Question on Matthew
2.18
Recently
I was asked about Matthew 2.18, “A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation,
weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be
comforted, Because they are no more.” Specifically the question wanted to
understand what was meant by “Rachel weeping for her children.”
Let
us set the background for this passage. Rachel was the wife of Jacob.
She was also mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She died shortly after giving
birth to Benjamin and was buried a few miles from
Bethlehem
, Genesis 35.18-19. During the days of Jeremiah,
Jerusalem
was destroyed and the Jews were carried off into captivity. Matthew 2.18 is
taken from Jeremiah 31.15 speaking of the terribleness of the captivity. “The
word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebucaradan the captain of the
guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all
who were carried away captive from Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away
captive to Babylon.” This Ramah is located near
Bethlehem
and is the place of Rachel’s tomb. So Jeremiah uses Rachel as a
representative of those lamenting the death of their children.
Jesus
was born in the town of
Bethlehem
. When the wise men came searching for the Child, Herod had them to promise they
would tell him where the child was; this was supposedly so Herod could go and
worship the Child. However, the Holy Spirit told the wise men to not go back the
way they came, but another way. Eventually Herod realized the wise men were not
returning to him. Therefore, he had all male children, two years old and under
killed. The murder of children was not confined to
Bethlehem
, but included its surrounding districts, Matthew 2.16. One can only imagine the
number of children killed and the heartache of their mothers.
The phrase, “They are not more” is used for death. When Joseph’s
brothers were telling him about their family they said, “Your servants are
twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the
youngest is with our father today, and one is no more” (Genesis 42.13). Of
course they had sold Joseph into slavery and told their father that he had been
killed by a wild animal. Rachel is used representing those mothers lamenting the
death of their children. –Dennis Tucker
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