A Starry Night

A reflection on a starry night

Christmas has come and gone and a new year has begun, we are moving toward resurrection Sunday. The world is in turmoil more than most of us have seen in a lifetime. It’s times like this that we rely on the chiasmus “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. Today we want to reflect on the story of the shepherds watching their sheep found in Luke 2: 8-14, 20.

8. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told to them.

The date is 336AD Constantine is emperor, and the church fathers have decided to celebrate the birth of Christ during the roman festival of the unconquered son. They believed that by doing this it would counter the pagan festival and introduce them to Jesus Christ. Jesus was not born on December 25. The date we celebrate Christmas is not important it’s the reason that stands above all else.

God is perfect in all ways his timing is never late and never early, he works out the infinite with the finite, and at the same time through sanctification he works changing each and every believer to become more like him. The Old Testament states it this way.

Psalm 119

89 Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

In the New Testament gospel of John it is stated this way.

John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The word dwelt is a poor translation and is better translated Tabernacled among us. The sovereign creator and ruler of all, showed himself to man on a starry night. This was the beginning, of the end, to the master plan of redemption and salvation which started with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Four thousand years before, Noah entered an ark with his sons and wives and God sent a great flood to cover the earth because of the evil of men. After a year the ark came to rest on Mt. Ararat, and a new beginning for Noah and his family. We are told in Genesis 8

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

There are two Jewish calendars the civil and the sacred, the civil started with Adam and the sacred with Moses. Keep this in mind as we see the picture of the sacrificial lamb when the Jews left Egypt in the 430th year of slavery on the night of the first Passover. Moses records in the Torah the first command from God regarding the seven feasts.

Exodus 12

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Jesus was crucified on the 14th and arose from the grave three days later. A new beginning for mankind and the same day God rested the ark on Mt. Ararat.

Born in Bethlehem, the city of David, translated as the house of bread. Lying in a manager, a common feeding trough, and wrapped in swaddling clothes, also used to wrap the dead. These and many more were predicted in the Old Testament thousands of years before Jesus came to Tabernacle with man.

The announcement came to the shepherds first with the proclamation, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace good will toward men”; shepherds watching their flock by night. The recorded history of the Rabbis, known as the Talmud, tells us that the only time shepherds watched the sheep at night was in the spring when the lambs were born; and that the shepherds in the region of Bethlehem supplied the lambs for the sacrifices in Jerusalem only a few miles away.

Sheep, used throughout scripture often describe God’s people; however few know the characteristics ascribed to them. An article published in Psychology today on May 12, 2019 quotes the following;

“The stereotype is that sheep are docile, passive, unintelligent, and timid, but a review of the research on their behavior, affect, cognition, and personality reveals that they are complex, individualistic, and social. Sheep do care about their lives and how they are treated; and respond to similar situations in similar ways to humans.” Consider some of the following traits:

· They have face recognition on par of humans

· Emotional animals that feel optimism and pessimism which can affect their mental performance.

· Have individual personality traits.

· Cannot be trained to perform feats like other animals, but have brain power equal to other animals and in some cases humans.

· Have great eyesight and can see almost behind them.

· Act one way with flock mentality, differently when they are alone or singled out

· Are helpless to defend themselves

· Give birth only once a year, usually in the spring.

· If they fall on their backs they cannot right themselves without help. If the shepherd isn’t available the sheep in the flock will gather around and push them over.

Isaiah 53: 6 states all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus Christ became the sacrificial lamb who took upon himself the iniquity of us all. The timing of the birth of Jesus like everything else in scripture is always perfect, and I believe it can be traced back to Moses and the Instructions given by God on the first Tabernacle. We find this in Exodus 19, 25, and 40.

Exodus 19

1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

Exodus 25

8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

Exodus 40

2 On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.

In the third month Moses was given the instructions for the Tabernacle, and on the first day of the first month, the start of a new year on the sacred calendar the Tabernacle was raised. Exactly nine months after God gave Moses the instructions. It was in this Tabernacle that atonement was given by the priests that peace may exist between God and his people, and it was the birth of Jesus that the angles announced “peace on earth good will toward men”. The new testament puts it this way.

Romans 5

1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

John 14

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

Heb 13

20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

And as already stated in John 1:14, and the word became flesh and Tabernacled with man.

During his ministry jesus talks about his sheep in John 10,

John 10

1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber

14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.

23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.

26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Notice the timing it was the Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Dedication pertains to the cleansing of the temple during the time of the Maccabeus. Antiochus Epiphanies had desecrated the Temple, and after his defeat it was cleansed and rededicated to the Lord. Jesus is talking to the scribes and Pharisees, but he is not in the Temple but on Solomen’s porch and in verse 26 he tells them they have desecrated theTemple. In Matthew he says this about his sheep

Matt 25

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Back to the shepherds in Luke they had been to Bethlehem seen what the angles told them and they left with this final verse.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told to them.

The church today is full of people who want Jesus to be the sheep and they the shepherds, but on that first Christmas the Shepherds left glorifying and praising God. They saw the good shepherd in psalm 22, the great shepherd in psalm 23, and the great shepherd in psalm 24.

You see this was the night that the Shepherds became sheep.

The Great Shepherd is not looking for shepherds; he is looking for sheep that follow him.