A Sound of Mourning and Great Weeping

“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Jeremiah 31:15 (NIV)

“Out of Egypt I called my son.” Hosea 11:1 (NIV)

The Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah's birth don't only predict joy and celebration - they also whisper of grief and suffering. While Jesus fulfilled promises of blessing, brought joy to shepherds, and drew kings from afar, woven into this narrative of hope is also a thread of deep sorrow. These darker prophetic echoes are more subtle than those we've examined previously. Yet Matthew, looking back over his Hebrew Scriptures, recognizes their fulfillment in the events surrounding Jesus' birth.

When Herod realized the Magi had departed without revealing Jesus' location, he ordered the slaughter of Bethlehem’s young boys. Matthew sees in this horror the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:15, words originally used to describe the anguish of Jewish mothers watching their children go into Babylonian exile in 586 BC. What makes this connection particularly profound is its context. In Jeremiah, this brief cry of grief appears amid long chapters filled with promises of restoration and hope (see Jeremiah 30-33). Similarly, the weeping of Bethlehem's mothers occurs against the backdrop of the greatest good news: the arrival of God's own Son, the promised Messiah.

Warned by an angel, Joseph fled with Mary and Jesus to Egypt. Matthew sees even this escape as fulfilling prophecy - specifically Hosea 11:1: "Out of Egypt I called my son." This passage originally referred to God delivering Israel from Egyptian slavery. By applying it to Jesus, Matthew draws a parallel between Jesus and Israel, both called God's "son" (Exodus 4:22-23).

These connections reveal how Jesus' early life mirrored Israel's history - exile, exodus, and suffering were part of his story from the beginning. This sobering conclusion to the nativity narrative reminds us that the incarnation wasn't just about joy and light breaking into darkness. It was also about God entering fully into human suffering. The pattern of sorrow woven through joy, established in the prophecies of Jeremiah, finds its fullest expression in Jesus - the one whose birth brought both unspeakable joy and profound grief, whose life would be marked by suffering, and whose death would bring about the ultimate restoration promised long ago.