But it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census should be made of all the habitable world.
Luke dates the birth of Jesus by a Roman tax order. The verse names the most powerful man alive and moves a whole empire, yet says nothing about God — so why does the Saviour's story start here?
The man named here was a real ruler whose life can be traced in ordinary history. He came to sole power after years of civil war, and his reach touched the land of Israel through Herod:
The first Roman emperor... upon the death of Lepidus he shared the empire with Antony, but both were too ambitious to share the kingdom. The battle of Actium, B.C. 31, went in Caesar's favour, and he reigned alone. Four years later he was confirmed as 'emperor' and 'Augustus' in B.C. 27... He confirmed Herod as king, and added Samaria and Gadara to his territory... The Lord Jesus was born during his reign.
The phrase is not a mistake, and it is not a claim that the census reached every nation on earth. It was the way Rome talked about itself:
It is clear that a decree of Augustus or any other emperor could not take effect outside the empire. But it was the phrase of the day, as we see in Acts 24:5. To a Roman, the city of Rome ruled the whole earth. The world and the empire were the same; everything outside counted for nothing. But the apostles had a true and larger view, as we may see in Acts 17:31, Hebrews 2:5, Revelation 3:10, and elsewhere.
Commentators differ over how wide the underlying Greek word can stretch elsewhere in Scripture, but they agree it means the inhabited earth, and that here it is used with imperial pride.
Reading this verse, one writer notes the sheer strangeness of the scene: a pagan emperor issuing orders in the very country where God's throne should have stood.
Instead of God dealing with Israel in grace, we see first the pagan emperor of the world — the head of Daniel's last empire. He is using his power in Emmanuel's land, and over the people of God, as though God did not know them... What a strange state of things sin has brought in!
The order proved how far Israel had sunk. It also did exactly what God intended, moving one couple to the one village the prophets had named:
The power of the world is set in motion by an act that proves its supremacy over the people of God. As His people, they should have been free from every rule except the immediate government of their God, which was their glory. The act proves the complete degradation and servitude of the people. Because of their sins, they are slaves to the nations in their bodies and in their possessions (see Nehemiah 9:36-37). But this act only carries out the marvellous purpose of God. It causes the Saviour-king to be born in the village where, by the testimony of God, that event was to take place.
Verse one records a decree from a man. Behind it stands another will entirely, and the two could not look more different:
But if there was a decree from Caesar, there was a most gracious purpose in God. Caesar might indulge his pride and count the world his own, in the exaggerated style of human ambition and self-satisfaction. But God was now showing what He was — and oh, what a contrast! By this very act, and by God's providence, the Son of God enters the world at the promised place, Bethlehem.
The contrast goes further. At the height of his power, Augustus had no idea what his own order was doing:
While he enjoyed this supremacy, the Roman Emperor had no idea that his Master was born in a village in Judea. His Master came in the lowest ranks of life, among the most despised tribe in the Emperor's realm. That one event changed the whole course of the world's history.
If a tax order carried out God's word once, the same hand is at work now:
There seemed no likelihood that the child would be born at Bethlehem. But the Emperor commanded that everyone should go to his own town for the census. God arranged it this way in His providence, to fulfil His word. So it is today. There is not a movement in the world that God is not ruling directly or overruling indirectly.
This verse also touches how a Christian treats government:
We cannot ignore the days that a government decrees... We have to be aware of the commands of the government. We must give Caesar's days what is due to them. We must be subject to the governing authorities. This lies at the very start of Christianity.
- Decree. One order from Caesar Augustus set a whole empire moving, and Luke dates the birth of Jesus by it.
- Dominion. "All the world" was Rome's own way of speaking: to a Roman, the empire and the world were the same.
- Degradation. The census proved Israel's servitude: slaves in body and property to the nations, in their own land.
- Design. The same order brought the Saviour-king to birth in Bethlehem, so a proud man's decree served God's promise.
- Dependence. If a tax order served God's word then, no movement today falls outside His ruling or overruling.
The census itself first took place when Cyrenius had the government of Syria.
A governor's name and a "first registration" tie the birth of Jesus to a dated moment in Roman records. That one line explains how a couple from Nazareth ended up in Bethlehem, and it has been argued over ever since.
The empire that ordered the count believed it was asserting its own ownership of the world. One writer sets the emperor's pride against what God was doing.
That was the thinking of the world — of the imperial power of that day, the great Roman empire. But if there was a decree from Caesar, there was a most gracious purpose in God. Caesar could feed his pride and call the world his own, in the overblown style of human ambition and self-satisfaction. But God was now showing what He was. What a contrast! By this very act, God's hand brings the Son of God into the world at the promised place, Bethlehem.
What makes it striking is the scale. An empire-wide order sent people back to their home towns, and it all came down to two unknown people.
It is wonderful that the whole machinery of the Roman Empire started moving to bring this about. An unknown couple, as the world saw them, reached their home city, Bethlehem, just in time for the birth of the One who would be the Saviour of the world. Yet so it was.
Some writers read the verse this way: the registration was ordered then, but carried out later under Quirinius. On that reading, the decree accomplished God's aim and no more.
The decree was not carried out at the time we are looking at here. But it went far enough to call the parents of our Lord from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem. That did not complete man's census; it fulfilled God's prophecy. God took care that it should be just fulfilled enough to carry out His purposes.
What happened to the census afterwards matters too.
Despite all this, the power of the world is working, without knowing it, to fulfil a prophecy about One it does not know. Once that is done, the plan falls away as if it had never been: "the census itself first took place when Cyrenius (or Quirinius) was governor of Syria" — some years afterward.
The ESV reads "the first registration"; Darby's version reads "the census itself first took place." Darby reads the sentence as a note about timing, not as the first count in a series.
Read the phrase this way — "The census itself first took place when Cyrenius was governor of Syria." It cannot mean "this first census." The wording would have been different for that. It should be read: "This census first took effect when Cyrenius was governor." I lean to that sense, since the census was not put into effect when Mary and Joseph went up. They went to be registered, but it does not appear that they ever were.
Critics have long used this verse to attack the reliability of Scripture. No general census of this date shows up in surviving Roman records.
Verse 1 already gives hunting ground to writers who deny that Scripture is accurate and without error. Secular records tell us nothing about any general census at this time… The question comes down to whether Quirinius carried out any administrative duties at the earlier date or not.
The answer offered is simple. The same man held office in Syria twice, so there could be two separate registrations.
He was governor of Syria in A.D. 6, and he then carried out a census — most likely the one Acts 5:37 mentions. That long created a difficulty about Luke's statement that Cyrenius held a census when the Lord was born, in B.C. 4. But Prof. A. W. Zumpt of Berlin states, on what seems good authority, that Cyrenius was governor of Syria twice: the first time from B.C. 4 to B.C. 1, which fits Luke 2:2 well.
The count listed people, not property. The Jews were also allowed to run it their own way, by city and family line.
The "taxing" mentioned in Luke 2:1-5 was probably not a valuing of property but a registration of persons… The Roman emperor ordered it, but it seems the Jews were allowed to carry out the census their own way, by city and family line.
- Decree — Caesar's order claimed the world as his own. God used it to place His Son in Bethlehem.
- Detail — the registration was by name and family line, not property, which is why Joseph went to David's town.
- Dispute — critics target this verse, since no general census of that date survives in Roman records.
- Defence — the answer offered: Quirinius held office in Syria twice, and the earlier term fits Luke's date.
- Design — commentators differ on whether Luke dates the decree or its later carrying out. They agree on the outcome: the plan went just far enough to fulfil prophecy, then lapsed.
And all went to be inscribed in the census roll, each to his own city
Luke's third verse looks like a line of paperwork. A whole empire takes to the road because one emperor wants a headcount — yet God is using that machinery to bring one poor couple to one small town.
The census set roads, families and officials moving across the empire. None of them knew why. Caesar had one aim in his order; God had another:
Caesar Augustus acts with his own subjects in view. Yet without knowing it, he is the means of fulfilling the prophecy that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. The whole course of the world runs outside the current of God's thoughts. The one great fact for Him and for His kingdom here is the baby's birth at Bethlehem, and the emperor has no thought of it. The decree puts the world in motion, and God makes good His thoughts here below. God is carrying out His purpose of love, and man is blind to it. Who cared to notice the poor Jew, even if he belonged to the house and family of David? The things that mean nothing at all to man fill the heart and eye of God.
Prophecy spoken centuries earlier needed a whole population on the move:
It happened so that an unknown couple living in Nazareth would be forced to travel to Bethlehem. And this at a time when a woman would want the quiet and shelter of her own home. In Bethlehem the prophecy could be fulfilled that Micah wrote seven centuries earlier: the Saviour of the world would be born there. Thousands of people were set moving to bring about this one prophecy.
The wording describes a census taken by ancestry, not by address. That is why the journey could not be avoided:
In this case the emperor wanted to know not only the numbers but the nationalities of the people he reigned over. So when the order for this census went out, every man went to his own city. The order was absolute. Every Jew, wherever he lived, had to go up to his own city to be enrolled, on pain of a terrible penalty.
Some claim that Luke and Matthew disagree about where Jesus belonged. Luke's own wording answers that, since he uses the same phrase for both towns:
Notice that the same phrase is used for Nazareth in verse 39 as here for Bethlehem. That should restrain the criticism which has tried to set this writer of the Gospel against Matthew… Matthew starts with Bethlehem, but not in a way that means Joseph normally lived there. Mark speaks only of Nazareth. Luke deals with both, and takes Nazareth as his starting point.
Being counted by Rome was no neutral event for Israel. It measured how far the nation had fallen:
The power of the world is set in motion. It moves by an act that proves its rule over the very people who, as the people of God, should have been governed by God alone — and that direct government was their glory. The act proves how completely the people have been brought low and enslaved. They are slaves, in their bodies and in their goods, to the pagan nations, because of their sins (see Nehemiah 9:36-37). But this act only accomplishes the marvellous purpose of God.
The order was never carried out in full at that moment. One writer sees in this how exactly God works:
It was not carried out at that time as proposed. But it was carried out far enough to call the parents of our Lord from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem. That accomplished not man's census, but God's prophecy. God took care that it should be fulfilled just enough to carry out His purposes. It was not until some years later that Quirinius was governor of Syria. Then it was carried out in full.
The child brought to Bethlehem came as a subject of the man counting heads:
The circumstances of His birth show how complete the humiliation is that He has come into. Caesar is lord of the world, and orders it as he pleases, for his own purposes. How different a world this is from the one He made at the beginning! Yet He is in it as one under Caesar's rule. Joseph and Mary are brought out of Nazareth to Bethlehem, to be enrolled as of David's line.
- Decree — Caesar orders a count for his own ends, with no thought of what God is doing through it.
- Movement — every Jew had to travel to his family's city. So an unknown couple from Nazareth had no choice but Bethlehem.
- Servitude — Rome's roll call proved the people were slaves in body and goods. God alone should have governed them.
- Precision — God let the count run just far enough to fulfil prophecy. It was finished only years later, under Quirinius.
- Person — an emperor's order brought the Lord to Bethlehem. He entered His own world under Caesar's rule, enrolled as of David's line.
and Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city Nazareth to Judaea, to David's city, the which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,
God said through Micah that Israel's ruler would come from Bethlehem, yet Joseph and Mary lived far north in Nazareth. A tax order from a pagan emperor moves them to that one village, and Luke ties the journey to Joseph's descent from David.
Luke says the census itself first took place under Quirinius, years later. So the order was not fully carried out at this moment. One writer draws out what that shows about God's control of world events:
It was not carried out at the time in view here as first proposed. But it was enough to call the parents of our Lord from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem. That accomplished not man's census, but God's prophecy. God took care that it should be fulfilled just enough to carry out His purposes.
The same writer adds a striking detail. Even the mother of the Messiah and His legal father had to obey the decree of the Roman emperor. God's own people were under Rome.
The prophecy behind this journey was already ancient. It said more than where the child would be born:
The proud Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, set all the machinery in motion to bring this taxing about. He little thought that it was to fulfil the Scripture: "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days" (Micah 5:2). That prophecy came more than seven centuries before the birth of our Lord. In it we see His manhood, the place of His birth, and also the careful assertion of His deity.
Luke gives the reason for the journey: Joseph belonged to the house of David. That short note settles a legal question about the throne:
From the time a woman among the Jews was engaged, she was considered legally the wife of the man she was betrothed to. So the Lord, while really the Son of His mother Mary, was legally of Joseph; and both Joseph and Mary were of the royal line. So the Lord Jesus represented David on both sides. But as the law required, He was the descendant of Solomon on the legal side. He was without question the Son of Mary, descended from the Nathan branch. Yet by law He could not be Messiah while a living representative of the Solomon branch remained. Being the legally reputed Son of Joseph as well as Mary's child, the Lord was descended exactly as He needed to be, in every required respect "David's Son," the Messiah.
Joseph is the heir of a throne. Yet he is a village workman, travelling under orders from a foreign power. That contrast fulfils Scripture too:
He was an obscure village carpenter. This proved the truth of the prophet's words that the tabernacle of David had fallen down and lay in ruins (Amos 9:11). Yet he showed marks of true royalty according to God: in his mercy toward the weak and, as he thought, the failing, and in his trust in the Word of God and his obedience to it.
Luke calls Bethlehem "the city of David," and the name of the town itself points forward:
Bethlehem is "the House of Bread," fittingly the birthplace, long afterward, of Him who as the "Bread of God" came down from heaven to give life to the world. Judah, "praise," is the royal tribe through which in grace the "King" was to come. Praise always flows from knowing the fullness of blessing that is ours in Christ. So food and worship are closely connected — Bethlehem is in Judah.
- Decree. Caesar ordered a census for his own glory. It went just far enough to move Joseph and Mary — accomplishing not man's census, but God's prophecy.
- Prophecy. Micah named Bethlehem more than seven centuries earlier. He named the child's manhood, birthplace and deity too.
- Lineage. Luke's phrase "of the house and lineage of David" gives the reason for the journey. Legally through Joseph and truly through Mary, Jesus represented David on both sides.
- Ruins. The heir of the throne was a village carpenter. David's house still lay in ruins when its true King arrived.
- Bethlehem. The house of bread and the city of David received the One who would come down from heaven as the Bread of God.
to be inscribed in the census roll with Mary who was betrothed to him [as his] wife, she being great with child.
Joseph travels to Bethlehem to register, and Mary goes with him, close to giving birth. Two questions sit in the verse: what did a betrothal mean in law, and why would a pregnant woman make that journey at all?
The verse calls Mary Joseph's betrothed, and that word carried legal weight. One writer explains what it meant for the Child's descent from David:
Once a Jewish woman was betrothed, the law counted her as the wife of the man she was promised to. So the Lord was really the Son of His mother Mary, and legally the son of Joseph. Both Joseph and Mary were of the royal line. The Lord Jesus, therefore, represented David on both sides; but as the law required, He was the descendant of Solomon on the legal side. He was the Son of Mary and descended through Nathan's branch of David's family. Even so, He could not be the Messiah under the law while a living representative of Solomon's branch remained. But the Lord was counted by law as Joseph's son, as well as being Mary's child. So His descent was exactly what was needed to make Him "David's Son," the Messiah, in every required respect.
The place of the Messiah's birth was named long before Mary was born:
More than seven hundred years before the birth of Christ the prophet Micah had said in the name of Jehovah, "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days." The chief priests and scribes quoted these words when Herod asked where Christ should be born. So they took them as a prediction of the Messiah's birthplace. But Mary's home was at Nazareth in Galilee, and the time was drawing near for the birth of her holy Child.
The emperor issued his order for his own reasons. He was serving another purpose without knowing it:
Caesar Augustus acts for the sake of his subjects. Yet without knowing it, he is the means of fulfilling the prophecy that Jesus should be born in Bethlehem... All the world is in movement to bring about one event that prophecy required. The poor carpenter, with Mary, His betrothed wife, must be in the city of David, and David's heir must be born there and then... Who cared to notice the poor Jew, though he might be of the house and line of David? The things that are completely unimportant to man fill the heart and eye of God.
Enrolling meant admitting that Rome ruled them:
Even the people of God were placed in servitude. Remarkably, the mother of the Messiah had to obey the decree of the Roman Emperor, and so did His legal father. They went up for the census to their own city, the city of David, Bethlehem, and so fulfilled the prophecies... The decree was not carried out at the time proposed here. But it went far enough to call the parents of our Lord from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem. That accomplished not man's census, but God's prophecy.
Christ came into a world that Caesar governed:
The circumstances of His birth show how complete the humiliation is into which He has come. Caesar is lord of the world, and orders it as he pleases, for his own purposes... yet He is in it as under Caesar's rule, Joseph and Mary being brought out of Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled as of David's line. Despite all this, the power of the world is working, without knowing it, to fulfil a prophecy about One it does not know. Once this is done, the plan drops as if it had never been.
A woman that near to childbirth would not travel by choice. One writer notes what met her when she arrived:
The virgin who lived at Nazareth had to be taken to Bethlehem. There she gave birth to Him whose kingdom would in time break the Roman empire in pieces and fill the whole earth. She was poor. Naturally she would not have left Nazareth at such a time. They seem to have been friendless too, at Bethlehem. The inn was crowded. No one offered them a home.
- Decree — Caesar orders a census for his own ends, and never knows what purpose he really serves.
- Journey — that decree lifts a poor couple out of Nazareth and puts them in Bethlehem just as Mary's time comes.
- Title — "betrothed wife" is a legal standing. Mary's Son is hers by birth and Joseph's by law, so David's line reaches Him on both sides.
- Fulfilment — Micah named the village seven hundred years earlier. The census accomplished not man's count but God's prophecy.
- Cost — they reached Bethlehem poor and friendless, and no one gave them a home. Once the decree had served its hidden purpose, it lapsed as though it had never been.
And it came to pass, while they were there, the days of her giving birth [to her child] were fulfilled,
Joseph and Mary are far from home, in a crowded town, held there by a Roman registration. Then her time to give birth comes — and the verse turns on one question: whose timing is this?
The words "while they were there" put the birth in the one place prophecy had named. One commentator ties the whole arrangement — decree, journey, and due date — to a single hand.
The appointed time (Galatians 4:4) had come. According to prophecy the Saviour had to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). But Mary lived in Nazareth. God in His own marvellous way ordered everything. He directed Caesar Augustus to issue the decree of taxation at just such a time and in just such a way. He ordered the journey of Joseph and his promised wife Mary too, so that she had to be in Bethlehem when the time came for her to give birth.
Mary's days were fulfilled at Bethlehem. A much longer wait ended at the same moment, and God had let those centuries run on purpose.
"The fullness of time" is an important expression here. The Seed was spoken of in Eden, but God let some 4,000 years run their course before He sent Him forth. In this we may see the perfect wisdom of His ways. He would allow man to fully show his condition. He tried the creature in a variety of ways, under conscience and under law, sending prophets, and so on. But what was the result? Man proved himself in every way a creature beyond cure. Sin, wrongdoing and hostility were everywhere.
The census moved an empire. The thing that mattered was a birth no one noticed.
The emperor and his decree are only insignificant instruments. Caesar Augustus acts with his own subjects in view. Yet without knowing it, he is the means of fulfilling the prophecy that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. The entire course of the world runs outside the current of God's thoughts. The central fact for Him and for His kingdom here is the babe's birth at Bethlehem; but the emperor has no thought about it... Who cared to notice the poor Jew, though he might be of the house and lineage of David? The things that are perfectly indifferent to man fill the heart and eye of God.
The census that brought them there was never completed at the time. One writer sees God's care in that half-finished paperwork.
It was not carried out at the time proposed here. But it went far enough to call the parents of our Lord from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem. That accomplished not man's census, but God's prophecy. God took care that it should be fulfilled just enough to carry out His purposes.
The promise about Bethlehem was on record centuries before Caesar drew up his tax list.
If God is sovereign in His purposes, His sovereignty is no less displayed in His choice of instruments to fulfil them. More than seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Micah had said in the name of Jehovah: "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days."
Mary was poor, and no woman in her condition would have chosen that journey.
But we see God's hand in her movements. The Emperor in Italy was the instrument that made the Virgin leave her home for Bethlehem, and give birth to her child there... She was poor. In the normal course she would not have left Nazareth at such a time. They seem to have been friendless at Bethlehem too. The inn was crowded. No one offered them a home... The world did not want the presence of the One whose birth heaven would rejoice over.
What God did at Bethlehem, one writer says, He is still doing.
There seemed no likelihood that the Babe would be born at Bethlehem. But the Emperor commanded that everyone should go to his own town for the census. God arranged it in His providence to fulfil His word. So it is today. There is no movement in the world that God is not ruling directly, or overruling indirectly, for the gathering of His people.
- Timing. The birth came at "the fullness of time." God had let long centuries show what man is. Mary's days ran out on a clock far older than hers.
- Instrument. Caesar issued a tax decree for his own ends. He never knew he was serving prophecy. The emperor was the tool; the birth was the point.
- Precision. The census was only half carried through then. It went just far enough to move one poor couple to Bethlehem. That accomplished God's prophecy, not man's census.
- Place. Micah had named the town seven hundred years earlier. So God moved a woman of Nazareth there in time for the birth.
- Assurance. God moved an empire to place one mother in one village. No movement in the world today falls outside His ruling and overruling.
and she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him up in swaddling-clothes and laid him in the manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke tells the birth of Jesus in one plain sentence. There is no drama and no crowd — just a mother, strips of cloth, and a feeding trough. Commentators keep asking one question: why does the Spirit of God record the manger and the inn at all?
The missing room was no accident of timing. It shows the welcome the Son of God met on earth:
The Son of God is born in this world, but He finds no place there. The world is at home in the inn, or at least its resources find it a place there. The inn becomes a measure of man's place in the world, and of the welcome the world gives him. The Son of God finds no place at all, except the manger. Does the Holy Spirit record this detail for nothing? No. There is no room in this world for God, or for what is of God. That makes the love which brought Him down to earth all the more perfect. He began in a manger and ended on the cross, and in between He had nowhere to lay His head.
The inn ran on money. Space went to whoever could pay for it:
Luke always loves to present moral features. So it is very instructive for us that Jesus lay in the manger, not in the inn. The children of men found their place in the inn according to their means, as it suited them. Those who had money could command a place in proportion to what they were willing to pay. But the parents of the Lord were so poor that people at the inn utterly despised them. The only place where they could find shelter for the Babe was a manger. Yet this did not stop the outflow of divine grace, and only unbelief could deny the divine glory of the One laid there.
Every step down was chosen. God passed over the great cities, and then passed over the village inn too:
He ignored the imperial city of Rome. He passed by the royal city of Jerusalem and chose Bethlehem, though it was "little among the thousands of Judah." He also passed by the poor fare the village inn could supply, and chose the shelter of the ox's stall. There in Bethlehem's stable the One "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" was born and cradled in a manger.
The cloths matter as much as the manger. What the angels announced and what a visitor would see stand worlds apart:
Who would have thought of the Son of God coming to earth as a Man in the way He did? Look for the Son of the Highest whom the angels are celebrating, and what do you find? A "babe" — the weakest of beings. "Wrapped in swaddling cloths" — the badge of helplessness, worn by One who had clothed Himself with light as with a garment. "Lying in a manger" — in the company of the animals!
Luke's word here is precise. He uses a different word when he means an only child:
"First-born son," prototokos; but when Luke speaks of an only son he uses monogenes: Luke 7:12; Luke 8:42; Luke 9:38.
One writer draws a conclusion from it:
"Firstborn son" in Luke 2:7 proves that the perpetual virginity of Mary, and the worship of Mary in extreme ritual religion, are fictions.
The poverty at Bethlehem raises a question about what came before it:
He was rich and He became poor. A man in conversation with me denied the eternal deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He argued that Jesus began to exist in the manger at Bethlehem. My answer was this Scripture: He was rich, and He became poor. If what that man believed was true, then our Lord never was rich before He was poor, and the Scripture is a lie. There was none poorer than He on the day He was born in David's city. A manger was His cradle and a stable His shelter!
No one is too low to find Him there:
So the poorest child who has become aware of his sin may realise this: the Son of God has been younger than he is, and lower than he is. He brought all the might of Omnipotence into swaddling cloths, and all the wealth of God's matchless grace into a stable.
The closed door at Bethlehem has a way of repeating itself:
We live in a day when people seem to have less and less time for one another. Children, and unborn children, are often unwanted. Young people have trouble finding their place in society, and more and more elderly people live in hard circumstances. It reminds us of the words, "There was no place for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7). It should not be like that, yet even we as believers may show the same wrong attitude.
- No room — the inn measured people by their money, and His parents had none.
- Room refused — He passed by Rome, Jerusalem and the inn, and chose the stall; the manger was no accident.
- Room He left — He was rich before He was poor, so His life did not begin at Bethlehem.
- Room for the lowest — Omnipotence in swaddling cloths brings God within reach of the poorest child.
- Room to give — the road ran from manger to cross; the question is whether we still leave Him, and one another, outside.
And there were shepherds in that country abiding without, and keeping watch by night over their flock.
Outside Bethlehem, men on the night shift were watching their sheep. Heaven was about to hand them the greatest news it had. Why shepherds, and not priests, kings, or scholars?
The verse names no one. Their obscurity is part of the point. They were working men near the bottom of the social scale. Even in their own trade, they held the least prized job.
The story of the shepherds has become so well known through hymns and carols that we are perhaps in danger of missing its full meaning. Shepherds as a class were not held in much esteem in those days. These were the men who took night duty. They were unskilled compared with the men who cared for the sheep by day. To these extremely humble and unknown men the angels appeared. Heaven's secret about the arrival of the Saviour was disclosed to such nobodies as these!
The choice was not random. God looks for something in people, and it is not rank.
Compare this chapter with Matthew 2. There the scene is set among the great ones in Jerusalem — Herod the king, his courtiers, chief priests and scribes. They know nothing of this marvellous event for months afterwards. God shows no partiality, but He does have regard for humility and integrity of heart before Himself. So He passed by the important people in Jerusalem and sent a delegation of angelic beings to wait on a small group of despised night watchmen, so that they might be let into the secret of heaven's ways. These shepherds were a few of the godly remnant waiting for the Messiah, as their later words and actions show us.
God's care ran in the opposite direction from the world's.
Some poor men were faithfully carrying out their hard labours, far from the restless activity of an ambitious and sinful world. They receive the first news of the Lord's presence on earth. The God of Israel did not look for the great among His people, but had regard for the poor of the flock.
Notice what they were doing when heaven broke in: their job. That fits a pattern.
The men of Beth-shemesh were busy, and worthily so, harvesting their grain when the ark appeared. In the same way, the shepherds of Bethlehem were faithfully guarding their flocks by night when the rejoicing angels told them of the birth of the infant Saviour. "The devil visits idle men with his temptations; God visits industrious men with His favours," as Matthew Henry put it. Gideon was busy threshing wheat when the angel of the Lord appeared to him.
The job itself has a history in the Bible.
From earliest times the calling of the shepherd had been linked with faith. The thought of sacrifice stands out here, along with the tender care that reminds us of the true Shepherd of His sheep. Abel, Jacob and David were all shepherds and men of faith. These nameless shepherds here clearly belong to the same company. It is to such men that heaven will make known its wonderful secret… And it is fitting that this truth should be announced in the shepherds' ears, for only by sacrifice could it be made good.
There is a quiet mirror here. These men keep watch in the dark. So does God.
The angel does not choose distinguished rulers to hear his marvellous announcement. He chooses shepherds who kept watch over their flock in the night. This beautifully shows the grace of God. For He is the Shepherd of Israel who never slumbers nor sleeps, watching alone while the world is unaware.
"By night" is more than a time stamp. Israel was at its lowest point as a nation, and everything about that night was small.
Everything here is small, and the people are hidden, but God has come in. It is all behind the passing greatness of the world, which only carries it out. The empire displays its worldwide power, and this is what brings Jesus' birth to Bethlehem. Yet all the people involved are small and insignificant — Jesus, Mary, the shepherds. But nowhere in all the history of Israel do we find God so near as in this darkest time of the people. Blessed truth! Nowhere else does He share His grace so closely. It was hidden, yet deeper and truer, with more personal heart in it.
- Low ground. God passed by the capital and its leaders. He sent angels to unskilled night watchmen. Heaven's secret went to nobodies.
- Low season. The nation's darkest moment was the moment God came closest. He came near in hiding, not in public.
- Low estate. He had regard for "the poor of the flock," not for the great — grace choosing weakness on purpose.
- Low task. The news found them at their ordinary night work. God visits people who are busy at their work.
- Low trade. Shepherds stand in a line of believing men — Abel, Jacob, David. Their work points to sacrifice, and only by sacrifice could this truth be made good.
And lo, an angel of [the] Lord was there by them, and [the] glory of [the] Lord shone around them, and they feared [with] great fear.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I announce to you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people;
The night sky over Bethlehem opens, and heaven's first word to working men is not a command but a comfort. Why does the news of a Saviour begin by calming fear, and how far does its joy reach?
The order of the angel's words matters. He calms dread before he gives any news. One writer sees Christ's whole coming as the answer to that dread.
Has it struck the reader that the first thing said out of heaven to men after the birth of Christ was "Fear not"? Does it not suggest that His coming as a Baby was meant to remove all fear from our hearts? It was meant to remove all suspicion from us. It was meant to help us see that His attitude towards us, after our four thousand years of sin, was still friendly, loving, gracious. It is so hard for fallen man to believe anything but the lie that deceived him at the beginning. He cannot credit the living God he has sinned against with any kindly attitude towards him.
Another writer sees the same order at work in people today.
A sense of God's presence produces the true fear of God in the soul. At that very moment the gospel comes and takes the fear away. So at once the angel says, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy." Here is the gospel preached for the first time on the plains of Bethlehem.
The glory shining around the shepherds frightened them. What happens next in the chapter shows that the fear did not return.
The shepherds are filled with fear in the presence of the glory, but the angel says to them, "Fear not." A multitude of the heavenly host then appears in their sight, but they do not fear. Instead they go into the city with joy, repeat the news, and return with praise. It is very happy for us to know that the presence of the glory need not alarm us. Nature fears, but the voice that speaks from heaven makes the soul bold. So we learn that joy and praise, not fear, suit the presence of the glory.
The choice of audience is itself part of the message. God passed over the great of His people.
Some poor men were doing their hard work faithfully, far from the restless activity of an ambitious and sinful world. They receive the first news of the Lord's presence on earth. The God of Israel did not look for the great among His people, but had regard for the poor of the flock.
Older versions translate the last phrase "to all people." Commentators read it instead as "all the people," meaning Israel, and the ESV renders it that way too.
The great joy of the message centred on this: He had come as Saviour. They had had the Lawgiver and the prophets, but now the Saviour had arrived, and He was so great a person as Christ the Lord. This good news was for "all the people" — not "all people." For the moment a wider circle than all Israel is not in view.
Another writer treats Israel as the starting point, not the limit.
In the end Luke does proclaim the saving grace that goes out to all men. But he begins within the strict limits of Israel. He shows God faithful to His people, and willing to carry out all His promises if they would receive Jesus. But they would not. So God was morally right to turn from the Jews who despised Him to the Gentiles.
The angel promised "great joy." One writer presses that word against our habit of gloom.
Are we not too much afraid of joy? There is much to sadden in life: our failures as believers, the state of the world, the confusion of the church, the small number of believers, the vast crowds who are indifferent. We should feel all this deeply. Still the angel's words stand and proclaim "great joy to all the people."
- Fear removed — Heaven's first word after Christ's birth is "Fear not." It answers the suspicion fallen people carry about God's attitude towards them.
- Fear replaced — The shepherds trembled at the glory. Then they went into the city with joy and came back praising. Joy, not terror, suits God's presence.
- Joy given — The news brings joy because it announces a Saviour. It arrives just when a soul first feels the true fear of God.
- Joy delivered low — It comes to working men in a field, not to rulers; God had regard for the poor of the flock.
- Joy extended — The news came first to "all the people" of Israel. Luke goes on to proclaim the saving grace that goes out to all men.
for to-day a Saviour has been born to you in David's city, who is Christ [the] Lord.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And this is the sign to you ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
An angel had just told the shepherds that a Saviour was born. At once a great crowd from heaven stood beside him. Who are these beings? Why did the birth of a baby stir them? And why did they praise God rather than speak to the shepherds below?
The word "suddenly" marks a reaction. Heaven heard the news given to the shepherds. It answered at once, and held nothing back.
If men had not believed the news, angels had; if earth is indifferent, heaven is not. The heavenly hosts, so to speak, break all bounds. They join this angelic messenger who announced the glad fact... They never saw Him before. The heavenly hosts came trooping down to earth with deep joy. Heaven is full of ecstasy, and why? Because the unsolved riddle of four thousand years is now made clear. How is man to be saved?
Notice who they praised. The angel spoke to the shepherds. The host that followed him did not.
A multitude of the heavenly host gathered with the angel. The angel of the Lord addressed the shepherds. The angelic choir seemed not to notice them. It was completely absorbed in praising God. They could not keep silent, for glory to God, and blessing to men, would result from that child's birth.
The words point to heaven's own inhabitants, gathered in force. Not one of them is jealous of the grace shown to men on earth.
A multitude of this heavenly host greeted the divine Saviour's birth as man with delight and no jealousy. They praised God and said, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men. Here we see them as the native inhabitants of heaven, gathered as if for a festival, rejoicing in the results of grace for men on earth.
Luke says the host was "praising God and saying." He does not say they sang. One writer treats that word as deliberate.
Scripture never mentions singing except in connection with redemption. It never even says that angels sing... It is only therefore redeemed ones who can sing, and we learn from this the true character of Christian song. It should express the joy of salvation — the praise and gladness that knowing redemption produces in the soul.
The angels' next words, in verse 14, turn on a short phrase about God's attitude to men, quoted here in an older wording.
It is not exactly good will toward men, which is the point here. The word expresses God's good will and complacency in men... For the Son of God became, not an angel, but really a man, according to Hebrews 2. He did not take up the cause of angels, or concern Himself with it. It was men He took up.
The host celebrates outcomes that had not yet happened — glory secured, peace on earth. They never explain how. Everything rests on the identity of the child.
The means of this are not pointed out here. They are redemption, the destruction of Satan's power, the reconciliation of man by faith, and the reconciliation of all things in heaven and earth with God. Everything depended on the Person and presence of Him who was born. All was wrapped up in Him. The state of blessing was born in the birth of that child.
- Suddenly — one angel announced the birth, and heaven could not hold back. The host broke in at once. What left earth indifferent filled heaven with joy.
- Host — these are heaven's own inhabitants, gathered as if for a festival. They delight in a grace given to men, with no trace of jealousy.
- Praising — their words go upward, not to the shepherds. Scripture says they praised and said. It never says they sang, for song belongs to the redeemed.
- In men — their joy is that God's good pleasure settled on mankind. The proof is that the Son of God became a man, not an angel.
- In Him — the host announces the results, not the method. Redemption and reconciliation still lay ahead. Every blessing already lay in the Person of the child born that night.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men.
Luke moves from one angel speaking to shepherds to a whole army of heaven praising God over a baby in a feeding trough. Their song has three lines — glory above, peace below, God's pleasure in men — and each raises a question, not least why the earth is still not at peace.
One writer draws out how far "in the highest" reaches:
It would not be only "Glory to God below," but "in the highest" — through the whole universe of God, and above all in its highest places. Glory to God at last, everywhere. On earth there had been nothing but war against God, and among men confusion, misery, and rebellion. Now it is "on earth, peace." Nothing less than this would follow from the birth of the Messiah, though not all at once.
Another writer lists what Christ has done to bring God that glory:
It is important to see first of all that God is glorified. Sin has been dealt with. Sins have been dealt with. The cross has judged the prince of this world. Death itself has been conquered. These are only a few of the things Christ has done. Every promise of God is fulfilled in Him. Man has been recovered in reconciliation for God. All that God ever wanted for the delight of His heart of love is centred in the blessed Man in whose face the glory of God now shines.
The last line is where translations differ. One writer reads it not as good wishes sent toward people, but as God's delight in people — with the proof in what the Son became:
The point here is not exactly good will toward men. The word expresses God's good will and delight in men... For the Son of God became, not an angel, but truly a man, as Hebrews 2 says. He did not take up the cause of angels, or concern Himself with them. It was men He took up. But much more appears here: it is God's delight in man now that His Son has become a man.
The wording is disputed. The same writer notes the other reading, which matches the ESV's "among those with whom he is pleased":
Revisers, with the editors, adopt "peace to men of good pleasure."
Peace was announced at the manger. So why is the world still not at peace? One writer traces it to the rejection of the One who brought it:
The prophets said again and again that peace would mark the long-awaited kingdom. God presented the fulfilment of it to the nation in a Saviour, Christ the Lord, born to them in the city of David... But the One whose coming could have brought in peace was rejected. The peace He offered was taken from the earth, and can now only be celebrated as peace to be established in heaven. The fact was that He, in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell, had to lay the only possible ground for peace in such a world by the blood of His cross.
Another writer says plainly where the blame lies:
Sadly, peace on earth did not follow at once after this announcement, but man is to blame for this. God has offered peace to men from His heart, in the person of His Son. But they have refused His Son. The world cannot know peace until it receives the Prince of Peace. Such peace is certain, but it lies in the future.
The song is not left hanging for those who know the Person it celebrates:
We read in Colossians that the day is coming when God will reconcile all things to Himself, but we read further that believers are already reconciled. We have been brought into the good of this because we know the One who has brought glory to God in the highest. We know the One who will bring about peace on the earth: He is the Prince of Peace. And we know the One in whom God expresses His good pleasure toward men. Because we know this Person in our hearts, we have been brought into reconciliation.
- Person — the whole song hangs on one Man. Glory, peace and God's pleasure are all secured in Him.
- Glory — "in the highest" means everywhere, at last. God is glorified by all that Christ has done.
- Pleasure — the wording is disputed. One reading is God's delight in men, proved by the Son becoming a man and not an angel.
- Peace — offered at His birth, refused by men, and now celebrated as peace in heaven. The world will not know it until it receives the Prince of Peace.
- Possession — the earth still waits. Those who know this Person are already brought into reconciliation.
And it came to pass, as the angels departed from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, Let us make our way then now as far as Bethlehem, and let us see this thing that is come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.
The angels have gone back to heaven. The first response on earth to Christ's birth comes from a few shepherds on a hillside, and their short sentence holds the whole shape of faith: a word received, a journey made, a Saviour found.
Everything the shepherds do rests on the last clause of their sentence — the Lord had made this known to them. Commentators trace their understanding to that word from God, not to any reasoning of their own.
All understanding of the things of God comes from His revelation, and not from the reasonings of men. So the simple go further in spiritual understanding than the wise and clever of the earth. God acts here so as to set aside all appearance of human wisdom. This was the case with the shepherds. They hardly entered into the great purpose of the registration; but it was to them, and not to the prudent, that God revealed Himself.
Their journey was a response, not an investigation. One writer traces the steps:
The shepherds show the faith that marked them. They accepted at once the word that reached them through the angel, then their own eyes confirmed it, then they glorified and praised God.
The ESV reads "Let us go over to Bethlehem." Older translations add a small word: "Let us now go." One writer explains what that word does:
It fixes the mind on the noun or verb, pressing it home as the important point then in the mind… In Luke 2:15 it means then now.
Going at once meant leaving the sheep. One writer sets caution and faith against each other:
They are wise men, they are in earnest. There is a Saviour for them, and they have learned where they can find Him. Prudence might have said, "Don't be in a hurry, better wait till the morning, in case the wolves come and steal the sheep;" but faith said, "Let us go now."... What good would the sheep be if you missed finding the Saviour?
They did not go to test a rumour. They went to see something already true, and one writer draws out what followed:
They did not say, "Let us go … and see if this thing has happened," but "see this thing that has happened." They came with haste and saw the Babe with their own eyes; then they bore testimony to others. They could then say, "God has said it, and we have seen it" — the divine testimony backed by personal experience. Such testimony is bound to have effect.
The message skipped every centre of power and landed in a field. One writer names the principle behind that:
God shows no partiality, but He does look for humility and honesty of heart before Himself. So He passed by the important men in Jerusalem. He sent a delegation of angels to wait on a small group of despised night watchmen, so that they might be let into the secret of Heaven's ways. These shepherds were a few of the godly remnant waiting for the Messiah, as their later words and actions show us.
They were at their work when the news came. One writer says where blessing is found:
We cannot come into the simple joy and power of God until we accept the place of lowliness and humiliation — until the heart is emptied of what is contrary to the lowliness of Christ. These shepherds were quietly carrying out their humble duty; and that is the place of blessing.
The verse ends with a decision to go. What they did after seeing matters just as much:
So, in their simple way, they acted on what was made known to them, on the report of the angels; and when they had proved it true, they spread the news. In this they were anticipating the way of grace. News of such great goodness and joy could not be, and ought not to be, kept shut up in the hearts of those who first received it.
- Made known. They did not reason their way to Bethlehem. The Lord told them, and understanding of God's things comes by His revelation, not by human reasoning.
- Made haste. The word "now" presses the point home — prudence said wait for morning, faith said go tonight.
- Made sure. They went to see the thing that had happened, not to check whether it had. God had said it; their own eyes then confirmed it.
- Made low. God passed by the important men in Jerusalem. The news came to night watchmen at their humble duty — the place of blessing.
- Made public. News this good could not stay in the hearts that first received it. In telling it, they were anticipating the way of grace.
And they came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger;
The shepherds have just heard news from heaven, and this verse tells what they did with it: they went, and they found. Everything the angel promised was waiting in a stable — so why that sign, and why these men?
The shepherds had every practical reason to delay until daylight. One writer sets their decision against the voice of caution:
They are wise men, and they are in earnest. They are fully awakened sinners, deeply anxious and strongly moved by the news they have heard. There is a Saviour for them, and they have learnt where they can find Him. Let us go now, they say. Caution might have said, "Don't be in a hurry. Better wait till the morning, in case the wolves come and steal the sheep." But faith said, "Let us go now."
They travelled on a word alone, and the stable confirmed it detail for detail.
There was no unbelieving "if" with these shepherds. They did not say, "Let us go now, and see if this thing has happened." They said, "Let us go now, and see this thing that has happened." And they came to Bethlehem — not with the slow, dragging steps with which some sinners come to Jesus. "They went with haste." … They found exactly what God had told them through the angel: the Saviour as a baby lying in a manger.
Their praise rested on the message itself.
The shepherds' interest was in the message. … The shepherds praised God when they found, with thankful hearts, that He had carried out His word.
God promised this sign long before through a prophet, and it holds two opposites together in one scene.
This is the sign that God would give to His people, promised centuries before by the prophet's mouth — and what a sign! Here is infinite grace stooping to deepest poverty. The Creator became poorer than the lowest of all His creatures, so that He might bless all. Yet in that lowest place He was the Son of the Highest. As He lay in that setting of poverty, the multitude of the heavenly host could praise God and say, "Glory to God in the highest."
The sign was not only for that night:
God does not show such displays of glory to human eyes every day. But He sets them before us in His word, and every day we must follow the sign He gave — follow Jesus, the baby in the manger. If He filled the eye, the ear, the heart, how we would see the effects in person, spirit, conversation, dress, house, money, and so on.
The news went to working men on a hillside, not to rulers.
At this moment God was not concerned with the great of the earth. He was concerned with His poor and afflicted people, and these shepherds were among them. Only those whose hearts God has prepared can receive His messages. So we may be confident that these humble men were among those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
What they walked into matched their real need, and it did not put them off.
If we are guilty, we need a sacrifice. If we are in ruin, we need someone to repair us. If we have to be raised up, we need one who can and will stoop to our condition to lift us up. … This marks out the faith of the shepherds. The weakness and poverty they saw at Bethlehem did not offend them. … We must go to the blessed Lord in His humiliation before we can know Him in the way our own condition needs.
Luke records no conversation at the manger — a silence one writer reads as worship:
What a sight it was that greeted their eyes! They might not have grasped the full meaning of what they saw, or the glory of the Child. Still they saw Him, and no one can doubt that they looked with adoring hearts. Scripture records not a word of anything they or Mary or Joseph said. Is it because they were feasting their eyes upon the Saviour, Christ the Lord, as He lay there in the manger?
Once they had proved the message true, they could not hold it in.
So, in their simple way, they acted on what the angels told them. And when they had proved it true, they spread the news. In this they were anticipating the way of grace. News of such great goodness and joy could not stay, and ought not to stay, locked in the hearts of the first people who heard it.
- Heard. The angel's word was enough; the shepherds went without adding an "if" to it.
- Hastened. Caution said wait for morning and guard the sheep; faith said go now.
- Found. They found just what God had said — a baby in a manger — and praised Him for keeping His word.
- Stooped. The sign was grace reaching the lowest place. The Creator was poorer than His creatures, and the Son of the Highest lay in a feeding trough.
- Told. News this good could not stay with the first to hear it. They spread it — the way of grace, already beginning.
and having seen [it] they made known about the country the thing which had been said to them concerning this child.
The shepherds came in haste from the fields to Bethlehem and saw the child with their own eyes. Verse 17 records what they did next: they talked — and the question is who would listen to men like these.
They spoke only after they had gone and looked — and they went as men already sure.
The shepherds gave the response of faith. They did not say, "Let us go … and see if this thing has happened," but "see this thing that has happened." They came in haste and saw the baby with their own eyes. Then they told others what they had seen. They could then say, "God has said it, and we have seen it" — the divine testimony backed by personal experience. Testimony like that is bound to have an effect.
Ancient copies of Luke differ over one word here.
Editors read simply "made known," following one set of manuscripts. Others have "made known about the country."
Either way, the shepherds did not change the message. They passed on what they had heard.
They were so stirred in heart that they went at once to Bethlehem to see the thing which the Lord had made known to them. They saw, and spread far and wide the message they had been given about this child. They told it to everyone.
Nobody sent them out to preach. They spread the news anyway.
In their simple way they acted on what was made known to them — on the report of the angels. When they had proved its truth, they spread the news. In this they were anticipating the way of grace. News of such great goodness and joy could not be, and ought not to be, kept to the hearts of those who first received it. They made it known wherever they could.
This turns into a plain test for anyone who claims to have found the same Saviour.
When they had heard, found, and seen, they went and told everybody else. And what did they say? Not only that we have heard of the Saviour, but we have found the Saviour, we have seen Him. There was no hoping, or fearing, or doubting, or uncertainty. If you have found the Saviour, go and do the same. It is a sweet thing when the gospel gets into a man, and the best evidence that it has is this — he wants to tell others about it. He would like others to be as well off as himself. He cannot keep it in.
The first announcement of Christ's birth went out through men nobody would credit. People judge a message by the messenger.
Shepherds! Who would listen to them? They were poor, ignorant men, dreamers caught up in some wild delusion. If the priests and the scribes had carried the report there might have been some reason to hear it. But shepherds? Announcing a Saviour born that day, even Christ the Lord, and He lying in a manger! Impossible, incredible, and only to be ignored.
Commentators differ on how to read the response of those who listened. One takes the wonder of verse 18 as an honest, open reaction, since the shepherds had nothing to gain by lying.
They did not keep it to themselves. They reported what they had seen throughout the region. There would be no reason whatever for them to report such things if the report were not true. So the people who heard it were not skeptical, but wondered what all this meant.
Another reads the same wonder as a dead end — interest that never became faith.
No child had ever been born in such circumstances, or welcomed with such praise from angels. Yet nobody took any notice of what the shepherds said. The wonderful message the shepherds made known fell on dull and apathetic ears. The public effect was nil. No one seemed to care.
- Heard. The shepherds treated the angel's word as fact. They went to see what had happened, not whether it had happened.
- Saw. Their eyes confirmed their ears. Their witness joined God's testimony to their own experience: "God has said it, and we have seen it."
- Told. News this good could not stay with the few who first heard it. They made it known wherever they could, ahead of their time.
- Reached. They repeated the message and spread it far and wide, as men nobody wanted to hear.
- Response. Commentators differ about the hearers. One sees honest wonder at a report nobody had reason to fake. Another sees apathy, with no public effect at all.
And all who heard [it] wondered at the things said to them by the shepherds.
The shepherds have seen the child, and now they talk. Everyone who hears them is amazed — but what is amazement worth?
Shepherds carried the news of the Saviour's birth — not priests, not scribes. One writer imagines how their report sounded to respectable ears:
Shepherds! Who would listen to them! They were poor ignorant men, visionaries of some wild delusion. Had the priests and the scribes carried the report there might have been some reason in hearing it. But shepherds! They announced a Saviour born that day, Christ the Lord, and He too lying in a manger. Impossible, incredible, and only to be ignored.
Their report had a double strength. They repeated a message given to them, and they had gone and checked it with their own eyes.
To all this the shepherds gave the response of faith. They did not say, "Let us go … and see if this thing has happened," but "see this thing that has happened." They hurried and saw the baby with their own eyes. Then they told others. They could then say, "God has said it, and we have seen it." — the Divine testimony backed by personal experience. Such testimony is bound to have effect.
The shepherds had nothing to gain by telling it. That is why the hearers did not dismiss it:
They did not keep it to themselves, but reported what they had seen throughout the region. It is evident there would be no reason whatever for their reporting such things if the report were not true. Therefore the people who heard it were not skeptical, but wondered what all this meant.
They proved the message true before passing it on. That instinct, one writer says, was already the way grace works:
So, in their simple way, they acted on what the angels had reported to them. When they had proved it true, they spread the news. In this they were anticipating the way of grace. Those who first received news of such great goodness and joy could not keep it in their hearts — and ought not to. They made it known wherever they could.
Here the verse turns sober. Everyone was struck by the story. No one went to see for themselves.
The angels went back into heaven. The shepherds then went to Bethlehem to see the child. After that they spread the news of His birth. Their listeners wondered. They themselves glorified and praised God for all that they had heard and seen. Mary kept all those sayings, and pondered them in her heart. Heaven was stirred, but earth — how little it stirred! … Men wondered at what the shepherds told them, but which of them moved a step to see the child? How out of tune with heaven earth was! How little men cared about what so interested the angels!
Elsewhere, a writer looks at a crowd amazed by a miracle and asks what their wonder achieved:
The witness about the miracle created a sensation in the district, for we read that everyone marvelled. That is the way of man with things he can neither understand nor imitate. But such an emotion does not affect either the heart or the conscience.
The verse ends with a wondering crowd. Two better responses stand beside it: Mary kept the sayings, and the shepherds praised God. Praise begins when the Person Himself draws the heart.
The testimony given to the shepherds moved them towards the Person. If the truth of these things moves our hearts towards Christ, praising God will mark us too.
- Told. The first news of the Saviour came through shepherds, not priests or scribes. The respectable would have written such men off as deluded.
- Tested. They did not go to check if it had happened; they went to see what had happened, and then could say, "God has said it, and we have seen it."
- Spread. News of such great goodness and joy would not stay with those who first heard it. They carried it everywhere — already the way of grace.
- Wondered. The hearers were not skeptical, but they only wondered. Their wonder touched neither heart nor conscience. Not one of them moved a step to see the child.
- Worshipped. Wonder stalls. A heart drawn to Christ Himself does not. That is the difference between the crowd here and the shepherds who praised God.
But Mary kept all these things [in her mind], pondering [them] in her heart.
The shepherds had just told everyone what they saw and heard, and the whole town was talking. Mary did the opposite: she said nothing and stored it all up — so what was she holding, and why the silence?
Mary's response ran the other way. One writer explains what held her back:
They made it known wherever they could. "But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart." A deeper feeling, no doubt, was at work in her mind. The time had not come for spreading the gospel that was in store; the basis for it had not even been laid. But she must have been deeply interested in the wonders around her — she weighed it all, and treasured it all up in her heart.
Older translations read "kept" here, where the ESV has "treasured up."
Luke records no words from Mary here. One writer reads her silence as part of who she was:
Mary was a quiet, meditative, reflective soul. Chosen for such a mission, and with such a charge, it could scarcely be otherwise. With even the faintest sense of the character of her Child she must have been filled with awe in the presence of God, and speech would be almost out of place.
Keeping is not the same as understanding. One writer notes that Mary held these sayings while their meaning was still ahead of her:
Understanding is of the heart (Matt. 13:15). It was in her heart that Mary kept the deep sayings about the Christ, and in secret she kept pondering them so that she might eventually understand (Luke 2:19, 51).
Nobody else could see inside Mary's heart. One writer draws the natural conclusion about Luke's source, and points to a parallel:
Luke would have learned this from Mary herself. Compare Mark 14:72, "when he thought on it," which Mark would similarly have learned from Peter.
Everything in this chapter is small, and that smallness is the point:
Mary again is pondering things in her heart; so chapter 2:51. How everything is in littleness, and a hidden people, but God has come in. It all lies behind the passing greatness of the world, which only carries it out... But nowhere in all the history of Israel do we find God so near as in this darkest time for the people. Blessed truth! Nowhere are there such intimate communications of His grace — only it was in a hidden way, but a deeper and truer one, that is, with more of personal heart in it.
Others in the chapter missed it:
Men wondered at what the shepherds told them, but which of them moved a step to see the child?
One writer takes Mary as the pattern for meditation, and names what stops it:
Roving thoughts hinder meditation. In meditation the heart must fix on the object. Worldly Christians are like mercury, which can never be made to settle. Their thoughts rove up and down and will not fix, like a bird that hops from one branch to another and stays nowhere... In meditation there must be a settling of the thoughts upon the object: "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19).
Commenting on the same keeping in verse 51, one writer moves from Mary to every reader:
As she guarded these sayings and meditated on them, we may be sure that the Spirit of God gave her some perception of their meaning, to sustain, guide and comfort her in the years to come... But we recall again the Lord's reply to a woman who called out from the crowd, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" He answered, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" This blessedness is open to every one of God's people.
- Keep. Mary did not broadcast what she heard; she weighed it and stored it up, at a time when the gospel had not yet gone out.
- Keep without understanding. She held these sayings in secret because their meaning was still beyond her.
- Keep, and be told later. The Spirit gave her perception of those words in time, to sustain and comfort her through the years that followed.
- Keep in the small place. The people here count for nothing by the world's measure, yet nowhere in Israel's history does God come nearer.
- Keep — and anyone may. Pondering means holding your thoughts on one object, and the blessing of hearing God's word and keeping it belongs to every believer.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all things which they had heard and seen, as it had been said to them.
The shepherds' night ends where it began — back in the fields with their flocks. But they go back changed, with God's praise on their lips. What turned working men into worshippers? And why does Luke end the Bethlehem scene with their praise, not the angels'?
The last phrase of the verse ties their joy to something outside themselves. The angel had told them a sign, and they found it just so:
Faith was at work in those simple Israelites to whom the angel of the Lord was sent. They rejoiced in the blessing fulfilled before their eyes. That blessing confirmed the grace God had shown in announcing it to them. The words "as it had been told them" add their own testimony of grace to all that we enjoy through the lovingkindness of God.
Notice the order in the verse: heard, then seen. Their eyes did not create their faith; they confirmed it. What they said next had a quality of its own:
They did not say, "Let us go … and see if this thing has happened," but "see this thing that has happened." They came in haste and saw the Baby with their own eyes. Then they bore witness to others. They could then say, "God has said it, and we have seen it" — God's testimony backed by their own experience… As for the shepherds, they caught the spirit of the angels, glorifying and praising God. So on this great occasion there was praise on earth as well as praise in heaven. We venture to think that the praise of these humble men below had a note in it that was missing from the praise of God's mighty angels above.
The men doing the praising had no standing and no training:
Could we think of any position further from religious greatness than a few shepherds sitting in a field at night, keeping their sheep? No church official was with them, and no one to teach them religious phrases. Yet from those shepherds there came a song of glory and praise to God. They were ordinary people, as we are. But the angel's message about the greatness of Christ — "Christ the Lord" — had touched their hearts. That message moves them towards that glorious Person. Their hearts were so filled with what they saw in Him that they returned "glorifying and praising God."
God chose these hearers on purpose:
Some poor men were faithfully doing their hard work, far from the restless activity of an ambitious and sinful world. These men receive the first news of the Lord's presence on earth. The God of Israel did not look for the great among His people, but had regard to the poor of the flock.
Verse 17 has them speaking to people. Verse 20 has them speaking to God:
After confirming the news they had heard, the shepherds gave testimony towards people (verse 17), and responded towards God (verse 20). Is this not the normal effect on all who have truly grasped something of His glory? He was the One wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
They did not stay at the manger. They went back to the sheep, and took the praise with them:
As they returned to their work, the shepherds were full of praise to God. Their eyes had confirmed what their ears had heard.
Their praise joins a pattern running through this chapter. Simeon, who held the Baby in his arms, and the aged Anna answer God the same way:
Should not our own affections be fully in tune with those who in that day poured out their hearts' appreciation of God's Christ? "The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen." Simeon's heart overflowed. With the Baby in his arms he lifted up his voice in response to God — "My eyes have seen Your salvation." And the aged Anna "at that very moment gave thanks likewise to the Lord." Her heart responded first to God. Then, filled with appreciation of this glorious Christ, she had to go and speak of Him to all.
- Told — Their praise began with a message, not a mood. "As it had been told them" ties the verse to God's word keeping its promise.
- Seen — They went and found it just so. Now they could say, "God has said it, and we have seen it" — God's testimony backed by their own eyes.
- Chosen — God passed over the great and gave the first news to poor men at work. Ordinary people with no training produced a song of glory.
- Shared — Verse 17 sends them to people. Verse 20 sends them to God. Both flow from grasping who this Child is.
- Returned — They carried the praise back to the sheep. Like Simeon and Anna, they answered God first, then spoke of Him.