Luke 2:8

‘And there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the countryside, and keeping watch by night over their flock.’

The scene now moves to the countryside, possibly the craggy mountainside, where there were shepherds who were watching their flocks by night. Day and night it was their responsibility to watch over the sheep, summer and winter alike if the weather was mild enough. Here was where David had once watched his father’s sheep (1 Samuel 17:15; 1 Samuel 17:34-37), here he had slain the lion and the bear, and it was therefore seemly that when his Greater Son was being born into the world shepherds should be involved in it. It is an indication of God’s delicate touch, and a reminder of the Davidic connection.

Such shepherds would not be looked on favourably by most people and they would almost certainly not have been seen as ritually ‘clean’. They were not in a position to observe the niceties of religion. Yet we are probably justified in seeing in these shepherds pious men, and men who were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, men who were looking for the consolation of Israel (compare Luke 2:25).