Rachel Weeps No More [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

Remind your soul to grieve only what he is and to rejoice in the goodness of God for those pictures of great hope. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Brint, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Remade, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I sure want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer.

Don't miss it. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. We're going to give you more on all this later in the program, but right now let's dig in and get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. I want you to know that that Greek verb there is without translation for us because it means he was in his inmost intestines, like in his bowels, he was moved and troubled. I think Jesus wailed. I think he shook and he wailed. And then the text says, and then he wept. I think he shook and he wailed and then he softly sobbed and he knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead because he was God and yet he was human. And he said, I am not going to shirk the humanity.

I'm going to walk right into it. So Rachel is on the one hand, a picture of reality that in Ramah, as they carried off their sons and daughters into exile under a wicked pagan ruler, people wept. What's that sound? Sound of the pain of exile. And God doesn't run from it, but there's a problem. There's a problem in this grief that we then see in verse 15, and that is that she refuses to be comforted. And then the statement, they are no more. And this is where the grief that on the one hand is so essential becomes harmful because the voice has become despair. It has become self curse.

Woe is me. I'll never be happy again. There is no joy.

There is no chance of having joy again. See that that's the voice of despair. That's not the voice of grief. We grieve, but not as those who have no hope. That's the voice of grief without hope. And so this has turned and this is what God is going to address into a grieving voice that doesn't have hope in it. The message that says there's no hope is just as false as the message that says peace, peace when there's no peace.

The problem is that Rachel, figuratively, cannot see beyond the loss and it has blinded her to reality when she says they are no more. It is not true that they are no more. The truth is that they are, but they are in exile. They are, but they're not where they're ultimately going to be.

They are coming back. And my wife and I always try to remind each other in life, grieve what is, not what you imagine something to be. Grieve what has happened, not what you fear could happen. There is very little grace for hypothetical situations, but there is abundant grace for whatever you actually face. It's why if you hear of someone else's tragedy and you think, what if it were me, you can't even bear the thought. But when you're walking in it, there will be grace for you. And so there is grace for those. There is restoration for those who have been in exile and that is the reality.

They are being disciplined, but it is not their final end. They are coming back and catch yourself in this beloved when you are grieving that which has not actually reflected the truth. I know I walk around, this is what happens in grief. I walk around and I have thoughts about my mom and I'll catch myself feeling sorry that she's not for her, that she's not here. We have on our back deck a tree, a little artificial tree and at Christmas time we decorate it for Christmas and the tree lives out there and then Easter we come in and put Easter eggs on it and we decorate it for Easter. And my mother always loved being part of decorating it for Easter. And from the time that my kids were toddlers, my mother would come over sometime during Easter week and dye Easter eggs with the kids.

She started when they were two and she came last year when they were 28 and 24 and they dyed Easter eggs last year in our kitchen. And so Easter is coming and I know my mother loved Easter and I catch myself going, I'm so sorry she's going to miss Easter. And then the Holy Spirit of course speaks to me, Allen, sons, sons, who's going to have a better Easter? Who's going to have a better Easter? We who sing songs about Christ is risen or the one who is standing in the presence of the risen Lord Christ? Who's going to have a better worship service? We're going to have some good worship Easter services, but who's going to have a better one?

We here singing Christ is risen today or she standing circled around the throne of glory with the angels and the archangels in the heavenly choir? Grief what is and remind your soul to grieve only what is and to rejoice in the goodness of God for those pictures of great hope. So thus comes this voice the Lord at verse 16, keep your voice from weeping. Yeah, weep in Rama when you see the exile, but when you think about the restoration, it's time to keep your voice from weeping. What I'm saying is sometimes the Lord's got to tell us now's the time to cry. Now's the time to rejoice. We get mixed up.

We don't know what to do with all of this. And he says, for there's a reward for your work declares the Lord. They shall come back from the land of the enemy. You know, pay attention to when God says stop crying because it means there's some new information. It means there's some good news. There is something that's going to displace the grief. And I don't I don't know what this exactly means. There's reward for your work. Some commentators think that it may be that it is placing a value on Rachel's tears as if she were a paid professional mourner, which was common in the ancient Middle East and still in some places to this day, which in a time of grief, you would hire someone who could come in and help you cry.

Skilled women who knew how to wail and you pay them to come and help you. It's all right. Sometimes I think that's what I am. I'm just a paid mourner who loves you and can cry with you.

You can't always find somebody willing to cry with you. Maybe it's that there's a reward for all your mourning, Rachel, or maybe it is just all the labor of childbirth or. But he's saying that there's a blessing that's coming.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a favored foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. Now I'm telling you about the restoration, and so now's time to rejoice. Like when Nehemiah and those in the restoration work of the walls and the temple found the book of the law, which might have been the book of Deuteronomy, and they read it out. In Nehemiah chapter eight, the people wept as they heard the words of the law. But Nehemiah verse 10 said to them, go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine to send portions to anyone who has nothing ready for this day is holy to our Lord and do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So there's weeping, but there's the time to weep no more.

They're coming back from the land of the enemy. And so I want you to start now rejoicing in the restoration hope. Let the prophetic promise of restoration come and be the hope that guides you in the midst of your grief so that the joy that you have in restoration transcends the sorrow you have in this loss. And then it shifts at verse 18.

This is beautiful poetry. This is poetic prophecy. At verse 18, now the Lord says, I've heard Ephraim grieving. Ephraim speaking of the tribe of Ephraim, which becomes a symbol for the people of God as if the people now are saying, you've disciplined me and I was disciplined like an untrained calf. Bring me back that I may be restored for you're the Lord my God. So this is the people doing what the Lord had said.

This is him hearing them. I think prophetically in the future, voices from exile who have received restoration hope and are saying, bring me back. I want you God. Because the Lord had prophesied that after this momentary discipline, you're going to want me, you're going to love me. You're going to talk to me. You're going to draw near to me. You're going to seek me and you're going to find me. He's creating thirst in the people of God.

So that's what they're. But then at verse 19, this is what happens to us. The authentic repentance becomes tainted by shame. For after I turned away, I relented.

And after I was instructed, I struck my thigh. Think of like beating my breast or just, I was ashamed. I was confounded, confused, ashamed and confused and worried because I bore the disgrace of my youth. So this now is a voice of shame in this poetic conversation. And the Lord wants to say something to the shame. And so he comes back at verse 20 and now the Lord speaks again and says, is Ephraim my dear son?

Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore, my heart yearns for him.

I'll surely have mercy. So Ephraim should not have been one of the tribes to get land because Ephraim was not Jacob's son. Ephraim was Joseph's son, Jacob and Rachel's grandson. But those of you who hear me preach, hear me talk about Ephraim and Manasseh, maybe my favorite Old Testament story. When Jacob, old Jacob was dying, Joseph, his son, who had been providentially reunited with, brings Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's two sons, so that their grandfather Jacob could bless them. Amongst the Hebrew patriarchs, it happens repeatedly. The number one thing that children and grandchildren want from their dying father or grandfather is his blessing.

Is that powerful? So Joseph rushes in with Ephraim and Manasseh and Jacob rouses himself from his deathbed. And the first thing he does is he said, Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. And in that moment, by the power of a patriarch's speech, he adopted his grandsons as his sons. So they were treated along with the sons of Jacob as if they were sons of Jacob, and so they received a portion of the land.

And perhaps you remember the story I've preached. When Jacob went to bless these two boys, he did an unusual thing. He took his right hand, which symbolized the strong blessing for the firstborn that was on Manasseh's head, and he crossed his arms and he put his right hand onto the younger son's head, Ephraim, and he blessed them. And Joseph tried to correct them and pulled his arms out. He said, no, dad, this is the firstborn, Manasseh, you put your right hand here. And Jacob crossed his arms again and said, I know my son, I know what I'm doing. And thus the Bible says, the Lord put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. And every Sabbath ever since that time, on Friday nights, Hebrew dads bless their boys and say, may God make you like Ephraim at Manasseh.

I tell you that to invite you to look at this question of the Lord again at verse 20. Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? Yes. Is the one who didn't deserve favor receiving it? Yes. Is the one who didn't deserve to be a son treated as a son?

Yes. He's my son. The adopted one will never be disowned. He's mine, Ephraim. He's speaking now of all the people of God, and he's speaking therefore of you and me.

Prophetically, this is all of us who are in Christ. Is Allen my dear son? Yes. Is this my darling child?

Yes. And if so, if this is my child, if this is my heir, how could you ever think that I would forget him? I will not forget him. In fact, the text says my heart yearns for him.

Now we're growing into what this passage is all about. To say my heart yearns for him is very similar language to the language that described Jesus at the graveside. To say my heart yearns, it literally means my bowels groan for him. Do you want to know how God feels about you when you walk through exile times, when you go through your difficult times and there's the voice of weeping and Rama? Do you want to know how God feels about you?

His insides moon. He loves you with a father's love that cannot be described in earthly terms. He wants better for you than you could ever want for yourself. He could never forget you because you belong to him.

You are his darling child. And so what we realize is that the reason we have to first see Rachel weeping for her children that are no more is that God wants us to see his own heart, for he is the one who weeps for the children more than anyone. And he is our God, who if you want to know how he feels about the lost, those who have yet to come to saving faith in Christ, here's how he feels. He feels like Rachel who wanted children.

God wants to save so he can adopt and take people to heaven forever. Now, quickly, what's strange and beautiful is that this text re-emerges in an unlikely place. Matthew chapter two in the Christmas story. Because when the Magi were told angelically to not go back and talk to Herod after they'd seen baby Jesus and they went a different way and Mary and Joseph and Jesus are safely off to Egypt because they have been warned supernaturally. Verse 16, Herod, when he saw they'd been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under according to the time that they ascertained from the wise men.

Every historian agrees this would not be out of his nature. Herod had assignment of people to be killed on the day of his own death so that people would be mourning everywhere. He routinely killed people by the dozens, even the hundreds. Bethlehem was tiny. It's estimated there were probably about 20 children that were age two or younger and he had them all killed just in case any of them were Jesus. And then, this is what we see it, verse 17, oddly, then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Rama weeping in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children.

She refused to be comforted because they are no more. What is it doing here in the Christmas story? It is though the mothers of Bethlehem are weeping along with those who wept at the exile. And there is a mother here, Mary, who though is safe by the miracle of God and her baby is safe. This is a scene in which though there are mothers that grieve the loss of their children, there is a mother here who's not grieving because Jesus is spared. And this Jesus, who remains alive while others die, remains alive to fulfill the mission that he came to share so that he could have the opportunity to die while others lived.

It is here because in the voice of one commentator, the time of exile is over. The tears that began in Jeremiah's day are climaxed and ended by the tears of the mothers of Bethlehem because the true Son of God has arrived who ushers in a new covenant wherein Jesus takes the curse and becomes our exile that we might rejoice forevermore. There is sorrow and there's joy.

Joy wins. We mustn't ignore the tears, but we mustn't despair in the tears. Hope, restoration, resurrection hope. So I just paced around my room watching Carolina ultimately beat the bears, not knowing whether to rejoice or cry at any given moment because sometimes it gets a little confusing down here on earth, doesn't it? And sometimes you just need the Holy Spirit to be with you and say, okay, now's a good time for us to grieve and I'm going to grieve with you because we're going to walk right through this pain together.

But here's what I want you to know. There's going to be joy on the other side, weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, today's good news message, Rachel Weeps No More.

It's from our series Remade. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Stick with us. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a favored foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel and his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day and the closing words of the message today. There is a bit of maybe conflicts, not the most accurate word there, but you do feel a little bit torn. You know, there are certainly great things that I'm learning here, but sometimes we wish that the pain would not have to be endured so deeply.

I think I can speak for all of us who say that the reason we sometimes lapse into the denial of our grief is that it's just painful and we don't want to do it. But what I want to say is that when the Lord says, um, weep no more, when he references all of this incredible imagery and then the weeping of Rachel that comes back up in the Christmas story and all that, that seems so odd that we've put all that together, to remember this, that the Messiah has come. And so the time of exile spiritually is over. The tears that began in Jeremiah's day are ended by the tears of the mothers in Bethlehem because something new has come. He's ushered in a new covenant. So we still have earthly losses, but something has wonderfully forever changed in this new covenant where we know that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, redeemed us from sin, from death. And so yes, we're going to face painful things, but we'll never grieve as those who have no hope. This good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.