Simply teaching the Bible, simply

This concluding part of our mini-series on the Hidden Treasures of Christmas was recoded on the 12th December 2021. We have seen the reason Bethlehem was chosen (500 yrs beforehand) was because it was the town of sacrificial lambs – born in Bethlehem, offered in Jerusalem. The reason the shepherds were chosen was because their job was to inspect the lambs destined for sacrifice – the lambs had to be ‘without spot or blemish’. But how could God ensure Jesus was born in Bethlehem? By engineering the circumstances, by means of the Roman census, to have Mary and Joseph travel to their family town. But God had not only stated the town in which the Messiah was to be born, He had also stated, also through the prophet Micah, the exact location… “And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:8). The ‘tower of the flock’ was none other than ‘Migdal Edar’, a lambing / lookout tower right on the outskirts of Bethlehem. It is where Bethlehem’s shepherds would bring their sheep to give birth to the lambs intended for sacrifice in Jerusalem. These shepherds would wrap their newborn lamb’s in ‘swaddling bands’, made from the old robes of the priests , to prevent them from being injured in any way. They would them be laid in ‘the manger’ a hewn out rock inside the base of the tower.