8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the
fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold,[b] an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord
shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel
said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is
born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe
wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host praising God and saying:
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And
on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
In this short exchange between the angels and shepherds I find
some interesting points I want to share with you:
1. I find it interesting that the great shepherd
first announced his arrival to shepherds and not kings and religious leaders.
In Psalm 23 it actually says “The LORD my shepherd”. Jehovah the shepherd first
identified with those who shared his heart towards his lost sheep and gave them
the message that would restore them to the family of God.
2.
Secondly
take a closer look at this verse
“Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people."
The angels said that they brought good tidings of great joy. The
greek word for glad tidings is the same word for gospel “euaggelizo”. This message dispelled the fear in the shepherds
and gladdened their hearts about Jesus. This is just same of what is expected
from pulpits and street preachers and evangelists. This is God’s pattern. Drive
their fear out and shine the light on the gospel revealed in Jesus.
3.
This last one is my favourite. The angel
sang a glorious song. Glory to God in the highest,
And
on earth peace, goodwill toward men. I studied Accountancy and I am quite
familiar with this term “goodwill”. Goodwill is defined as the
established reputation of a business regarded as a quantifiable asset and
calculated as part of its value when it is sold. If a company is offering a franchise, the person investing in the
business will also gets to enjoy the good name of the business he is about to
launch into. He can use that reputation to increase his sales and make good
profits. So God decided to give his established reputation through Jesus.
This
is glad tidings surely to us as God did not send the son to condemn the world
but through
Him the world might be saved. How would the world be saved? There’s
none righteous to
accomplish that feat so He decided to take our place and
become sin for us so that we could
become his righteous. His righteousness is
our reputation.
Praise God! He is sooo good to us. Grace always.
