MAN
OF SORROWS
Genesis
35:16-20 (NKJV)
16 Then
they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel laboured in childbirth, and she had hard
labor. 17 Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife
said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.” 18 And
so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name
Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So
Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath
(that is, Bethlehem). 20 And
Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this
day.
The
thread of redemptive history winds through Bethlehem, and the story begins in
the book of Genesis. One of Scripture’s greatest love
stories ended when Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachel, died during childbirth and was
buried in Bethlehem. Genesis 35:16-20 gives us: (1) the longest account of the
death of a woman in the Bible; (2) the story of the first woman in Scripture to
die during childbirth; (3) the first occurrence of the word “grave” in the
Bible when referring to death; and (4) the first time in Scripture a gravestone
was erected.
But
there’s more. With her dying words, Rachel named her son, Ben-Oni, which means,
“Son of My Sorrow.” But Jacob renamed the boy Benjamin, which means, “Son of
the Right Hand.”
Think
of it. A Man of Sorrows, born in Bethlehem, who came to dwell at the right hand
of his beloved father. As early as Genesis 35, we have inklings of our Lord’s
own story—nearly two thousand years before He came. The whole Bible is about
Jesus! You can trust a Book like that, and you can trust the Savior of whom it
speaks.