As we continue through the Christmas story we come face to face with the shepherds. You know the crew that were surprised by the angels while they were out minding their own business. Unexpecting is putting it mildly! They were shocked! 

There are actually two stores in the Bible where unexpecting shepherds are confronted with a message from God. The first one is in Exodus 3 where Moses is taking care of some sheep for his father-in-law. While he’s out making sure they have good pasture to feed and clean water to drink, he notices something that doesn’t look right. A bush is on fire but it’s not burning up. As he gets closer the bush talks to him “Moses, Moses”. (Exodus 3:4) That’s it. That’s all it took. Well there’s more to the story as you unpack Exodus 3 but all it took for Moses to realize what was happening was for the bush to call his name. It was God with a special message for an unexpecting shepherd. 

That message was that God was going to save his people. He was going to bring his people out of slavery and into a new life of freedom like they couldn’t even imagine. 

Fast forward to the shepherds tending their flocks in Luke 2, you know the Christmas story shepherds. Yeah they saw something strange as well! This time, however, it wasn’t a talking bush calling their name. It was an angel followed by a bunch of them! Totally got their attention. Their message was kind of similar to the one Moses heard. 

There was a baby born who was going to free the people. Except this freedom isn’t from Egyptian dictators. It was a freedom from the power of sin. An unexpecting Moses and some unexpecting shepherds hear the same message. God is about saving his people, and we are the very people he came to save.