Category: Christmas

Luke 2:6 (KJV) And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

While Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus. When Immanuel took in His first breath, the angels were ready to announce the greatest birth of all time. I find it very interesting of where the announcement of the angel of the Lord was NOT made.

• The angel of the Lord did not go to the “city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)” (Luke 2:4).
• The announcement didn’t go to his family in Bethlehem that had come for the taxing.
• The announcement wasn’t made to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
• The declaration was not made to the Chief Priests, Scribes, Pharisees, or Sadducees.
• The proclamation was withheld from the Rabbi’s teaching on the Temple mount

Instead, the angel proclaimed the birth to shepherds in their fields by night. They were doing what their families had done for generations…tending sheep. Perhaps these shepherds oversaw the sheep destined for sacrifice on the altar in Jerusalem.
With a flash of blinding light a chorus of angels sing. His announcement was followed immediately by an army of angels who had been waiting for nine months, but really, for all of eternity, to sing their anthem song: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men.”
The shepherds decided to investigate the birth for themselves. When they saw the Messiah in a manger, they were overjoyed. Their intuitive response was to tell everyone they could find that the Savior of the world was born.
These shepherds were the first to worship Jesus, and they were the first evangelists of the Christian era.