The Joy From God

Orchard Church | Pastor Jim Jackson

Shepherds down through the ages have been primarily lower class and often poor and uneducated. In a family, shepherding was usually done by the youngest son or hired out by owners that could afford it. Bethlehem was a rural town five miles from Jerusalem with open fields for grazing sheep. Though shepherds graze sheep any time of year, because of winter storms, most would put them in pens near the towns after October. As these were in the open fields at night, Jesus’ birth may have been in the summer or early fall. God’s interaction can come at any time of the year or at any time of our lives! The shepherds were watching over their animals by taking three-hour shifts to protect them. Then, an angel descended and terrified the shepherds with his presence (Gr. megas phobos; ‘feared with massive fear’). Sometimes God uses divine reality to startle us awake from human complacency. The angel told them that in King David’s birthplace, the ultimate King had been born! Unexpectedly, God revealed the greatest news in history to illiterate, lower-class men with no social clout. God delights in using the forgotten and marginalized to do the unforgettable and central (1 Cor. 1:26-30)!