The Rock, The Road, And The RabbiSample

Valuing Our Friendship with Christ (Bethlehem)

My love affair with the land of Israel began the moment I took my very first step onto the Promised Land in June 1971. I was seventeen years old. All the stories I had heard, all the scriptures I had studied since I was a young girl—everything I believed from the Word of God had taken place thousands of years before in this land I was experiencing for the first time! That thought took my breath away all those years ago. It still does today.

I have returned to Israel many times during the last forty-five years, and each time I have come back a totally transformed person. But on one recent trip, I was deeply disturbed when our tour group visited modern-day Bethlehem. Scripture tells us Bethlehem was the birthplace of Jesus, the Messiah prophesied in Micah 5:2 about 700 years before Jesus’ birth. Yet today, the city of Bethlehem is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and it feels—as my daughter, Cassidy, described it—“darkly oppressive.” There are military checkpoints as you enter and exit. It hardly feels joyful or anything like how the shepherds experienced it two millennia ago, as a place of great rejoicing at the Savior’s birth. 

Yet this is where the story of Jesus’ life on earth began, and it has great significance for believers in Christ—even in the small details, like the shepherds who visited the baby Jesus. As Rabbi Jason Sobel, my co-author on the book (a colorful, funny, delightful, brilliant, and given-to-rapping Messianic Jew) describes it, the shepherds who visited were no ordinary sheep herders. Rather, they were Levitical shepherds, trained and tasked with the responsibility of tending and guarding the flocks used for sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem. 

Not only that, but Jesus was likely born in a cave reserved for the birth of Passover lambs. Since there was no room in the local inn, Mary and Joseph would have chosen one of these caves for the birth of Jesus. Just think about this: Jesus was born in a cave used for birthing sacrificial lambs, because He Himself would be the ultimate sacrificial lamb. 

Rabbi Jason also note that Jesus was not only born in Bethlehem, which is the city of David, but that He was also the promised Son of David. He was the Messiah and King who came to fulfill the Davidic Covenant—God’s promise that one of David’s descendants would live on the throne forever. He would also establish the New Covenant that would last forever, as described in Jeremiah 31:31: “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah” (see also Isaiah 9:7 and Hebrews 8).

Jesus came to make a covenant with us, and He was so committed to us that He chose to die in order establish it, demonstrating how seriously He takes His friendship with us! This is what John 15:13 alludes to: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Now, that’s a true friend. Isn’t it amazing? But we must make sure we are valuing His friendship and taking full advantage of it.

Respond

Think of a place that you feel connected to by virtue of your birth or ancestry. Why is that place meaningful? How does visiting that place impact you? 

How has God used a place to show His love and care for you? What did you experience? With whom did you share that experience? 

Why is it significant that Jesus was born in a cave reserved for birthing Passover lambs? How does this help you see that God was always providing clues as to His Son’s purpose on earth?