The Rock The Road and The Rabbi — By Kathie Lee Gifford; with Rabbi Jason Sobel —
Bible Study Review | Pt 1 Bethlehem
I’m participating in a six week Bible study titled the Rock, the Road, and the Rabi — By Kathie Lee Gifford; with Rabbi Jason Sobel — . The tagline of the study guide appropriately says, “ Come to the land where it all began.”
The Rock is Jesus — The Road is the Holy Land — and the Rabbi is the word of God.
The need to remember that during Jesus’ time, the Bible had been written for Middle Easterners by Middle Easterners is essential. It is sometimes complicated to understand with our western mindset.
The Old Testament was written in ancient Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in ancient — current — Greek.
During Jesus’ time, what we believe, is that he had been born in a stable, was actually a cave in shepherds fields. These shepherds weren’t just any shepherds — they were Levitical shepherds.
Shepherds still use caves today, not stables as our Western minds believe. Levitical shepherds were in charge of tending the sacrificial lambs used to be sin offerings.
We know that shortly after Jesus’ birth, an angel of the Lord appeared to these shepherds and announced
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:8–14 NIV)
Of all the signs that could have been given to them, why these two? What significance could these signs have meant?
Let’s see
When it was time for the sheep to give birth, the shepherds would bring them into one of the caves surrounding Bethlehem to give birth. These birthing caves were kept in a state of ritual purity since the lambs were to be pure sin offerings. And many of the male lambs were used for Passover.
Since there was no room at the local inn, Mary and Joseph used one of these caves around Bethlehem.
Connections
Back to the shepherds. So the significance here is that in order to protect the clumsy lambs, they were wrapped in swaddling cloths. They would find Jesus in a manger — in one of these caves — wrapped in swaddling cloths. This kept the lambs pure and free of blemish.
This points to Jesus as the future sacrifice of the lamb of God. He who knew no sin to be a sin offering of the world and bring a new covenant.
Jesus came to make this covenant with us. Accordingly, he was infinitely committed to us that he chose to die for us to make this covenant
But wait! There’s more…..
Photo by Shuttergames on Unsplash
