There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. – Deuteronomy 32:50

Today’s Scripture Reading (Deuteronomy 25, 2018): Deuteronomy 32

Bethlehem. Established 3400 years ago, the town once existed at the emotional heart of the nation. Situated just a few kilometers south of the Jerusalem, Bethlehem is the burial place of Rachel, the favorite wife of Jacob. Her tomb is located at the northern entrance of the city. Bethlehem is the birthplace of David, Israel’s most celebrated king, and it is the birthplace of Jesus.

Philips Brooks had visited the town of Bethlehem in 1865, at that time the town was part of the Ottoman Empire. Depressed and on a leave of absence, Brooks had come upon the town and had written the lyrics to the Christmas Carol we now know of as “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

Three years later, musician Lewis Radner was asked by Brooks to put music to the words of the poem for the 1868 Christmas service. He did. Radner admitted, years later, that neither he nor Brooks believed that the song would ever be sung past that 1868 service.

Once existing at the heart of Israel, Bethlehem now symbolizes the divided nature of the area. While Jerusalem exists on the border of Israel and the area governed by the Palestinian Authority, Bethlehem is solidly within Palestinian held territory, and to go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem involves crossing a border checkpoint.

Moses, the lawgiver of Israel, died before the nation stepped into the land that had been promised to them, and the land to which Moses had faithfully guided them. He never stepped into Canaan, but instead, his body was abandoned can just on the other side of the Jordan River.

But Moses’s death contrasts with the birth of Jesus who came to fulfill the law. As Moses dies on the outskirts of the nation, Jesus is born in its heartland. Moses gave his life so that Israel could inherit a land. Jesus would give his life so that Israel could truly live in the land Moses had given to them. While Moses taught of endless sacrifices that had to be made at the Tabernacle for Israel to live at peace with God, Jesus would become the perfect sacrifice and the one that would render the sacrifices of Moses irrelevant.

And while Deuteronomy 32 mourns the death of a great man, today we welcome God who steps down into our existence; the one who was born in Bethlehem, and the one who came to forgive us of our sins. 

Have a Merry Christmas Day!

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 33