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NTEB SUNDAY SERVICE: The Birth Of Jesus In A Stone Manger At Migdal Eder Is What The Bible Has To Say About How It All Actually Happened
The true story of the birth of Jesus takes place in a stone manger in a part of the city of Bethlehem known as Ephratah, this is Migdal Eder, the tower of the flock!
First of all, the wise men never made it to the birth of the baby Jesus, they got there two years later when He was around two years old, so says Matthew 2:9-11 (KJB). You can take that fairy tale off the table. Next, Jesus was not born in a cow barn or a cave, he was born in the shadow of the Tower of the Flock, or Migdal Eder in Hebrew. This is the exact same place where Benjamin was born, where King David was born, and where the prophets said that the Messiah would come.
“And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Micah 4:8 (KJB)
Benjamin was the ‘son of my sorrow’ as well as the ‘son of my right hand’, a beautiful type of Jesus at His First and Second Advent. He was born at Migdal Eder. King David has a throne that King Jesus will sit on during the Millennium, and David was born at Migdal Eder also. Since we know that God loves to do things in three’s, it makes perfect sense that He who is the ‘volume of the book’ would also be born at Migdal Eder in a stone manger as the perfect Lamb of God. Migdal Eder, the Tower of the Flock, is an overlooked and largely unpreached hot spot that sees a ton a prophetical fulfillment. On this Sunday Service, we take you to Migdal Eder to see what the Bible says about the birth of the baby Jesus.
Study Notes For Today’s Sunday Service
In order to understand the location and timing of the birth of the baby Jesus, you have to start where everything else starts in the Bible, back in Genesis. For you see, the birth of Jesus is intimately connected with the birth of Benjamin. Let’s begin with where Jesus was born according to the scripture.
“Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” Matthew 2:2 (KJB)
Jesus at 2 years old:
“When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.” Matthew 2:9 (KJB)
What a great question! Where is He that is born King of the Jews??? As it turns out, Jesus was born right here:
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2 (KJB)
Now let’s look at the birth of Benjamin:
“And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.” Genesis 35:16-21 (KJB)
“And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem” Genesis 48:7 (KJB)
Migdal Eder first appears in Genesis 35:21 and it’s a tower just north of the city of David in Bethlehem, Ephratah to be specific, and it is the place where Jacob buried Rachel after she gave birth to Benjamin. In its earliest days, the tower of Migdal Eder was a military structure, in later years becoming the Tower of the Flock where the Levitical shepherds would inspect the sacrificial lambs.
“And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Micah 4:8 (KJB)
By the time of the birth of Jesus, Migdal Eder is the place where the spotless lambs were wrapped in swaddling clothes to be inspected for sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem. Inspected by shepherds.
As Rachel lay dying, she desired that her son Benjamin should be called Benoni, which means ‘son of my sorrow’, but Jacob wanted his name to be called Benjamin, which means ‘son of the right hand’, sound like anything you know from scripture? Does not Isaiah 53:3 say that Jesus was a ‘man of sorrows’ and doesn’t Ephesians 1:20 tells us that He is now seated at the ‘right hand’ of God? There’s a lot happening at the birth of Benjamin that absolutely foreshadows the birth of Jesus and the work He will do at the First Advent.
Regarding the birth of the baby Jesus, we see in Luke 2:7 that He was laid in a manger, a stone structure that Levitical shepherds would normally use to inspect the sacrificial lamb. You see, Mary and Joseph were not sent to a first century hotel, and they were not sent simply to a barn, no, the only place that had room was the place where lambs were sacrificed. Migdal Eder. And those swaddling clothes? Why, they were for the lambs to protect them from getting bruised so they could be sacrificed ‘without spot’ according to the Law. Just coincidentally, Jesus is the lamb ‘without spot and blemish’ in 1 Peter 1:19.
“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” 1 Peter 1:19-21 (KJB)
Behold, the Lamb!
All through the Bible, salvation and redemption is connected with the shed blood of the Lamb for the forgiveness of sins.
- “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” Genesis 3:21 (KJB)
- “And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:” Genesis 4:2,4 (KJB)
- “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.” Genesis 22:13 (KJB)
- “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7 (KJB)
- “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” 1 Peter 1:19 (KJB)
- “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:27 (KJB)
- “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29 (KJB)
- “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14 (KJB)
- “Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.” Isaiah 16:1 (KJB)
Every step in the life and ministry of Jesus was according to “all the Law” of Moses
“Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.” Matthew 3:13-15 (KJB)
“And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.” Luke 2:39 (KJB)
The events that took place surrounding the birth of Jesus fulfilled the legal requirements according to the Law of Moses, for Jesus to be certified as a “spotless lamb” to be offer as a sacrifice for the sins of many.
O Little Town of Migdal Eder
Bethlehem is called the “City of David” because that’s where David was born, and what was David? A shepherd of sheep! Abel and Moses were shepherds also, Jesus is the Chief Shepherd and the Shepherd of our souls.
David’s Birth:
“Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.” 1 Samuel 17:12 (KJB)
Prophecy of Jesus Birth:
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2 (KJB)
The Feast of Tabernacles
The birth of Jesus is on or around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. His return at the Second Advent will be on or around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. During the Millennium observing that feast day will be mandatory.
“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” Zechariah 14:16 (KJB)
In Psalm 19, we read this:
“Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” Psalm 19:4,5 (KJB)
Jesus announces that He is the Saviour on the Feast of Tabernacles.
“Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.” John 7:14 (KJB)
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” John 7:37 (KJB)
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