Luke 2:4

Bethlehem

The city of David, which is called Bethlehem Luke 2:4.

There is no place in the Bible better known to you than Bethlehem. It is the first place you learn about, because it is the place where Christ was born. But, though that is long ago, Bethlehem even then had had a long, long history. For thousands of years there has been a village on this spot. There was one in the time of Jacob, but in those days it was called not Bethlehem but Ephrath. There are four stories about Bethlehem in the Bible.

1. The first is the story of how Rachel, Jacob's dearly-loved wife, died when she was near Bethlehem. You remember how Jacob mourned for her, and how he set up a pillar over her grave. There is still a place near Bethlehem which is called Rachel's grave. The pillar which marked it is gone; but in its stead is a tomb built by the Saracens. When General Allenby's victorious army took possession of Jerusalem and the neighborhood, special guards were sent to watch over Bethlehem and Rachel's tomb.

2. The second story is the story of Ruth. You all remember how Ruth would not leave her mother-in-law, Naomi; how she gleaned in the fields at Bethlehem; and how she married Boaz, the kind farmer who owned the fields in which she gleaned. You remember how she and Boaz and Naomi all lived happily together in Bethlehem, and how later Ruth had a baby whom she called Obed. This child grew up and had a son named Jesse.

3. That brings us to the third story, for Jesse had eight sons and the youngest of them was David, the shepherd boy who became King of Israel.

David was, like all the natives of Bethlehem, a splendid sturdy man. People who know about such things say that there is something about the water in Bethlehem which makes its natives hardy and fearless. That is perhaps why so many of them are shepherds. The shepherds in Palestine have to be brave men. They have so often to risk their lives defending their sheep. David's mightiest captain, Joab, also came from Bethlehem. It was for the clear cool water of the well at Bethlehem that David longed when he was beset by King Saul and his enemies. And you all know the beautiful story of how three of his brave followers overheard David's longing, and how they risked their lives to bring him a draught of the water for which he thirsted. You remember how, when they brought David the pitcher, he felt that the water was too precious to drink, and poured it out instead as an offering to God.

4. The last and best story about Bethlehem is in the New Testament You know it so well that I need not repeat it. The shepherds and the angels, the inn, and the Baby who was Christ the Lord you have known and loved them since you were tiny toddlers. That story is not only the best story about Bethlehem, it is the best and most wonderful story in all the world.

Wouldn't you like to go and see the place where all these things happened, the town where Christ was born? Perhaps you may some day. Who knows? Shall I tell you what Bethlehem looks like today?

It stands today where it stood in the days of Ruth, on the top of a grey chalky ridge of hills. The side of the hill is cut into terraces, built up with walls, to keep the earth from falling down. These terraces are planted with vines and olive trees, fig trees and almonds. You may look down over the fields where Boaz walked among his reapers, and Ruth gleaned after them; where David tended his sheep and threw stones with his sling; and where the glory fell on the shepherds watching by night. And far away in the distance you may see the blue mountains of Moab from which Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem.

The streets of the town are narrow. The flat-roofed houses are built round courtyards, and they have few windows to the street. The shops are merely arches without doors or windows, and in them the people carve ornaments of olive-wood or mother-of-pearl to sell to visitors.

A great many visitors come to Bethlehem to see Christ's birthplace. A church called the Church of the Nativity is built over what is supposed to be the spot. Its roof is made of English oak sent by Edward IV. of England. Underneath it is a cave with a silver star in the floor which is said to be the stable in which Christ was born.

We cannot be certain of the exact spot, but St. Jerome, that good old monk who died in the year 419 A.D., lived the last thirty years of his life in a cave close by. You may still see his cave where he translated the whole of the Old Testament out of Hebrew into Latin. That translation is what is known as the Vulgate. Some day, when you grow a little older, you may read it, and when you are reading it, you can think that it was written as nearly as possible on one of the most sacred spots on earth the place where the Messiah it promised, the Savior that was to be, came at last to the world.