βAnd the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no endβ (Luke 1:30-33).
The first verse of the classic Christmas carol highlights todayβs Scripture.
βWhat child is this, who, laid to rest,
On Maryβs lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.β
Such an event had never before happened in human history. God had promised βthe seed of the womanβ to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15), but it was 4,000 years later that Mary was identified as that βwoman.β That the Creator God would take upon Himself the flesh of sinful man, though Himself never being defiled by sin (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22). Unheard of in pagan religions!
The angels understood the Old Testament prophecies about Godβs Son being born of a human mother. She was a βvirgin,β a young woman (perhaps in her teens) who had never had any sexual relations with a man (Luke 1:34). On the night of Baby Jesusβ birth into the human raceβthe culmination of humanity added to His deityβthe angels appeared in the sky and sang, to encourage the shepherds in the nearby fields to hurry to Bethlehem to see a little Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes (Luke 2:8-14).
βAnd it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto usβ (Luke 2:15).
Once the shepherds came to Bethlehem, and found Baby Jesus, they beheld such a strange sight! source
