06 Why Understanding Rachel's Weeping is Important to the Gospel (Matthew 2:16-18)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means. We are on the ready and our six top and our series on the topic of Matthew. Today we're gonna be studying Matthew chapter two, verses 16 through 18. Lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below the podcast. And you can also find them by going to my website. Just go to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 6. Thanks for listening today. Well, we're still in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew, we're still in the birth narrative. Four times in this section, Matthew says that an Old Testament passage is fulfilled in some way, and we're trying to figure out exactly what he means by that passage and that fulfillment. As I've mentioned before, the debate is long and complicated, and different scholars have different answers to the question of what is Matthew doing here. Each of his quotes contain a different interpretive challenge. We've looked at two of them so far and we're going to look at the third one today. Let's review where we are in the story. Matthew made the point that Jesus is the Christ. He is that one descendant of Abraham and descendant of David who will fulfill the promises that were given to them. In chapters one and two, Matthew is giving us an account of the birth of Jesus and of his early life. God caused Mary, a virgin, to miraculously conceive a son. Then God acted to protect that child by speaking to her fiance Joseph. Assuming that Mary was unfaithful, Joseph had planned to quietly divorce her, but God speaks to Joseph in a dream. God tells Joseph that Mary has not been unfaithful and that her son would be the promised Messiah who will save his people from sins. Joseph then takes Mary as his wife and accepts Jesus as his own son, making Jesus his legal heir. And that puts Jesus legally in the line of David since Joseph was in the line of David. The wise men from Babylon come looking for the child who has been born king of the Jews. They go to King Herod, who's ruling over Jerusalem and the nation of Israel at this time. Herod asks them to tell him where the child is after they find him, but God warns the magi in a dream not to return to Herod, so they left via another route. After the wise men leave, God warns Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt. He leaves immediately, taking Mary and the child, and they go to Egypt and remain there until after Herod's death. We're looking at the part of the story right after the wise men have left. Since the wise men didn't return, Herod doesn't know how to find the child, so he devises an evil plan to get rid of this threat to his throne. This is Matthew chapter two verses sixteen through eighteen. 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 Rama, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. Let me remind you how I'm approaching these fulfillment passages. I'll just review this briefly since I talked about it in the last podcast. First, I trust Matthew. I think Matthew knows what he's doing with the Old Testament, and I think he's doing it well. I don't think he's making a mistake, I don't think he's lying, and I don't think he's using sloppy Bible study skills. Second, the term fulfill has two meanings. One is what we commonly expect it to mean, and that's predictive prophecy. The Old Testament predicts an event would happen in the future, and now that event has happened and we would say it's been fulfilled. And sometimes Matthew does mean fulfilled in this sense. But there's a second meaning that refers more to an analogy or an example and makes a comparison. So in the Old Testament we find themes and pictures, and then in the New Testament we find a fuller expression of those themes and pictures. In later redemptive history, that spiritual principle is shown in its fullness, in its completeness. We might say it's the epitome, it's the most complete analogous reality. And quite often Matthew is using the term fulfilled in this second sense. Third, Matthew expects his readers to know and be familiar with the Old Testament. He quotes the Old Testament a lot and he does not stop to explain his quotes. There's always more going on than he explicitly says, and he expects us to know the Old Testament well enough to draw on that history and background and knowledge so that we understand his point. And fourth, I believe Matthew expects us to understand that there is a strong theological connection between the nation of Israel and the Messiah. Israel's unique mission and its destiny finds its fulfillment in Jesus. Jesus is the one who will bring that destiny about. That means events in Israel's life and the nation of Israel's life have significance and implications for the Messiah and vice versa. Since Matthew assumes that we know the Old Testament stories, the quotes and what these passages are talking about, to figure out what he's saying here we need to familiarize ourselves with the history and the prophets. Matthew is quoting from a passage in Jeremiah, but before we look at that passage, we need to know who Rachel is. The history of the Jewish people started when God called a man named Abraham and promised to make a great nation of his descendants. God promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham's descendants, but not all of Abraham's descendants inherit the promise. Only Abraham's son Isaac inherited that promise. Then Isaac has two sons, and it was his son Jacob who inherited the promise. When Jacob was a young man, his parents wanted to get him out of town for a couple of reasons. First, his jealous brother was trying to kill him, and second, they didn't want him marrying any of the local girls. So they sent him back to their out of town family to keep him safe and to have him find a wife there. And Jacob goes to the house of Laban. Laban is Jacob's uncle, the brother of his mother Rebecca, and there Jacob meets Laban's daughter Rachel, and he is smitten. This is Genesis chapter twenty nine, I'm going to read verses sixteen through twenty four. Now Laban had two daughters, the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel. Laban said, It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man. Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife that I may go into her for my time is completed. So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast, but in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went into her. Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant. All right, so Jacob promises to work for Rachel's father Laban for seven years if at the end of that time he can marry Rachel. However, Laban tricks Jacob, and he marries Jacob off to his older daughter Leah, and no one is happy about this situation. The story goes on. I'm going to read Genesis twenty nine starting in verse twenty five and going to chapter thirty verse one. And in the morning, behold it was Leah, and Jacob said to Laban, What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? Laban said, It is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years. Jacob did so and completed her week, then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his servant Bilha to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. So Jacob went into Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister, she said to Jacob, give me children or I shall die. Now Jacob is married to both Rachel and her sister Leah, and the sisters have a very bitter rivalry going over their husband. To make matters worse, Rachel is unable to have children while Leah has a number of sons. Apparently having learned nothing from the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hager, Rachel decides to offer her maidservant to Jacob to father children in her name. Jacob agrees, and Rachel's maidservant has children for Jacob. Leah decides she wants more children too, so she gives Jacob her maidservant who also bears Jacob some sons, and eventually Jacob ends up with twelve sons who will become the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. So Rachel finds herself in this situation. She is the love of Jacob's life, but she has no biological children of her own, and that is a big deal in that age. Her sister, with whom she is forced to share her husband, has a number of sons, and to add insult to injury, her maidservant has a number of sons, and even her sister's maidservant has a number of sons. So we see this in Genesis thirty verse one. She said to Jacob, Give me children or I shall die. So she desperately wants children of her own. Finally, God grants her request and gives her a son, and that son is Joseph. Jacob and his family travel from Bethel to Bethlehem, and on that journey Rachel gives birth to another son, Benjamin, but ironically and tragically she dies giving birth to him. Here she said, Give me children or I shall die, and then she dies giving birth to her second son, and she is buried on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem. Now we have to talk geography for a minute, and all my numbers are rough estimates here. If you start at Bethlehem, Jerusalem is roughly five miles north of Bethlehem. Rama is roughly five more miles north of Jerusalem, and Bethel is roughly five miles north of Rama. If you start at the other end from Bethel, it's south to Rama, then south to Jerusalem, and then south to Bethlehem. Today, about one mile north of Bethlehem is a site that is known as Rachel's tomb. It's been there a very long time. That may indeed be her burial place. However, scholars debate whether it's actually her tomb. It is somewhere on that journey between Bethel and Bethlehem. It could be closer to Bethlehem, it could be closer to Rama, or it could be that site that is marked today. So this is the background we need to know to understand what we read in Jeremiah. Rachel was the wife of Jacob, she desperately wanted children. God finally gave her two sons, Jacob and Benjamin, and she dies giving birth to Benjamin and is buried between Bethel and Bethlehem, which would put her tomb somewhere near Rama. Now Matthew is quoting from Jeremiah thirty one fifteen, which reads, Thus says the Lord, a voice is heard in Rama, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more. Now we need to know what Jeremiah is talking about. Jeremiah began his ministry around six hundred twenty seven BC as the political world was falling apart as the nation of Assyria started its decline. The Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and taken them into captivity. The southern kingdom of Judah is still standing, but they are a vassal state of Assyria. And these were complicated political times. As the Assyrians start losing power, two other major political powers, Egypt and Babylon, strive to take over and occupy the power vacuum that the Assyrians are leaving behind. Eventually Babylon's going to win that struggle. They're going to come in and level Jerusalem and take those in the southern kingdom into exile. Now, what do we need to know to understand this quote in Jeremiah? First, at the time Jeremiah is writing, Rachel has been dead for a long time. Jacob is speaking metaphorically. It is as if Rachel is weeping. If Rachel knew what was going on now, Rachel would be weeping. Jeremiah is not referring to a literal historical event either in the past or at the time of his writing. He's speaking metaphorically. This situation he's talking about, if Rachel knew about it, she would be weeping in her tomb. Second, Rama is the place where the Babylonians assembled all the conquered Jews before deporting them to Babylon. In five eighty six BC, the Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom, they leveled Jerusalem, they killed lots and lots of people, and they deported lots of others, and they took the captives that they were deporting from Jerusalem to Rama to get them ready for deportation. Now remember Rama is very near the place where Rachel is buried, and it is the staging point for the captives who are about to go off into exile into Babylon. Now, third, remember where we are in biblical history. God promised Abraham that his descendants would bring blessing to all the nations. God promised David that one of his descendants would rule over the nations in peace. God tells David that his descendants will sit on the throne of Israel forever and through that throne bless the world. And David understands that ultimately his throne will rule over all the earth. God's going to bless the world through the throne of David, and in fact, David as a descendant of Abraham is a crucial part of how Abraham's descendants are going to bless the world. David and his sons are one of the means through which God brings about that promised blessing. Now various of David's descendants did sit on the throne. David was followed by his son Solomon, but after that things went south pretty quickly. Some of those descendants of David were very bad kings, and most of them did not do a very good job. After the death of Solomon, two of his sons got into a civil war for the throne of David, and that splits the kingdom. The northern part becomes known as the nation of Israel, and that splits away and forms a new kingdom with one of David's sons. The two southern tribes form a different kingdom around a different son of David on the throne. But the people of both the north and the south were rebellious and disobedient to God, and God judges them for that disobedience. The northern kingdom is conquered by the Assyrians first as part of God's discipline, and then the southern kingdom is about to suffer the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians because they were disobedient as well, and this is what Jeremiah is writing about. And it's in the city of Rama that the Babylonians gather their conquest to send them off into exile. Okay, fourth, we know that Rachel has a special connection to the Jewish people. She is the mother of two of the tribes of Israel. But as the love of Jacob's life, and remember Jacob was later renamed Israel, the nation is named after him, she is symbolically the mother of all the tribes. She has a close connection to the tribes from two of her sons, Joseph and Benjamin. One of those tribes joined the northern kingdom, and the other joined the southern kingdom. So Rachel's son Joseph, he was her firstborn, he had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim and Manasseh become two of the twelve tribes of Israel, and when the kingdom split, they went with the northern kingdom. In fact, when the prophets want to refer to the entire northern kingdom, they often use the name Ephraim. Ephraim is a direct descendant of Rachel. He's her grandson, the son of Joseph, her firstborn. The tribe from Rachel's other son, Benjamin, was one of the two tribes that formed the southern kingdom. Benjamin and Judah formed the southern kingdom, and Judah is the tribe that David belonged to. So Rachel had direct descendants in both the northern and the southern kingdoms. And fifth, geographically, we know that Rachel's tomb is not far from Rama. It's somewhere in that ten mile stretch between Bethel and Jerusalem. It's not far away. So here's the picture that Jeremiah is painting. As the captives are gathering for their deportation to Babylon, they're gathering in Rama, they metaphorically hear the weeping of Rachel in her tomb. Metaphorically, Rachel in her tomb is weeping for her children and she has a lot to weep about. The children of her son Joseph have already been taken to exile by the Assyrians, and now the children of her son Benjamin are going into exile in Babylon, and the town of Rama is in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. So Jeremiah has painted a vivid metaphorical picture that involves history, geography, and theology. Geographically, Rachel's tomb is just down the road from where the deportation is about to take place. Historically, all of Rachel's hopes for her children have been crushed. She wanted children of her own, but she also wanted her children to have children and to have children and to have children, and she wanted her descendants to enter into the blessing and the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She wanted to have children who would live and be blessed by God, and now her children are no more. Theologically, this is not just about the downfall of one nation. God has promised to bless the nation of Israel, but he also promised that through the nation of Israel all the nations of the world would be blessed. But Israel has failed to find that blessing, they failed to be that blessing, and now judgment and discipline has come upon the entire nation, both the northern and the southern alike, and so Rachel is weeping in her tomb. She is weeping and refuses to be comforted because her children are not. No more, and you would think that's the end of the story. There's no hope left. David's throne has been smashed by Babylon, and the children of Israel are about to be carted off into exile. So there's nothing to rejoice about. But this verse is found in chapter 31, which is one of the most hopeful passages in the book of Jeremiah. This section of Jeremiah contains some of the most hopeful and joyful promises in the book. We see in this section that God is promising to restore Israel both physically and spiritually. And chapter 31 of Jeremiah contains one of the most well-known passages on what we call the new covenant, how God is going to spiritually restore his people. Let me read a few verses to give you a feel for the context in which this verse appears that Matthew quotes. This is Jeremiah chapter 30, verse 3. For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it. And then Jeremiah thirty verses eight through ten, and it shall come to pass in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him, but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. Then fear not, O Jacob, my servant, declares the Lord, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from far away and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid. Then skipping to Jeremiah thirty one one, at that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people. And then here's the immediate context for our verse, the one that Matthew quotes. I'm going to start in Jeremiah thirty one eleven and read through verse seventeen. For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd, their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more. Then shall the young women rejoice and dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry, I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. I will feast the soul of the priest with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord. Thus says the Lord, a voice is heard in Rama, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more. Thus says the Lord, keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country. Notice that God gives this picture of Rachel weeping, so that he can immediately comfort her. He immediately says, Restrain from weeping. Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there's a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. And then later, this is perhaps the most famous verses in the chapter, this is Jeremiah thirty one, verses thirty one through thirty four. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. And one more section I want to read you. This is later still, this is in Jeremiah chapter thirty two, verses thirty six through forty one. Now therefore says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the city of which you say it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine and by pestilence. Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all my heart and all my soul. That's pretty hopeful stuff there. Now remember Jeremiah lived through these events. He saw the conquest of Jerusalem, he himself was taken to Rama, but he was not deported. He lived through all the tragedy and the grief he predicted, and yes, he's saying here Rachel is weeping over the exile, but there is comfort. Rachel's work in bringing forth children will ultimately be rewarded. There is hope and there is a future for the children of Israel. And what is the nature of that hope? Well Jeremiah tells us three things. Both the northern and the southern kingdom will be regathered in the land, they will undergo a spiritual restoration, and the throne of David will be established once again. But this time God is going to change the hearts of his people such that they will not turn away from him. He's going to change them from the inside out so that they will not break the covenant, and this time it's going to work. He's going to write the law in their hearts, he's going to give them one heart so that they will fear him always. They need to stay faithful, they need to fear the Lord, and God is going to give them the hearts to be able to do just that. Never again will they suffer this kind of judgment and exile. The restoration of the throne of David is also important because God has promised to bless the world through the throne of David. They are going to once again be ruled by a son of David sitting on David's throne, ruling over Israel and all the world in peace and righteousness. Let me read you one more verse. This is Jeremiah thirty three verses fourteen through sixteen. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is the name by which it will be called the Lord is our righteousness. That righteous king in the line of David, that branch that is going to spring up, is the Messiah. And Matthew has gone to great lengths to point out to us that Jesus is that Messiah. Okay, let's put all these pieces together and go back to Matthew. Here's the picture that Jeremiah paints. Rachel, the one who longed to have children, the one who died in childbirth near Rama, lies in her grave. Years later, near her grave, the descendants of her children are gathered as captives getting ready for deportation. At Rama, the captives metaphorically hear Rachel weeping for her lost children. It seems like the end of all her hopes. Yet God says be comforted because your children will once again be gathered in the land, and when they are, God will change their hearts such that they will remain faithful, and God will give them a Davidic king who will rule in peace and righteousness over all the earth. Now let's go back to Matthew. Let me read Matthew chapter two verses sixteen through eighteen again. 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 Rama, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be comforted because they are no more. Now I would argue that this is the second meaning of the word fulfilled, that we're seeing an analogous reality. There is something in the situation that Jeremiah is describing, a theme, a picture, that we are seeing in a more full or complete way in the story of Jesus. I think from the history and the context, we can rule out that first meaning of fulfill. We can conclude that Jeremiah did not mean to predict that children would be killed in Bethlehem at the time of the Messiah. That's not what Rachel is weeping over in Jeremiah. She is weeping because the Babylonians have devastated the hopes and the future of her children by conquering Jerusalem. So what's the analogous reality? What's the connection? Now remember, I take Matthew seriously. I trust him, I trust his exegetical skills, I trust his spiritual understanding. I think he has a point to make and he expects us to get it because we know the Old Testament, we know the history, we know who Rachel is, we know what happened at Rama, and we know the significance of all those events. And we also know that the term fulfilled does not necessarily have to mean predictive prophecy, and I think clearly he's not using it this way here. Now again, I'm going to give you my best understanding. Scholars debate this verse as with the other fulfillment passages. There are many good possible interpretations, and I read a couple of really good ways of solving this puzzle. I do not claim to have the market cornered on understanding. This is the option that persuades me. So first notice the geography. The passage in Jeremiah depends on the fact that Rachel's tomb is just down the road from Rama. In Jeremiah's time, Rama was the place where the hopes and the future of the nation of Israel were visibly lost as the exiles gathered for their deportation. And metaphorically, Rachel is weeping for the loss of all her hopes for all her children. But Rachel's tomb is also just down the road from Bethlehem, where Herod massacred the Jewish children. We could imagine that Rachel would weep again for the loss of her children. Rachel's tomb is geographically close to both places where these tragic events occurred in the history of God's people. In Jeremiah's time, it looks like all hope is lost because the nation is going into exile. In Matthew's time, it looks like all hope is lost because all the children who could have been the Messiah have been killed. I think Matthew is saying there's a significance in the Jeremiah passage that is deepened and brought to fullness by the events in Bethlehem. There is a filling out of the significance, a fuller picture of the theme. Now what is that? That of course is the hardest question. I don't think we can say that the massacre of these children is a bigger tragedy than the exile. Bethlehem is a small town and the number of children who died was way less than the number who died during the conquest and the exile. Now of course every death is tragic, but on the scale of things the exile was a bigger event. But in Bethlehem, the Messiah's involved. Why did these children die? They died because Herod wanted to kill the Messiah. Each one of these innocent children died because he might have been the Messiah, and Herod did not know for certain who it was. In a spiritual sense, though the Jews in Matthew's time are back in the land, there's a sense in which they are still in exile. They are still waiting for the promises of the new covenant. They are still waiting for the coming Messiah and the blessings he's going to bring. They've been conquered by Rome, who's just the new Babylon, and their king is not the righteous king from the line of David. It's King Herod, who is just a puppet of Rome. He's a pretender and not even a Jew, he's not of the line of David. In Jeremiah, Rachel is weeping because her hopes for her children seem to have ended. A foreign nation has conquered them and toppled the throne of David. In Matthew's time, the ultimate hope of the nation is again being threatened. Israel's ultimate hope lies in the Messiah. Without the Messiah, none of the promises can come about and they have no hope. The Messiah was the one Israelite in whom all the hopes of the world are focused. Now the Messiah's been born, and what's happened? The evil King Herod killed all the potential candidates. He has seemingly devastated their hope. Each of those children died because the king placed on the throne by foreign conquerors wanted the Messiah dead. If the Babylonian exile seemed like the end of all Israel's hopes, then the potential death of the Messiah would truly be the end of all Israel's hopes. And yet, just as in Jeremiah, God's promises still stand. Remember, Jeremiah describes Rachel weeping and then immediately in the next verse explains that God will comfort her and how God is going to comfort her. Her children will return, her children will be redeemed spiritually, they will live under the righteous rule of a king descended from David. And now that king has come, the Messiah has been born, and Rachel's hope will be fulfilled in the ultimate and final and true sense through the Messiah. Like in Jeremiah's time with the lost children of Bethlehem, all hope seems again to be lost, but it is not lost. God has acted to protect the young Messiah and he will keep his promises to Israel. The hope of Rachel's children will be fulfilled through the Messiah. So Matthew is drawing an analogy between these two points in the history of Israel when all hope seemed lost. In Jeremiah, Rachel is weeping because her hopes for her children seem to have ended. A foreign nation has conquered them and toppled the throne of David, seemingly ending the promises of God, but God immediately assures her his promises will stand and he will gather his people again. In Matthew's time, we're now talking about the ultimate hope of the nation, because the ultimate hope of the nation rests on the Messiah, and it is again being threatened. All the children who could have been the Messiah have been tragically killed, or so it seems. So how can the promises of God come about now? Israel's ultimate hope lies with the Messiah, and now it looks like Herod has wiped out all the potential candidates, and without the Messiah, none of the promises can come about, and they have no hope. Yet God's promises will stand. Let me read the verse from Jeremiah one more time. This is Jeremiah thirty one, fifteen through seventeen. So fifteen is the verse that Matthew quotes, and then notice sixteen and seventeen. Thus says the Lord, a voice is heard in Rama, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more. Thus says the Lord, keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country. The Messiah is not lost. The hope of Israel will stand. Rachel's tears will be dried, and God will keep his promises. I think that Matthew expects us to know the history of Israel and the context in which that quote from Jeremiah appears. Herod did not succeed in killing the Messiah despite his best efforts. The Messiah lived and he is going to fulfill the promises of the new covenant made in Jeremiah. Jesus speaks of himself as bringing about the new covenant. Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah, the son of David who will rule over all the world, and Jesus goes on to conquer death so that even the lost children of Bethlehem can find eternal life. So all the hopes that Rachel had for her children and her children's children will find their true, complete, and ultimate fulfillment in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, son of Abraham, son of David. Your podcast speed may be limited to the last 20 or so episodes, but you can hear all previous episodes by going to wednesdayintheword.com. There's no advertisements, only podcasts and Bible study resources, and it's all free. I don't take any advertising and I don't ask for connections. If you want to thank me, please join the mailing list, subscribe to the podcast, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen to your podcast, and most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coast. You can find his music in CDs on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I hope I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.