Shepherds were some of the most marginalized people group of Biblical times…they were relegated to an unimportant and distasteful position within Jewish society.  But yet,  God saw fit for them to be the first to hear about the birth of the Messiah.  But why?  We have only to search Old Testament Scriptures to see the clear correlation between the shepherds on that dark hillside and Jesus Christ.  Probably one of the best known Psalms, the 23rd Psalm, starts out, “The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.”  Isaiah 40:11 talks of Jesus like this, “He tends His flock like a Shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart…”  And if we look in the New Testament, Jesus Himself says, “I am the good Shepherd.” (John 10:14)  And elsewhere we find, in Hebrews 13:20 Jesus is called the Great Shepherd.   This scruffy group of men might not have had much notoriety before men…but before God, He chose to honor them in the same way He honored His Son…the Shepherd of all mankind.