HOPE OF ALL THE EARTH
And They Were Terrified
December 4, 2025
SCRIPTURE
LUKE 2:8-9
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.
LUKE 2:8-9
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.
We often have a tendency to romanticise certain things. Nature is peaceful and serene and beautiful—until we have to spend a night in a tent in the middle of nowhere. Then every noise becomes a monster and every pebble under the pillow becomes a razor-sharp boulder.
So it is with shepherds in the Bible. We can easily imagine these folks to be the salt of the earth-humble farmers looking after their flocks, at one with nature and one another and the world around them. Yet Scripture hints that this perspective is not always shared by characters in the salvation story.
Even the future king David was treated with nothing but scorn by his own family. His father seemed to forget he even existed because he was always off looking after what his brother later called "those few sheep" (see 1 Samuel 17:28). The truth is, Jewish shepherds commanded little respect from their community. Not good enough to follow a rabbi, their work with flocks and herds meant these high school dropouts were unable to maintain the strict ritual cleanliness laws demanded by the religious leaders. By every estimation, shepherds were amongst the last people God could be expected to visit with such incredible news. For God to entrust those people with a revelation like this would've been unimaginable. Shepherds had no position or power or status; no way of being good enough or doing well enough; they were quietly despised by their peers and openly rejected by the religious establishment. They had no qualifications, no spiritual status, no hope. They were perpetually left out and left behind.
Yet God chose to send a choir of angels to these people to bring a message of universe-shaking, life-transforming, shepherd-saving hope. They were the very first to learn that Messiah had been born, that light had dawned, that hope had come at last. And it was a hope that included even them. Today, too, it's a hope that doesn't exclude, doesn't set entry requirements, doesn't have a minimum standard for behaviour or education or finances or anything else we could imagine. Jesus Christ offers hope to every single person, regardless of who they are or what they've done or where they've been. And this hope transforms those who receive it.
The shepherds didn't simply return to their work with the flocks as if nothing had happened. Instead, they "spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child" (Luke 2:17), and they went around "glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen" (Luke 2:20). These shepherds became the very first gospel missionaries, telling anyone who would listen about the new hope that had been given to them and to the entire world.
The hope that Christ brings reaches even us. However unlikely it may seem, however undeserving we may be, it reaches us right where we are, even if we're sitting on a hill watching sheep. The hope of the gospel includes all of us, and it transforms all of us.
So it is with shepherds in the Bible. We can easily imagine these folks to be the salt of the earth-humble farmers looking after their flocks, at one with nature and one another and the world around them. Yet Scripture hints that this perspective is not always shared by characters in the salvation story.
Even the future king David was treated with nothing but scorn by his own family. His father seemed to forget he even existed because he was always off looking after what his brother later called "those few sheep" (see 1 Samuel 17:28). The truth is, Jewish shepherds commanded little respect from their community. Not good enough to follow a rabbi, their work with flocks and herds meant these high school dropouts were unable to maintain the strict ritual cleanliness laws demanded by the religious leaders. By every estimation, shepherds were amongst the last people God could be expected to visit with such incredible news. For God to entrust those people with a revelation like this would've been unimaginable. Shepherds had no position or power or status; no way of being good enough or doing well enough; they were quietly despised by their peers and openly rejected by the religious establishment. They had no qualifications, no spiritual status, no hope. They were perpetually left out and left behind.
Yet God chose to send a choir of angels to these people to bring a message of universe-shaking, life-transforming, shepherd-saving hope. They were the very first to learn that Messiah had been born, that light had dawned, that hope had come at last. And it was a hope that included even them. Today, too, it's a hope that doesn't exclude, doesn't set entry requirements, doesn't have a minimum standard for behaviour or education or finances or anything else we could imagine. Jesus Christ offers hope to every single person, regardless of who they are or what they've done or where they've been. And this hope transforms those who receive it.
The shepherds didn't simply return to their work with the flocks as if nothing had happened. Instead, they "spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child" (Luke 2:17), and they went around "glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen" (Luke 2:20). These shepherds became the very first gospel missionaries, telling anyone who would listen about the new hope that had been given to them and to the entire world.
The hope that Christ brings reaches even us. However unlikely it may seem, however undeserving we may be, it reaches us right where we are, even if we're sitting on a hill watching sheep. The hope of the gospel includes all of us, and it transforms all of us.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION
Who are the ancient shepherds of our world today--those who might be entrusted with the message of Jesus but whom the rest of society might view as outcasts or unimportant or nuisances?
What does God's choice of messenger tell us about what God expects of us?
Who are the ancient shepherds of our world today--those who might be entrusted with the message of Jesus but whom the rest of society might view as outcasts or unimportant or nuisances?
What does God's choice of messenger tell us about what God expects of us?
PRAYER
Write a prayer of confession and repentance for the times when you ignored a message from God because of the "packaging" it came wrapped in.
Write a prayer of confession and repentance for the times when you ignored a message from God because of the "packaging" it came wrapped in.