Who is rachel weeping for her children

Women would again weep over the death of an innocent one. This Innocent One would be a direct descendent of Rachel. But unlike her grave, his tomb quickly became empty. He soon went back to his home in heaven. When he comes again it will be to take every last one of his children safely home with him. Prayer: Lord of life and death, we cannot comprehend your ways.

We know that you are just, and that you punish evil. We also know that you blot out our crimes from your book because of your Son, who paid for them with his life. Help us keep our eyes fixed upon your faithfulness when we cannot understand why you allow sad things to take place. Point us to Jesus, who was willing to enter this jungle of hatred, and jealousy, and death. Remind us that you were willing to allow him to be murdered—at the time and place of your choosing—so that we might live forever.

Dry, now, the tears of those who weep over loved ones departed. It is in the name of the Babe of Bethlehem that we pray. Written by Rev. All rights reserved worldwide. Note: Scripture reading footnotes are clickable only in the web version.

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Like the Israelites, he is led into Egypt by a man named Joseph, a man whom God speaks to in dreams. The photos are really just the icing on the cake. The PhotoGuide article on Ramah gave me all the relevant passages needed to explain the connection between Ramah and Bethlehem, so that constituted the bulk of my research. Of course, this passage was focused specifically on a place name, so the PhotoGuide was an obvious place to begin.

Rather than having to skim commentary which deals with the use of the Old Testament as one of a dozen important aspects of a passage, Beale and Carson put that one issue front and center. While explaining why Rachel was weeping at Ramah required having my Sunday School class look at a number of different passages together with several maps, they were able to follow my explanation without getting overwhelmed by the details.

On the contrary, they were excited to see how all these passages fit together. Pete Enns, Ph. Peter Enns Ph. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Tweets at peteenns. But I also know modern Western Christians have a lot of trouble identifying the depth of panic and pain of the Babylonian exile, which one prophet compared to a mother losing her children: Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping.

Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. Exile was the trauma of the Old Testament—and we dare not underestimate its impact. The Temple, mind you. How could God abandon us? How could God turn his back on a plan that goes back to Abraham? What will happen to us now? Are we no longer the chosen people? But the Persian Empire did control the land of Judah for the next two hundred years, and during that time the questions shifted a bit: How much longer before we have our own king again?

When will things finally get fully back to normal? What do we do in the meantime? And that crisis would have to be processed, so the Judahites did what anyone would have done under the circumstances: they told their story: This is who we are.

This is where we came from. This is what we believe of God. This is where things went wrong. This is our hope for a renewed future.