Bethlehem

Breadhouse

by Ben Zornes · Dec 17, 2021

It isn’t just a happy accident that Christ was born in a town named Bethlehem, which means house of bread. If a movie studio got this script they’d likely pass on it for being to “on the nose”. They might offer constructive criticism to the aspiring screenwriter, “You’ve got talent kid, just learn to be more subtle.”

But this story, told by the supreme Storyteller, simultaneously confounds the wise while being gloriously clear for even the most simple amongst us. Our father Adam’s sin was eating from the tree he was forbidden to eat from. As a result, God cut us off from the tree of life. From then on, mankind hungered for life, but no matter where he looked or how hard he labored this bread of life eluded him.

The high-points of the OT all resemble each other, in that God comes down to some undeserving but chosen servant to renew a covenant of grace. These moments are always punctuated by some covenant meal. Noah offers up a sacrifice after the flood; Abraham witnesses the glory of God pass through the parted meat of the covenantal sacrifice, Moses leads Israel to partake of a passover meal on the eve of their exodus, and during their wilderness wanderings God sent down bread from heaven. Indeed, this thread of God calling out to mankind through these covenant renewals with His chosen saints and then feeding them in a covenantal meal is one of the main threads.

It shouldn’t shock us that God, in bringing about the salvation for all the world, selects the little town of Bethlehem, the bread-house, in which to place the bread of life. He even went so far as to ensure that the virgin placed Him in a feeding trough. The point is unmistakeable. You are empty. He came to fill you up. You are hungry. He came to feed you. The bread of life has come down…

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Out-Sing the Darkness

by Ben Zornes · Dec 24, 2020

Christ’s birth was God announcing to His enemies that He had come to defeat them. Every last one. Every disease. Every virus. Every cancer. Every tyrant. Every fallen angel. Every wicked principality and power. At Bethlehem, God put them all on notice that their doom was nigh. The Eternal Word, the Sword of the Most High God, had become a man who would sever the ancient dragon’s head.

So sing––on this eve of Christmas––as those whose Enemies are defeated, scattered, and on the run; for God in Christ has given us the victory. Mingle your voices now in loud & joyful praise to the Father who sent His Son, conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, to defeat all of His and your enemies. So sing in victory, sing in conquest, and out-sing the darkness.

The darkness roars with foaming anger, it gripes in carping envy, it rasps with glutted greed. It doesn’t want to hear what the angels of the Lord proclaimed at Bethlehem, and which we proclaim in our Christmas songs of praise. The darkness thinks it should get the final word, it thinks its cacophony of sinful rebellion can drown out the truth, and stop the light. But this night, the saints of God sing in harmonic joviality of the Light of World. Like a flame catching the corner of a page and then spreading with increasing rapidity, the Light of Christ and the song of Christ cannot, and will not be stopped.

The Father now joyfully receives our praise, for we bring it in the name of the Christ child, the name of our older Brother, the name of Mary & Joseph’s son: Jesus; and we gladly offer these praises because the Holy Ghost has given us new hearts, full of Light.

Bethlehem: The House of Bread

by Ben Zornes · Dec 15, 2019

Earlier, I mentioned that Bethlehem meant House of Bread. But I want to give some more attention to the history of this city, and why we should care.

Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, died and was buried in Bethlehem (Gen. 35:19).

One of Israel’s judges, Ibzan was born and died in Bethlehem (Jdg. 12:8-10); he had sixty children: thirty sons, and thirty daughters. He married all of them off. He was a fruitful man indeed, with a very full quiver.

Ruth, the Moabite, returns with Naomi to Bethlehem; Boaz redeems Ruth (and by extension Naomi) from her barrenness and widowhood and restores them to their inheritance (cf. Ruth 1-4).

Ruth and Boaz are the great grandparents of King David; he was born and raised in Bethlehem (1 Sam. 16:4-13). By New Testament times, it is called the city of David (Lk. 2:4).

The prophet Micah once declared by divine inspiration:

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Micah 5:2

He was prophesying during a period when the kingdom of Judah was deteriorating. Her kings were not glorious, they were often not godly. The Assyrians were threatening to destroy that once great kingdom. One commentator Baker, David W., T. Desmond. Alexander, and Bruce K. Waltke. Obadiah: an Introduction and Commentary. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1988. Pg. 182 points out the contrast which Micah wants us to see:

The kings born in proud Jerusalem failed; the Messiah incarnated in lowly Bethlehem triumphs.
Bruce Waltke

Seven centuries later, scholars and even the astute populace knew that the Messiah must come out of Bethlehem (Cf. Mt. 2:6 & Jn. 7:42). They knew that David’s promised seed would come from Bethlehem. They knew that this king would be from of old, from everlasting.

Notice the various OT events which are connected with Bethlehem. Rachel once barren, is buried there; and the city of her burial later gives rise to a judge who is clearly a very fertile fellow; Ruth comes to harvest barley seed in Boaz’s field, but ends up becoming his wife to bear his seed.

God sends his Son to be born in a city of Bread. A city where the barren become fertile. Where seed is multiplied and turned into bread. Where promised seeds sprout and begin a great harvest. Christ is the first fruits of the new creation work of God. Remember seed must be ground into flour in order for it to be then turned into bread. This promised seed would come, be ground to pulp, put through the oven of adversity, and a new loaf would come forth to feed this world. In Christ, the barren is turned to fruitfulness, and the hungry are fed.