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cember 9
At these words, visions of glory fill the minds of the listening shepherds. The Deliverer has come to Israel! Power, exaltation, triumph, are associated with His coming. But the angel must prepare them to recognize their Saviour in poverty and humiliation. "This shall be a sign unto you," he says; "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
Remember, the shepherds are among the folk who know something about the coming of the Messiah. The Priest and rulers up on the whole know the Scriptures but they aren’t looking for the Messiah. Just because you are looking and just because you are ready doesn’t mean you have perfect understanding.
The shepherds have been taught that the Messiah will come on glory. They understood that He would be the King to eject the Romans. The angel could pass by this error and let them work out the facts for themselves, but the angel chose not to.
My guess is that the angel did not want the shepherds to be set up for a disappointment. He didn’t want them to go expecting a king when all they would find is the baby son of a carpenter.
We were having a Bible study at Newark last week and learned that while there are angels who are angels, there are times when we are angels. The word ‘angel’ simply means messenger, some messengers that God uses are humans. Please check that one out and confirm for yourself that some angels are human.
So if you are to be an angel, and part of your job is to help people get ready for the Messiah, you might need to recognise this. You might have to change some people’s understanding of what the Messiah is going to do when He comes.
It’s not that you don’t want people to be disappointed – who could be disappointed by the events of the Second Coming? You don’t want people to be misled. You need to teach people the truth before the events.
One more thing for you to be doing (in addition to developing a relationship with people you want to introduce to God and inviting the Holy Spirit into your life every day). You need to find time to equip yourself with the whole armour of God. Not just the defensive armour, but also the weapons of attack. Take the opportunities you have of learning what the Bible teaches you, and learn how you can best share that with your friends. Be an angel.
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Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
