Meaning of the Word Bethlehem (Come, Follow Me: Christmas) – powered by Happy Scribe
During this Christmas season, we reflect on the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It’s this amazing Hebrew word that means house of bread. Now want to tie this into Exodus, chapter 16 and to Deuteronomy, chapter eight, verse three and to John, chapter six, verses 30 to 40, which deal with the topic of manna. And remember, the Israelites have been saved by God from Egyptian bondage. They’re all out in the wilderness, and there they are completely and fully dependent upon God. They complain. They’re like, we wish we had the flesh pots of Egypt, all the resources that were there. And God is trying to teach the people by taking them to the wilderness that they should be fully and entirely dependent upon him. They shouldn’t be complaining. The miracle of manna is yet one more example for how God will sustain.
Us and wants us to be dependent upon Him.
So when the people in Exodus complain to God like we have nothing to.
Eat, he sends them mana.
That’s interesting. When they wake up in the morning and they find this bread like honey like substance, they don’t know what it.
Is, and they say Ma NA.
In Hebrew, the word ma NA literally means what is it? And that becomes the name of the substance that sustains them for years and years on a daily basis. Mana or mana, what is it and what is it? It’s the love of God. It is the bread of life. Jesus, who is the bread of life. He is the what is it?
He is the manna who comes to.
This earth as a weak, dependent little baby and yet he becomes the king for all of us and he delivers his body to all of us on a regular basis. It is the mana of sacrament, the what is it that sustains us every week that we can have the spiritual sustenance we need to endure yet one more day, one more week on that path of salvation as we seek to get to the tree of life, who is Jesus himself. I love how all these symbols connect together that the man of the Old Testament that sustains the ancient Israelites is Jesus, who is the bread of life, who is born in the house of bread to the sacrament today, which is an emblem of the Passover when God saved the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. That today, every week, we can partake of the manna that God has provided through His Holy Spirit at sacrament. Mary, the Lord bless you in your efforts to have the Spirit in your life and to share His Spirit with everybody you encounter.
The word “Bethlehem” is derived from the Hebrew language and means “house of bread.” It is the name of a town in the modern-day West Bank, located about 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem. Bethlehem is an important site in the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is considered to be the birthplace of Jesus in Christian tradition. The town is also known for its cultural and religious significance, and attracts many tourists and pilgrims each year.
dyejo
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