I was deeply disturbed when our tour group visited modern-day Bethlehem. Scripture tells us Bethlehem was the birthplace of Jesus, the Messiah, prophesied in Micah 5:2 sometime between 750 B.C. and 686 B.C. (700 years before Jesus’ birth): “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

Kathie Lee Gifford Book

Today, the city of Bethlehem is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and it feels — as my daughter, Cassidy, described it — “darkly oppressive.” There are military checkpoints as you enter and exit. It hardly feels joyful or anything like the way the shepherds would have experienced it two millennia ago, as a place of great rejoicing at the Savior’s birth.

Come . . . to Bethlehem!

The significance of Bethlehem. Shortly after the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds guarding their sheep at night and announced to them, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). And the sign given to them was that they would find “a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (v. 12).

Of all the possible signs that could have been given to these shepherds, why did the Lord choose a baby lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes?

Why was this so significant?

To answer this question, we need to dig deeper and explore the Jewish context in which the New Testament was written. Good students of the Bible are like detectives who ask lots of questions of the text.

The first question we need to ask is: Who are these shepherds? Is there anything unique about them?

Taken from “The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi” by Kathie Lee Gifford, Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, www.thomasnelson.com. Go to Kathie Lee Gifford’s website for a sneak peek of the first chapter of “The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi.” Gifford is the three-time Emmy-winning co-host of the fourth hour of the “Today” show, alongside Hoda Kotb. The Gifford-Kotb hour has been hailed as “appointment television” by Entertainment Weekly and “‘Today’s’ happy hour” by USA Today. Gifford has authored three New York Times best-selling books, including “Just When I Thought I’d Dropped My Last Egg” and “I Can’t Believe I Said That.”

Kathie Lee Gifford in Israel