O’ little town of Bethlehem

The world’s celebration of Christmas is one of the reasons why I am glad and very thankful I got to read the Bible in its entirety many, many years ago. We often believe we know most of the Bible stories since we live in what is considered as “the only” Christian country in Asia. Maybe in terms of the percentage of population, but indeed there are many Christians in other Asian countries, too, albeit maybe a minority. And Christians believe in the Bible.

If only many of us could say that in the truest sense of the word, “believe”. We are exposed to the many bible stories told to us since we were young, we’d think we know the Bible enough to go through without actually reading it. Having actually done it a few times, I’d say to those who haven’t (read it in its entirety), you’re missing a lot! The Bible contains enough gems of spirituality of such value that it would really be a huge loss if we don’t read through it even for just one time. I’m just trying to urge you to do it once because I know, when you do, you’ll realize the worth of what you’ve missed, you’d want to read it again.

Why Bethlehem? Of all the places in the world, or even in Israel as we know the place today, why not in the other bigger and more prominent places. Surely if we were expecting a king, Jerusalem would have been a good place to be born. Or the other more popular cities at that time. Bethlehem is what we call “sleepy”, in between the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel, when they were still two divided nations, which oftentimes were at war with each other. Its old name, Ephrathah, also seldom rings a bell, with possibly the only distinction of being the place where Rachel was buried.

Rachel was the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of Jacob’s 12 sons. Jacob, of course, is the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, both of which I’m sure everybody knows (or at least, the Christians among us). Rachel died while giving birth to Benjamin while on the way to Jerusalem, and she was buried in Ephrathah, not in Machpelah, where of the whole family were buried --Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their wives Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah.

Only Rachel was buried there, but years later the prophet said, “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” (Micah 5:2). It might just be a “little town of Bethlehem”, as the Christmas carol goes, but God already established the certainly that the future king of Israel, and indeed the very “King of kings, and Lord of Lords”, will be born there.

Christmas did not happen by chance. The birth of Jesus is God’s grand design for our redemption and salvation. That’s the true meaning of Christmas. God bless you all.