The shepherds went to see the baby Jesus after the angels announced His glorious birth. They were told that He is a savior, Christ the Lord! They were told that this brought glory to God, with peace and good will toward all people.
The signs they were given - Jesus would be wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger - were inauspicious. How could such a glorious person be found in such a low estate?
But there is another, remarkable aspect of Christ appearing to the shepherds as a lowly, new-born babe. His birth, and their seeing Him, fulfilled a curious claim that God had made to His people just before He brought them out of Egypt.
That claim by God to Israel was repeated many times in the Scriptures.
Of course, the Lord Jesus came to die in the place of His loved ones, poor sinners who cannot save themselves. Jesus came to be God's Lamb of sacrifice to die in substitution for poor sinners, to pay the ransom price for our crimes against the justice of God.
All that was foretold in Isaiah, and the Psalms, and Zechariah in particular.
In the New Testament, the writers use the term "redeem" to describe Christ's rescue of us. He is our Redeemer!
The Greek words for "redeem" mean the release of a man by the payment of a ransom.
Thus, Peter exclaims that we were not redeemed by silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a dying lamb without blemish.
Paul exults in the truth that Jesus redeemed us by being put under the curse of the law in our place, when we should have been.
But in the Old Testament, the word to redeem carries with it an additional characteristic: that of a near kinsman who can redeem his brethren! |
