can hear the despair of Mary, “there was found no room for them” (2:7), as she faced her imminent delivery without the comfort of a home, instead she faced the ground floor accommodation of a house where animals were kept. The birth of Mary’s baby took place there among the straw strewn on the rough floor for the animals, “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (v7). The word manger is sometimes translated as “feeding trough.” Mary placed in the manger her new born baby which was wrapped in swaddling bands. 2. The angel hosts and the visitation of the shepherds (vv8-20) I have always wondered why the angels appeared to the shepherds outside Bethlehem. There are two views about the shepherds; there is the traditional view which looks on the shepherds as insignificant, uneducated men who looked after dumb sheep. The rabbis who produced the Talmudic literature (written around A.D. 200-500 but containing oral traditions from before, during and after the earthly lifetime of Jesus) often regarded shepherds as dishonest and prone to violating Jewish law. Likewise, Philo, a Jewish sage in Egypt and a contemporary of Jesus, wrote that shepherds “are held to be mean and inglorious” (On Husbandry, 61). This has been the prevailing view which has been perpetuated in the church for generations. The other view of the shepherds is much more honouring and affirming. Firstly, consider the teaching of Scripture about shepherds and those people in Scripture who were engaged in shepherding and we immediately come up with rather different estimate of shepherds because they come out rather well.
New Life Radio – Talk No 11
4 Derrick Harrison
23/12/2020
