Jeremiah 31:15-17
15 This is what the Lord says:
‘A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.’
16 This is what the Lord says:
‘Restrain your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,’
declares the Lord.
‘They will return from the land of the enemy.
17 So there is hope for your descendants,’
declares the Lord.
‘Your children will return to their own land.’
Rachel was buried near Ramah (1 Sam. 10:2), while in the course of a journey when her family were aliens in the land of the Canaanites. In quoting verse 15 of Jeremiah 31, Matthew 2.6 is thinking back to the deportation of the people of the northern and southern kingdoms into exile in Assyria and Babylon: they were gathered at Ramah to begin their journey (Jer. 40:1-2). Matthew is of course likening the grief of the exiles in 722BC and 586BC to that of the mothers of Bethlehem when Herod tried to eliminate the new king that the magi had told him of. But the next verses in Jeremiah tell Rachel to stop weeping, because in God’s faithfulness the exiles will return. Matthew is surely saying the same of what happened in Bethlehem – God’s plans will not be thwarted, the Saviour will return. That’s a promise for us to hold on to in these miserable days too.
How has God been faithful to you in the past. Look back at your experiences and at the testimony of the Bible and know that he will continue to be faithful come what may.
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