Advent: Joy for All

Can you imagine being the shepherds in the hills outside Bethlehem that night? Can you even fathom what they felt when their quiet nighttime reveries were interrupted by an ANGEL standing before them, and the glory of the Lord shining around them!?!

Luke 2 says they were “terrified”… I’d say!

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

Luke 2:10 NIV

So joyful was the angel’s message that a host of angels in heaven suddenly burst forth and filled the night skies with praise to God!

The joyful message was this: “the Savior, the Messiah you’ve been expecting for hundreds and hundreds of years—the Lord God Himself—has finally come!!!”

What news! Those shepherds ran to tell it, and everyone who heard them was amazed!

This wasn’t the Messiah they expected. God had chosen to become a Man—a Baby—and to be born. Think of it! BORN as a human baby, just like us. In a humble manger, in a humble town.

The juxtaposition of all of this was mind-blowing!!! The God of Heaven… as a baby? Not even as a strong, grown man… but as a weak newborn? The Almighty Creator who fashioned earth and sky and humanity itself… was now wrapped in the arms of a teenage Hebrew girl, dependent on her to protect and nourish Him? 

The angelic scene bringing this announcement was so GRAND and heavenly… but the announcement itself, by comparison, seemed so humble and obscure and unbefitting.

Psalm 18:30 says, “As for God, His way is perfect” (NKJV). Every detail about the way that God chose to unfold this plan was perfectly arranged.

Those shepherds? They were the first to hear (and share) the news that a Perfect Shepherd had come at last (John 10:10-11).

Those fields? They were likely the same fields where David had roamed hundreds of years before, herding sheep and penning psalms of worship to the Lord. God had not forgotten His promise to raise up the Messiah from the line of David (1 Chron. 17:14).

Those sheep? Many were likely being raised for Passover sacrifice in the temple… And over those sacrificial lambs, God declared the arrival of His Spotless Lamb who would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

That exact night? It probably wasn’t December 25th (sorry!), but some evidence points to it being mid-September, on or near the Feast of Trumpets… the festival proclaiming repentance and Messiah’s coming. Even though we’re not sure the exact date, we can be sure God chose it perfectly, ensuring every detail declared His glorious plan!

That exact Hebrew virgin? God chose a humble, lowly family in a humble, lowly setting to receive the Humble, Lowly Savior. 

That exact place? Bethlehem means “House of Bread”—a fitting place to be the birthplace of the Bread of Life Himself. In Israel, no less—a nation overlooked and disdained by the world around it.

Were shepherds outcasts and lower-class citizens? That’s how I was taught growing up, but that might not have been the case in Israel back then. Either way, God loves to identify with the overlooked and downtrodden! He loves to use people and methods the world would never expect to declare His Kingdom: 

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

1 Cor. 1:27 NIV

This is the wisdom of the Cross… that a Humble King would defeat death and sin by lowliness and humility. 

Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:6-11

This is the joy we receive along with the shepherds that night… Christ has come for all! He has “done all things well” (Mark 7:37)—perfectly considering every detail of His salvation plan and every detail of those He came to save! We who are unworthy, obscure, unbefitting, and outsiders… He invites us to come.

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Isaiah 55:1 NIV

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

Revelation 3:20 NKJV

Today we choose joy… not just a “feeling” or based on circumstances around us, but by faith, because we anticipate with great excitement the advent yet to come, when our glorious King Jesus will wipe every tear away forever and we will enter into His Joy Unending!

You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalm 16:11 NLT