Advent 5/25

 DAY FIVE (week one; prophecies)

   There are two prophecies we will read today. They are both concerning Jesus travelling- one out of Bethlehem, and one out of Egypt. Let’s look at the first:
   
   “This is what the LORD says: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.’” (NASB)

   What does this weeping woman, Rachel, have to do with Jesus and Bethlehem? Let’s look at the second one in Hosea 11:1.

   “When Israel was a youth I loved Him, and out of Egypt I called My son.” (NASB)

   At least that one mentions a son traveling. Yet they still aren’t talking about a sign or Messiah like the others were. How do we know these are prophecies? Well, let’s look at where they are fulfilled, in Matthew 2:13-21!

   “Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.’ So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod; this happened so that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’ Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent men and killed all the boys who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; And she refused to be comforted, Because they were no more.” But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, ‘Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.’ So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.”  (NASB)

   Okay, that was a lot of reading, so I’ll summarize. King Herod heard that a king would be born in Bethlehem at a certain time, so to protect his crown, he ordered that all young boys would be murdered. God is all-knowing, so He sent an angel to tell them to leave Bethlehem into Egypt. Once King Herod died, it was safe for Jesus to return. 
   Even though those two passages didn’t seem to be prophecies, they were pointing directly towards events in Jesus’s early life. Can you think of a prophecy in the New Testament you've read that doesn’t make sense, because it hasn’t been fulfilled yet? Or, was there ever a time where you looked back at certain things, and they make sense after the fact? Hindsight is 20-20, after all! 
   
That is the tiniest glimpse that we have into God’s omniscience. He sees and understands everything, as He is outside of time. Today, I encourage you to pray with me for comfort in the unknown and freedom from anxiety because God has control.