Title: Faith-Rest Drill: 1999 Christmas Special: The Indescribable Gift, 2 Cor 9:15; Luke 2:1-18,
Author: Joe
Last saved by: Auth User
Company: GDC

99-12-21.JSH-246 / 

© 1999  Joe Griffin

Faith-Rest Drill: 1999 Christmas Special: The Indescribable Gift, 2 Cor 9:15; Luke 2:1-18

The Indescribable Gift
Luke’s Account of the First Christmas
Tuesday, 21 December 1999

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.
(2 Corinthians 9:15)

I.	Historical Background of Luke 2
Ben-Asher, Naomi and Hayim leaf (eds.)  The Junior Jewish Encyclopedia.  6^th ed. New York: Shengold Publishers, 1967; p. 206:
Maccabees is the name of the priestly family of the Hasmoneans from the town of Modin in Palestine.  The Maccabees led the struggle (167-160 b.c.) against Antiochus Epiphanes, the Seleucid King of Syria, and succeeded in freeing Judea from Syrian oppression.  The family consisted of the father Mattathias and his five sons; Johana, Simon, Judah, Eliezer, and Jonathan.  Judah was nicknamed “Maccabee” or “The Hammer,” i.e., the hammer that pounded the Syrian forces.  Later, the whole family came to be known as the Maccabees.
The Seleucid rulers of Syria engaged in a campaign to establish their empire over the lands that had originally been conquered by Alexander the Great.  They wrested control of Judea from Egyptian rule, and then tried to force the Greek culture and religion on the Jews.  In the year 167 b.c., when Antiochus prohibited the practice of Judaism and the temple was desecrated, the peaceful farmers of Judea were transformed into warriors.  Led by Mattathias and his sons, they rebelled against the Syrians.  Few in number, untrained, and poorly armed, they fought for a year as guerrillas in the hills and mountain passes of Judea.  When Mattathias died in 166 b.c. Judah took over leadership.
The little army of farmers repeatedly defeated the trained legions sent against them, captured arms and supplies, and grew in numbers.  In several successful battles, the Maccabeeans achieved great victory against overwhelming odds.  In the year 165 b.c., they entered Jerusalem.  Then the temple was cleared, worship restored, and the festival of Hanukkah declared.

The Feast of Dedication, or the Feast of Lights, falls on the 25^th day of Kislev, the third month of the Jew’s lunar calendar.  The Gentile calendar is based on the sun and so the annual date for Hanukkah varies.  This year Hanukkah began on Saturday, December 4.  Next year it will begin on Friday, December 22.  In the year of the Virgin Birth, circa 4 b.c., Hanukkah was being celebrated in the Temple at Jerusalem while the events in Luke 2 were taking place.
The main characters in this chapter include a number of shepherds whose flocks played a very important part in the celebration of Hanukkah.  Their roll in the story is amplified by the help of the Mishna, a division of the Talmud, which is a written collection of the original oral teachings of the rabbis.  It is from a tractate in the Mishna that we learn about the shepherds in Luke 2.
Each year during Hanukkah, animal sacrifices would take place in the Temple some of which required lambs.  For this, as well as other similar religious rituals, special flocks of sheep were maintained near Bethlehem.  The sheep of these flocks were selected because they had no spots or blemishes.  Thus a staff of shepherds were assigned to care for them as well as guard them on a 24-hour-a-day basis.
We will learn that the religious leaders of the day were involved in ritual without reality while the shepherds who guarded the potential sacrifices clearly understood their theological significance.  It is to them that the highest-ranking angel of the Angelic College of Heralds tells the Christmas story in Luke 2.  We begin our study at verse 7.
II.	Luke 2:7: The Virgin Birth
Luke 2:7 -  And Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son.  She wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and she laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
1-	After the delivery of the true humanity of Jesus Christ, His parents took Him and performed a technique common in the first century.  Babies were wrapped in strips of cloth not only for protection but also to keep their limbs strait.
2-	In this case apparently all that was available were bandages.  The word describing how our Lord was wrapped is the aorist active indicative of the verb:
sparganÒw / sparganoo / -	Generally used as a medical term and originated with Hippocrates, a fifth-century b.c. physician who is recognized as the Father of Medicine.  It means to “wrap in bandages.”  It was also used to prepare a corpse for burial.  Consequently, the infant Jesus was wrapped in death clothes.
3-	After dressing him in the prescribed fashion of the day, Mary and Joseph then laid him in a manger.  This word looks odd to us but it is the perfect English word to describe where our Lord spent His first night of the Incarnation.  The word is the locative of place from the noun:
f£tnh / phatne / -	Manger.  The word goes back to the Middle English when it was spelled mangeour.  The word can be tracked all the way back to the Latin, manducare: to eat, chew, or devour.  Its English definition is a trough or open box in a stable designed to hold feed for livestock.  So “manger” is a perfect translation.  But since we are not very familiar with the term the best translation for us is the not very sophisticated, “feeding trough.”
4-	Now how did Mary and Joseph wind up in a stable full of animals where their firstborn Child had to be wrapped in burial clothes and placed in the animals’ feeding trough?  The verse goes on to tell us, “because there was no room in the inn.”
5-	Some have distorted this passage in order to make the assertion that Mary and Joseph and subsequently their Child, Jesus, were homeless.  This is ridiculous.  Being a carpenter did not make one rich but it did provide an honest living and as a result the family was not homeless.
6-	The Scripture informs us in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 that Joseph was a carpenter.  With help from archaeology we are able to gain some general understanding of the home life of our Lord.
Lockyer, Herbert.  All the Trades and Occupations of the Bible: A Fascinating Study of Ancient Arts and Crafts.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969, pp. 68-70:
Archaeological discoveries and bas-reliefs and murals describe some of the tools used by workers in wood in Bible days.  …  axes, hatchets, the hammer, saw, measuring line; the sharp metal pencil or “stylus” for outlining the work; plains, chisels, and compasses are all mentioned in Scripture.
In the days of our Lord’s youth the carpenter not only engaged in building houses but also such field implements as plows, yokes, goads, and saddles.
The people of Palestine made use of the services of woodcutters, carpenter-joiners, cabinetmakers, and wood-carvers.  Joseph of Nazareth, our Lord’s foster father was proficient in these arts.  Jesus’ references to woodworking and to stone working testify to His personal knowledge of these trades.
Luke 14:28 -	Which one of you when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
v 29 -	Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,
v 30 -	saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”
The custom among the Jews when our Lord was a young Man required him to learn His father’s trade.  Since the Scripture informs us that Jesus was a carpenter, the following is Lockyer’s description of His training.
Like any other Jewish lad of His time, Jesus would leave school at the age of fifteen and, according to custom, being the oldest in the family, would follow the trade of the home.  As Joseph was a carpenter, quite naturally Jesus went to the bench and wrought at the same trade making doors and window shutters, laying beams and floors of houses and fashioning yokes for the oxen and plows for the farmers.  The villagers would bring their broken things for Him to mend.
Consequently, the Lord’s parents were not homeless.  Joseph knew one of the most respected traded of the day and was able to feed, clothe, and house his family as well as anyone.  So, why were they forced to stay in a stable?  The answer is found in context:
Luke 2:1 -	Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.
v 3 -	And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city.
v 4 -	And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house [ tribe of Judah ] and family [ a direct descendent ] of David,
v 5 -	in order to register, along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child.
The census ordered by Caesar Augustus forced people all over the Roman Empire to head back to their place of birth.  Bethlehem was a small community and had just so many inns and a limited number of rooms.  Arriving in town at night, Joseph and Mary found no vacancy signs were out all over town and felt fortunate to have access to a stable.
7-	And so we learn that Mary delivered the biological life of the Messiah that night, the first Christmas of human history.  In that setting and the circumstances it offered, we see a number of signs and messages that relate to our Lord’s future work on the cross.
8-	Our Lord was wrapped in clothes that were used to prepare a person for burial.    Jesus was born to die twice:
1)	First, He was to die spiritual death as our substitutionary sacrifice on the cross and 
2)	He would die physical death because His work would be finished at that point.
9-	Three days later He would be resurrected.  In resurrection body He would become the First Fruit of our resurrection.
10-	As the Baby Jesus lay in a feeding trough He was surrounded by a wooden box crafted by a carpenter, the trade that would be taught to Him by His father, Joseph.  During His two deaths He would be nailed to a cross of wood for the sins of the world.
11-	His physical body was perfect having no genetically formed sinful nature and thus no imputation of Adam’s sin.  Therefore, Jesus was born qualified to be Savior.
12-	Further, He was born the Last Adam; a perfect Man in the same manner that Adam was created perfect by Christ Himself in the Garden of Eden several millennia before.
13-	The shadow of the cross was thus well represented in this stable.  The qualified Messiah must have a perfect body in His true humanity.
14-	At birth He was wrapped in death clothes foreshadowing His two deaths on the cross.
15-	His first night He slept in a box of wood.  Thirty-three years later He would die nailed to a cross of wood.
16-	Lying in that wooden feeding trough was the greatest Christmas gift ever given.  It was a gift from God the Father to the entire human race.
17-	It was the execution of perfect love expressed through perfect grace:
John 3:16 -	For God loved the world so much that he gave His uniquely-born Son for the purpose of assuring that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
18)	There is nothing mankind can do to top this.  This is the reason for the season.  Our giving to others at Christmas should be designed to reflect our attitude of gratitude for this act of matchless grace.  Paul sums it us very succinctly in:
2 Corinthians 9:15 -	Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.  
Luke 2:7 -	And Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son.  She wrapped Him in death clothes and she laid Him in a wooden feeding trough because there was no vacancy for them in the inn.
19)	No pretty wrapping paper with glossy bows and sparkling stickers; no stately tree lush with limbs studded by glimmering lights.  Instead, a unique Child on a mission of death swathed in burial clothes and lying inside a stark, wooden feeding trough.
20)	This stable and its residents are about to become the focus of the most unique military salute to a commanding Officer in all of human history.
21)	Both heaven and earth are about to unite in paying homage to the God of the Universe as He assumes a hypostatic union with true humanity.

III.	The Temple Shepherds
Luke 2:8 -	In that same area there were shepherds living out in the fields and they were guarding their flocks by night.
1-	A millennium before this night on these very same fields a young David tended the flocks of his father, Jesse.  He was the seventh son and thus was taught the trade of shepherd.
2-	David would later become the Israelite king by which all other kings would be measured.
3-	It would be through the house and family of David that the Great Shepherd would enter this world in order to save the lost sheep of the nation Israel.
4-	Now on those same fields where David tended his father’s sheep, shepherds are watching their flocks by night.
5-	Back up in Jerusalem a great celebration is taking place, which includes the sacrificing of lambs taken from those very flocks.
6-	These shepherds were known as “temple shepherds.”  They tended the flocks selected by the priests as being “without spot and without blemish.”
7-	One of these shepherds’ former charges is now being strapped to the altar in Jerusalem as a sacrifice for the sins of the people.
8-	Presiding over this celebration and its various rituals are the Jewish theologians and leaders of the day—the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Sadducees, and the Levitical priesthood.
9-	Down in Bethlehem, the temple shepherds continued to keep watch over the Temple’s flocks that grazed there.  
10-	These lowly shepherds, not the religious leaders in Jerusalem, were the ones to receive a visit by an angelic herald who would direct them to the Lamb of God

IV.	An Angel Tells the Shepherds about Messiah
1-	Documentation about these shepherds is interesting to note from:
Edersheim, Alfred.  The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.  MacDonald Publishing Company, p. 87,89:
To Bethlehem as the birthplace of Messiah, not only Old Testament prediction but the testimony of Rabbinic teaching unhesitatingly pointed.
Micah 5:2 -	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 of Israel.
That Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem was a settled conviction.  Equally so was the belief that He was to be revealed from Migdal Eder, translated “tower of the flock.”  This watch tower lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem
	The “tower of the flock” is mentioned in:
Genesis 35:16 -	Then Jacob and Rachel journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor.
v 17 -	And it came about when she was in severe labor that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now you have another son.”
v 18 -	And it came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
v 19 -	So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).
v 20 -	And Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
v 21 -		Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.
The Hebrew word for “tower” is migdal and the word for “flocks” is eder, ergo “tower of the flock.”  We get more information from:
The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, s.v. “Eder”:
This “tower of the flock,” which may have been only a tower and no town, must therefore be looked for between Bethlehem and Hebron.  Jerome says that it was one Roman mile from Bethlehem.
Such observation towers were common and were used to guard flocks against robbers.  Just to the south of Bethlehem was where the temple flocks were being guarded by the temple shepherds and the Migdal Eder, “tower of the flock,” was located there.
Whether in the watchtower or among the sheep, these shepherds were given the responsibility to care for the sheep that were used in the Levitical offerings conducted throughout the year six miles to the north in Jerusalem.
These sheep had been used for centuries to portray the salvation work of the Messiah on the cross.
But since these shepherds were on year-around duty they never made it to these religious events in Jerusalem and as a result were considered outcasts by the religious leadership.
Their sheep made appearances in the Temple but only to be killed as sacrifices in rituals that had no reality to them.
Especially now, for one mile to the north a Child had just been born unbeknownst to these shepherds.  That was about to change dramatically.
Luke 2:9 -	And suddenly the King of Arms in the Angelic College of Heralds hovered above them and the glory of the Lord shined around them and they were struck with fear.
1-	It is nighttime in Judea.  The shepherds are concentrating on watching the sheep.  Without warning, a seraph angel appears accompanied by the Shekinah Glory.
2-	The King of Arms has now gotten their attention.  But before he can effectively communicate he must quell their fear.
Luke 2:10 -	Do not be afraid!  Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all people;
v 11 -	for this day in the city of David there has been born for your benefit the Savior who is Messiah, the Lord.
1-	After commanding the shepherds to stop being afraid, the first thing he tells them is that the source of true happiness for the human race is one mile to the north.
2-	“I bring you good news of great joy.”  This information brings with it the source of Plus-H.  The only way a person can ever know real happiness is by knowing the Messiah.
3-	The King of Arms then identifies the Source in crystal-clear terms, “This day there has been born in the city of David a Savior who is Messiah the Lord.”

4-	The word translated “Christ” is CristÒj / Christos /, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word, Messiah.
5-	The shepherds knew the meaning of the message and are then told by the angel where he might be found:
Luke 2:12 -	This sign is for your benefit: you will find the Baby having been swathed in burial clothes and lying in a feeding trough.
1-	This Baby has just been identified by the angel as the Messiah.  The Kinsman-Redeemer is born.  He is undiminished deity and true humanity in one Person.
2-	These shepherds instantly knew that the Lamb without spot and without blemish was now in human form.
3-	The lambs of the flocks they tended had that same description—they were without spot or blemish.
4-	Up in Jerusalem their fellow sheep are being sacrificed in rituals that are now more than meaningless. The true Lamb of God is in Bethlehem wrapped in burial clothes.
5-	The Christ Child is born.  He is born to die as a substitute for the entire human race.
6-	As the King of Arms completes his briefing of the shepherds he is suddenly joined by the Angelic Order of Battle forming up over the pastures south of Bethlehem.
Luke 2:13 -	And suddenly there appeared with the King of Arms the Angelic Order of Battle praising God and saying,
1-	The word for “appeared” in verse 13 is the verb:
g…nomai / ginomai / -  to originate; to organize; to form up a column for a pass and review.
2-	In His undiminished deity, the Christ Child is the Lord of the Angelic Armies.  The Commander in Chief is on a special mission which, if successful, will change human history and resolve the Angelic Conflict.
3-	As Operation Reconciliation gets underway, the Angelic Order of Battle pays tribute to their eternal Leader by performing a pass and review.
4-	They assemble over the sheep fields south of Bethlehem and then fly past the stable where their Commander is bivouacked.
v 14 -	“Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace [ soul tranquility ] to the one in whom God is well pleased.”
1-	Those who have tranquility of soul are the ones with whom God is well pleased.
2-	God is well pleased with those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, who entered this life wrapped in burial cloths, lying in a trough of wood.  
3-	This sign speaks of His mission’s victorious culmination when He dies as our substitute hanging on Calvary’s cross of wood.
4-	The religious leaders were involved in Hanukkah’s rituals without realizing that the reality was down in Bethlehem in a manger.
5-	The temple shepherds that the religious leaders detested were the ones who understood the message of the angel and had the doctrine to go to Bethlehem and find their Messiah.
Luke 2:15 -	And it came to pass when the angels had departed from them into heaven, the shepherds said among themselves, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem to see this event that’s occurred which the Lord has made known to us.
v 16 -	So they came hurriedly, searched for and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby as He lay in the feeding trough.
v 17 -	And when they had seen Him they made known the doctrine which had been told them about this Child.
v 18 -	And all who heard it were astounded at what the shepherds kept saying to them.
1-	They were spreading the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and many responded to their message of good news that has brought great happiness to those who respond to it.
2-	It was the first Christmas and the first Christmas present was given by God to the entire human race in the Person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
3-	Again, with an attitude of gratitude we join with Paul in saying,
2 Corinthians 9:15 -	Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.