Thursday, Dec. 13

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Thursday

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  - Luke 2:8-11

Have you ever wondered why shepherds, - out in a field on night watch, minding their own business, - were the first to receive the good news that the Savior of all people, Christ the Lord had been born?

Why them? Why did God tell them, why did He invite them to see the Birth of all Births? The Miracle of all Miracles,- the Incarnation of God!

One reason has to do with the OT law surrounding sacrifices at the Temple.

The law required that every household had to sacrifice a lamb at Passover time - if they could afford to do so.  This amounted to a very large number of lambs being sacrificed.  Additionally, the regulations dictated that each lamb had to be without blemish.  (Ex 12:5).  If you brought your own lamb to sacrifice, it was inspected by one of the Temple priests and the chances were high that it would be rejected as having some blemish.  You were therefore forced to buy a lamb from the Temple itself.   

The bottom line is that the Temple not only sacrificed lambs, but it supplied them too - in large quantities!  Where did these lambs come from?  The answer is that many of them were reared in fields near Bethlehem by shepherds who effectively worked for the Temple in Jerusalem.  Now here's the really fascinating part: whenever a new lamb was born, it was the duty of the shepherds to immediately inspect the new born-lamb to determine whether or not it had any blemish.  

Did you catch that?  The shepherds had to bear witness to the perfection of the new born lambs.  These shepherds were the first to witness the birth of Christ...what was it that John the Baptist called Jesus?  Oh Yeah, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

God has a special affinity for shepherds, because God has the heart of a shepherd.

Think about it. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were shepherds.  So was David (he may have shepherded in the same fields where these guys were when the angel appeared to them). God is referred to as the Shepherd of Israel. The Psalmist personally exclaimed, “the Lord is my shepherd.”  Peter referred to Jesus as the Chief Shepherd. Jesus referred to himself as the Good Shepherd who was willing to lay down his life for the sheep (that includes you and me), see John 10. He is the Shepherd King of all humanity, and by the way, he happens to have a special love and longing for straying, misbehaving, dumb, lost sheep (that also includes you and me), see Luke 15.

God was coming in person to gather the lost sheep of Israel, and all of humanity to himself. He told the news to fellow shepherds first! There is probably something there that he wants us to pay attention to.

Justin Martyr, a Palestinian, was personally familiar with Bethlehem. He lived a little over a 100 years after Christ and writes that the stable Jesus was born in was a cave in the hillside. That is where the Shepherds would have headed in response to the message of the angel. They were humble folks and I imagine they didn’t even notice the outrageous conditions that the Christ was born into. Most likely they had to bow down to enter the cave,- no problem for lowly shepherds. And they knew who this baby was!

Shepherds were not exactly the “in crowd” in firs century Jewish culture.  They were just above fisherman (another group that God seems to like) on the social scale, which is to say they were low class.  Shepherds were certainly not the kind of folks who get invited to the celebration of the birth of kings...but they were this night.

Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?        - James 2:5

Jeff Frazier