why Bethlehem?

-A star filled night...voices dancing in the air...shepherds and kings searching for the consolation of Israel...to find him wrapped snuggly in a manger. The Davidic King, the Messiah of Israel, the Light of the Gentiles...in an animals trough?



-The human narrative began with food..."and you shall eat..." Man's reliance of living was based on eating. the imperative was given...eat, but don't eat of this..." Adam directly and consciously decided to make his appetite his God and not vise versa. The Creator of the world, who spread out the heavens and established the earth, desired to be the provisionary, yet Adam ran away.

-It was Jehovah's response in Gen 3:22 "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:"(emphasis mine)

-Before the fall, man's life, his peace, was in what he ate. How up until now is any thing different? We hunger and we eat...physical, material, and emotional food. But there is only one Spiritual food that will bring "life forever". Man craves, yet is never fulfilled. His current food is carnal. His food preserves, but does not heal his condition of self-centered idolatry, the cycle of death and the sting of its venom. The byproduct of failing to eat the proper food is a sure and painful death. By man's diet, he is destined to die. His food can never return him back to a Theocentric position; the garden of Peace. Adam is now concerned for his own preservation, by his own sweat and anxious toil.

-Why now Bethlehem? Micah 5 states that out of the insignificant, greatness will arise! The little town of Bethlehem's significance, like most names in literature, is far more meaningful than the surface of the English language allows. The Hebraic meaning is Biet=House Lehem=of bread. God hath provided a house of food..in an obscure ambiguous town?

-Food from an insignificant source...? Food for the Life of the World?...In a animal trough? Born into a domesticated animals world to redeem that domestication from its anxious cravings of peace. Food to eat and Live!

This is why Bethlehem is! It is obscurity. It is foolishness. It is Peace. " Take, eat; This is my body ...This is my blood..." This is the food...this is what God declared...lest they reach out and eat. God provided the source of life. It was not man's labors, but the divine grace of Jehovah Jirah(The God who will see to it and provide). Bread wrapped in a stable; Bread for the Life of the world...our Eucharist...our great thanksgiving! All who choosingly, eat and live in Peace.