Shalom:
" Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Ex. 1:22
"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." Matt 2:18
It has been a sad week.
As many of my friends prepare to celebrate winter holidays, the joy has been tempted with sadness and tears.
Like most Americans, I find myself choking when ever I see a tiny coffin being carried into a House of Worship or a grave site. I cried myself into a headache when I heard that the first victim was killed by her own son. Such hatred that he would go to the school where she worked and shoot to death twenty tiny souls and their teachers.
Why? Because he was mad that his mother, who could no longer help him, was seeking legal action to place him somewhere to get her son help. Because he was jealous of the attention his mother gave the children at Sandy Hook.
So he rose up and killed.
This reminds me of both Pharaoh and King Herod.
Pharaoh, who feared that the Hebrews would rise up and fight with his enemies, at first tried to have the Midwives do his dirty work. When that plan failed, he ordered the baby boys thrown into the Nile River.
From the mist of this nightmare, rose a saviour. His parents would not obey the order, hid their boy until he was six months old, and then, through a series of events, Moshe (Moses) ended up living in the Palace of the very man who ordered his death and one day, would leave his people to the Promise Land.
Speed forth to the Birth of Yeshua. During this time, the Jews were waiting for the Messiah, seeking him in every infant boy's face.
King Herod also knew about the prophecy about the coming of a new king, one who would sit on the Throne of King David his father.
One day, Herod heard of a group of men looking for "he was born king of the Jews." He had them brought to his Palace and during the interview, he learn these men from the East, after reading the writings of the prophet Daniel, figured through Daniel's writings and their charts, this was about the time for Messiah to be born.
Calling it "His Star in the night sky, they followed it to Jerusalem, where the men were led to see Herod, who after all was king.
During the interview, the men told Herod that they stopped His Star over Bethlehem, and it led them here.
Upon hearing the Messiah was born, Herod asked the men to go and find the child and let him know when they did.
But his plan wasn't to come and worship, but to kill Yeshua before He even grew up.
However, the men upon finding the almost two year old Yeshua and his family, leaving gifts fit for a king, upon a warning in a dream, the men did not return to Herod, but returned home another way.
Upon hearing the news, Herod, became enraged and that Autumn night (not Winter) ordered the murder of every baby boy two years old and younger.
The night air of Bethlehem was filled with the blood curling screams of babies being slain, mothers and fathers trying to protect their babies, many of these parents maybe dying as well.
The slaying of the innocent.
Since the Fall in Eden, our world has known evil, death and loss,evil and tragedy. The first murder, one brother killed another because "G-d liked Abel better." Eve holding the stone cold body of her baby, weeping over him as Adam dug his grave.
As I listen to the news these days, I think of the above.
No, I do not believe that is was G-d's will 27 people lost their lives that day. He allowed it; it is the down side of G-d giving us free-will. We are made in G-d's image and He has given us the freedom to decide how we will live, how we will act in the world. We have the ability to make moral choices. Free will is what separates us from animals. This is also the source of much pain in our lives, in our world. Each of us is capable of making selfish choices. Even evil choices. And whenever that happens, people get hurt. People die.
And I pray. I pray for the comfort of the families, for the little ones who saw teachers and friends die. I pray for G-d's comfort for the whole community of Newtown.
And I look up, to Heaven, knowing that is the Home of the innoce,nt knowing that one day evil will be done away with. Knowing that G-d weeps with us.
" Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Ex. 1:22
"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." Matt 2:18
As many of my friends prepare to celebrate winter holidays, the joy has been tempted with sadness and tears.
Like most Americans, I find myself choking when ever I see a tiny coffin being carried into a House of Worship or a grave site. I cried myself into a headache when I heard that the first victim was killed by her own son. Such hatred that he would go to the school where she worked and shoot to death twenty tiny souls and their teachers.
Why? Because he was mad that his mother, who could no longer help him, was seeking legal action to place him somewhere to get her son help. Because he was jealous of the attention his mother gave the children at Sandy Hook.
So he rose up and killed.
This reminds me of both Pharaoh and King Herod.
Pharaoh, who feared that the Hebrews would rise up and fight with his enemies, at first tried to have the Midwives do his dirty work. When that plan failed, he ordered the baby boys thrown into the Nile River.
From the mist of this nightmare, rose a saviour. His parents would not obey the order, hid their boy until he was six months old, and then, through a series of events, Moshe (Moses) ended up living in the Palace of the very man who ordered his death and one day, would leave his people to the Promise Land.
Speed forth to the Birth of Yeshua. During this time, the Jews were waiting for the Messiah, seeking him in every infant boy's face.
King Herod also knew about the prophecy about the coming of a new king, one who would sit on the Throne of King David his father.
One day, Herod heard of a group of men looking for "he was born king of the Jews." He had them brought to his Palace and during the interview, he learn these men from the East, after reading the writings of the prophet Daniel, figured through Daniel's writings and their charts, this was about the time for Messiah to be born.
Calling it "His Star in the night sky, they followed it to Jerusalem, where the men were led to see Herod, who after all was king.
During the interview, the men told Herod that they stopped His Star over Bethlehem, and it led them here.
Upon hearing the Messiah was born, Herod asked the men to go and find the child and let him know when they did.
But his plan wasn't to come and worship, but to kill Yeshua before He even grew up.
However, the men upon finding the almost two year old Yeshua and his family, leaving gifts fit for a king, upon a warning in a dream, the men did not return to Herod, but returned home another way.
Upon hearing the news, Herod, became enraged and that Autumn night (not Winter) ordered the murder of every baby boy two years old and younger.
The night air of Bethlehem was filled with the blood curling screams of babies being slain, mothers and fathers trying to protect their babies, many of these parents maybe dying as well.
The slaying of the innocent.
Since the Fall in Eden, our world has known evil, death and loss,evil and tragedy. The first murder, one brother killed another because "G-d liked Abel better." Eve holding the stone cold body of her baby, weeping over him as Adam dug his grave.
As I listen to the news these days, I think of the above.
No, I do not believe that is was G-d's will 27 people lost their lives that day. He allowed it; it is the down side of G-d giving us free-will. We are made in G-d's image and He has given us the freedom to decide how we will live, how we will act in the world. We have the ability to make moral choices. Free will is what separates us from animals. This is also the source of much pain in our lives, in our world. Each of us is capable of making selfish choices. Even evil choices. And whenever that happens, people get hurt. People die.
And I pray. I pray for the comfort of the families, for the little ones who saw teachers and friends die. I pray for G-d's comfort for the whole community of Newtown.
And I look up, to Heaven, knowing that is the Home of the innoce,nt knowing that one day evil will be done away with. Knowing that G-d weeps with us.
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