Type your new text here.

While enjoying Christmas dinner, steer the conversation to the Luke chapter 2 account of Christ’s birth. As God gives the opportunity, help your relatives to understand the immense richness of the original Christmas text. To what are we referring? If you have time, listen to this:

If you don’t have time to listen to it, here is a summary:
 
1) Shepherds. These were no ordinary shepherds. They were temple-trained, highly educated priestly shepherds equipped to locate spotless, perfect lambs to be sacrificed at the Temple just 4 miles north in Jerusalem.

2) Swaddling cloths. How were the shepherds to find the Christ child? Only one clue was given. It was called a “sign” by the angels: “This shall be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths.” Why is that fact so important? When the priestly trained shepherds found a perfect lamb, they wrapped it in special strips of cloths to protect it from injury. Where did the “cloths” come from? They were torn strips of clothing from the priests who had just served in the Temple in Jerusalem. Each priest served the Lord for one solid week, twice a year. Then on two important feast days, all the priests served in the Temple at the same time. 

3) Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling cloths. Where might she have gotten them? We don’t know for certain, but here is a possibility. She had just been with her cousin Elizabeth, who was 6 months pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth was married to Zechariah. He had just come from his one week service to the Lord in the Temple. He would have had his priestly garments. Elizabeth might have torn them into long strips, as was the custom, and given them to Mary, thus, the “swaddling cloths.” (By the way, the first one to acknowledge Jesus the Son of God was a preborn baby, John the Baptist. Let that sink in for a moment. A pre-born baby in the 6th month of pregnancy acknowledged another baby who had just been conceived, which is just more proof that life begins at conception.)

4) When was Jesus born? We know when John the Baptist was born based on the time that Zechariah would have served in the temple, according to the 24 rotating schedules in 1 Chronicles 24. Zechariah was in the 8th rotation, thus we know when John the Baptist was conceived. John would have been conceived on Sivan 30, or during the month we call June, specifically June 22. (We are on a the Gregorian calendar which is solar. The biblical calendar is a lunar calendar, thus they are slightly different. If you want a calendar which meshes the two, go to Biblical Calendars.) Mary was impregnated 6 months later, which is Kislev 25, or what we could call December 24 (after dark, since the Hebrew day begins at sundown) and December 25. Thus at Christmas, we are really celebrating the conception of Jesus, not His birth. He would have been born nine months later, at the end of what we call September or during the month of October (depending on the differences between the lunar and solar calendars), during the Feast of Tabernacles. Why is that time significant? Because his name was Immanuel, “God with us.” He came to “Tabernacle” (dwell) among us. Jesus’ first coming partially fulfills the Feast of Tabernacles and His Second Coming will fulfill entirely the Feast of Tabernacles with His 1,000 year reign. (Note: The 7 feast of Leviticus 23 form a chronology of the life of Jesus: Four Spring Feasts which have all been fulfilled (Passover – Jesus’ death; Unleavened bread – Burial of Jesus; First Fruits – Resurrection; Pentecost – giving of the Holy Spirit) and four Fall Feasts which are yet to be fulfilled: [Trumpets – 2nd coming of Jesus; Day of Atonement – Judgement; Tabernacles – partially fulfilled when Jesus was born, but to be completely fulfilled in Jesus’ 1,000 year reign].)

5) Shepherds in the fields. We know the shepherds were watching over their flocks by night. That would not have been the case in the cold winter months, especially December. It would have been too cold for sheep to be outdoors. They were watching their flocks by night in September and October. This is the actual time of Jesus’ birth.

6) Where was Jesus born? At one time, Bethlehem’s (Luke 2:15) borders included both Bethlehem and Ephrathah. Micah 5:2 tells us it was in Bethlehem Ephrathah (this is spelled various ways). Bethlehem proper is up on a hill. Ephrathah, the actual location of Jesus birth, is located down in the fertile valley below the town of Bethlehem. Ephrathah means “fruitful” which refers to the fruitful fields of Boaz and Ruth, ancestors of Jesus. Micah 4:8 tells us where in Bethlehem Ephrathah that Jesus was born: at the Migdal Eder, which is Hebrew for the “watchtower of the flock.” It is announced that the “former dominion” (kingship of David) will be restored (in Christ). 

7) But where is the Migdal Eder, the watchtower of the flock? Genesis 35:21 helps us locate it. Rachel, the wife of Jacob, died on the way to Ephrathah, and he went to grieve close by at the Migdal Eder, the tower of the flock. It was a literal watchtower, not for war, but for watching over the lambs producing the perfect lambs which were to be sacrificed at the Temple in Jerusalem. (The site of the present day Church of the Nativity was mistakenly identified as the location of Jesus’ birth in the 300s by Helena, mother of Constantine. That was, in fact, a high place used for the false worship of Venus.) In recent years, a location – fitting all the right descriptions biblically – has been identified. The remarkable artifacts located there give this location credence as the real place of the birthplace of Jesus. 

8) Lamb of God. See John 1:29, 1 Peter 1:19, 1 Cor 5:7, and Rev. 5:6-13, all speaking of Jesus as the “perfect lamb of God without blemish,” another characteristic of the lambs born at the Migdal Eder, where Micah 4:8 says Jesus was to be born.

9) The Inn. Don’t picture a Motel 6. The word can mean “guest room.” The “inn” referred to was quite likely a cave in which people slept to be away from the cold and the elements.

10) The Manger. It is not a bunch of boards put together. The proper translation of Luke 13:15 for manger is the Greek word “fatnee.” That would mean a stall, but a special kind of stall, a “birthing” stall. Proverbs 14:4 alludes to a “stall” or “crib.” The original “manger” was really a birthing stall and was made of stone. A stone birthing stall has been found at the location of what is now believed to be the authentic Migdal Eder. 

11) Sources: In addition to Luke 2:4-20; Genesis 35:21; Micah 4:8, and Micah 5:2, there are other reliable sources to confirm the above. 

12) Alfred Edersheim. In 1883, this brilliant scholar outlined the above in The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, From the manger in Bethlehem to the baptism in Jordan. The nativity of Jesus the Messiah, Book 2, Chapter VI.

13) Jerome. In the 300s a Bible scholar/translator identified the correct location of Jesus’ birth as being about 1,000 paces north of Bethlehem, and about 4 miles south of the Temple. This fits the place of the recent discovery in Ephrathah. 

14) The Mishnah. The Mishnah is a written record of what had been an oral tradition of rabbinic Judaism. In Shekelim 7:4, it stated that the flocks at this site were destined for the Temple.

15) The Targums. This is an Aramaic (language spoken by Jesus) translation of the Hebrew Bible, written during the 70 years of captivity in Babylon. It identifies the Migdal Eder as “the place where king Messiah will reveal Himself at the end of days.”
 
There are nearly 1,000 artifacts from the Migdal Eder which are now in the United States. They are available to be viewed, by appointment only. If you desire to see them, contact us at Info@WellVersedWorld.org and write “artifacts.” We might organize a tour to go see them in 2025. If you would like to see some of the artifacts, go to WPN Call 405 (Migdal Eder) and go to minute 31. There you will see a few of the approximately 1,000 artifacts. 
 
I would still recommend listening to the full teaching on this: WPN Call 405 (Migdal Eder)

Blessings,
Dr. Jim Garlow
CEO/Founder
Well Versed

Rosemary Schindler Garlow
Co-Founder
Well Versed