![]() Luke closes the story with two responses: Mary's pondering and the shepherds joyfully spreading the story. What a scene! Scruffy shepherds peering in on this young couple far from home, their baby wrapped in homespun cloth and lying in a manger. While Caesar sleeps or parties, and the high priest in Jerusalem goes about business as usual, the shepherds rush off to Bethlehem to see. So the angels sing their glorious oratorio while the sleepy shepherds cringe in fear. No, Luke says, in ways already signaled by Mary's song in chapter 1, Jesus has come to save sinners, to be with the poor and lowly. If heaven were going to make an angelic birth announcement, you would think the message should go to Caesar's palace, or at least to the high priest in Jerusalem. Why focus on shepherds when God has just arrived in Bethlehem? It was the city of David, the shepherd-king but shepherds were on the lower rungs of Jewish society in that time. Shepherds were in the fields watching their flocks. There is no room for God's Son in the city of David.Īs soon as the baby is born and laid to rest, in just one sentence Luke turns our focus to the fields outside Bethlehem. The Lord of glory is born in a stable, the Creator of all is laid in a feeding trough. A what? That would be the first-time reader's response. Jesus is born, wrapped in cloth, and laid in a manger. Strangely, the birth story itself is the shortest part. God is now fulfilling age-old promises, and the promise to David is only one of them. The reader is supposed to remember that great promise God made to David (2 Samuel 7)-that his descendant would sit on the throne forever. And then there's "the city of David." Luke is directing us into a very important element of the story of God in the Bible. God really did break into our world." And it explains, of course, what a family from Nazareth is doing in Bethlehem. Why start with Caesar Augustus and Quirinius? Luke's first point in telling the story is to anchor it in time and history, which is his way of saying, "This is not a fairy tale, folks. " that it doesn't surprise us that this story, known around the world, would begin with a little history lesson. This is exactly how God created us to live.We're so used to hearing "In those days Caesar Augustus. Like David, may this truth also take root so deep within us that God’s peace flushes out panic, hurry, worry, fear and fretting. ” David lacks nothing because the Lord is his shepherd. So much so, he says in verse 4, “ I will fear no evil for You are with me. David is confident amidst the dark valleys. ![]() While we as finite humans prefer to avoid the dark valleys of life, this is the normal way the Lord grows and matures us in Christ because He sees the whole picture at once. But, that was ok because the shepherd passionately and fiercely protected the flock against many perils with his mighty rod and staff. Shepherds would heard their sheep through this well traveled area even though dangerous predators lurked within the dark shadows. The mountains surrounding the place of dark valleys were so cavernous that it was as dark as night, even in the height of day. David has a specific place in mind when he references “dark valleys,” which is called the “valley of the shadow of death,” or “place of dark valleys.” This was a literal location and a very well traveled through route in David’s time. In light of all this, verse 4 brings a sharp transition into the fold with the onset of “dark valleys.” The shepherd will always lead His sheep through dark valleys. The full picture of verses 1-3 can be further explained like this: Slow down, be at rest, be still the Good Shepherd is on the throne! He leads me in right paths for His name’s sake. ![]() In verses 1-3, David describes what the Good Shepherd does for his sheep: Psalm 23 introduces us to the ‘Good Shepherd.’ The language in Psalm 23 is so intimate that David refers to the Lord as ‘his (personal) shepherd.’ The same can also be said of all of us that have a personal relationship with the One True God the God of the Bible. ![]() Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, King David (once a shepherd himself) wrote perhaps the most ‘famous’ literary masterpiece in history. ![]()
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