Advent- December 22

Listen: Go Tell it On the Mountain

When the Shepherds were keeping watch over their flock, an angel appeared to them. As the angel was speaking a host of angels suddenly appeared.

This abrupt appearance took the shepherds off guard. The glory of God was so brilliant it shone about them, causing them to fear. The angel told them to stop being afraid because he was not there to scare them but to announce thrilling news. The Savior had been born!

The “multitude” of angels in the original text suggests an enormous and colossal number. The word “host” means “an assembly of warring soldiers.”

The shepherds were rightfully frightened by this vision of angel armies coming to see something they had been waiting for. 1 Timothy 3:16 says, “God was manifest in the flesh, justified by the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

Before God came as man, even angels could not look directly into God's face. The prophet Isaiah wrote that he saw angels in Heaven’s court covering their faces like one shields their eyes from the sun- from the blazing glory of God. (Isa 6:2)

When Moses asked to see the glory of God, Moses could not look upon the full glory because he would die. God placed Moses in the cleft of a rock and allowed him only to see the back parts of him. “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will announce my name, the Lord, so you can hear it…But you cannot see my face because no one can see me and live.” Ex 33:18-20

The host of angels who had never before looked into the fullness of God’s face appeared with great joy to behold the face of Almighty God come as man. Even the angels rejoiced at such a miracle!

John 1:14 “ And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”