Because God Wants You to Know!

The the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid, for behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy

which will be to all people.

For there is born to you this day
in the City of David

a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be the sign to you:

You will find a Babe
wrapped in swaddling cloths,

lying in a manger."

Luke 2:10-12, NKJV

I've been remiss in making posts to my Evertold Chronicles.  And if you think that's an odd designation, let me explain it.  The four gospels are the inspired written accounts of The Greatest Story Ever Told.  Evertold.  Nearly four trips around the sun ago, I began a verse-by-verse devotional on the life of Christ.  As with my other blogging endeavors, my diligence was better at some times than with others.  Nevertheless, I am still fascinated with the Life of Christ, the greatest man who ever lived, and today continue my journey through the wonder of His miraculous birth.  Join me now as we peek in on some shepherds who have just received a startling angelic visitation...

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I don't know about you, but I love receiving good news.  Bad news, not so much.  That's why I don't watch the news...not at noontime, not at one of the afternoon showings, and especially not at bedtime.  I don't read the paper either.  I'm convinced that the journalistic segment of our society has forgotten how to report good news.  It's always war, pestilence, famine, disease, political intrigue, murder, violence, crime, sin.  And it's everywhere.  So I stick to the Bible, which is not only always true, but it's always good.  I can't do anything about the news anyway, so I might as well focus on something I can do.

This group of Jewish men, and we're not told how many there were, were camped out on a Bethlehem hillside minding their own business and watching to make sure their sheep slept.  Having counted the sheep to ensure their flock was intact, perhaps they reclined around a campfire, talking in low and quiet voices, telling stories, trading opinions, doing what they and their ancestors had done on the same hillside for a millennium.  And then, all of a sudden, the black of night was pierced by the brightness of the glory of God, and an angel stepped out of heaven onto earth and said those famous words I love and keep referring to:  "FEAR NOT!"

He was a good news messenger, and did he have a message for them!  It was good news of great joy for everybody everywhere.

Speaking to shepherds who had been weaned on the law and the prophets, who had been rocked to sleep by their mothers singing the Psalms, who attended the three annual feasts in Jerusalem with strict religious conviction, and who had heard all their lives that Messiah was coming, the angel announced, "Messiah is here!"  Imagine the thrill in their souls, once they overcame their fright at the glorious sight.  Imagine how their pulses pounded, their breaths quickened, and their minds began to race.

It was the most important announcement God had ever made to humanity.  For 4000 years, God had been preparing humanity for this arrival, starting with His promise to Eve of her heir that would crush the serpent's head, and following all the way through Israeli history to the last prophet they had heard, the voice of Malachi declaring, "The Son of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings!"  For 1500 years, ever since Moses on his way to the mountaintop said, "There is coming one after me who is far greater than I am!"  For 600 years, they had been awaiting the restoration of the kingdom to Israel and the throne to the family of David.  At last, the day had come!

God wanted those shepherds to know the good news, but He also wanted them to be witnesses to the glorious truth--the birth of the Messiah.  So along with the birth announcement he also provided specific instructions for finding the Christ Child.

He was born that very day.  So they were looking for a newborn.

He was born in Bethlehem, the City of David.  Their gaze turned toward the nearby cluster of houses.

He wasn't born in a home.  So now their gaze turned back to the angel in puzzlement.

He's wrapped in swaddling clothes...there was nothing extraordinary about that part; all babies were wrapped in swaddling clothes after their birth, to protect them.  But here was the sign...this baby wouldn't be found in a cradle, but in a manger.

In earlier posts, I have dealt with this--the translation of the word "manger" and the understanding of it in our modern English language.  It has normally been understood to be a stone feeding trough in a barn, therefore all the Christmas songs.  But there is another meaning to the word, and it had specific significance to the timing of Jesus' birth.  A manger was also the bread basket in which Jews kept their food while camping out for the Feast of Tabernacles, the season that was upon them.  Travelers were coming from all over the world to commemorate those four decades their ancestors wandered in the wilderness, and how God brought them over into the Promised Land.  Soon the housetops and the hillsides surrounding Jerusalem would be filled with temporary structures--called tabernacles or booths--and for eight days the Israelites would live as their forbears had lived.  I think the shepherds might have understood this, therefore they didn't go looking in every family's barn to see if a baby had been born there.  They simply had to look for someone who had already built their tabernacle booth on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

You see, when God wants you to know something, He's going to be very clear in the telling.  When God wants you to find something, He's not going to shroud it in code and mystery.  When God wants you to have understanding, He draws back the veil, gives you specific instructions, and says, "Follow."  His Word will lead us into the truth.