From Darkness To Light, From Sorrow To Hope: Lessons From Jeremiah And LamentationsSample

"Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks"

Jeremiah’s promise about the Messiah’s birth could hardly have come at a better time. Things did not look promising for the people of God. Jeremiah himself was still in jail. Jerusalem was besieged by the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar and his armies were marching against the city to destroy it. All the judgments Jeremiah had been warning about for many years were about to come crashing down. But the Lord knew the plans he had for his people, plans to prosper them and not to harm them. Peace and safety would return to his people. The proof would come when shepherds watched their flocks in the hill country of Judea. Of course, peace in Israel was only the beginning. 

The most wonderful promise God made is that he would send his people a good King—a righteous Branch to spring up from David (33:15). This King would be a branch off the old tree. He would come from the house and line of David to bring salvation to the people of God. When would this King come? He would come when peace had been restored to Israel. He would come when the sounds of the bride and bridegroom could be heard in the streets of Jerusalem, when songs of thanksgiving were sung in the temple, and when sheep passed under the hands of their shepherds. 

The Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke fulfills these promises. A couple of newlyweds went up from Nazareth to a little town in Judea and gave birth to a son. Yes! Of course! They went to the hill country, to a village around Jerusalem, to one of the towns of Judah. “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night” (Luke 2:8). Exactly! Just as Jeremiah had promised! The King came when there were shepherds in the hills giving rest to their sheep. The announcement of the birth of Jesus Christ to shepherds was as necessary as his birth in the town of Bethlehem, or his belonging to the house and line of David, or his being born of a virgin. It was necessary because the Holy Spirit promised that the Messiah would come when shepherds had peace enough to count the noses of their sheep. What better proof that Jesus is the Christ than a chorus of angels appearing by night to shepherds in the hill country of Judea? Those were the days, that was the time for the King to come.