By: Paula Short
A few years ago, I participated in a 6 week Online Bible Study with Study Gateway On the book The Rock, The Road, and The Rabbi By Kathie Lee Gifford and Rabbi Jason Sobel. The tagline of the study guide appropriately says— Come to the land where it all began.
The study was so interesting and easy to understand that I wanted to share some things I learned about Jesus' birth. I found these fascinating, and things started to click for me.
During Jesus' time, we believe that he was born in a stable, was actually a cave in shepherd's fields. These shepherds weren't just any shepherds—they were Levitical shepherds.
Shepherds still use caves today, not stables, as our Western minds believe. Levitical shepherds were in charge of tending the sacrificial lambs used to be sin offerings.
We know that shortly after Jesus' birth, an angel of the Lord appeared to these shepherds and announced...
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:11-12— NIV
Of all the signs that could have been given to them, why these two? What significance could these signs have meant?
Let's see
When it was time for the sheep to give birth, the shepherds would bring them into one of the caves surrounding Bethlehem to give birth. These birthing caves were kept in a state of ritual purity since the lambs were to be pure sin offerings. And many of the male lambs were used for Passover.
Since there was no room at the local inn, Mary and Joseph used one of these caves around Bethlehem.
Connections
Back to the shepherds. So the significance here is that to protect the clumsy lambs, they were wrapped in swaddling cloths. They would find Jesus in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths in one of these caves. This kept the lambs pure and free of blemish.
This points to Jesus as the future sacrifice of the lamb of God. He who knew no sin to be a sin offering of the world and bring a new covenant.
Jesus came to make this covenant with us. Accordingly, he was infinitely committed to us that he chose to die for us to make this covenant.
I hope you found these as interesting as I did. I recall this information each time I read about Jesus' birth.
Reflection
Do you know any additional interesting information about Jesus' birth? Please share them in the comments.
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