Tag: Matthew

Christmas carols in the Scriptures – O Little Town of Bethlehem

Why is Bethlehem referred to as “little” in the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem”? Find connection to the Scriptures and the significance of this little town.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

As I’ve become more familiar with the content of the Bible, words and phrases from Christmas carols take on new meaning as I recognize references in scripture. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is one such carol whose lyrics speak more deeply the more I read my Bible. Let’s look at a few noteworthy observations as we seek to find significance in this song about a small town.

Christmas carol

This may not be the most well-known Christmas carol. Songs like “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” or “Silent Night” tend to top the list of a Christmas carol sing-along. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is more likely to be a song some singers in the group know but not all. The other two songs clearly sing of the angels or nativity scene with mother and child. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” focuses on a location. What’s so important about that and why is it described as “little”?

That’s precisely what caught my attention this year as I pulled out holiday tunes to play on the piano. Let’s look at the name of this song to discover some details about its significance.

O Little Town

Why little?

This description of “little” comes from a reference in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew:

“And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
    are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
    who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.” Matthew 2:6 NLT

This is actually a reference to words of the Lord through the prophet Micah in the Old Testament:

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    are only a small village among all the people of Judah.
Yet a ruler of Israel,
    whose origins are in the distant past,
    will come from you on my behalf.” Micah 5:2 NLT

Did you notice the contrast of how these are both written? The Old Testament excerpt describes Bethlehem as “only a small village among all the people of Judah.”

Then the Lord continues to proclaim, “Yet a ruler… will come from you on my behalf.”

The New Testament passage from Matthew declares, “You, O Bethlehem… are not least among the ruling cities of Judah.”

Then continues to announce, “For a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.”

The Old Testament passage from Micah helps us understand the label “little”. But we also see that in spite of Bethlehem’s small stature, this little town was chosen for a great purpose.

Bethlehem and a ruler

This ruler, a shepherd, points forward to Jesus. The Son of God sent from the Father. Jesus the Good Shepherd. (John 10:11,14)

Bethlehem is the birthplace of the Messiah. Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, the town of Joseph’s lineage.

“And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.” Luke 2:3-5 NIV

David, a shepherd, who also happened to be the least of his brothers. When the Lord sent Samuel to the house of a man named Jesse to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king, no one expected the youngest son David to be chosen.

“Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’ So he asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’

‘There is still the youngest,’ Jesse answered. ‘He is tending the sheep.’” 1 Samuel 16:10-11 NIV

Bethlehem and provision

In the Old Testament book of Ruth, we find another connection to Bethlehem and to David. A widow named Naomi returned to her people in Bethlehem. Accompanying her was her faithful daughter-in-law Ruth, also a widow who was from Moab.

Ruth met and married a man named Boaz, a guardian-redeemer (Ruth 2:20) whose act of redemption brought Ruth into his family and provision for the widow. From this union a woman on the outside joined the family line of Judah and became an ancestor of Jesse and of David, the shepherd who grew to be king. (Ruth 4)

From this family line came the One who would be ruler and shepherd, Jesus.

Bethlehem’s significance

Bethlehem, the place the shepherds journeyed to after a visit from an angel gave them word of the Messiah, the Savior born there. (Luke 2:8-15)

While Bethlehem may have been small, her role in history is far reaching. And who came to Bethlehem but shepherds, the outcasts of society, and a pair of widows, easily forgotten were it not for the presence of a redeemer.

And who came out of Bethlehem but a shepherd David, the youngest of his brothers, and a Savior, Christ the Lord.

What of your story? Do you see yourself with a small part to play? What greater role might God have for you that’s bigger than you imagine? Your part may be more significant than you realize. Take a cue from a small home town that birthed the greatest gift from God.

Looking for more Christmas carols?

Christmas Carols in the Scriptures – Angels We Have Heard on High

Christmas Carols in the Scriptures – O Holy Night

Christmas Carols in the Scriptures – Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Christmas Carols in the Scriptures – The First Noel

Christmas Carols in the Scriptures – O Come O Come Emmanuel

Wondering how to get started with the Bible? Here are five simple steps to get into the Bible.

The search for the Christmas story and the missing manger

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:30 — 5.1MB)

Join me as we search for the Christmas story and the missing manger in the Bible and learn a simple way to remember what you find.

This podcast episode was inspired by a two-part blog series, “The Christmas story and the missing manger.” You can read the original posts here:

The Christmas story and the missing manger part 1

The Christmas story and the missing manger part 2

Another podcast episode with a Christmas connection:

Christmas carols in the Scriptures – Angels We Have Heard on High

How to connect the Old and New Testament through backstory

Recognizing how to connect the Old and New Testament through backstory gives us another Scripture pairing tool with which to build our Bible knowledge.

Scripture pairings

In our series of Scripture pairings, verses from the Old Testament and New Testament complement one another and enhance the meaning or what we experience from them.  This week we’ll pair two passages through backstory, to find deeper understanding in the New Testament passage from a storyline in the Old Testament.

We can gain greater insight from a Bible passage when we know the backstory, the plotline referenced or alluded to in the verses we’re reading. This week we’ll look for clues as to the originating storyline from the Old Testament and how it helps us understand the New Testament verses in our look at Scripture pairings.

Gospel of Matthew

In the Gospel of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, Jesus is speaking to some Pharisees and teachers of the law when he shares these words:

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:40 NIV

Jonah and Jesus

Have you heard of Jonah? If not, that’s okay, in this verse Jesus shares a highlight of Jonah’s plight.

Maybe you recognize this fish tale from a children’s Bible story. Did you know this comes from the Old Testament?

If we look at this one verse from Matthew, do you see the phrase “three days and three nights” repeated?

The Son of Man is Jesus. He compares Jonah’s journey into the depths with His own. Jesus makes the comparison between Jonah’s stint in the fish to the time frame Jesus’ body will be buried. For Jesus, that’s the span between His death on the cross (crucifixion) and His rising from the dead (resurrection) three days later.

Where to find Jonah’s story

We now have a sense of who Jonah is, but where do we find his story?

The verse that precedes this one refers to the “prophet Jonah.”

Old Testament Prophet

If you weren’t sure where to find Jonah’s story in the Bible, this phrase points us toward the Prophets of the Old Testament.

The Prophets, the long list of mostly hard to pronounce names at the end of the Old Testament, would have been a part of the Scriptures with which the people of Jesus day would have been familiar.

Minor Prophet

If we look in the table of contents in our Bible or flip pages until we find it, we’ll see Jonah near the end of the Old Testament in the Minor Prophets section. These are the shorter prophetic books, in fact, Jonah is only one page front and back in my Bible. His story is short enough to read in one sitting.

Jonah’s story

There’s more we could say about Jonah, but for now consider reading his story if you don’t yet know it. Since my Bible study group started with the Old Testament, we were familiar with Jonah’s story when we came to the reference in Matthew.

Here’s the verse from Jonah:

“Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:17 NIV

We’ve merely highlighted the connection between these two verses from this storyline. For a fuller picture of the comparison, read the book of Jonah and Matthew 10:38-41.

Greater depth to passage

When we connect the Old and New Testament through backstory we enhance our understanding of each passage. In this case, the Old Testament storyline provides a backdrop for the New Testament teaching from Jesus. His own words in the Matthew passage also bring greater depth to the Old Testament verses.

Tool for understanding

This is one of my favorite kinds of match ups. Once you know the story from the Old Testament you can set New Testament Scripture against that backdrop. If you remember the storyline, you have one more tool for understanding the New Testament passage and a way to step back and view the backdrop. Jesus used examples familiar to his listeners. When we know the story he draws from, we gain greater insight too.

Find deeper significance

We can find deeper significance in the passage when we recognize the story connection between the Old and New Testament.

A few more clues

Searching for backstory pairs well with finding phrases that clue us in when a quote in the New Testament is from a prophetic book in the Old Testament. That’s the skill we looked at here:

Scripture pairing – Old Testament quoted in the New Testament

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A bike and the Bible – The Gospels, Acts, and Romans – part 14

We’ve finally made it to the Gospels, Acts, and Romans, on this journey through the Bible. Join me as we take a quick ride past these first several books of the New Testament.

If you’ve followed this trek you’ll know we just made our way through the Old Testament. On the bike ride this brought us to a trestle high above a creek.

The Gospels

The Gospels – Mathew, Mark, Luke, John – are where Jesus came to earth, walked the land, healed the sick, and taught about the Kingdom of God. This is where we encounter the tangible Jesus, living among the people.

Viewed from above

The creek at this point of the bike ride was viewed from the height of a train trestle far above the water below. Matthew’s Gospel starts with a genealogy which at first glance appears far removed from the story of Jesus. Many people are confused by this list of names, still others skip it entirely, and some like me initially get lost in it until we find some familiarity and discoveries in it.

Matthew Mark Luke John

Matthew gives us Jesus’ lineage and Kingdom teaching. The genealogy in the first chapter of this Gospel links Jesus to King David, whose story we discovered in 1 and 2 Samuel in the Old Testament.

Mark walks out the gospel with Jesus on the move in ministry.

Luke shows us the shepherds and a whole lot of “carefully investigated” details. (Luke 1:3)

And John just confused me the first several times I peeked inside. What was this Word stuff right at the beginning of this Gospel? After reading Genesis I recognized the connection to John’s Gospel and the beginning of the Bible.

As I continue to look into these four books of the New Testament that share details of Jesus’ life and ministry, I start to understand a little more about the Gospels and the love of God.

Look around

Once I grew accustomed to riding on gravel I could look around and see my surroundings instead of just the rocks under my bicycle tires.

When I glanced out past the trestle across the vast forest of trees I recognized parts of the trail I had ridden over. This section folded back around so I could see out over a segment of the path on which I had already traveled.

Bigger picture

Taking a step back gave me a more encompassing view of the bike trail.

I hope that if you’ve followed along on this ride that just rolled through the Old Testament that you, too, have started to grasp a bigger picture of what’s in the Bible.

More tunnels

I relished this moment on the ride because soon we were riding through two more tunnels.

Acts and Romans

Tunnels. That’s what the books of Acts and Romans felt like to me at one time.

When I first read Acts it was a cure for insomnia. I couldn’t get through it. Too many details. Too many storylines. After spending more time with my Bible open I began to recognize the names of people in Acts and connect them to other places in Scripture.

Where Gospels leave off

Acts takes up where the Gospels leave off. In fact, Acts is the move of the people in ministry, the early church, after Jesus heads back to heaven (resurrection and ascension) at the end of the Gospels.

Connections to books around it

If we skim Acts we’ll see names from the Gospels and names mentioned in the books of the Bible that follow. No need to spend much time in it now, just note the connections to the books around it. This basic knowledge will help anchor more of the content of the Bible.

Tunnels

I think just being accustomed to riding through several tunnels on the trail helped me travel through these next two.

Although some of the details in Acts were hard to remember, I was starting to grasp more aspects of Scripture so I knew the feeling of being in the dark wouldn’t last.

This tunnel and the next one were not as long as the first few. I think I was able to see the light shining through as I entered one of them.

Having a glimpse of visible light was helpful at this point in the Bible – for the book of Acts and the one that follows, Romans.

Romans

My first glimpse at Romans was probably similar to my experience with Acts. A lot of information that I couldn’t keep track of. This book was different from the Gospels and Acts. Romans is the first of the letters in the New Testament. This one happens to be a letter to the church in Rome written by Paul whose story can be found in Acts. See how these connections work?

The Book of Romans is Paul’s teaching about Jesus. This is another book that becomes clearer to me each time I return to it.

If you are reading along in your Bible, I encourage you not to get bogged down by Acts or Romans. We’ll keep rolling through the New Testament to glance at the next section of letters. Ready?

For a reminder of where we’ve been:

A bike and the Bible – Daniel and the Minor Prophets – part 13

For a refresher on 1 and 2 Samuel (and King David):

A bike and the Bible – Joshua to 1 and 2 Samuel – part 8

The Christmas story and the missing manger part 2

In the last post we saw no sign of the manger, but we did discover the wise men and what Jesus did in ministry. Like the wise men, we are searching for the Christ Child in the manger. Let’s see what the other two Gospels contain.

The Gospel of Luke

Birth stories

Let’s look at the Gospel of Luke. The first chapter is filled with baby stories. Here we read early childhood stories of John the Baptist and Jesus, even stories from before they were born.

Mary

In Luke we hear from Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Matthew we heard about Joseph.

Joseph and Mary

Check out chapter two. Do you see Joseph and Mary arriving in Bethlehem?

We’ve found the manger!

Keep reading. Look who else is arriving.

The shepherds and the angels.

We’ve located the rest of them in Luke.

The manger

So how do we remember that the manger is in Luke’s gospel?

Well, when I was a kid, every year we would watch a Christmas Special. Near the end of the special, a boy with a blanket would walk onto the stage of a Christmas Pageant and tell the story of the birth of Jesus, the nativity story.

You might have seen it too.

The story told by Linus is in Luke.

The Gospel of John

If we’ve found the manger in Luke, do we need to keep looking?

Yes. We’ve come this far. Join me as we glance at the Gospel of John.

In the beginning was the Word

The first chapter of John starts very differently from the rest of the Gospels. When I first started reading the Bible, John’s gospel was confusing to me. I didn’t understand what he meant by the Word. I liked the words “life” and “light” but the rest didn’t make much sense to me.

John the Baptist

The first name we see is John. John the Baptist, not John, the author of the book or Gospel of John. Jesus doesn’t arrive in chapter one until John’s testimony. Or does He?

Jesus

Did you notice verse 14?

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” John 1:14a NIV

That’s Jesus. Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the light.

We may have located the manger in Luke, but here we see the gift revealed. Jesus come to earth in the flesh to dwell among us.

John’s gospel reveals the gift. John reveals Jesus.