After the shepherds that were in a field...guarding some sheep...had experienced the "visit from angels...from Heaven itself"....they looked at one another and discussed what had just happened to them.....
Ok...maybe I am wrong...but if I had just been listening to an angel speak to me from heaven...with this "blaze" so bright I could hardly see; then a whole army of angels confirmed what the angel had told me by singing (and you know their singing had to be "out of this world" sort of speak) praises to God Himself...I probably would have concluded..."Ok...I have just been "launched by God Himself" to a new career!!... to carry out these "Supreme Orders" everywhere...to set-up a mass communication center that will enable me to carry these instructions....letting everyone know...everywhere...the Messiah lives!..He has come!...right here in the town of Bethlehem!.....
Yet...what did these shepherds do...after seeing for themselves the Christ-child...in a manger...in swaddling clothes...everything just like the angel had said? The shepherds did 2 things that were noted:
1. They returned to their field...and continued their watch....guarding the sheep which they had been entrusted....and
2. "Let loose" with some "serious praise" to the Lord...thanking Him for the privilege of witnessing the greatest event...in the history of mankind.
The shepherds didn't even "call off from work", they did not ask to "go home early", and they certainly didn't just quit...and expect God to open "new doors" for them...to get the Good News out. No...they went back to work...and allowed God...to work out the Plan...that was now officially underway..."All Go!"..were the orders..."Evil"...was about to be visited!!....
A Gleaning from Luke 2: 15-20
" Then, all these angels of the God-of-the-angel-Armies...they withdrew from the shepherds...returning to their posts in heaven.
As for the shepherds....they now took some time to talk all this over...the things they had just been the "chosen participants of"...witnessing a spectacular event...that will be discussed through the corridors of history!
The shepherds concluded among themselves: "Let's do this! Let's go to Bethlehem!...Let's see with our very own eyes!...what the God of all Heaven...has revealed...to us!! (you got to wonder if they were laughing hard...simply the thought of God revealing an event of this magnitude...to a bunch of "low-class" shepherds, at least from their society viewpoint in that day...and now...the Greatest Message of all-time...is to have its "launching point"...in a field with a bunch of sheep...with a few shepherds watching over them....)
So..the shepherds left... running down the hills...getting to Bethlehem...to find the one who was to be born....and called "The Messiah"!
The shepherds searched...and sure enough...they found Him! Everything the angel of the Lord had spoken...was now being seen...through these shepherds eyes!
There...they were! Mary and Joseph...and in a stable; and in this stable...wrapped in swaddling clothes...laying right in a bunch of fresh hay...in a manger...a feed trough..it was Him...the baby Jesus! Every word the angel of the Lord had spoken...was true!
After the shepherds had witnessed with their very own eyes...the birth of the Christ-child, the shepherds spoke up to all present at the stable...and explained to them what had happened: the visit of the angel...what the angel had spoken...the dazzling brightness...the gathering of many more angels...the glorious singing...the shepherds explained to them what they had just experienced...
Meanwhile, Mary sat and listened intently to the words of the shepherds, taking every word in "with a sensitivity to the events that were happening in her young life"... the "stable scene"...what the angel had previously spoken to her...her cousin Elizabeth...the birthing of John (the Baptist)...Mary guarded all these thoughts...and kept them safe within her heart...thinking over and over...wondering what all this meant...pondering all these things that had happened to all of them in the past year...
And the shepherds?...what happened to the shepherds you might ask?...they pretty much did what the angels from Heaven had done earlier. They returned to their field and continued to watch over their sheep...and "let loose some serious praise" to the Lord...thanking Him for the privilege of being a part of the greatest moment of history...to all mankind!"
And yes...the shepherds did exactly what had been instructed of them....the Message...was out!
Yet...what did these shepherds do...after seeing for themselves the Christ-child...in a manger...in swaddling clothes...everything just like the angel had said? The shepherds did 2 things that were noted:
1. They returned to their field...and continued their watch....guarding the sheep which they had been entrusted....and
2. "Let loose" with some "serious praise" to the Lord...thanking Him for the privilege of witnessing the greatest event...in the history of mankind.
The shepherds didn't even "call off from work", they did not ask to "go home early", and they certainly didn't just quit...and expect God to open "new doors" for them...to get the Good News out. No...they went back to work...and allowed God...to work out the Plan...that was now officially underway..."All Go!"..were the orders..."Evil"...was about to be visited!!....
A Gleaning from Luke 2: 15-20
As for the shepherds....they now took some time to talk all this over...the things they had just been the "chosen participants of"...witnessing a spectacular event...that will be discussed through the corridors of history!
The shepherds concluded among themselves: "Let's do this! Let's go to Bethlehem!...Let's see with our very own eyes!...what the God of all Heaven...has revealed...to us!! (you got to wonder if they were laughing hard...simply the thought of God revealing an event of this magnitude...to a bunch of "low-class" shepherds, at least from their society viewpoint in that day...and now...the Greatest Message of all-time...is to have its "launching point"...in a field with a bunch of sheep...with a few shepherds watching over them....)
So..the shepherds left... running down the hills...getting to Bethlehem...to find the one who was to be born....and called "The Messiah"!
The shepherds searched...and sure enough...they found Him! Everything the angel of the Lord had spoken...was now being seen...through these shepherds eyes!
There...they were! Mary and Joseph...and in a stable; and in this stable...wrapped in swaddling clothes...laying right in a bunch of fresh hay...in a manger...a feed trough..it was Him...the baby Jesus! Every word the angel of the Lord had spoken...was true!
After the shepherds had witnessed with their very own eyes...the birth of the Christ-child, the shepherds spoke up to all present at the stable...and explained to them what had happened: the visit of the angel...what the angel had spoken...the dazzling brightness...the gathering of many more angels...the glorious singing...the shepherds explained to them what they had just experienced...
And the shepherds?...what happened to the shepherds you might ask?...they pretty much did what the angels from Heaven had done earlier. They returned to their field and continued to watch over their sheep...and "let loose some serious praise" to the Lord...thanking Him for the privilege of being a part of the greatest moment of history...to all mankind!"
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