Msg #24049 Bethlehem Ephratah
What The Bible Says
Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
“O little town of Bethlehem,” the tiny town in the hill country of Judah, the birthplace of our Lord Jesus Christ, has a rich Bible heritage. When Israel first returned to the Promised Land, his wife, Rachel, died in childbirth in Bethlehem (house of bread); it took the subscript, “Ephratah” (an ash-heap AND place of fruitfulness). How is it that out of the ashes comes fruitfulness? Rachel called her child Benoni “son of my sorrow” but his father called him Benjamin “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, burial, 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, born in Bethlehem, a man after God’s own heart (1Sam 16:1). David’s great-grandmother, Ruth, bears her own story of ashes, fruitfulness, and our own Kinsman Redeemer (Ruth1-4). Despite the garrison of Philistines camped in Bethlehem, David desired water from its well (2Sam.23:14-17), and Jesus said, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst… a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). Out of Bethlehem, “house of bread” comes Jesus saying, “I am the bread of life… He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:35-48). “O little town of Bethlehem,” still today a garrison of hate filled “Philistines” are there, but Micah 5:2 promised great victories come from heaps of ashes. God still takes ruin and turns it into fruitfulness; God Bless America. “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 8, 2024
A Journeld Tour of Bethlehem www.GSBaptistChurch.com/israel22
Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs241208.mp3
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