EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2026
7:58 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Introduction to “Jesus’ Birth
in Bethlehem”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
2:1-7
Message of the verses: “1 Now
in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be
taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the
first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And
all the people were on their way to register for the census,
each to his own city. 4 Now Joseph also went up from
Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is
called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in
order to register along with Mary, who was betrothed to him, and was
pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for
her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her
firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger,
because there was no [g]room for them in the inn.” (NASB 2:1-7)
In this evening’s SD I will quote
the introduction to these verses as seen in John MacArthur’s commentary. Just a note it was the 9th of February
that I began my study on the gospel of Luke.
“Luke’s simple, straightforward,
unembellished language describes the most profound birth, with the most
far-reaching implications, in the history of the world. On a night like any other night, in an
obscure village in Israel, unnoticed by the world, a child was born. But while His birth was like that of every
other child, the child was unlike any other child ever born, either before or
since. For this child was the Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, deity in human flesh, Israel’s long-awaited
Messiah, the Savior of the world. In His
birth God entered human society as an infant; the creator of the universe
became a man; the eternal “Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John
1:14).
This chapter, which provides the
most detailed look at the events of the first Christmas, is perhaps the most
widely known chapter in the Bible. Its
familiar story has inspired music, cards, books, and pageants over the
centuries. But the world celebrates the
birth of Jesus Christ of all the wrong reasons.
Christmas has become an excuse for self-indulgence, materialism, and
partying; it has degenerated into a secularized social event that misses
entirely its true meaning.”
Now let me give my two cents worth
here. No one actually knows exactly what
was the date that Jesus Christ was born.
We know where He was born, and I will give an account of this event
later after I finish what I have to say here.
Now in the last SD’s that I finished this morning we learned some things
about the catholic “religion” and you can refer to that by looking at the last
couple of SD’s. I have mentioned that I
have a great deal of trouble with the holidays of Christmas and Easter in past’s
SE’s, and I think with good reason as Easter to me is a heathen holiday, along
with the Easter eggs that are apart of it, and the way that they are seen in
the Old Testament was a part of heathen practices. Now I will attempt to find what I have copy
and pasted about where Jesus was actually born.
12/25/2020 10:41 AM As I was having a little
trouble sleeping last night I was thinking about this SD that I was going to
put onto my blog and also my FB story. What I was thinking about was
as one reads the story in the Bible about the birth of Jesus, perhaps they
think that because of the reason that Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem that
all of the inns were filled and so they had to find a farmer who had a barn and
that is where Jesus was born. I truly believe that the place where
Jesus was born was certainly in the plan of God; for God was in control of all
that His Son would be doing while on planet earth. Why would not the
Messiah who is later called “our
Passover” and also we read the following in two places in the gospel of
John “Joh 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus
coming to him and said, "Behold,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world! Joh 1:36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and
said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" It
was no accident of Jesus being born in Bethlehem as the OT says he would be
born there and so why would not the “Lamb of God” who is our “Passover” be born
in the cave where the Passover Lambs were born? 12/25/2020 10:49 AM
I, Jacob Howard, wrote Dr. Charlie Dyer, who is the speaker
on the Land and the Book Radio, a question about
Midgal-Eder, mentioned in Micah 4:8. This was Dr. Dyer’s response.
Jacob,
Thank you for your e-mail, and thanks as well for your kind
words! Denny and I both appreciate the privilege God has given us to serve Him
in this way. You have encouraged us both!
As far as Midgal Eder is concerned, there is no
universal identification of the site. But I do believe it was a real site. The
best thing I’ve read on the subject is from Alfred Edersheim’s The Life and
Times of Jesus the Messiah. (You can find his complete work online at Google
Books.) I’ll include his quotation here, and then I’ll follow it with a few
observations. (I’ll also highlight the key point he makes in the quote.)
But as we pass from the sacred gloom of the cave [i.e., he
was just talking about the birth of Jesus in a cave] out into the night, its
sky all aglow with starry brightness, its loneliness is peopled, and its
silence made vocal from heaven. There is nothing now to conceal, but much to
reveal, though the manner of it would seem strangely incongruous to Jewish
thinking. And yet Jewish tradition may here prove both illustrative and
helpful. That the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, was a settled conviction.
Equally so was the belief, that He was to be revealed from Midgal Eder,
“the tower of the flock.” This Midgal Eder was not the watchtower for
the ordinary flocks which pastured on the barren sheep ground beyond
Bethlehem, but lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem. A passage in
the Mishnah leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there,
were destined for Temple-sacrifices, and, accordingly, that the shepherds, who
watched over them, were not ordinary shepherds. The latter were under the ban
of Rabbinism, on account of their necessary isolation from religious
ordinances, and their manner of life, which rendered strict legal observance
unlikely, if not absolutely impossible. The same Mishnaic passage also leads us
to infer, that these flocks lay out all the year round, since they are spoken
of as in the fields thirty days before the Passover—that is, in the month of
February, when in Palestine the average rainfall is nearly greatest. Thus,
Jewish tradition in some dim manner apprehended the first revelation of the
Messiah from that Migdal Eder, where shepherds watched the Temple-flocks
all the year round. Of the deep symbolic significance of such a coincidence, it
is needless to speak.
—Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,
pp. 186-87
If Edersheim is correct (and I believe he is), the
location for Midgal Eder would be north of Bethlehem and near the old
road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. (That road is the old “Hebron road” one
drives on between Jerusalem and Bethlehem today!) I believe this puts the
location somewhere between the Jewish kibbutz of Ramat Rachel and
Bethlehem, probably just to the west of Har Homa. There used to be an
actual sheepfold in this area where I would take our groups but, sadly, it has
been covered over by the modern road that now goes to Har Homa.
A key point here. Edersheim indicates that Migdal Eder
was an actual spot, but he is not saying it was a town or village. Rather, the
name means “watchtower of the flock” which seems to identify it as a specific
pasture area for sheep. And the sheep that grazed here were those specifically
destined for Temple sacrifice. In that sense the shepherds keeping watch over
the temple sacrifices were the ones to whom God announced the birth of the
ultimate “sacrificial lamb.”
I’m attaching a screen shot from Google Earth that might be
of help in identifying the location for Midgal Eder. Note that
Ramat Rachel is at the top of the picture and Bethlehem is at the bottom.
The road running along the left side of the picture is the old Hebron Road, and
Homat Shemu’el/Har Homa is just to the right of center in the
picture. Based on Edersheim’s description, I would place
Migdal Eder almost in the center of the picture…north of Bethlehem,
just to the west of Har Homa, and east of the road from Bethlehem to
Jerusalem. Since the word means “tower of the flock” it is likely a high spot
in this area where sheep would graze. The hills right around (or right at)
Har Homa are probably the best possible location.
I hope this is helpful!
Charlie
3/28/2026 8:31 PM
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