September 2000

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ome years ago I was given a vision of a babe sleeping peacefully inside its mother’s womb till suddenly the walls of its safe nest began to constrict and shift his position. As contractions increased in number and intensity, the infant was pressed downward into a narrow channel. By my perspective within the womb, this violent uprooting seemed to be the result of a mother evicting her tiny tenant from his home. Just then the scene switched to outside the womb’s widening mouth where the joyful, expectant father was waiting with open hands to receive this living word soon to be expelled from its preparatory place. I knew that he had earlier sown His Seed into the earthen oven wherein it had become this finished loaf of life! The embryonic chamber that was the entire world of this blooming bud of life; would now have to give way to a larger place of unlimited opportunity! What had seemed, from the maternal point of view, to be a great human tragedy, proved to be, from the paternal point of view, a profound phenomenon of endless advantage!
                A Scriptural account supporting this vision was in the birth of Jacob and Rachel’s second son which took place on their journey from Bethel to “A short distance from Ephrath” (renamed Bethlehem). The significance of this event can hardly escape us with names like: Bethel (Heb 1008) House of God”, Ephrath (Heb 672) “Fruitfulness”, and Bethlehem (Heb 1035) House of Bread- especially as the name, Rachel (7354) means: “To journey (travel as a sheep) and a ewe!” If her name means “mother sheep” then the fruit of her womb could reasonably be typified as a “lamb”! Little more than 3 millenniums later another girl and her husband would travel over the same road, and her womb was also laden with Precious Fruit- but this time it was the Fruit of the Spirit! Also this time, they would make it all the way to Bethlehem where the Lamb of God was born! Today, another 3 millenniums later, a third girl- a many-membered bride called the Church- is journeying with her Bridegroom, but this time they venture on further from Bethlehem to Zion to give birth to their many-membered son! We are that company of Sons that is being brought forth. Rachel did not have spiritual understanding to appreciate the full significance of the child she labored to bring into the world. In her soulish anguish, she “Suffered the pains of childbearing in a hard labor! When she was in severe labor, the midwife comforted her saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, you will bear this son also.’ And it came to pass, as Rachel’s soul was departing her body- for she died in childbirth- that she named her son, Benoni, meaning ‘Son of my sorrow’; however his father, renamed him, Benjamin, meaning ‘Son of the Right Hand’! So Rachel died and Jacob buried her on the way to Ephrath which became Bethlehem!” (Ge 35:16-19) This was an especially sad time for Jacob. In addition to losing his beloved wife, he also, soon after, lost his father, Isaac. This, too, had great significance since the name, Isaac, means “Laughter”; and the death of Rachel indeed turned this joyful occasion of Benjamin’s birth into a time of great sorrow- thus fulfilling the O.T. verses where God says He will turn man’s (worldly) laughter into (penitent) mourning.
                This event presaged the time when God warned Joseph in a dream about a plot hatched by King Herod, who, “Realizing he had been duped by the three wise men, became greatly enraged and issued a proclamation to slay all children, in and around Bethlehem, 2 years old or under...” (Mt 2:12-21) God told Joseph, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there till I bring Word that it is safe to return.” So they remained in Egypt till Herod’s death, fulfilling Hosea’s prophecy, “When Israel was a Child, I loved Him, and I called My Son out of Egypt!”(Hos 1:11) During Herod’s terrible infanticide on Bethlehem, Jeremiah’s prophecy was also fulfilled, “In *Ramah was heard the sound of great wailing, weeping and mourning as Rachel wept for her children, and refused to be comforted, for they were no more!” (Jer 31:15)

[*Ramah (Heb 7414) means: “A high place, and also symbolizes
IDOLATRY, PRIDE AND BREEDING WORMS!” (Selah)

[TO BE CONTINUED]