Christmas Horror and Hope

A woman wailed. Family members, their own faces wet with tears, tried to embrace her. She shoved them away, literally and figuratively.

The scene was repeated over and over. This was a horror day which would go down in history as a bleak aside to the Christmas story.

A megalomaniacal ruler had ordered the murder of all boys under the age of two in the area. His reason was that an ancient prophecy pointed to a king’s birth in that area at that time. A baby had been born … a baby who would not be allowed to grow up … or so King Herod intended.

Which is why ALL baby boys there had to die.

The facts

Christmas cards picture three wise men with gifts, paying homage to the newborn king. They never feature distraught mothers whose baby sons have been wrenched from their arms and slaughtered. But that, too, is an integral part of ‘The Christmas Story’.

Matthew didn’t go into details in his record, but simply stated the facts.

When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Matthew 2:16

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

Today (as I write), churches around the world commemorate ‘The Feast of the Holy Innocents’. It seems strange to call it a ‘feast’, for as long as anybody knows, this ‘feast day’ was actually a day of fasting and mourning. And for good reason.

On this day, we remember that awful day some 2020 years ago when innocent children died a violent and undeserved death.

Yes, this atrocity served to fulfil an ancient prophecy from Jeremiah (according to Matthew). But it seemed so senseless. So wrong.

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

Matthew 2:17-18 NIV

Ramah – a place of pain for mothers

Rachel, of course, was the mother of three of Israel’s tribes – Ephraim and Manasseh (of Joseph’s line) and Benjamin. She died giving birth to Benjamin on the road to Bethlehem (Genesis 35:19-20). Her husband, Jacob, erected a monument there. Traditionally, Rachel’s tomb is recognised as being just outside Bethlehem, though scholars put it a little further north.

Rachel was childless for many years, a source of tremendous pain in itself in that culture, and a grief which she shared with several other notable figures in Israel’s history. Her grandmother-in-law, Sarah, knew what childlessness was like. Hannah, mother of the great prophet Samuel, would later suffer a similar grief for many years right there in Ramah.

Rachel would eventually be given a child … a child of promise … who would find himself whisked away to Egypt when he wasn’t much more than a kid. Joseph’s power-hungry brothers were at fault but God was sovereign and was preparing to save the clan through Joseph’s future position in Egypt. Rachel would then bear one more child, only to lose her own life in the process.

Rachel wept in Ramah. She wept for all that could have been but was not. She wept for shattered hopes and dreams. She wept for her children who were taken from her. And then she died.

But that was not the end.

Ramah – a base for the Babylonian exile

Jeremiah, whose prophecy was fulfilled that horrendous day in Jesus’ time, spent time in Ramah. When the Babylonians came and forcefully exiled the Jews, their base was Ramah. It was actually in the context of imminent exile that Jeremiah pronounced this prophecy:

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 her children are no more.”

Jeremiah 31:15 NIV

There was a note of hope, however, even in the midst of pain. Read what else the LORD had in store. The prophecy continued:

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.
So there is hope for your future,”
declares the LORD.
“Your children will return to their own land.”

Jeremiah 31:16-17 NIV

Jeremiah himself actually avoided exile, though he had been chained and prepared for an imminent departure. His liberation took place at Ramah, which is why I surmise that the exile began there.

The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had released him at Ramah. He had found Jeremiah bound in chains among all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being carried into exile to Babylon.

Jeremiah 40:1NIV

It is significant, surely, that Jesus was sent into exile from Ramah to Egypt. This came about through the angel of the Lord giving instructions in a dream to Joseph, and thus fulfilling another prophecy (Matthew 2:13-15).

The symbolism is thick. Even as the baby was carried to safety, the lives of his young male peers were destroyed in a manner reminiscent of Moses’ story. But that was not the end.

Physical events reflect spiritual realities

John’s revelation from Jesus to the early church was given to encourage those early believers to stand firm, despite the dreadful days in which they lived. In chapter 12 of the book of Revelation, we can read a story remarkably similar to the horrendous tale of the slaughter of the innocents.

In Revelation 12, the ultimate megalomaniac – Satan – was desperate to destroy the woman and the child, the one through whom the salvation of all creation would come. The woman and the child were protected by divine intervention. When he realised that the babe had been whisked away from his clutches, Satan went ballistic. The apostle John helpfully, at this point, put in a note of explanation.

Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring – those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 12:17

Revelation 12 is rich in symbolism. One thing is clear from this section, at least, and that is that the enemy’s power is real but temporary. Suffering for Jesus’ sake is normal but it is not eternal.

Satan’s fury is not the end of the story.

Pulling it all together

On this day on which the church commemorates ‘The Feast of the Holy Innocents’, we remember a dreadful atrocity.

Many of us Gentiles miss the rich symbolism of this horrendous tale. Let me try to summarise the riches I have glimpsed today as I have spent time in this passage.

First, pain is inevitable. We are part of a bigger story in which a megalomaniac strikes out in fury at Almighty God’s incarnation. That doesn’t excuse the various perpetrators of evil, of course. But it is not the end.

Second, we are encouraged to persevere. God, in his sovereignty, is working in the brokenness and despair of fallen creation. May we cling ever more tightly to the Saviour who was born that first Christmas when we suffer the fury of Satan, the ruler of our world, the one who has already been defeated.

I detest this part of the Christmas story with every maternal fibre of my being. Sin is like that. It’s horrendous. But against that dark backdrop, there is hope.

May we persevere, then, in obedience to the one who was born in a manger and snatched away to safety in Egypt.

For that was not the end of the story.