Shepherds were watching the flocks by night

Rejoice! I was thinking about this word the other day and was wondering what it means to rejoice. It's funny but I was looking back on my life wondering if there was a time of true rejoicing. I know I've rejoiced before. There's events in my life when there was great rejoicing, but what about true rejoicing? Is it even possible here on this fallen planet? As I was thinking further I asked myself, "What does it means to rejoice?"

Dictionary.com (yes poor old Webster has gone the way of the internet. I wonder how many actual dictionaries (the paper kind) are not getting sold?) states that the word rejoice is a verb, anwhich means to be glad; take delight (often followed by "in": to rejoice in another’s happiness); to make joyful; gladden: a song to rejoice the heart. Synonyms are revel, exult, glory.

I was driving down the road a couple weeks ago listening to Christmas carols (or modern ones) in the car on my iPod. One of the songs talked about the shepherds' rejoicing. That's what got me thinking about this word. What did it mean for them, the shepherds, to rejoice and what does it mean for me to rejoice?

I reviewed my life and the events that have taken place: my wedding twenty five years ago to Dawn, the birth of my children, other major events, milestones that have happened in my life. Was I rejoice-full at those times? Was I glad? Did I "take delight in..."? I think we have a tendency to mix up the words. I think we confuse rejoice and happy or giddy or bubbly. I think they can go hand in hand but I don't think they are mutually exclusive, linked together in the same breath. I don’t know maybe they are? I don't think you can be happy without rejoicing somehow but maybe you can rejoice without necessaryily being "happy".

So back to the shepherds...As I was driving to my hunting spot I was imagining the shepherds out in the fields. I thought about how it related to me as I sat in my tree stand, out in the woods that day. I didn’t see any deer and I wasn’t rejoice-full over that! I would have much rather had a deer and I would have rejoiced more. But the shepherds where out in the field watching the flocks by night. Scripture just doesn’t say they were in the field (like they were out there working) but rather they were abiding or “living” there. I am sure it was cold, even in the warmest of weather, when you are outside, at night just sitting, watching, you get cold. If you are up moving around you can stay warm but this is nighttime and the shepherd’s were watching their flocks making sure no harm came to them because this was their livelihood. I'm sure they were huddled around a fire to keep warm. In Israel it can get cold. I just looked (thanks to the internet again) and last February there was 22 inches of snow in Israel; that’s a regular close-the-schools, I’m staying home, Nor’easter here in New England. I am sure it wasn’t as cold as International Falls, MN cold, but you never know, it was cold enough to snow.

What did it mean to be a shepherd after all. We have this nice little picture of kids wearing their Father's bath robes with towels around their heads (no that was NOT racist) but it was not like that at all:

Tending flocks, with agriculture, formed the basis of the Palestine economy, and sheep raised on the hillsides around Bethlehem may well have been destined for temple sacrifices in Jerusalem, only six miles to the north.

Jeremiah describes a shepherd's life: "The dryness of the ground made it necessary for the flocks of sheep and cattle to move about during the rainless summer and to stay for months at a time in isolated areas, far from the owner's home. Hence, herding sheep was an independent and responsible job; indeed, in view of the threat of wild beasts and robbers, it could even be dangerous. Sometimes the owner himself (Luke 15:6; John 10:12) or his sons did the job. But usually it was done by hired shepherds, who only too often did not justify the confidence reposed in them (John 10:12-13)."

Some of Israel's great heroes were shepherds -- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. Both Psalm 23 and Jesus compare God's care to that of a Good Shepherd. But in the First Century, it seems, shepherds -- specifically, hireling shepherds -- had a rather unsavory reputation. Jeremias cites Rabbinic sources to the effect that "most of the time they were dishonest and thieving; they led their herds onto other people's land and pilfered the produce of the land." Because they were often months at a time without supervision, they were often accused of stealing some of the increase of the flock. Consequently, the pious were warned not to buy wool, milk, or kids from shepherds on the assumption that it was stolen property. Shepherds were not allowed to fulfill a judicial office or be admitted in court as witnesses. A midrash on Psalm 23:2 reads, "There is no more disreputable occupation than that of a shepherd." Philo, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher of Alexandria (25 BC - 45 AD), wrote about looking after sheep and goats, "Such pursuits are held mean and inglorious." http://www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/2_8-20.htm

The bible doesn’t tell us what kind of shepherds these guys were, if they were “good” or if they were the "unsavory" kind. Knowing scripture and how God likes to choose the underdog I am sure these guys weren't model citizens. And the bible doesn’t tell us if the shepherds here are hirelings or if they're the owners. Not sure if it makes a difference but if they were hirelings and they left the flock after seeing and hearing the angel’s message, their actions made them "unsavory", it would have gone to prove the reputation of the first century shepherd. So I think they were owners and possibly the owners sons were out watching the flocks. They would have been living in the hillside waiting for the dry season to come. Maybe they were even prepared to move their flock from this location to another location because the winter wet season was gone.

In this cold dark night, fire burning, no “street lights” most likely it was a cloudless night the stars would be shining, depending on the time of the month it would depend on how much light was being given off by the moon.

I think there was just something deeper about the shepherds and how they rejoiced. I think there was something different about their thought process and about how they were viewing the situation at hand. First of all, they had this huge encounter with angelic beings (see my previous post) and then a heavenly host, singing; “Glory to God in the Highest”. Yeah they were in the sky, above the ground, it seems just normal for us in our SciFi world, but up to this point the only person who was able to fly, had wings and it wasn't a person...it was a bird.

I think the encounter the shepherd’s had that day, shook their world. It rearranged the way they lived their lives. It changed the way they thought about life, the universe and everything (42). The events that took place that night transformed the shepherd's into something new, it allowed them to look at their forlorn lives and "REJOICE!", I mean true, deep, amazing rejoicing. There was something NEW happening, it was something they had been told about all their lives. It was something they had looked forward to but didn't ever think would come to pass in their lifetime. The PROMISED ONE, the MESSIAH, had come! Annouced with a great majestic heavenly host, and presented in a very strange way...not in a palace with stately drappings and crib. But rather in a stable and a food trough. Not annouced to Kings and Statesmen, Princes and Lords, but annouced to Shepherds, common folks, lowly folks, unsavory folks. The King of Kings is really the King for the rest of us. We don't have to be some high person to come before him, but rather we find him in the humblest places, and the humblest places in our own lives.

When we look at our lives, we see ever fault and misstep.It's in that place, if we get out of the way, and if we look really hard, where we find our Messiah.

Merry Christmas!