Viewing page 34 of 41
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
278 THE CONVENTION TEACHER field, keeping watch over their flock by night. They were not Bethlehem shepherds, but they belonged to the same region. According to tradition they came from the little village of Beth-Zur. David the shepherd boy who became a great king, and the most famous ancestor of our Lord, tended sheep in the same fields. In these fields were kept the sheep used for sacrifices in the temple at Jerusalem. We are told that they were kept outdoors all winter in that mild climate, so that the tradition might be true which places the birth of Christ in December. It is an indication of the dignity which the religion of the Carpenter was to confer upon all honorable toil that the first announcement of His birth was made by angels to those poor lowly laborers. (9) And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. The glory of the Lord was in the Shechinah or flaming brightness in which Jehovah clothed His appearance throughout the Old Testament as above the Mercy seat of the Ark, or in the bright cloud which led the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. The shepherds felt the terror which mortals always feel when in the presence of the supernatural; such fear as Isaiah felt, when Jehovah appeared to him in shining majesty in the temple. (10) And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. The angels said to the shepherds: Be not afraid, for I bring you good tidings, which are from the word "evangelizo," from which directly comes our word "evangelize," and which is often treated in the New Testament "to preach the Gospel," noun itself being sometimes translated "good news," but much more frequently, especially by Paul, being translated "Gospel." So the Gospel was first preached, the evangel was first announced by the angel of the Lord, but not until He by whom the Gospel was made possible was born among men. The angel was the bearer of good news. The world before Christ was a very sad place. Christ came to make it a place of great joy, which it is wherever He is received in human hearts. (11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Three titles are given Jesus by the angel: a Saviour, Christ, the Lord. The first refers to the work of Christ; the second, to His Messianic office; the third referring to His glory. The word "Saviour" here should certainly be definitely related to the inspired words which preceded from the lips of Zacharias and the words of the same angel of the Lord in his annunciation of Joseph. At the very birth of Jesus three fundamental facts regarding Him are announced: that He is to save men from their sins; that He is to fulfill the ancient prophecies of the Messiah; and that He is to exercise rightful authority over the hearts and lives of men, being the Lord. (12) And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Swaddling clothes were long bands of soft cloth wrapped around new-born babes. The sign was in the unusual combination of circumstances, that a new-born babe should lie in a manger. lying in a manger —This was to be the sign. On that night there would, perhaps, be no other children born in Bethlehem; certainly the shepherds would find no other newly born infant cradled in a manger. III. THE ANGELIC CHORUS (VV. 13-14.) (13) And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, This was a portion of the innumerable army of heaven. The most majestic title of the Deity is perhaps, "Lord God of Sabaoth," that is, "Lord of hosts." All of these vast multitudes that no man can number were praising God with the "Christmas Anthem." The troop of angels issued forth from the depths of that invisible world which surrounds us on every side. In several passages of the Scripture is the enormous multitude of these heavenly beings noticed; for example Psalms 67:8, where the Hebrew is much more expressive than the English rendering; Daniel 7:10. "Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him and with him. Ten thousand times ten thousand holy angels and the crown of the law is his because he has brought it from the heavens above, when there was revealed to him the glory of the Lord's Shechinah, two thousand myriads of angels and forty and two thousand chariots of fire. suddenly—As if eager to break in as soon as the last words of the wonderful tidings had dropped from their fellow-angel's lips. a multitude—Among men the testimony of two or three witnesses is sufficient to remove all doubt. But here is a heavenly host with one voice bearing testimony to the Son of God. (14) Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. The [[end page]] [[start page]] THE CONVENTION TEACHER 279 Jews thought of heaven in seven layers, one above the other. In the highest —In the highest degree, more likely, in the highest heaven. Peace can only come as there shall come to men who are conscious of moral disease without remedy, the remedy for that disease. Peace can only come to men who are conscious of sufferings without succour of sympathy that is more than sentiment, as there comes to them the succour that takes hold of suffering and transforms the sorrow into joy and gives them the assurance that not here and now is all of that which is here and now, but that the ultimate meanings lie beyond, and that in the economy of God they are meanings of perfect realization. Peace can only come to a world where death confronts men, when a somehow death can be transfigured and men cease to speak of death and talk of decrease, exodus, going out. Peace can only come when death is no longer looked upon as a harbor of refuge into which the ship, all battered, escapes, but rather as the harbor from which the ship puts out to sea and fins the ultimate fulfillment of all being. These are Christian ideals, and can only be realized by men when they enter into Christian experience. In a final word, notice the suggestion of the angels concerning the source, "Glory to God in the highest." Salvation must come from God and not from man. Salvation must come out of the heavens to earth; it cannot arise out of the earth and climb to the heavens. Therefore, glory to God is a necessity as it is a fact. At this juncture, strange to say the Roman Empire was at peace with all the world, and as was ever the case, in these brief, rare moments of profound peace, the gates of the temple of Janus at Rome were closed, there being, as they supposed, no need for the presence of God to guide and lead their conquering armies. Not a few have supposed that the angel choir in these words described this earthly peace. But the angels sang of something more real and enduring than this temporary lull. good will toward men —Christ is the Prince of Peace, as Isaiah foretold; but His peace can enter only the lives that are conformed to His will and so are free from sin. GOOD NEWS IN THE BIBLE Mary and Joseph, each a lineal descendant of the great king David, and living in Nazareth in Galilee, were obliged to travel to Bethlehem in Judea for the enrollment by the Romans which probably preceded a new adjustment of taxation. On reaching the town, they found it so full of those who had come for the same reason as themselves, that there was no room for them in the inn. They found a place in a cave, used as a stable; and there on that night Mary "brought fort her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger." In that same night, in the fields around the town, were shepherds watching their flocks. To them appeared the glory of the Lord, and an angel, who said, "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." How should we keep Christmas? Christmas is especially the children's day. The Son of God came into the world a little Child. He is the children's Saviour. Jesus loved the children, and still loves them. He called them to come unto Him while they were young. He said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." The coming of Jesus as a Child has sanctified childhood and motherhood and the home, giving them a new power. He has shown the importance of childhood in the training of the human race. The Sunday school with its weekly gatherings of the children to study about God and Christ, and the Christian home, are the means of keeping in mind the greatest event in the history of the world. There is no celebration of any event in the whole year that is so helpful and blessed as this, the echo of God's gracious love in the gift of His Son. QUESTIONS ON THE LESSON 1. What is the good news in the Bible? 2. What has the birth of Christ to do with community growth? 3. How is the story of the nativity a help to the New Testament literature? 4. How is Christmas joy expressed? 5. How can one carry out the Spirit of Christmas?
