Daily Bible Reading 24th March 2026 // Luke 2:8-20
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
15 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.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
The message of the angels needs to be understood in its true biblical context. The glad tidings could only be construed as the fulfilment of prophecy, the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. And the messianic prophecies were related to God's unremitting hatred of sin and His determination to uproot it from His creation and destroy it (the first promise of this being, as we have seen, in Genesis 3:15). The Babe is the 'sign', therefore, that God's counter-offensive against sin has now begun. This is God's mercy, says Luke, pointing to the infant Jesus, God's good will toward men. It is focused and sealed in Him. But note the startling, even ludicrous thing that is being said - the sign of divine power and grace in the world, God's answer to the vastness of human need - a Babe?
There are two ways to consider this extraordinary phenomenon, and both need to be looked at with care. One is to remember Paul's well-known words in 1 Corinthians 1:27, 'God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty'. This is the way He chooses to bless mankind! The Babe is the sign and testimony concerning God's principle of working in the world - the helplessness of a Babe, the weakness of the cross, the foolishness of preaching. Does it work? Ah, yes. The weapons of our warfare, though weak and insignificant in the eyes of men, are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. The weakness of God is stronger than men; 'weakness' lets Him through to the world He longs to bless and save!