YES! Merry Christmas AND Happy Hanukah!!!
At Christmas we celebrate the Birth of the Light of the world-JESUS!
At Hanukah we celebrate the Festival of the miracle of Lights!
It was during this festival that Jesus shouted, “I am the LIGHT OF THE WORLD!”
Isaiah 9:2,6 Those who have walked in darkness have seen a GREAT LIGHT!…For unto us a child is born!
It is always good to celebrate Jesus and his light that shines in our darkness!
We bless you with a supernatural awareness of His light in your life, of His Peace in your heart and His extraordinary, passionate love for you!
Shepherds? A Stable? A Cave?
So who were these shepherds? Did ‘no room in the inn’ mean an ‘oversight’ in the plan of God? I’ve often asked these questions and wondered at why, when the Father had taken such care to fulfill every word of prophecy in the old Testament, did he not provide a better place for His son to be born. As we have told this story over and over in many different ways it appears that Joseph and Mary were left to depend on the mercy of an un-named inn keeper who happened to have an empty stable for them to give birth to the King of Kings! I was delighted to find the work of Cooper Abrams, who has given me some answers to these questions.
First, let’s look at the shepherds. This was not just any flock nor were these your average shepherds. These sheep were destined for Temple sacrifices and the shepherds who kept them were men who were specifically trained for this royal task by the Rabbis. They were educated in what an animal that was to be sacrificed had to be and it was their job to make sure that none of the animals were hurt, damaged, or blemished. It was their responsibility to proclaim, “This lamb is THE Lamb for the Passover celebration!” And being themselves under special Rabbinical care, they would strictly maintain a ceremonially clean stable for a birthing place. These shepherds customarily kept their flocks outdoors twenty-four hours a day every day of the year, but brought the ewes in to deliver their lambs where they could be carefully cared for.
It was to these shepherds that the angels said, “You will find the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” The angels did not say which manger. But there was no need for the angels to give these shepherds directions to the birth place. When the angelic announcement came, they knew exactly where to go, as Luke 2 indicates, for the sign of a manger could only mean their manger! The Passover lamb had been born! Yes, this was not an overlooked detail, but instead a very strategic, ceremonially clean, prepared place for this lamb, the Son of God himself to be born!
So I invite you to put aside the images of smelly stables with donkeys and cows. Come rather to the Tower of the Flock just outside Bethlehem on the road to Jerusalem, where the lambs were born that would offered as sacrifices in the Temple for the cleansing of sin.
Come and join the shepherds, not mere ignorant laborers but those charged with the care of the lambs that had to raised without blemish and injury. Join these schooled men with knowledgeable teaching of the Scriptures and the Rabbis who knew at once where to find the one born to be Savior, Messiah and Lord.
Come and kneel with them as they examine this lamb and pronounce that He is without spot or blemish. That he alone is qualified to walk those three miles to Jerusalem and give his life as a Sacrifice on the Cross to take away your sins and mine.
This Christmas may we encounter the pure and Holy Lamb of God, born without spot or Blemish! May we along with the shepherds, glorify and praise God for all the things that we have heard and seen!
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!