The birth of Jesus

First of all, by some obscure but totally ordained reason, Joseph, the great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of King David, had to return with Mary back to Bethlehem – the city of David – for a census.

So Jesus was born in Bethlehem, where all sacrificial lambs were born, and He died as the supreme sacrifice in Jerusalem – the very place where all lambs were sacrificed.

Ironically shepherds were reviled by the religious elite at that time, like the Pharisees and Sadducees for shepherds were nearly always “unclean” and did not obey the Sabbath, for sheep need constant tending.  

How amazing and appropriate that God would first announce the coming of the Lord to the Shepherds of Bethlehem! Those shepherds would probably spent nearly all their lives breeding sacrificial lambs for Jeruselem, and God decided to tell them the arrival of his Son first. They would have got to see the ultimate sacrificial lamb, the Lamb of lambs.

It’s blowing my mind!