Lying in a Manger

When the angel told the shepherds their Savior was born in the city of David, how did they know where to go? Would you have gone to Jerusalem or Bethlehem? Both are called the city of David. Surely, the angels gestured in the right direction, but maybe the shepherds associated King David with a shepherd boy of Bethlehem watching his sheep on the same hills. We know they reached the right town when looking for the Savior of the world.

The second sign they were given was finding the Babe lying in a manger. A manger is a feeding trough for animals. Most often, indentions were carved into stones to hold animal feed. Baby Jesus was found lying on a stone slab (in a stable) at birth—a sign foreshadowing the way He would be laid on a stone slab (in a cave) at His death.

The shepherds did not wait for morning. Surely, they breathlessly ran house to house, pounding on doors, waking up the town, asking if a baby had been born that night and if the stable manger was being used for a cradle, thus spreading the news of the Savior’s birth. If I had been a shepherd that night, I probably would have protested.

“Excuse me, glorious angel, did you just say that a Savior, the promised Messiah, has arrived without pomp and circumstance in what is considered the lowliest, humblest, perhaps dirtiest—certainly the smelliest—place possible and is lying where His creatures come to feed? You say they are invited to freely eat His body and drink His blood? This is good news? To me, this sounds as if He is lying as a lamb waiting for slaughter. This is not my idea of a conquering Messiah!” The stone manger was a sign these shepherds understood; lambs were fed at mangers. Some of these lambs later became Passover meals. Did they recognize Baby Jesus as the Lamb of God who would later say at His last Passover supper, “Take, eat; this is My body” (Mark 14:22, NKJV)? When I accept Jesus as my Passover Lamb, He becomes my Deliverer.

He leads my exodus from the darkness and tyranny of sin.

He provides wilderness bread for me to eat at His manger.

That stone slab symbolizes the Rock of my salvation, my strength, my strong tower, my refuge, and my fortress. “Blessed be my Rock!” (Psalm 18:46, NKJV).

Rebecca Turner