NATIVITY By Mike Herron

replaced by great joy. The use of the word good news, evangelaion, assures them that this is not a terrifying angelic judgment but a heavenly message of salvation to all the people of the earth. This announcement at his birth signaled the dismantling of racial and social barriers among all of humanity. The angel identifies that the child will be found in the town of David. This was essential to fulfilling the prophecies about the Messiah’s birthplace. The angel does not tell the shepherds the baby’s name but reveals a trinity of titles. He is Savior ; previously reserved for Yahweh alone but now transferred to His Son Jesus. He is Mashiach or Messiah , meaning Christ the Anointed One; and lastly He is Lord, in Greek Kurios for divine Lord . ‘ This combination occurs nowhere else in the N. T…Luke is very fond of Kurios (Lord) where the other Gospels have Jesus.’ 4 Jesus is truly Lord at His birth. The angel gives the shepherds the double sign of both the manger and the baby wrapped in strips of cloth to assure them of finding the exact child. 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” In a second, more spectacular instantaneous flash there was a great number of angel armies praising God in a doxology known as the ‘ Gloria in Excelsis,’ ‘ Glory in the Highest.’ These immaterial spirits of immense power and intelligence have accompanied the Son of God since their creation. Perhaps the mighty Cherubim, the four Seraphim of Isaiah, the four Living Creatures described in Revelation and Michael and his legions of angelic armies now burst upon the night sky with their song of celebration in homage to their Creator-King. As a baby he is in the humblest human condition but is further immobilized