(If you haven’t had a chance to read the previous devotion, it’s best to have read that before you begin today.)

I don’t pretend to know exactly how physicians are trained to do what they do. I know this much, though: it’s grueling. I also know that one can complete all of the necessary education and training to become a doctor without meeting all of the standards of state licensing boards, which certify candidates as qualified to practice medicine (or something like that. I’m sure I’ll get a full explanation from an actual physician). The practice of certifying something as qualified to function as what it has been prepared to do is not a modern invention. It is ancient.

If you have ever given Exodus through Deuteronomy a quick glance, you know that the ordinary number of sacrifices required by God’s law was staggering. Even if you aren’t great at math, it’s not hard to figure out that the sacrifices required meant that many animals had to be raised continuously. Further, animals bound for temple sacrifice had to be without blemish, so careful inspection was necessary. In his book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim tells us that by the second temple period, a town just outside of Jerusalem was the area where the flocks bound for temple sacrifice were raised and shepherded by Levitical shepherds who certified lambs as unblemished and suitable for sacrifice in the temple.* In Micah 4, that area is called Migdal Eder, watchtower of the flock.

Read:

On that day—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
I will assemble the lame
and gather the scattered,
those I have injured.
I will make the lame into a remnant,
those far removed into a strong nation.
Then the Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion
from this time on and forever.
And you, watchtower for the flock (Migdal Eder),
fortified hill of Daughter Zion,
the former rule will come to you,
sovereignty will come to Daughter Jerusalem.
-Micah 4:6-8

Without being familiar with the period in Israel, the geography of the Holy Land, and the multiple names for single places, it’s difficult to understand where the “watchtower for the flock” is. Reading further into chapter five, though, it becomes clear.

Bethlehem Ephrathah,
you are small among the clans of Judah;
one will come from you
to be ruler over Israel for me.
His origin is from antiquity,
from ancient times.
-Micah 5:2

Migdal Eder, City of David, and Bethlehem are all the same place.

In Bethlehem, the shepherds kept their flocks in the surrounding fields. When ewes were lambing, though, they would take them to a special place because the lambs they delivered received special care so that they would be unblemished and fit for the temple. The shepherds would wrap the legs of the lambs in strips of cloth, swaddling, to ensure that they were without defect.

So, let’s put all the pieces together.

It is no coincidence Jesus was born among the lambs destined for temple sacrifice. The shepherds to whom His birth was announced weren’t coincidental, either. They were the shepherds who certified the Passover lambs as spotless and kept watch over the lambs meant for sacrifice in the temple— the lambs whose blood would atone for the sin of men. Like all the other lambs, Jesus was wrapped in swaddling to ensure His perfection. From the moment He was born, He was inspected by the Levitical shepherds and wrapped in swaddling cloth, prepared as the perfect, spotless Lamb of God who would make all the other lambs obsolete.

Yesterday we pondered what brings men peace with God— the shedding of blood. The blood of a spotless lamb.

As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, “If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.
-Luke 19:41

Jesus approached Jerusalem weeping because He knew what would bring peace. He knew it was shed blood. His blood. The blood of the Lamb prepared for sacrifice from his first drawn breath.

Pray: Jesus, Lamb of God, in Leviticus I read how a man was to offer his sacrifice. He must lay his hand on it and slaughter it. Christ, I have laid my hand on you, my Sacrifice. By your blood, my sin is atoned. I need no other. My execution laid on you made peace between God and me. I look forward to the day when, in my perfected body, I will at last have the eternal stamina to express my gratitude.