The Miraculous Sign of Christmas
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When my children were little, we had a family tradition of Reading the story of the birth of Jesus from Luke Chapter 2 on Christmas morning. As the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus is approaching, I was reading there again this week, and I had some thoughts that you might find compelling.
So, to begin I will take us to Luke chapter two, as I have done with my family. I’m reading here from the Passion Translation:
1-2 During those days, the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, ordered that the first census be taken throughout his empire. (Quirinius was the governor of Syria at that time.) 3 Everyone had to travel to the hometown of their family to complete the mandatory census. 4-5 So Joseph and his wife, Mary, left Nazareth, a village in Galilee, and journeyed to their hometown in Judea, to the village of Bethlehem, King David’s ancient home. They were required to register there, since they were both direct descendants of David. Mary was pregnant and nearly ready to give birth.
6-7 When they arrived in Bethlehem, Mary went into labor, and there she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped the newborn baby in strips of cloth, and Mary and Joseph laid him in a feeding trough since there was no available space in any upper room in the village.
So we have the familiar story that lays out the birth of Jesus, and his bed in a “Manger” which was a “Feeding Trough”, in a space used for the care of animals. Continuing in verse 8:
8 That night, in a field near Bethlehem, shepherds were watching over their flocks. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared in radiant splendor before them, lighting up the field with the blazing glory of God, and the shepherds were terrified! 10 But the angel reassured them, saying, “Don’t be afraid, for I have come to bring you good news, the most joyous news the world has ever heard! And it is for everyone everywhere! 11 For today in Bethlehem a rescuer was born for you. He is the Lord Yahweh, the Messiah. 12 You will recognize him by this miraculous sign: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in the feeding trough!”
13 Then all at once in the night sky, a vast number of glorious angels appeared, the very armies of heaven! And they all praised God, singing:
14 “Glory to God in the highest realms of heaven!
For there is peace and a good hope given to the sons of men.”
15 When the choir of angels disappeared and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go! Let’s hurry and find this Word who is born in Bethlehem and see for ourselves what the Lord has revealed to us.” 16 So they hurried off and found their way to Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in a feeding trough.
17 Upon seeing this miraculous sign, the shepherds recounted what had just happened. 18 Everyone who heard the shepherds’ story was astonished by what they were told.
So, when reading this passage this week I pondered this “miraculous sign” ….. What exactly was the sign, and why was it miraculous?
The first interpretation of what this sign was is consistent with something we find all through scripture: The Lord, or an angel, or a prophet foretells something that is going to happen, and then the prophesy comes true. So one interpretation of what this sign was is that the Angels told the shepherds that the messiah was born, and that they would find Him in a feeding trough….. And, low and behold, when they go to nearby places where animals are kept, here is this newborn, wrapped up in swaddling clothes, and bedded down in a manger, which is feeding trough. Now, this is indeed a sign, as what the angel foretold was found to be true.
But, WHAT IF WHERE the baby was found was the real sign?
There was near Bethlehem a watchtower, known as Migdal Eder, which means “ Watchtower of the Flock” According to Rabbinic tradition, this watchtower was used by the local shepherds in the care of the flocks outside Bethlehem, and that bottom floor was used as a place for birthing lambs. Other traditions point to this tower as to the place where lambs with a potential for use as the Passover lamb in nearby Jerusalem were inspected to see if they were indeed without any blemish or imperfection. The idea that a Manger in this Migdal Eder tower is THE manger where Jesus was laid has become very popular in recent years. Theologians writing in support of the traditional manger in a barn or cave in Bethlehem point out that there is no definite statement saying that THIS was Jesus birthplace.
I have always said that you that scripture itself is the only definitive source, and we must take any traditions or Rabbinical writings as potential additional points of information, but with “ a grain of salt” as it were.
Having said that, you can read all of the arguments for and against the Migdal Eder interpretation if you like. But it was this scripture that leads me to believe that Jesus was indeed born in the “Watchtower of the Flock”
Micah 4:8, reading from the New American Standard 1995 version:
As for you, tower of the flock,
Hill of the daughter of Zion,
To you it will come—
Even the former dominion will come,
The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
Brian Simmons, the translator of The Passion Translation, renders it this way:
“to you it [he] will come, your dominion [kingdom] from old will arrive.”
So the first appearance of the Kingdom will appear at Migdal Eder.
If so, where is the gospels did Jesus visit the watchtower of the flock…. There are no reference I know of that specifically mentions it. BUT for Micah 4:8 to be fulfilled, the Manger where the shepherds find Jesus would have to be a manger within the “Watchtower of the Flock”.
Additional evidence tying Micah 4:8 to the birth of Jesus is seen where only a sentence or two after Micah 4:8 we find Micah 5:2 which is specifically quoted in Matthew:
Matthew 2:1-6 NASB 1995:
1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: