THE
SHEPHERDS
SCRIPTURES
LUKE 2:8-20
Abraham was
a shepherd, often moving about to find pasture and water and to avoid hostile
tribesmen. Jacob slipped away in the night to a shepherd kinsmen after cheating
his brother Esau. Jacob shepherd sheep for 14 years. The prophet
Amos, humbly claimed that he was just a poor uneducated shepherd. King David,
the most famous shepherd of all, worked as a boy with fathers flock.
Ancient
Israel was not a land of cattle ranches or pig farms. For pork was forbidden.
Yes that would include Bacon. Jewish Law.
The practice
of agriculture was scattered- some grain was grown in Galilee, along with some
vineyards and fruit trees. But especially in the southern region of Judah,
sheep and goats dotted the landscape.
The rocky hills from Jerusalem to Hebron and Bethlehem housed constantly
migrating sheep and goat. The soil was so shallow, the rocky hills abundant,
the rain so occasional, the grass was so sparse, and that the sheep and the
goats moved continually.
So in
ancient Palestine, shepherding was prominent essential. Sheep were the mainstay
of the inhabitants livelihood. Sheep provided wool, meat, clothing and material
for tents. Lambs were regularly laid on
the altar in Jerusalem’s Temple as a sacrifice.
In springtime,
during the day, shepherd and families who owned the sheep had much to do. They
worked hard, assisting in the birthing of new lambs, caring for those little
ones. Amid strong winds and spring rains, they sheared the sheep, harvested the
winter wool and readied the ewes and bucks for simmer weather. The butchered young males and castrated other
for later meat supply.
The
firstborn lamb was taken to the Temple as a sacrificial thank offering. As
David, these shepherds had to be alert for wild animals, foxes, beats and even
lions.
Summertime
it was more laid back. However wintertime is different. The sheep would be fed
little hay..maybe some grain. They move the about . At night the pastures were
cold. There was little to do. Build a fire, sing to help quiet the sheep and
keep animals away. The hired hands were called shepherd, their main jobs was to
bed down the sheep. Sometimes in a cave, often around a fire, then go to sleep
leaving one fellow to stay awake and watch. The owners were in their homes.
So these
nighttime winter shepherd were the poorest of the poor. They owned nothing,
couldn’t get a decent-paying daytime job and often had neither home nor family.
In this day and time, these shepherds were considered the bottom of the social
ladder.
Sometimes,
these people could have very well had a bad reputation. The shepherd were not
allowed to given testimony in the courts in those days; they were usually
considered unreliable…So why would an angel come first to the shepherds.
These humble
night workers got to baby Jesus before the Wiseman did. It has been said that
uneducated, simple people come more easily to faith than wise people and
scholars who have to work through a lot of thought problems before they come to
the Lord. Do you think that is true?
God chose to
have the angels sing to these humble folks, these shepherds, the weakest of the
weak, the loneliest of the lonely, the poorest of the poor.,
The angel
first words was “Do NOT BE AFAIRD: because they were terrified. IT wasn’t a
lion or bear but host of angels singing.
Martin
Luther said the greatest miracle of Christmas was that when the angel told Mary
she was to bear a child, the Savior “MARY BELIEVED”. The shepherds believed
They said, lets go NOW to Bethlehem and see this thing…and they went in haste.
While some
people hear an angel speaking and keep on tending the sheep. Some of us hear
heaven singing and we throw another stick on the fire.
READ LUKE
2:20. No verse in Scripture is more exciting, more fulfilling that “The shepherds
returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.
Our God has
a special heart for the humble. Those who are poor are not blocked by prestige
or wealth but are often open to the eternal. Stripped of everything earthly.
Historically
great Christians revivals movements have started amount the poor; Saint Francis
going to Italy, John Wesley’s preaching to the peasants and prisoners in
England; William Booth’s offering to Christ and started the Salvation Army.
A miracle of
Christmas is that the angels sand first to the shepherd. That they hurried to
the manger, and that they believed and returned to the fields glorifying God.
Even in
today’s society, the poor is separated. All societies. Upper class, Middle
class, the poor and indigent. I could be a migrant worker at a chicken plant, a
young person at fast food restaurant behind the counter, the person that sleeps
under the bridge, these are hard for US to reach for Jesus. We are often aloof
and distant with them, they are sometimes suspicious and defensive. But JESUS
went to the poor and the outcast.
READ Luke
14:13-14 When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and
the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will
be repaid at the resurrections of the righteous.
So let’s
remember the shepherds at Christmas. They represent the poor, the lonely and
the outcast. The angels came to them first. The poorest of the poor. Maybe
never forget the poor, in our town or country or the world.
