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Christmas:  Comfort For The Comfortless 3
Matthew 2:1-18
 
 
        *Christmas is about the comfort of God that is revealed in the birth of Jesus Christ.*
Yet, there are many people, particularly in this country and particularly at Christmas time who don’t feel that there is any comfort for them.
They are without comfort.
They are without any hope of comfort.
*They are comfortless*.
They don’t believe that Jesus, or any one else; can comfort their saddened hearts.
This is especially and still true, in the light of what happened on September 11th, 2001.
We see a similar situation in the Bible, in
 
Matthew 2:16-18, “Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the magi.
Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be comforted, because they were no more.’”
The setting of the Christmas story is in the days of Herod.
Herod is a type or picture of Satan.
*And just as* *Satan wanted to destroy the Christ-child, he also wants to destroy the Christ-child in us, so that there will be no Christmas.*
Satan hate’s Christmas because of it’s potential, but he also hates it because it highlights his murderous spirit!!!  We see here two competing spirits:  the spirit of Herod against the spirit of heaven.
The spirit of heaven is one of rejoicing, because of the birth of the Savior of the world.
The spirit of Herod is one of /excessive/ grief and sadness over the children that Herod murdered.
*At Christmas time, there is a spirit of Satan that approximates the spirit of Herod that seeks to impose itself in our lives.
*Satan wants to kill our hopes, dreams, destiny, joy, etc. that our small children represent.
Satan wants to kill our dreams and our destiny, so that his kingdom will seem to reign preeminent over Christ’s kingdom.
This is the third message in this series.
(Let us go back into this dark passage of Scripture and see if we can relate to the mothers of Bethlehem.)
*Think of the pain and the sense of unfairness that the Israelite mothers must have felt.*
Nobody every promised that life would be fair, yet there seems to be something inside of every Human being that expects some level of fairness.
It is probably a part of being made in the image and likeness of God.
This expectation of fairness is often unfulfilled, for any number of reasons, but one reason is the difference between *the fairness of Humanity* and *the justice and righteousness of God*.
*Our flesh skews our concept of fairness.*
We are not really seeking for godly justice, but for what we believe is personally right to us.
Remember that God is *not* humanly fair, but divinely holy.
Our God is a holy God and He manifests His holiness through justice and righteousness.
Justice is the negative side of holiness, which brings accountability for offending His holiness.
And righteousness is the positive side of His holiness that establishes standards that are in keeping with His personal holiness.
*So our fairness and God’s justice and righteousness are often a long ways apart.*
Yet, we still have our longing and expectation of fairness based upon our skewed, selfish perception of justice and righteousness, and there are many things that do *not* seem fair.
·        What fairness can be seen or achieved in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent babies?
·        What fairness can be seen or achieved in the thousands of people who were killed in the attacks upon America?
·        What fairness can be seen or achieved in many situations in life.
The answer to us is, “None!”  *Thus we experience not only the pain of loss, but also the pain of the disillusionment of unfairness.*
·        Perceived unfairness leaves us with a bad taste in our mouths.
·        Perceived unfairness galls us and riles us up to look for someone to blame.
·        Perceived unfairness stabs our sense of hope in the heart.
·        Perceived unfairness impacts us towards fatalism, i.e. the philosophy that life is already set and there is nothing that we can do to change our destinies.
·        Perceived unfairness, in the long run, saps us of the energy to live a vibrant life and leaves us listless and limp like a wet noodle.
So, the pain of unfairness compounds the pain of loss and grief.
Can you feel the pain yet?
*Can you taste the salty tears of these forlorn mothers?*
*Yet, there is a divine design behind all that is happening.*
God is working out ultimate justice and righteousness, which we cannot see right now and which are beyond our comprehension, until we experience it.
You ask me, “What is that justice?
What is that righteousness?”
One commentator wrote, “O ye mothers of Bethlehem!
methinks I hear you asking why your innocent babes should be the ram caught in the thicket, while Isaac escapes.
I cannot tell you, but one thing I know, that ye shall, some of you, live to see a day when that Babe of Bethlehem shall be Himself the Ram, caught in another sort of thicket, in order that your babes may escape a worse doom than they now endure.
And if these babes of yours be now in glory, through the dear power of that blessed Babe, will they not deem it their honor that the tyrant’s rage was exhausted upon themselves instead of their infant Lord?”[1]
\\ Let me explain.
*These babies were taken to glory that the baby Jesus might be spared to live and die for the sins of the world.*
These babies were the proverbial rams tied in the bush for Jesus.
Even as the ram tied in the bush, became the sacrifice instead of Abraham’s only begotten son, Isaac, so these babies became the rams tied in the bush for God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
You say, “That’s so unfair!”
Is it?
·        Do you know who these babies were?
·        Do you know how they would have grown up?
·        Do you know what kind of lives they would have lived?
·        Are you omniscient?
·        Do you know all things?
·        Can the pot say to the Potter, “Why are you making me like this?”
 
Just wait awhile, before you pass judgment.
*Wait and see what will happen, because in a short while the true Ram of God, Jesus Christ, will be caught in the bush of Calvary and return the favor for these babies.*
He will be born, live, and die on Calvary that they might be in heaven.
I believe that every child that dies before the age of accountability, i.e. before they know right from wrong is saved on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and taken immediately to be in the presence of the Lord.
Some of you are thinking, “Okay so these precious babies are in the presence of the Lord.
That still doesn’t seem very fair to me!”  *Well, think about this:  “They probably aren’t precious babies anymore, but precious saints.”*
When the curtains of time and eternity are pulled back in the Bible and we see those saints who have already died, they always seem to be in the prime of life.
So, these babies are in the prime of life, in the presence of Jesus Christ, probably happy that they could give their lives for the Babe from heaven!!!
These mothers may still refuse to be comforted, but their babes are no doubt experiencing great comfort!!!
If they could conceive of their babies being comforted, could they *not* possibly take some small comfort in the fact that they had given their babies so that the baby Jesus might be born?
Although they had lost babes, there is comfort in the fact that */another Babe/* would be born unto them.
Isaiah 9:6-7, “*For a child will be born to us*, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”
 
\\ There is comfort in the birth of The Child!!!  Simeon saw and proclaimed this in
 
Luke 2:28-32, “Then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, ‘Now Lord, Thou dost let Thy bond-servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.”
Simeon could depart in peace or comfort, because his eyes had seen God’s salvation, deliverance, and comfort in the person of the baby Jesus!!!
Perhaps these mothers could sense the joy of others.
*The pain of these mothers and children, in Bethlehem, would bring about joy to the world.*
The Bible announces in
 
Luke 2:8-11, “And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.
And the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, *I bring you good news of a great joy* which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’”
The good news of great joy, in the birth of the Savior of the world, should have brought joy to world, and that includes these forlorn mothers.
*But, perhaps they are like Americans.
We are not so easily comforted.*
We think our own thoughts.
We are individualists.
We are not easily persuaded and we wonder about things that are *not* clear to us.
We still wonder why little children must suffer disease and death and we refuse to accept the just and righteous words of Jesus Christ, written in His Word.
*But, have you considered the fact that the diseases and deaths of little children are proofs of original sin.*
Paul tells us in the fifth (5th) chapter of Romans that through one man, Adam, sin entered the world.
And when sin entered the world, death also entered through sin and passed unto all of Humanity, because all sin.
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