there will also be the return.

Verse 12, they will come and sing aloud on Mount Zion again.

They will be radiant over the goodness of Yahweh back in Jeremiah 31, verse 12.

Jeremiah 31:12

They will be like a watered garden, they'll languish no more.

The young women will rejoice in dancing, verse 13.

Right now they're weeping as their children are being ushered off to death, and they will dance once more, he says.

The young and the old will be merry.

I will turn their mourning into joy, their gladness into sorrow.

The priests will feast with abundance, my people will be satisfied, declares Yahweh.

They will return to their own border.

All these children who died, they will return.

The parents, if the parents repent of their idolatry, will be resurrected in this land again.

There is a return to the land.

Jeremiah says the trail of tears doesn't terminate there in Ramah.

It goes forward.

It goes forward into the day when Israel comes back.

Look at verse 20 of Jeremiah 31.

Is Ephraim, my dear son, Ephraim, Rachel's son, is he my dear son?

Is he my darling child?

As often as I speak against him, I do remember him still.

This is a crazy verse, Jeremiah 31, verse 20.

Jeremiah 31:20

It's hard to tell if it's Yahweh speaking or Rachel.

And it's the end of the verse says it's Yahweh, but the language sounds like it could be either one.

Is Ephraim, my dear son?

Is he my darling child?

As often as I speak against him, I do remember him.

My heart yearns for him.

Surely I will have mercy on him, declares Yahweh.

God will bring them back.

He even says in verse 21, set up markers for yourself because you're on your way to return here again.

And how will that return happen?

Well, it happens, according to Jeremiah 31, with the new covenant, and that's the sixth station of Rachel's trail of tears.

We had time escapes us.

We cannot look at this in detail, but know that Jeremiah 31 describes the way God will bring Rachel's trail of tears to an end.

It happens through the death of the Savior and the inauguration of a new covenant.

Jeremiah 31, verse 31, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.

Jeremiah 31:31

Not like the old one that Jacob was so far after, that Joseph was trying to cling to in hope in Egypt.

Not like that one it says expressly in verse 32.

Not like the one they had in Egypt, not that one that Rachel wept over, not that one.

A different one.

My law will be in them.

You can turn back to Matthew chapter 2 now.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

I know time goes by so fast for me, hopefully.

For you as well here, but Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

With all that is the trail of tears, a well-marked path in the Old Testament through the end of Genesis, through Jeremiah, not an obscure passage of scripture, the new covenant passage of scripture in Jeremiah 30 through 34 is about this trail of tears.

This is what Matthew sees.

So engage your mind now in Matthew 2.

Night has fallen.

There's hoofbeats as the horses rush into Bethlehem.

There's the gruff voices of soldiers who dismount and who go house to house.

The soldiers likely are familiar with Bethlehem.

This is a small place.

They know where the children are.

They go house to house and they pull the infants out from their parents' arms.

They bring them out to the street and they butcher them.

Hear the crying now outside of Bethlehem.

Hear the crying of parents who just watch their children die so that Jesus can escape to Egypt.

And what do they think?

Hear the crying now, and Matthew certainly sees it.

And as Matthew is seeing the streets filled with the blood and the bodies of the little ones, Matthew is aware of this prophecy and his mind goes back to Rachel.

His mind goes back and says, This is what Rachel was crying about.

Listen, this is not the first time children were slaughtered right here.

It happened before.

And Matthew remembers it.

Rachel is buried right there.

All these scenes coalesce in one location.

Rachel's grave, Benjamin's birth, and Rachel's death, the tears in Jeremiah 31, the women weeping in Jeremiah 30, Rachel crying over her children happened right here.

And the mother is going, Why?

Why must my child die so that Jesus can live?

Because Herod is insatiable.

The paranoid devil has been outwitted and he responds with rage.

He is outwitted because he wants to crush the hope of the Savior.

And his Herod's fury is so futile, like the kings in Psalm 2.

They rage against the plan of heaven, but the Lord's anointed will still be enthroned.

Herod's purpose is to wipe out any messianic hope from earth, and he will be foiled.

The wise men outsmarted him.

Violence can't catch up with Jesus yet.

And he escapes.

And so he slaughters those who are at hand because he hates the Savior.

Matthew Henry writes, These are the first New Testament martyrs.

They shed their blood for him who afterwards shed their blood for them.

And Matthew sees this and he knows what happened here.

This is where Rachel's bones are.

This is where the exile happens.

So what hope does he have to give to these mothers?

What hope does he have to tell the mothers of the little ones who have been slaughtered?

The history of God's people on earth is always marked by bloodshed and the rage of man breaking forth against God's elect because the people on the earth despise the messianic promise of the Savior and they lash out against it.

But is that what you tell the parents who just had their babies slaughtered?

Oh wicked people have always hated God.

No.

You tell the parents something different.

You tell the parents that these deaths are not in vain.

You tell the parents, read on, O mothers of Bethlehem.

Don't stop in Jeremiah 30, verse 15.

Jeremiah 30:15

Read on to verse 16 that says, You will come back to the land with rejoicing.

Read on, O mothers of Bethlehem.

Don't stop with the slaughter.

Read what happens next.

The babies will be resurrected.

The babies will come out of their graves.

These little ones who saw their lives end in bloodshed on the streets of Bethlehem, their little feet will walk on the streets of Bethlehem once again.

When Jesus returns to earth, he will resurrect those who died in faith.

He will bring with him the little babies who died.

And these ones in particular will set foot on the very streets where they lost their lives.

Do you believe that?

O mothers of Bethlehem, do you believe that your babies will see your country again?

If so, there is comfort.

If so, Rachel's tears fall to the ground, but on the ground they bring forth life.

The ground where Rachel's tears fall, that's the ground where the cross will grow.

Five miles away is where the cross will be put into the ground.

The ground where Rachel's tears fell will produce the cross, and from the cross will flower the open grave.

What do you tell a parent whose children die?

There is hope in the resurrection.

Certainly the mothers must have asked, but why?

Why does Jesus have to be born into the world like this?

Why does he come into the world like this?

Why can't he come into the world?

You have this ideal picture of Christmas morning, don't you?

The perfect tree.

The gifts, the family, and the grandparents all gathered around the tree, the dogs sitting obediently.

Everybody with exactly what they want wrapped neatly under the tree.

That's the ideal picture.

The smell of bread from the kitchen.

But is that anybody's Christmas?

It's often the missing seats.

It's often the person who's not there.

You expected the baby to be there, there's no baby there.

A loved one who's supposed to be a grandparent who was always there before, not there now.

That's what it's normally like.

Listen, Jesus didn't enter the ideal world of gumdrops and candy canes.

He entered the world where children die.

He entered the world where brutal dictators chase down anybody who bows the knees to Christ and tries to shut them down and drive them out.

That's the world he entered into.

He entered into a world filled with tears.

And so it's fitting that he would enter it through tears.

That he would enter it, his very arrival causes grief.

His very arrival causes weeping.

In our world, mothers cry for children only to have their prayers answered and then their children taken away.

The world that Jesus is born into is that world.

But listen, the world that Jesus is born into is also the world where those children come back to life.

George Matheson wrote an incredible poem about this.

O joy that seekest me through pain.

I cannot close my heart to thee.

I trace the rainbow through the rain.

And I feel the promise cannot be vain.

That morn will tearless be.

Do you those words?

I trace the rainbow through the rain.

I follow the course.

I follow the trails of tears.

And I know that where it ends, that morning and the resurrection will be tearless.

A cross that liftest up my head.

I dare not ask to fly from thee.

It's the cross that makes us look up to God.

I lay in dust, life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be.

Let's pray.

Lord, that Christmas morning with blood and death.

And Rachel's tears fall to the ground.

And from the tears they watered the cross.

And from the cross grows the grave.

It blossoms red with the blood of the new covenant.

It blossoms red with our forgiveness of sins through the death of Christ.

It flowers, producing eternal life through the empty grave of Jesus our Savior.

This promise is not in vain, we know.

We're grateful you came to the world like we experienced the world.

With tears, with loss and death.

Because if you're not the Savior in the face of death, can you be the Savior anywhere?

But we are filled with joy.

The grave is empty.

The resurrection is real.

That one day those little ones from Matthew 2, they too will resurrect.

They too will reign with you from Israel.

Rachel's tears were not in vain.

Nor are ours when they are filled with faith.

It's because of that faith we pray in the name of Christ.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.

Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.

If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.