Pt1-08-BETHLEHEM THE EXALTED

BETHLEHEM THE EXALTED ON a bleak ridge five miles south of Jerusalem stands the town of Bethlehem. The names which have been given to the place in its long history speak of fruitfulness and prosperity. Its modern name means "house of flesh"; "Ephrathah", a name which helped to distinguish from a less known Bethlehem in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15) has the meaning "fruitful"; and the familiar "Bethlehem" means "house of bread". "The ridge upon which the town stands descends steeply in terraced slopes of vine and olive to deep valleys on the north and south, and falls away to a broad plain or plateau on the east."

While the Old Testament references to Bethlehem are not numerous, some of them are very significant. Here it was that Ruth, the brave young woman of Moab, made her home with Naomi and became a gleaner in the fields. And as

"She stood breast-high amid the corn,
Clasped by the golden light of morn", she found favour with Boaz, who later married her. Ruth became an ancestress of David, and of the Messiah. When Samuel, directed by the Lord to anoint a successor to Saul, set out on his mission, it was to Bethlehem that he went. When the sons of Jesse passed before him, his own choice was overruled, and David was selected, for "the Lord looketh on the heart". This was the youth who had kept the flocks on the hills about Bethlehem, guarding them from the lions and bears which then preyed upon the animals, as wolves and jackals do to-day. Amid pastoral scenes his mind receives images which found expression in many a psalm. As king, exercising prophetic and priestly functions, he established "the throne of David ", and in due time there came of David’s line Jesus, the Messiah, Prophet, Priest and King.

Bethlehem was not blessed with a great water-supply, but there was a well by the gate which David remembered during a trying experience of his outlaw life as a fugitive from Saul. The town was in the hands of the Philistines, but David was desperate, and cried, "Oh, that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" Thereupon three of his mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and fetched water to their leader. Overwhelmed by this brave and kindly act, David would not drink, but consecrated the water to the Lord.

It seems that Bethlehem fell into obscurity, but a sudden prophetic gleam again brought the little town into bold relief. Micah, a prophet of the country at the time when Isaiah was prophet at the court of

Judah, stood up as champion of the people. He denounced the crimes of the nobles and false prophets, and predicted the fall of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, in the latter days, there would be peace and prosperity for the house of the Lord. Especially would Bethlehem be exalted, for out of the little town would come the Messiah (Micah 5:2). And so the light of sacred story shines upon Bethlehem. With the birth of Messiah, the lowly town becomes the focal point of history and prophecy. Other strangers, coming from a region more distant than Moab, lay their gifts before Jesus, "King of the Jews", as if to signify the Gentile world’s acknowledgment of the Saviour. Other shepherds on the hills of Bethlehem guarded their flocks, and their minds were filled with a psalm not their own as they listened to the heavenly host "praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom He is well pleased". Thirsting souls in all generations could learn that

"There is a well in Bethlehem still,
A fountain, at whose brink
The weary soul may rest at will,
The thirsty stoop and drink:
And, unrepelled by foe or fence,
Draw living waters freely thence." Not all the eyes directed to Bethlehem at the time of Messiah’s birth were friendly, however. Herod, the King of Judea, was troubled when he heard of One born "King of the Jews", and instigated a massacre of the infants of Bethlehem. Although his evil designs to murder Jesus was thwarted by divine intervention, Bethlehem experienced a period of barbaric cruelty, and the land was filled with lamentation and mourning. Matthew associates this with a remarkable passage in Jeremiah 31:15. Jeremiah pictures Rachel as weeping over the captivity of her descendants. Rachel had died at the birth of Benjamin, and was buried "in the way to Ephrath". "The evangelist pictures Rachel’s grief reawakened by the slaughter of the infants at Bethlehem." With reference to this incident, P. Whitwell Wilson, in The Christ We Forget, wrote: "Not once in later years did Jesus refer to the crime which, at Bethlehem, was aimed against Him. So far from denouncing the Herods, He was ready to suffer in their stead. He did not attempt to avenge the innocent children who had died in His cause, by stirring up insurrection against the ruling and guilty house." It is of interest to note that, so far as the record tells, Jesus never again entered the little town where He was born.

Another ruler who turned hostile eyes toward Bethlehem was the Roman Emperor of Spanish birth, Hadrian. During his reign (A.D. 117-138), he proved himself a man of great ability, an able ruler, a lover of literature and philosophy, deeply imbued with Greek culture. He travelled much, and visited many parts of his empire, including Britain, where he built a famous wall which bears his name. But Hadrian was a pagan, and added to the list of infamous deeds perpetrated by the opponents of Christianity. It is on record that Hadrian, "imagining that he could kill the Christian faith by defacing the place, consecrated an image of Jupiter on the site of the Passion". He also devastated Bethlehem, and set up there a sacred grove to Adonis. Incidentally, this act shows that Bethlehem was regarded as a hallowed spot at that time. The efforts of Hadrian and other emperors to stamp out the Christian faith utterly failed, and two centuries later Constantine pulled down the temple of Adonis, and erected a basilica over the cave-stable which tradition pointed out as the scene of the nativity. H. V. Morton says, "Beneath the church is a warren of underground passages. In one of them, a dark rock chamber, St. Jerome conducted a number of his keen controversies and translated the Vulgate." Thus the message of good tidings again was heard from Bethlehem.

Since that day Bethlehem has remained a centre of Christian worship, and now it has been found possible, by means of radio, for the bells of the Church of the Nativity to be heard in earth’s remotest bounds.

"They speak to me of Princely Tyre, that old Phœnician gem,
Great Sidon’s daughter of the North; but I will speak of Bethlehem!

"They speak of Rome and Babylon; what can compare with them?
So let them praise their pride and pomp--but I will speak of Bethlehem!

"They praise the hundred-gated Thebes, old Mizraim’s diadem,
The city of the sand-girt Nile; but I will speak of Bethlehem!"