What The Bible Says
Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
Important things are often overlooked when one thinks of “O little town of Bethlehem,” a tiny town in the hill country of Judah but the birthplace of our Lord Jesus Christ. After Rachel died there in childbirth it came to be called Bethlehem Ephratah; Ephratah meaning both heap of ashes and place of fruitfulness. How is it that out of the ashes comes fruitfulness? Rachel called her child “son of my sorrow” but his father called him “son of the right hand.” So to the Christ was “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa 53:3), but in his death and resurrection he was fruitful, bringing everlasting life. A Benjaminite named Saul visited Rachel's tomb on his way to the throne (1Sam 10:2), and out of his failed kingdom rose King David, who was born in Bethlehem (1Sam 16:1). Bethlehem means “house of bread” and out of her comes he who said, “I am the bread of life... He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:35-48). Despite the garrison of Philistines camped in Bethlehem, David desired water from its well (2Sam 23:14-17), and it is no coincidence that Jesus said, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst... (it) shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). “O little town of Bethlehem,” there is still a garrison of hate filled Palestinians there, but God in Micah 5 still promises great victories to come from that heap of ashes. God still takes ashes and turns them into fruitfulness. “Come to Bethlehem, and see, Him Whose birth the angels sing. Come, adore on bended knee, Christ the Lord, the newborn King.” Merry Christmas.
An Essay for week #49 Dec 9, 2018
Msg in ppt slides at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/msgs/advent_bethlehem
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A weekly 300 word essay- The Penny Pulpit
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