{"id":511,"date":"2025-10-14T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=511&2025"},"modified":"2025-10-09T18:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:00:06","slug":"from-the-bottom-up-luke-2-1-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/from-the-bottom-up-luke-2-1-20\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Bottom Up: Luke 2:1-20"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Luke 2:1-20 (NASB)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\" style=\"display: none;\"><p><sup>1<\/sup>\u00a0Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">I.e. the Roman empire<\/span>the inhabited earth. <sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0This was the first census taken while <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">Gr <em>Kyrenios<\/em><\/span>Quirinius was governor of Syria. <sup>3<\/sup>\u00a0And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. <sup>4<\/sup>\u00a0Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, <sup>5<\/sup>\u00a0in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. <sup>6<\/sup>\u00a0While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. <sup>7<\/sup>\u00a0And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. <\/p><p><sup>8<\/sup>\u00a0In the same region there were <em>some<\/em> shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. <sup>9<\/sup>\u00a0And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. <sup>10<\/sup>\u00a0But the angel said to them, &#8220;Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; <sup>11<\/sup>\u00a0for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">I.e. Messiah<\/span>Christ the Lord. <sup>12<\/sup>\u00a0This <em>will be<\/em> a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.&#8221; <sup>13<\/sup>\u00a0And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, <br \/><span class=\"nasb-indented-verse\"><\/span><sup>14<\/sup>\u00a0&#8220;Glory to God in the highest, <br \/><span class=\"nasb-indented-break\"><\/span>And on earth peace among men <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">Lit <em>of good pleasure;<\/em> or <em>of good will<\/em><\/span>with whom He is pleased.&#8221; <\/p><p><sup>15<\/sup>\u00a0When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds <em>began<\/em> saying to one another, &#8220;Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.&#8221; <sup>16<\/sup>\u00a0So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. <sup>17<\/sup>\u00a0When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. <sup>18<\/sup>\u00a0And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. <sup>19<\/sup>\u00a0But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. <sup>20<\/sup>\u00a0The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.<\/p><p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=luke 2:1-20&amp;version=NASB\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Luke 2:1-20<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>When I read about Jesus\u2019 birth from the gospels, I am continually amazed at those who were chosen to be included. Not only were Mary and Joseph unknown at the time, but pretty much everyone outside of some key rulers and dignitaries are completely unknown to us today. If it had not been for this extraordinary birth, this young couple would have been unknown as well.<\/p>\r\n<p>But there is another group of otherwise unknown people that our passage focuses in on: \u201c<strong>In the same region there were\u00a0<em>some<\/em>\u00a0shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.<\/strong>\u201d (v. 8)<\/p>\r\n<p>Mary and Joseph were handpicked by God to be humanity\u2019s parents for Jesus, and it would seem that these shepherds were also picked by God for a reason. It seems completely backward to us, but <strong>sometimes God reveals His plans from the bottom up<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n<p>The role of a shepherd was one of the lowest status roles \u2013 and the night time shepherd was the lowest status of the shepherds. But it was to these shepherds that God sent an angel choir to. They were the ones God picked to welcome Jesus into the world. While the wise men would also arrive eventually, their trip was mainly because they saw the star and paid enough attention to check it out. The wise men acted on their suspicion that God was up to something \u2013 and they were right \u2013 but the shepherds were minding their own business and received a special visit from God\u2019s messengers letting them know what was happening in the town nearby.<\/p>\r\n<p>This leads me to understand that <strong>God sometimes reveals His plans from the bottom up<\/strong>. In our world, we typically think of a top-down leadership communication chain, where the big plans and important pieces of information travel from the management team or board members down through the company. But God acts differently. God started at the bottom, and He created a movement by inviting the most socially outcast people to be among the first to know.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Never think your position will invalidate God choosing you to share a message.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--511\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '511');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I read about Jesus\u2019 birth from the gospels, I am continually amazed at those who were chosen to be included. Not only were Mary and Joseph unknown at the time, but pretty much everyone outside of some key rulers and dignitaries are completely unknown to us today. If it had not been for this [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From the Bottom Up: Luke 2:1-20 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/from-the-bottom-up-luke-2-1-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Bottom Up: Luke 2:1-20 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I read about Jesus\u2019 birth from the gospels, I am continually amazed at those who were chosen to be included. 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