008 the Exceeding Value of Christ

Okay, let's continue with our study of the life of Jesus Christ, working chronologically through the New Testament. We're now back again in Matthew chapter 2, looking at the flight to Egypt. Matthew chapter 2 and verse number 14, Jesus remained there in Egypt until the death of Herod.

This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet out of Egypt, I called my son. Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and he sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the Magi. This gives us again a little bit of insight as to how old Jesus was when the Magi visited him, or perhaps how long it took for the Magi to travel.

Herod used what they told him as a reference point, let's see, if I'm going to eliminate this king of the Jews, who's the threat to me, to be safe, I'm going to have to kill every child in Bethlehem and all around there under two years of age. That's exactly what he did. Now, a question could be asked at this point in time, and I've certainly asked this question at times.

God was able to warn Joseph and Mary to get out of town before Herod's soldiers got there to kill all the children. God obviously knew what was going to happen. He warned Jesus, so why weren't the other mothers and fathers warned? Why didn't God prevent the deaths of all those little precious children? It was a horrible, horrible thing.

The little sentences that we read in passing here don't do it justice. The terror of that day when the soldiers rode into Bethlehem and other places around there snatching up children, little children, toddlers and babies, and ripping them from their mother's arms and killing them. This is a horrible holocaust, and so God could have prevented it.

Why didn't He? Well, we could ask that question, couldn't we, about any tragedy. I just have to say there's no pat answers. You could say, well, they all deserve to die.

What? Little babies deserve to die? Come on. That's hard to swallow. The only thing that I can bring that I am sure of out of this passage that raises so many questions is simply this.

This indicates to us that Jesus was very special. His value was greater than the value of all those other children who died in the slaughter of Herod. In fact, if you took the value of all children around the world and threw in all the adults together, the entire population of the earth, and put them in a scale and put Jesus over here to value Him, and put all those other people, the world's population on this side of the scale, and it was a scale that measured value, it would tip to Jesus' side.

In fact, that's an understatement. It would, in a microsecond, tip to the other side, and those people would fly off out into infinity in space because the value of Christ as God, as the Son of God, is of no comparison to the value of those of us who are just human beings. You say, well, what difference does that make? Well, it makes some difference.

It helps us understand why Jesus was uniquely preserved, but also helps us to understand how one person's death and suffering on the cross can atone for the sins of hundreds of millions and potentially billions of people. If I was to be the one who was going, if I was sinless, first of all, and I was to be chosen to die, or I voluntarily gave my life to die, to be a savior, I could only potentially save one person because I'm just one person, so you give a life for a life. That's only fair.

But can you see how the Lord Jesus Christ, being of infinite value by His relatively short sufferings, and I'm not downplaying His sufferings at all because He suffered horribly. He bore upon Him our sin in His body on the cross. He suffered the wrath of God.

He was separated from God the Father. He cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So He did suffer. He did die, but not suffering now.

He came back. It's a life and so forth. He's seated at the right hand of God the Father.

For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. So how can that act by one person for a limited amount of time somehow pay the penalty to release potentially billions of people from their rightful place in hell? It's who it was. It was Jesus.

Okay? So a little gospel message thrown in there as we look at this tragic event. And so Matthew goes on in verse number 17 to say that, then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. And he quotes from Jeremiah in verse 18, a voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted because they were no more.

Now that's a little bit of a cryptic prophecy and you say, well, what has that got to do with the fulfillment of the slaughter of all these innocents there in Bethlehem and the surrounding regions? Well, if you know the story of Rachel, of course, she's a wife of Jacob, renamed Israel, as they were making a journey right in that same area when Rachel was giving birth to the son who was ultimately named Benjamin. She had tough labor and she died in labor and it was right in Bethlehem of Ephrata. And that's of course contained in scripture.

And so somehow symbolically by her death and her mourning and so forth, right in that area, she's identified with the city or the town of Bethlehem and that's where this happened and all these mothers are crying for their children. So yeah, it's cryptic, it's vague, but it's explained to us now, Jeremiah nailed it. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, get up, take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life or dead.

And so here's some further guides, which you want to talk about a little bit more next time, okay? See you next time.