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“There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews?…When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:1-3).
“In Rama there was a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not” (Matthew 2:18).
Yesterday in the town of Uvalde, TX, U.S.A., there was a mass shooting in an elementary school, in which nineteen children and two teachers were killed. Eventually the shooter himself was killed by law enforcement officers. Today many parents, relatives, and friends are mourning the tragedy, while many others wonder what can be done to stop such awful things from happening.
As we see in our verses today, a similar thing happened over 2,000 years ago, when Herod ordered all the young boys two years old and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding area to be killed. By doing this he hoped to kill the Lord Jesus, who was also a young child then. Many cried and mourned at that time too.
However, in neither situation did people deal with the real problem. In Israel, as we see in our first verse, all Jerusalem was troubled when they heard the news that the Lord Jesus was born. They were not ready for Him. Likewise today, as nations in North America we have rejected the Word of God, engaged in open sin, and ridiculed any who hold firmly to the principles of God’s Word. Is it any wonder that we are reaping the fruits of all this?
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