THE HEROD DEFECT of the first century is still in effect in the twenty-first century. Matthew records in 2:16, “… Herod… was furious, and he gave the orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time…” And the times have not changed. The evil that was resident in the paranoid mind of Herod also infected the mind of a 20-year old young man in Newtown, Connecticut, now over 2000 years removed. Surely the last step down in depravity is to wantonly take the lives of innocent children. The irony… and tragedy… is that both of these unspeakable crimes against God and man were perpetrated in the season of the advent… Christmas. The fear and suffering that surrounded the birth of Jesus then has now been deposited in the impressionable minds of surviving children and their families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The heart-pain of the Bethlehem mothers on that first Christmas was prophesied by Jeremiah 31:15, “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.” This lament parallels the anguish in the hearts of the mothers in Newtown, Connecticut this Christmas 2012. But, as we wring our hands and pound our fists against our foreheads for an answer as to why these things happen… can we be reminded again that the only way these tragedies can be resolved is by the presence and power of the One who came to earth who was ‘full of grace and truth’ [John 1:17]? He alone will bring justice where His love has not been received. And, without Jesus, there is no help or hope. Without Him there will be no resolution or glad reunion with these little lost loved ones in the greater life. Because He lives, we too shall live.
Pray with me [and the apostle John in Revelation 22:20]… “Come again Lord Jesus.” Amen.
Blessings,
Pastor Ken
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