Luke 2:8-14  :

There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.” Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
on earth peace, good will toward men.”

I don't think that shepherding has ever been seen as a desirable job by those who wish to be rich and famous in the eyes of the world. As I read this passage this time I considered this strange thing. God didn't go the the Pharasees to announce the birth of the Messiah. He didn't go to Herod. He didn't even go to the police. For some reason He chose the shepherds.

Not only that, he gave those shepherds a first-class show of heaven's glory complete with a formal announcement by "multitude of the heavenly army." Have you ever wondered why he chose the shepherds? I don't think that it is because God lacked class. I think it is because His idea of class is very different than that of mankind.

God loves to use shepherds. Two major instances of this include Moses and David. God talked directly to these men and both became leaders of many people. Remember, this was taking place in David's city!

It also very likely that shepherds are humble by their circumstances and God loves to work with humble people. Another is that they show a propensity to work with creatures that need leadership and very close care. Sheep can be lead like people and it makes sense that shepherding is a training ground for leadership in God's eyes. Another obvious reason is that Jesus considered Himself to be a good shepherd. I think that Jesus has a very real understanding of the heart of a shepherd and it is perfectly natural for Him to tell them first for that reason alone.

All things considered, I think that God treats shepherding as a very excellent line of business and that is no joke at all. We need to see people by the real work that they do for God. Remember the first commands that God gave mankind in Genesis?

Genesis 1:28  :

God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

I think that shepherding is God's kind of subduing and domination that works with sheep and correlates with how people need to be lead. The people at the "top of their games" regarding leadership were were probably the shepherds. Evidently it worked. Even Dr. Luke found out about the event and was able to write it down for us. God really knows what He's doing doesn't He?

Luke 2:1-5  :

Now it happened in those days, that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David; to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being pregnant.

I'd like to take a moment to think about Joseph today. Not much is spoken about him here, but it is interesting to think about Joseph's faith because it was evident in his daily actions. Joseph was an example to husbands in that he took a love role in his family in spite of his own self image.

Joseph's life suddenly changed in an unexpected way very similarly to Mary's in that suddenly his wife-to-be got pregnant. We learn from other accounts that Joseph too was visited by an angel and was also expected to have faith and respond in that faith. Like Mary, he also obeyed the Lord and took Mary to be his wife, but we learn here that she was pregnant while she was still pledged. I can't help but thing that this changed Joseph's life significantly.

I am quite sure ignorant and faithless people started to talk. I wouldn't be surprised if it affected Joseph's business, although it doesn't say it here. Basically, the whole world came apart when Jesus came to them, but we learn from Mary that they were excited about being used of God in such an amazing way. This is not unlike becoming a Christian.

When we believe in Jesus, it is wonderful to learn our new freedom from sin and guilt and to know about our relationship with the Creator and Resurrected One. It is so wonderful that we are eager to serve Him. In worldy ways, becoming a Christian can bring trouble because the world's system is against the truth of Christ. We may lose some friends and we may even lose some business. I would think that some who will read this have lost everything because their culture doesn't allow belief in Christ.

It is one thing to obey Christ even if it goes against the government, but it is also important to see that whenever possible, we are to not offend the government and to do what they ask as unto the Lord Himself. Notice that Mary and Joseph took this trip at a pretty difficult time for them. It might have been especially embarrassing to go back to their home town and face relatives in the situation that they were in. At the same time, it is often our families that seek to understand and help us.

To say that God is a genius is to bring Him down. He is the One who is above all genius and we can sense a little bit of this when we think about this event. Prophesy held that the Messiah would have to be born in Bethlehem, the City of David. Even though the government chose to do "enrollment" at this time, it was God who controlled them. Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. Not only that, we read here that Joseph was in the lineage of David. This was another prophesy that had to be fulfilled by the Messiah. Joseph's travel to his home town makes this detail exceedingly clear.

We may think that the government is "out of control", but this passage would lead us to believe that it is times like these that God is leading them by the nose. As we read when we went through the book of Galatians, God will not be mocked, but God will humiliate need be. It is wise for us to humble ourselves and serve God and our government for the sake of Jesus as we live in the joy that He gives us.

Luke 1:72-75  :

to show mercy towards our fathers,
to remember his holy covenant,
the oath which he spoke to Abraham, our father,
to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
should serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.

It is interesting to note that Israel has not been "delivered out of the hand of" their enemies yet. In fact, their enemies seem to press in against them whenever possible today. I can also see that, as of today, the Jews are still not able to "serve him without fear." In fact, it isn't evident that many Jews are really not concerned at all about serving God right now. In that regard, they really aren't doing much "in holiness and righteousness before him" that I can tell.

 Even though Jesus was announced as a savior so many years ago, God can still "remember his holy covenant, the oath which he spoke to Abraham." Jesus came the first time to pave the way for deliverance by removing the sin problem of mankind. Jesus' first coming was a critical time but it wasn't time for the delivery of Israel even though it was a sign. I believe that Jesus was offering the Kingdom to the Jews, but just God knew that Adam would sin in the garden, He also knew that the Jewish nation would refuse their messiah the first time.

God has to "show mercy towards" all of us. We all have sinned (especially those of us who completely disregarded the law) and have fallen short of the glory of God. Not only had the "fathers" of Israel sinned but the generation of Zacharias would also prove to have the same sin problem as we can read as we go along.

If you read the history books, you find that Jesus didn't deliver Israel from Rome at all. In fact, shortly after Jesus disappeared, Rome crushed Israel.  It's not that Jesus didn't offer Israel a way to accept Him as their Messiah. Instead, after Jesus was rejected, they were in fear for their lives. Now we know that God doesn't lie. I also believe that God isn't giving a hidden message here any more than He was when He told Zacharias about John being born. These words require faith from us. We may have to wait for a long time just as Zacharias had to wait to have children. It may seem unnatural how long we have to wait, but God's word is to be believed. He will do what He says. Someday, Jesus will return and deliver Israel.

Luke 1:65-66  :

Fear came on all who lived around them, and all these sayings were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea. All who heard them laid them up in their heart, saying, “What then will this child be?”

Another thing to see about faith is that it has an effect on those around us. When we have faith, God does great things and when God does great things, people talk. This is how Christianity spreads.

I like how it says that the people who heard the news, laid it "up in their hearts" for later. John's ministry was to be a ministry of preparation and already, the Holy Spirit had used the circumstances surrounding his birth to get people thinking. This could be one of the biggest reasons why God made Zacharias and Elizabeth wait abnormally long to have children. By doing this, God made it clear that this child was a very special one and one that should be considered as to what he will become.

As we watch the events of John's life play out, we see who is really in charge of things. Everything points back to God and what He wanted to happen. Even though the events seem quite natural, God is clearly bringing them about to do exactly what He predicted. This is one of the wonderful things about our Creator. He made things the way He wanted and He made it seem so natural. God doesn't usually use "shock" as a way to move things in His direction. When God does use strange events, He is often counteracting evil in some way. I think that this is evidence that God intended nature to just be naturally good. Something disturbed nature that required intervention. This reveals some of the special characteristics of God such as His righteous judgments, His wrath, His mercy, His patience and His grace which, without sin in the world, are difficult to demonstrate.

During this miraculous time of Jesus' arrival as a child to earth, it is easy to see why this revival was important. God was making it very clear that this was a very special time and wanted to give a strong wake up call to the world. John was to be that call.

Luke 1:53  :

He has filled the hungry with good things.
He has sent the rich away empty.

Confusion abounds surrounding the meaning of the words "hungry" and "rich." It would be easy to take this verse out of context and build a social gospel as some have attempted to do. Let's take a careful look at what is meant by "the hungry" here.

What I believe is the most appropriate way to interpret scripture is to do it with other scripture. In fact, the immediate context of the verse is usually the best area to find help to learn what a verse means. We need to remember that this verse is just a very small part of the words that Mary has been saying by the power of the Holy Spirit. It forms a single message, so it makes sense that we look at other parts of this message to see if it can help us interpret the meaning of "the hungry" in this verse.

In verse 48 we read that God has "looked at the humble state of his handmaid." This clearly means Mary. It would appear that Mary is one of "hungry" from this context because she is given a good thing in that "from now on all generations will call" her blessed. I doubt that Mary was starving, but I might have been that she struggled at times, but was Holy Spirit really meaning that "the hungry" were people without food? I don't think so because the next good thing Mary talks about is "his mercy" "on those who fear him." I think that the hungry are those who need God's mercy. There appears to be an even broader context if we look at the next few verses that refer to Israel and Abraham and God's promise to him. "The hungry" in this context could easily mean Israel which was clearly being oppressed by Rome. This was a hot topic of the time according to historians. In a very broad sense "the hungry" appears to be referring to those who are oppressed, or "kept under" by their own sin and Satan through the help of "rich" men.

If I am understanding this correctly that "the hungry" are those who are oppressed, then it makes sense that "the rich" are those who are helping to do the oppressing. It would be a grave logical error to say that being rich is evil! Think about this carefully. Who is the richest person? This is a bit of trick question. The richest person is God who owns all things on earth and in the universe. God is not evil and never goes away empty, so this cannot be talking about all of the rich! This illustrates why it is very important not to take verses out of context but I admit it is easy to do accidentally.

We do know that God does not oppress people but even shows mercy to those who do evil. Those who are rich and think that they are a god, are the ones that Satan uses to oppress others. There is a very interesting set of proverbs about those who gain money in an evil way:

Proverbs 11:16-18  :

A gracious woman obtains honor,
but violent men obtain riches.
The merciful man does good to his own soul,
but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.
Wicked people earn deceitful wages,
but one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.

Those who go the way of the world as promoted by Satan can become wealthy based on the oppression of others. This is one of the reasons why it is clear that abortion is wrong. To an unborn baby, we are rich because we have all had the opportunity to see the world and live on our own. When we kill out of convenience to ourselves those who are less powerful and more needy, are we not playing the role of "the rich?"

May God continue to teach us our true condition and give us hearts that are ready to show mercy to everyone. May we see how we need God's mercy and how wonderful it is to be forgiven.

Luke 1:52  :

He has put down princes from their thrones.
And has exalted the lowly.

A good thing about being poor is that it gives God a lot to work with. When we are feeling rich, it is easy to think we are self-sufficient and able to live life without God. There's a good proverb that deals with this:

Proverbs 30:8-9  :

Remove far from me falsehood and lies.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Feed me with the food that is needful for me;
lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is Yahweh?’
or lest I be poor, and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

There are evil influences in the world that tend to move us into a place where there is a wide gap between the rich and the poor. We can see from these verses that it has the effect of moving us away from God. The God of the Jews brings people together and doesn't permit a class system and we read here that God takes a personal interest in making sure that things get evened out.

It doesn't appear from the Bible that God has given mankind this task and there is a problem when mankind tries to take on this job. It is very complicated; too complicated for us. The words "rich" and "poor" alone are hard to define unless you really understand each individual's situation. On top of that, it isn't the riches that define lowliness. A very poor person can be as proud as a king and a very rich man can be humble and recognize that his end is near! An attempt to regulate even the monetary system is so complicated that it has proven to be ineffective, how can we possibly regulate humility? I believe that this partly reveals why Socialism fails. It is a simpler system that attempts to control a complex one that only God knows how to control. Only God knows which "princes" to put down from their thrones and which of the "lowly" need exalting. God knows the heart and He is capable of doing this alone, but if we are so proud that we take the job from Him, then I think we get what we deserve. Instead God has given us a simple set of rules that we can understand. If we respect God and live by these rules, they make the world work better.

The moral of the story for us as Christians is that we should continue in humility, knowing our correct position in life. We are not gods and instead we have a God that deserves our respect, obedience and worship no matter what our circumstances are. Even if we go through hard times, the Holy Spirit gives us plenty of power to do what is right, which is a truly wonderful gift we have been given. We have been taken from our sinful state and made into the children of God and we can be happy about this whether we are rich or poor.

Luke 1:51  :

He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

Mary was about to give birth to the Son of God and it is interesting to read this verse and find out what she thinks about God. I have found it interesting over the years that people think that Jesus was passive. There are so many real cases in the Bible in which it was clearly stated that Jesus wasn't passive at all. It is true that He didn't come to judge when He came the first time, but Jesus' character wasn't passive. If it were, He probably wouldn't have had so many enemies.

Mary reminds us here that God has a strong arm and He's not afraid to use it. It is true that God shows mercy to those who respect Him, but He doesn't just show mercy. God also punishes those who are proud.

I have always found it amazing how God is able to punish our pride by using our own imagination. It isn't unusual that when I have a proud moment, I am imagining myself to be much bigger than I am and also imagining my circumstances to be much more secure than they really are.

I talk a lot about evolution and how it doesn't fit with the Bible (even though many try to make to do so). One of the big problems with evolution is that it really is just someone's imagination gone wild. Without the backing of real eyewitness history, all you have are assumptions based on the evidence you happen to have lying around. If you have ever watched a court proceeding, you can see how easy it is to assume that you know what happened based on the evidence you see, but when you hear a witness, you realize that your original concept of what happened was really just your own imagination.

The reason I bring up evolution in this context, is that the evolutionary imaginations have created a real scattering in both the Church and in many Christian nations in the recent past. Evolution and the "big bang", when they are accepted without any Biblical evidence and applied in such a way as to cause assumptions to be made about the Bible, introduces the idea that the Bible may be wrong and our imagination may be right.

Thinking this way puts a society in darkness as it willfully goes into a dark age, leaving behind guidance of the word of God that brought their societies out of the darkness. That is how great societies are destroyed. When they become proud and God allows their own imagination to destroy their own prosperity. I pray that this won't happen to us that that God will continue to save our society us as we trust our lives to His word and stop trying to change His word using our own imagination.

Luke 1:50  :

His mercy is for generations of generations on those who fear him.

Mercy can be defined as not getting the punishment that we deserve. Mary was aware that she, as all humanity, deserved punishment. She was also made aware by the Holy Spirit that God has so much mercy that he has enough for generation after generation of people that revere Him.

Mary only knew "the God of the Old Testament" because the New Testament was yet to be written. Mary's God had lots of mercy as we read here. Some have believed that that God in the Old Testament was different than in the New, but that is not the case. The Bible tells us that God never changes.

We were the ones who were changed when God sent His Son to die for our sins. God showed us mercy by allowing this to happen and because we were cleaned by Jesus death, the God of the Old Testament was able to have a new relationship with the people of the New Testament. If it were not for Jesus Christ, the one and only God would have to deal harshly with us. In fact, those who don't believe in Jesus as the only way to God, will someday face that harsh reality again when He returns.

Some people wonder why Jesus is taking so long in returning to earth as He promised. I suggest that one good reason that He hasn't returned yet is because He is demonstrating the enormity of his mercy to generation after generation after generation so that we understand the lengths that God goes to help us. God didn't have to wait any amount of time, but God loves us and He wants many people to come to Him. Some of them may have even been born today. We should be thankful to God for His mercy as he waits to send Jesus back to get us, but remain eager and ready to see Him return.

Luke 1:26-27  :

Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

In only 26 verses, Luke records two angelic visitations. Just a reminder, these are historical accounts of supernatural events that were witnessed by people that Luke researched. Many scientists today deny such accounts on based on their own predispositions against accounts of the supernatural. I would like to take a bit more time to discuss the problem with this way of thinking.

It is important to remember that it is only false testimony that can affect the character of the witness. Until the witnesses testimony is proven to be false, the witnesses character should be considered good enough to consider. Scientists today are attempting to discredit witnesses based only on their belief in the record supernatural events. They claim that these events go against science because science is confined to the natural world. A significant problem with this partitioning of science is that it goes against two obvious things.

First, science is based on observation. Most scientists would agree with that statement, but when it comes to evolution, they say the opposite by limiting observed evidence to their definition of science.  They are saying, in the case of evolution, that observation must first be based on science.  Rather than allowing science to learn from observation, they stop learning by disallowing evidence. It shouldn't take long reading this paragraph to understand the madness that takes place when you trying to justify these two opposite positions. When someone promotes circular logic, the are often attempting to deceive the listener into believing something untrue.

Second, disallowing the supernatural breaks natural law. Most people know without going to school that there is a natural law of "cause and effect." We know based on our own lives that in order for something to happen, something bigger has to cause it. The thing that causes the the thing to happen is more greater than the thing that get's effected. When we are talking about evolution, we are talking about all of nature. This law of cause and effect would lead us to believe that if all of nature is the "effect", then cause and effect would tell us that something greater than nature had to cause it. If something "super" to nature caused it according to natural law, then I would have to say that belief in the "super" natural would be clearly scientific. Purposely avoiding a natural law in order to believe something you want to believe is not science, it's stubbornness.

We can sum this up by saying that the reason people put themselves through such logical misery in order to believe something as crazy as evolution, is because that way they can believe what they want to believe without having to worry about the facts and they can teach others to do the same.

There is another angel that fell to evil that is also willful and deceitful and he is called the god of this world, but those who believe in evolution will continue to allow this angel to do whatever he wants because they don't believe in him... yet.

Luke 1:21-25  :

The people were waiting for Zacharias, and they marveled that he delayed in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. He continued making signs to them, and remained mute. It happened, when the days of his service were fulfilled, he departed to his house. After these days Elizabeth, his wife, conceived, and she hid herself five months, saying, “Thus has the Lord done to me in the days in which he looked at me, to take away my reproach among men.”

Have you ever been in a situation where it looked like you were the bad one but you were actually being good? This appears to be the situation that Elizabeth found herself in. I don't know for sure whether or not the neighbors thought that Elizabeth had done wrong and God was cursing her for it, but it is clear that Elizabeth felt disgrace from it. It is also clear that this disgrace wasn't from God.

I have to chuckle a little bit when I think of this scene. The people were gathered outside the temple waiting for Zacharias to come out from his meeting with God and possibly hear what God has to say. Zacharias takes too long and when he finally does come out, he can't say a thing, so he keeps motioning with his hands. You can almost see the people staring intently at his hand waving trying to figure out what happened, and Zacharias keeps motioning, but all they could come up with was that he had seen some kind of vision.

It is obvious that Zacharias lacked faith at this point, but Elizabeth believed that it was God doing this directly for her. Elizabeth obviously thought well of God; that He would care and that He would do something about it. That is really what God is like. Perhaps it was Elizabeth's faith that pleased God and caused Him to want to do a great thing for both of them. That is a very encouraging thing for couples who have a mismatch of faith in the family.

We should trust God and know that He has our best interests in mind. He will do good to us.

We find out a little bit more about Elizabeth as we read on, but it is clear that she was not a disgrace. Sometimes God does things differently than people expect. Sometimes the things He does look like punishment on the outside, but many times they are not as we read in the recorded history from the Bible.