Was this child the One of whom Micah had spoken nearly eight hundred years earlier, even naming the exact town in which the birth would occur?
"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."(Micah 5:2 NASB)
It would seem that a royal birth would warrant the very best that could be provided. Yet God chose to bring the Savior into the world in the most humble of surroundings. Though Bethlehem was the hometown of Mary and Joseph, we see no record of family members offering them lodging. Try then the inn -- but there was no room, understandably, for the town was teeming with people who had journeyed there to be taxed. So the Scriptures tell us that the Savior, God in the flesh, was born in a stable. Man had rejected Immanuel from the onset, but God was not finished with that humble birth, for the One in the cradle was the Creator of the Universe. In contrast to the bustle of the town, was the quiet hillside in which shepherds were tending their flocks. These men were performing a task most people did not want. Their lives were exposed to the elements day and night, and the sheep required continual care. Man would look on these shepherds and conclude that they could not fulfill any meaningful role in society. Wrong! God’s thinking differs from man --
… “the LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”(I Sam 16:7 NIV)
These shepherds were different from the unbelieving masses, and the sheep were also unique. From the “Mishnah” we know that sheep chosen for their perfection pastured year round in the open fields of Bethlehem. These would be the sheep used in the temple services and sacrifices to picture the death of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world. From the response of the shepherds as the angelic chorus heralded the birth of the Savior, we know that these men waited eagerly for the Messiah for they knew and believed the Hebrew Scriptures --
... “let us go NOW to Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord has made known unto us.”(Luke 2:15b KJV)
The opportunity had been given Israel to believe --
…“unto us a child is born, unto us a Son if given.”(Isa 9:16)
It was a night of great glory and wonder. The angels sang “glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men with whom God is well pleased.” John stated the wondrous gift in these words --
… “for God so loved the world that he gave His uniquely born Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16)