God Uses The Lowest to Proclaim the Highest - Luke 1-2

Luke 2:8-12 (ESV)

The Shepherds and the Angels

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

To really appreciate the New Testament writings, it is important to know the type of society that people lived in during the days the 27 books were written.   We tend to look at life through our lens of Amazon Prime, Starbucks and iKea.   In the time that Luke wrote the above lines the life of men and women were different.  Men were regarded, women disgarded.   The life of trades people and shepherds were different.  Tradesmen were revered, shepherds reprehensible.  The class system was on full display during these days.  When kings were born they came from the upper class.   When kings were born it was announced with great fanfare to the most important people of the land.   The lower class was not important to the upper class.  But Jesus was the King of the Universe  and was announced to shepherds and was lying in a manger in a barn.   This is not what mankind would do.  This is not the protocol.  To use shepherds as messengers was equivalent to having the lowest class person in the area to be the first to hear of the Kings brith and then to have those same shepherds become the voice of His birth.  

Luke 2:17-18 (ESV)

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

God used shepherds to announce His birth and He used women to announce His resurrection:

Luke 24:8-11 (ESV)

And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

God came to save the lost and to do so He sent His Son to a virgin woman of no reputation, to be born in a barn with animals and announced by the lowest possible group of people on the planet.   That is our God!!  If you think you don’t matter, look at how God sees others like you.   

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (ESV)

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.