Weeping in Ramah- Advent Devotional

Advent: Still Longing for Christ’s Coming

‘Tis the Season

• Chocolate advent calendars – my only association with Advent as a kid

o I get them for my kids because I never had them as a kid

o Got a nativity advent calendar to help our kids focus on Jesus’ Birth

• Often advent is associated with a “Christmas Countdown” - building anticipation for the Christmas season and the celebrations and traditions that go with it.

• What happens when ‘Tis the Season to be Jolly but you’re in a season of sorrow?

o What if Christmas isn’t what it used to be? Maybe you’re missing loved ones. Maybe family relationships are strained. Maybe, like me, you thought you’d have another little person around the table, and now they’re in heaven.

o Is there room for lament in Advent?

o This is where a full understanding of Advent can provide hope and comfort when the holidays aren’t so jolly. Something I only learned over the past 10 years.

• Define Advent: Advent means coming – from the Latin adventus

o a season of expectantly preparing to celebrate the first coming of Jesus, while eagerly awaiting His second coming to establish His kingdom, even as we celebrate His presence among us through the promised Holy Spirit.

o Advent is a season of waiting – we are still waiting for Christ to return.

o So, is there a place for lament in Advent?

o Even as we look back to Christ’s First Coming on Christmas Day…did you know there was lament in the Christmas Story?

o Part of the narrative we often gloss over as we follow Jesus and His parents

Slaughter

• Read Passage:

o Let’s Look at Mt 2:16-18

o 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. 17 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.”

• Summarize narrative up to that point:

o Jesus has been born in Bethlehem

o Wise men see His star rising in the East and know it signifies the birth of a King (B/c of Daniel’s prophecies?)

o They inquire of King Herod, and the priests direct them to Bethlehem

o Herod tells them to come back when they find the King so he can “worship” too

o An angel warns them in a dream to depart a different way

o Unbeknownst to Herod, an angel warns Joseph to flee to Egypt – they’re SAFE

• An Evil Act

o Herod realizes he’s been tricked

o Determined to stamp out this threat to his throne

o To cover all his bases, he kills all male babies 2 years and under (b/c the star had appeared 2 years before)

o Senseless, evil, wicked genocide

Sadness

• Imagine living in Bethlehem – sons, nephews, cousins, grandsons, friends – GONE

o Sons who were the hope, pride, and joy of the family – GONE

o The most precious Son preserved – at great cost

o Happy ending for Jesus, Mary & Joseph

o But think of the grieving families – Jesus’ family relations

o The sadness of the Savior - What might Jesus have felt when he grew older and realized His birth fulfilled this prophecy?

Stated in Scripture

• The Prophecy – Jer 31:15

o The meaning

 Rachel – the wife of Jacob (Israel) – Scripture uses this to refer to Israel from a motherly perspective

 Ramah – Jeremiah could hear the sound of Rachel’s sobbing in Jerusalem, coming all the way from Ramah. Ramah was a transit camp for refugees. The Babylonians dragged their prisoners five miles from Jerusalem to a staging area at Ramah, where they were chained together for the long march to Babylon.

 A place of utter despair – families ripped apart — mothers lifting their voices in lamentation. Their children, their babies, were gone! Starved in the siege, killed in the invasion, ripped from their mothers’ arms.

 A prophecy with a double fulfillment – once in the OT during the Babylonia captivity. Then, finally during the birth of Christ.

• Messianic Prophecy - Jer 31:12-18

 Jesus’ peers died in His place to preserve Him so that He could in turn one day die in our place…and in theirs…making them safe in Heaven

 Jeremiah is laying out the promises of deliverance through the coming Messiah

 In the middle of that, comes this prophecy

 Hope is coming. Deliverance is coming. But there is still grief now.

Semi-Solution in Jesus’ First Coming

• When Jesus came, He did not immediately put all things to right

o He was a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief

o A time of joy in fulfilled prophecy VS a time of sorrow in fulfilled prophecy

• Jesus’ First Coming wasn’t pointless.

o It set the stage for the ultimate triumph.

o He came to take away the sins of the world.

o He was a Man of Sorrows who gave His life to conquer death.

o He has freed us from the power of sin and given us hope.

o He has conquered spiritual death and given Spiritual life.

o He has given us the Holy Spirit – even better than Jesus’ physical presence

o Restate advent: a season of expectantly preparing to celebrate the first coming of Jesus, while eagerly awaiting His second coming to establish His kingdom, even as we celebrate His presence among us through the promised Holy Spirit.

o Jesus is present with us through the Holy Spirit

Solace comes at the end of this Advent: His Second Coming

• But we have not yet seen the full fulfillment.

o If that prophecy was fulfilled literally, we know the rest will be.

o Let’s look at one of those prophecies:

Revelation 21:1-7 - Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

• Right now, we live in the tension of the already-not-yet.

o Already saved, not yet fully sanctified.

o Already filled with the H.S., not yet seeing Jesus face-to-face

o Already delivered from sin’s power, but still living with sin’s presence.

Conclusion: The Season

• If you are weeping this Christmas Season, there is a place for you at the manger.

• Jesus didn’t live a warm and fuzzy fairytale life. You don’t have to feel out of place at the holidays if your life is not picture-perfect. You can identify with Christ.

• If you feel like things are not quite as they should be, God agrees with you. That’s why Jesus is coming back to finish what He started.

• But He is coming to make all things new.

• During this Advent Season,

o Look back and rejoice in the Father sending His Son in the First Coming at Christmas

o Thank Jesus for sending us the gift of the Holy Spirit who is with us now.

o Look forward to Jesus’ Second Coming when He will return and make all things new.

‘Tis the Season. Not the season to be jolly. Season of Sorrows, Season of Supplication, Season of Sureness and Solace.

 Jeremiah’s prophecy was about the public worship of God. He had already invited God’s people to worship on Mount Zion (v. 6). In this prophecy, he shows what it will be like when they do: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: “The Lord bless you, O righteous dwelling, O sacred mountain” ’ ” (v. 23). Jeremiah was quoting from Israel’s hymnal, which described Zion as God’s “holy mountain” (Psalm 48:1). His point was that God’s people would come back to God’s house to worship.

 The joy of worship is among the greatest comforts of this life. It is the reason we were made in the first place—to praise and to glorify God. So public worship on the Lord’s Day is the center of the Christian life. More than anywhere else, this is where we find comfort in our grief. After all the trials and sorrows of the week before, we begin the new week in the sanctuary. We enter God’s house to hear God’s voice and to be comforted by God’s grace. Even in sorrow, we do not stop worshiping God."

• Isaiah 31:16-17 –

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.

17 There is hope for your future,

declares the Lord,

and your children shall come back to their own country.

o Calvin called this “a promise which moderates the grievousness of the calamity.” Sorrow and grief do not have the last word, either in Jeremiah or in Matthew. A mother may refuse to be comforted, but God will comfort her nonetheless. “Rachel’s tears were not in vain and not forever"