Luke 2:8 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Luke 2:8-20)But there were shepherds on their night watch out in the fields near the city. Our version in a very refined way describes them as abiding in the field, literally living in the open at that season of the year when the sheep were not penned, and the shepherds lived outside with their livestock. They were working men. They were towards the bottom, as you might say, of society. We cannot be sure, but they seem to be believing men. Although they are not educated to any high degree, and are people denied many of the privileges of life, yet at the same time they were educated in the things of God. They knew the ancient prophecies and they expected the coming of the Messiah. They expected a child to be born when God somehow entered in to humanity, a divine child; God would become man. That was the expectation of the Jews; that is what they were taught; that was in line with all the ancient prophecies and the shepherds would have known that much. But perhaps they were more earnest and more believing than the average Jew of those days, in order to have this tremendous privilege should come about in their lives. Mighty blazing lights just suddenly switched on around them, and they realised that this was an angelic visitation arranged by God, and they were amazed and terrified. So why was the appearance given to the shepherds? Why did it not come to one of the priests or to a gathering of priests? Why did this not come to the religious hierarchy in Bethlehem, or better still in the capital in Jerusalem? Why were the chief priests bypassed in all these messages, even the local priests and officials in the synagogue? Why to shepherds out-of-town, out on the hillside? Because God is saying something in this. It isn't to the proud; it isn't to the hypocritical religious regime of those days that the angels were sent. The religious leaders of those days were far from God and lost in hypocrisy and spiritual indifference, and even in idolatry. So they were all bypassed, and God comes to the shepherds, way out of town at night when no other people are around. The message is this: true religion, true Christianity, is something which is transacted between an individual and God. It is for a person in whose heart God is working, who feels his need of a living relationship with God. God deals with human beings one by one. He doesn't deal with establishments with the high and mighty who are proud of themselves and revelling in their accomplishments. The establishment is bypassed and he comes with this message to those lowly shepherds. Anyway, the shepherds believed, and they followed the instructions they were given with such eagerness, with such anticipation. ‘And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.’ Now, despite the order of words, it seems to likely that a great light illuminated the sky and around them before they actually perceived the angel. The angel is described as the angel of the Lord that that is a term we find quite a bit in the Old Testament, referring to God himself. But here it no doubt refers to a created angel, but probably a very senior angel. A particularly glorious angel would have been sent to announce the birth of the Messiah. The shepherds were used to all kinds of night skies, and the light that lingers long after dusk in certain seasons of the year. The colours that can be seen sometimes in the early dawn are quite glorious. They were used to all that, but this was far beyond anything they had seen before, and it immediately caused alarm in them, even terrified them. They knew straight away that this was truly supernatural. Some people think the sky and the hills were illuminated by dazzling white light. Others remember the appearances of God in the Old Testament, and they think of all the colours of the spectrum that we read of in connection with such appearances. Was this what they saw when the glory of the Lord shone about them? Somehow it just suffused everywhere. It lit up the outline of the hills and shone in a manner they had never seen, and it was so overpoweringly awesome. They were frightened and alarmed. Could this be heralding a punishment of some sort, exposing their sin? They would feel unclean and certainly the whole thing was so startling and so overwhelming. Then in due course they hear the angelic choir. The only time that a choir of angels has ever been heard on earth is here at the nativity. There are choirs of angels that are seen in visions of heaven, but this is the only occasion where any people actually heard a choir of angels, and a massive choir of angels. We read in hebrews 1:6 that at the coming of Christ all the angels of God are commanded to worship him. What an experience this is, suddenly the awareness of angels everywhere and the thunderous chorus of praise and voices.