Who of us hasn’t smiled, cheered, and shed a little tear to watch precious children in their bathrobes with towels on their heads, telling the traditional Christmas story? The scene is usually replete with angels, donkeys, and cattle.

As adults, the day after Thanksgiving begins daily devotions, new music, and sermons about the “real Christmas.” After one of these church plays recently, I began to wonder if there was more background story that is never examined. 

After doing a little research, I found that the story of the birth of Christ is even more rich and miraculous than I first thought. Some things we have been used to seeing and hearing about the birth of Christ are never found in the Biblical narrative!

What I found was just fascinating and I offer it as my Christmas gift to you. 

Bethlehem Ephrathah
Micah 5:2 As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah—from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, one whose origins are in the distant past.

Amazingly there were two different Bethlehems in ancient Israel. Bethlehem of Galilee is in the north country, near Nazareth, while the other, Bethlehem of Judea, is much further south, near Jerusalem. The smaller of the two, Bethlehem Ephrathah is the one referred to in Micah 5:2; the one in Judea. 

This Bethlehem also just happens to be the ancestral home of David and the place where Jesus was born. Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Micah differentiated between the two Bethlehems. Not only were there two Bethlehems, but both David and Jesus were born in the same one lending strong evidence for the inspiration of the Bible.

Shepherds
Luke 2:8 Now there were shepherds nearby living out in the field.

Ordinary flocks of sheep were kept out in the wilderness. According to the Mishnah (a collection of documents recording oral traditions governing the lives of Jewish people during the period of the Pharisees,) it “expressly forbids the keeping of flocks throughout the land of Israel, except in the wildernesses—and the only flocks otherwise kept, would be those for the Temple-services.”

Shepherd’s Field was located at the outskirts of Bethlehem. Neither Jerusalem, Bethlehem, nor the surrounding fields were in wilderness areas. 

The shepherds we read about in Luke were actually fulfilling Temple duties, in service to the Temple priests!  Every firstborn male lamb from the area around Bethlehem was considered holy, set aside for sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple. Generations of hereditary shepherds tended the sacred flocks.  

These shepherds were watching sheep that eventually would be offered as sacrifices in Jerusalem’s Temple. The shepherds in the surrounding fields of Bethlehem had the special task of breeding the lambs that were selected for Temple sacrifice in nearby Jerusalem. Only the choicest of lambs was offered.  

After the lamb was born without spot or blemish (as the Scripture required a perfect lamb; no blemishes, broken legs or injuries,) it was wrapped in swaddling cloths. This kept the newborn lamb from being trampled and kept it safe until it had calmed down. It was then laid in a manger.

This was not the typical manger we see depicted at this season, a wooden structure filled with straw or hay. No, since limestone is plentiful in Israel, it was a water trough probably cut from limestone and hollowed out.

A consecrated one of these limestone “mangers” was very likely where Jesus, the “Lamb of God”. was placed at birth. More about this later.

 Keeping Watch
Luke 2:8 keeping guard over their flock at night

The “Migdal Edar” or Tower of the Flock watch tower from ancient times was used by the shepherds for protection from their enemies and wild beasts. It was the place ewes were brought to give birth to the lambs. 

For protection, in this sheltered building/cave the shepherds would bring in the ewes which were about to give birth. 

This was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks that pastured on the desolate sheep ground beyond Bethlehem, but it lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem according to a passage from the Mishnah (Shekelim 7:4) and was constructed as a place for watching over the sheep.

It was the job of a specific shepherd in service to the priests to stay in the Migdar Edar all night. With the tower being so tall, that shepherd and the rest of the shepherds on the ground were “watching their flock by night” 

On the ground floor, a room was designated for the delivery and protection of these special lambs. Here they kept the sacred little lambs, with a holy purpose, in a stone manger that was kept ceremonially clean.

Typically, Migdal Edar (the Tower of the Flock) at Bethlehem was the perfect place for Christ to be born. It appears He was born in the very birthplace where tens of thousands of lambs that preshadowed Him had also been born. They had been sacrificed as God promised it, pictured it and performed it at Migdal Edar.

Surprisingly all our Christmas carols, dramas and cards that portray Jesus’ birth in a stable portray something that is never found in Scripture! There is no mention of a stable in the Bible!

Swaddling Clothes
Luke 2:12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths

These weren’t ordinary cloths. They weren’t rags Mary and Joseph brought from home or happened to find in a stable. No, they were the same cloths used by the shepherds — to keep the lambs clean and free of blemishes as the lambs were prepared for the sacrifice. 

Some scholars say these cloths were torn pieces of priestly robes. This is yet another proof that Jesus was not born in a stable. These cloths were apparently readily available in the Migdal Edar but would never be found in an ordinary stable.

As I researched these cloths, a thought formed in my mind. Could this Baby Who was wrapped in cloths and laid in a stone manger, be a foreshadow of this His death when He was wrapped in cloths and laid on a stone shelf inside a burial cave?

Lying in a Manger
Luke 2:12 lying in a manger

The Migdal Edar or Tower of the Flock was on the outskirts of Bethlehem and overlooked the fields in which the Levitical shepherds kept their flocks for the Temple. When a sheep was about to give birth, it was taken to the tower. 

It all fits together, for that’s the place where sacrificial lambs were born! Jesus was not born behind an inn, in a smelly stable where the donkeys of travelers and other animals were kept. He was born in Bethlehem, at the birthing place of the sacrificial lambs that were offered in the Temple in Jerusalem which Micah 4:8 calls the “Tower of the Flock.” 

It’s quite possible that the very stable that became the birthing suite of Jesus was also the birthplace of countless sacrificial lambs before him!

I can’t imagine how the shepherds felt when the angel of the Lord directed the shepherds to the very place where the sacrificial baby lambs laid. But to their shock and joy, instead of a baby lamb they saw a baby boy wrapped in the lamb’s swaddling clothes lying in the stone manger!

Doesn’t this shed new light on “there was no room for them in the inn?” That was by God’s design!

Wise Men
Matt. 2:1-2  Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

Many scholars today believe these wise men’s quest to find the Christ child was a result of the prophet Daniel’s teachings over 500 years before this event. Daniel was the chief prophet in Babylon (Dan. 2:48) Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar elevated God’s servant Daniel to the ranks of the great in Babylon. 

He made Daniel a ruler and an official of great power over his kingdom. This promotion made Daniel the chief or lord over all the other wise men (magi) of Babylon. He could have passed along to the magi the need to watch for strange tidings in Judea around this time.

Isn’t it interesting that the Magi traveled approximately 500 miles from Babylon to Jerusalem to ask about the King of the Jews. Who did they ask? The Jews! And the Jews immediately knew were He was to be born. Why weren’t they looking for the Child?

Matt. 2:9-11 When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

While we do not know how many wise men set out to find the Christ child, we see that they found him in a house, not the Migdal Edar. Scholars believe Jesus was between 9-24 months when they arrived.

So, at Christmas time, while our church/school plays about the nativity touch us emotionally, they are not always the way it really was! The real history is even richer!

Enjoy “While You Were Sleeping,” one of my all time favorite Christmas songs by Casting Crowns. 

MAY WE GIVE GLORY TO GOD FOR HIS INDESCRIBABLE GIFT! HE IS EMMANUEL. GOD WITH US!