(both of these were common practises in those times).
Probably having no crib in the house, it also seemed a good place to put a baby, being a ready
made manger for the baby to be put in - however, it was almost certainly cleaned out of animals,
mess and hay before the baby was born. The manger would have been filled with soft clean
clothes, or at worst clean fresh hay! They would not have allowed animals in there, these were
not backward people with no sense of cleanliness.
There was almost certainly a midwife present for the birth (yes, they had them) and also the other
female family members would have been on hand to help with the birth. As a side note, the baby
Jesus would have cried - what baby doesn’t (sorry Away in a Manger fans)?
Jesus was born during the day, rather than at night as most of our traditional views have it. How
do we know this? Well, that night while out in the fields, shepherds are witness to a multitude of
angels, singing and speaking about the birth of Jesus, the Messiah. They are told that “this day”
in Bethleham a child has been born who is Christ the Lord.
These shepherds, who are culturally among the lowest of the low in society, are so excited that
they run down from the hills to the city of approximately six hundred houses, to look for the child.
They do not take any of their livestock with them! Why would they? They are about to either go
banging on doors in the night time asking if a baby has been born here today, or are going to go
peering through people’s windows to see!
They do find the baby and his parents and then they leave and tell everyone all they have seen,
which causes amazement among all who hear about it. In a city the size of Bethlehem, that was
probably most people.
Sometime in the next two years, probably nearer to two years later, some astronomers from the
east come to Bethlehem looking for the new king. How many were there? We don’t know, but
it possibly wasn’t three. They had three gifts with them and that is why tradition says three wise
men - it could have been lots more; twenty or even thirty!
By the time these visitors come, Mary, Joseph and Jesus are in their own home, or at least,
not confined to one spare room now. These wise men meet Mary and Jesus and bow down to
worship Jesus, a toddler by this time. They present their gifts then go home, without telling the
local King, Herod, where Jesus was, even though he had asked them to.
Herod is scared by the news of the birth of a new king, who may usurp his position, so he decides
to kill all boys in Bethlehem who are two years old and under. Joseph is warned in a dream to
escape, which he does, and they travel to Egypt - leaving behind the life they had built in the last
two years - e ͍