Make Haste
The shepherds heard from the Lord through angels, and then they desired to see the fulfillment of prophecy with their own eyes, so the Bible tells us that they “went with haste” to find Jesus. These words strike me for a couple of reasons.
First, the Lord told the shepherds that the Savior had been born and that the sign of His coming was “you will wind a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:11) What? God is coming to earth and He will be wrapped up in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding trough for animals? That seems rather odd. The sign is not to look for a palace and a king in a beautiful robe? The sign of the redeeming work of the all-powerful God through His Son is a tiny baby in a stable?
Second, after receiving this supernatural word from angelic sources, the shepherds head off to find a baby in a feeding trough in the City of David with haste! The sign is nothing glorious or earth-shaking. The sign is disguised in humble circumstances. The sign is not something most of the world would value and go after. Nonetheless, the shepherds felt compelled to move with unction to find what God had promised, even if it did not seem outwardly glorious. The shepherds knew this plan and this sign were from God, and so they sought the Savior with an earnestness. No dilly-dallying or half-hearted seeking.
My friend, we, too, have received supernatural communication from God. The Bible. The Lord implores us to look for Jesus in the ordinary stuff of this broken world. It may not seem glamorous, and we may often think, “Is He really HERE?” Can I find and have the Savior of the world? Yes. Yes, you surely can. Jesus is still working – by His Holy Spirit – in this world, so broken and mundane as it can be.
Hasten to find Him. Look in His Word. Pray in His name. Seek His face through time with Him.
And not only that. Let the shepherds be an example for us in the era in which we live. The Lord has told each one of His followers that we ought to be “waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,” because “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:12, 13)
I know it does not appear that Jesus is going to break through the sky at any time and make the world new. But He is! He is working in the dailiness of living. He is working toward this end, as we seek Him and proclaim His Gospel to the world. Through our passion for Him and yielding to Him in the work of the Gospel, we are hastening the day of His return!
Let the shepherds be for us an example of how a heart for the Lord really looks and acts. Receive the truth of Jesus, and then earnestly run toward Him and His grand plan for the universe!
– Shelli Prindle
“When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:15-16)