BEHOLD

BEHOLD
While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks 
Good morning! We are in the second week of our series called BeHold!  
Luke 2:8-9 NKJV
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Behold is used 1,298 times in the King James version of the Bible. It is derived from the Greek which has the literal translation of; be sure to see or in our words, “don’t miss this”. 
Ezekiel 12:2 New King James Version
2 “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.
Mark 8:18 New King James Version
18 Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?
So during this series I want us to ask God to open our eyes. Behold what is in front us right now, this very moment in time. Don’t miss it. 
PRAYER

Last week we learned a lot about angels. This week

Luke 2:8-16 New King James Version
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 
Why the Shepherds?
First let’s take a look at this word shepherd that is used in this passage in Luke.  
The Greek uses the word poimenes which means to feed or to protect. It is also a word for pastures as that is where the shepherd feds his sheep.  
The Latin word for shepherd is pastor as in pasture where we get the idea that your pastor is your shepherd whose job it is to spiritually feed you.
In the Jewish Talmud it says that the sheep which were to be used for the daily sacrifice in the temple were to be feed in the Bethlehem pastures.  These shepherds had charge of the most important sheep of all, the seh or sacrificial lambs.  Such sheep were not left entrusted to just one shepherd but a team of shepherds, most likely from the tribe of Levi. They provided round the clock watch. There were four-night watches where the shepherds worked in shifts.  There was the evening watch, the midnight watch, the cock crowing watch and the morning watch.  
The Bible clearly says they were watching their sheep by night. The Greek words literally means guarding in the guardhouses of the night.  The shepherds in Bethlehem who were guarding (not watching) these sacrificial lambs worked around the clock sleeping in established guard houses when not on their shift.  These pastures were specifically owned by the temple for the raising of the yearling ewe lambs. These were not your nomadic shepherds wandering all over the place.  
A sacrificial lamb had to be without blemish and without spot.
Exodus 12:5 New King James Version
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 
So they required extra special care and only the best of the best shepherds were chosen for this elite task of guarding these little lambs.
The Aramaic word used in the Peshitta for shepherd is ra’ah.  This comes from a Semitic root which expresses the idea of a deep passion.  These are the good shepherds who feel such passion for their sheep and their duty to guard these sheep that they would lay down their lives for these sheep. 
Jesus said this…
 John 10:11,14 New King James Version
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.  14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
The angels appeared to the best of the best of these elite Levitical shepherds, I know they were the best of the best because they had the most difficult watch, the midnight watch.  You see there is an ancient Jewish tradition that the Messiah would come at midnight. If they were indeed Levites, they would have been anticipating the arrival of the Messiah at midnight. So Jesus was most likely born at night alluded by this phrase “keeping watch over their flock by night”.
The shepherds had the the “Night watch.”
And think about that, people say “Nothing good happens after midnight.” 
Late night is the time that most crimes are committed:  drunkenness, bar fights, shootings, domestic assaults, robberies, driving while intoxicated, speeding and reckless driving, and car crashes due to impaired judgment.
Immoral behavior is frequently committed under the cover of darkness.  The world is filled with darkness. 
Jesus was born during the “night watch” at the time when the darkness is the most intense. The timing was no accident. 
Jesus is the Light of the World. When Jesus was born, he was the true light coming into the world. 
John 12:46 New King James Version
46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

These shepherds also witnessed what the Prophet had written 700 years before the birth of the Jesus!
Isaiah 40:11 New King James Version
11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.

They realized that their jobs were done, there was no longer a need for the sacrificial lambs for the true sacrificial lamb had arrived.

PLAN OF THE ENEMY
We know that Satan has tried to stop the plan of God since Adam and Eve and even now in the beautiful story of Christmas the enemy is at work. We see the wise men come to worship Christ (which we will talk about next Sunday), but behold what happens: 
Matthew 2:1-6 NKJV
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
The chief priests and scribes are quoting Micah 5:2. In fact, if you go and look at this scripture there is the subtitle THE COMING MESSIAH. What I found interesting is when I read this scripture verse for stood out to me…
Micah 5:2-5 New King James Version
The Coming Messiah
4 And He shall stand and feed His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God;
And they shall abide,
For now He shall be great
To the ends of the earth;
5 And this One shall be peace.
So we see the continuation of the “shepherd” in prophecy concerning Jesus…let’s read further 
Matthew 2:16-18
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.” 
This a quoting Jeremiah 31:15
Imagine the pain and sorrow of the Jewish parents that the enemy slaughtered in order to try and destroy the promise of God. There had to be a darkness of sorrow and despair that fell over the families. 
But the shepherds had found the KING…
…SONG…

Can I tell you that today, the enemy is still attacking our children, trying to kill their futures in God. It seems like it is the darkest time with all the immoral things that are happening. 
I want you to connect what the Lord is showing me, even before it happened, God choose the shepherds to proclaim that the King of kings and Lord of lords was being born because HE KNEW that the LAMB OF GOD that was slain for all mankind had arrived on earth in a manger in Bethlehem.
Revelation 12:11 New King James Version
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 

Jesus the lamb of God has come to redeem us.
Galatians 3:13 
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”).