So far, we have uncovered the following facts from Scripture regarding the incarnation of Jesus Christ:
1. Prophecy. The incarnation was prophesied in the book of Isaiah as well as other places in the Old Testament.
2. Anticipation. Prior to the incarnation in the gospels, the saints at that time, many who knew the Old Testament prophecies, had anticipated His coming with great excitement and Zacharias was one of those.
3. Announcement. The angels announced it on the great night of the birth of Jesus Christ. Today we are going back to Luke 2 and taking a closer look at these shepherds as well as Mary and the fact that they rejoiced and treasured the incarnation.
Let’s first look at the shepherds again. I mentioned last time about what a night that must have been for the shepherds. My imagination runs wild with some of this. We know nothing about these shepherds after this night. What we do know is that in Luke 2:18 it says, “And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.” When the shepherds proclaimed to others about what they saw others marveled. So, we know they went out and broadcast what they had seen. We know they obeyed the voice of the angel that told them to go and check on this incarnation, this birth of Jesus. They did that. We find in Luke 2:20 it says, “The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.” We know the shepherds are rejoicing and worshiping. They are worshiping God for what they have seen in Jesus’ birth. We find them rejoicing throughout this whole section. I have to wonder though, what happened to these guys? We don’t find them later in the life of Jesus. We don’t find them at the cross when Jesus went to the cross some thirty years later. Of course, many of them may have already passed away, we don’t know. I would like to know! That is one of the things I’m looking forward to finding out about when we go to glory. We really don’t know, but we do know that on this particular night they are rejoicing, they are worshiping, they are marveling, they are telling other people about what they have seen. It’s interesting to imagine what happened over the next twenty, thirty or forty years of their lives as they thought about that night. Perhaps they started to wonder if they just had a dream questioning if it was real or not? I imagine that in those times after they talked to one another and confirmed they were there and saw those angels, heard those words, and saw that baby in the manger they would be confident once again that it was real. Perhaps as they thought about it, as they reminisced and chatted that they would say that they lost track of Him, but we hear He is over in Jerusalem preaching. That same baby we saw all those years ago is giving a message of the gospel, a message of repentance, a message of the kingdom. A few years later maybe they reminisce and catch up and hear that the Pharisees and leaders of the Jews were against Him and led Him to the Romans to be crucified and now we have heard He was resurrected from the dead. What do they know? No one has written a song concerning, Shepherds Did You Know? I don’t know what they knew . . .
