This week we begin worship with:
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
The angel's announcement ended a very dark period. It is sometimes called "Time of God's Silence".
In 586 BC Solomon's temple was destroyed, for it was no longer protected by God's presence. A few years prior, the prophet Ezekiel witnessed the Glory of God departing the temple:
Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
God was silent until the shepherds were given the privilege of witnessing its return, for it was not the glory of the angel that shown around them, it was "the glory of the Lord". In Jewish tradition, it is called the "Shechinah" glory, which comes from the Hebrew šāḵan, which means to dwell:
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
This is why, Jesus would be called "Immanuel" (ʿimmānû'ēl), as Matthew explained from Isaiah 7:14:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,and they shall call his name Immanuel”(which means, God with us).
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