MIGDAL EDER: Tower of the Flock
Luke 2:12-14: And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, 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, goodwill toward men!”
The first verse above is an interesting one. Luke records what the angel said to the shepherds, “and this will be the sign unto you” that they would find the newborn babe, God-man, Jesus Christ, “wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger.”
Author and I first learned of the Tower of the Flock from a lecture by Dr. Mark Bailey, of Dallas Theological Seminary, at a conference several years ago. We had not heard this part of the Nativity story before and have included it in every Christmas Eve post since.
In the Hebrew language, the name is “Migdal Eder.” Migdal means “tower” and Eder means “flock”. The phrase is only used twice in the Bible – Genesis 35:21 and Micah 4:8.
In the Genesis passage, Migdal Eder (also spelled Edar) is referring to the location where Jacob pitched his tent after he buried his wife Rachel who had died in childbirth. Migdal Eder is on the road between Bethlehem, where Rachel was buried, and the city of Jerusalem, which is less than 5 miles away.
The other mention of Migdal Eder or “tower of the flock” in Micah 4:8 is a prophecy. It was prophesied that Messiah, “the Bread sent down from heaven to feed the souls of mankind,” (John 6:58) would be a descendant of King David. He would also be born in the same city where David, the shepherd-king of Israel, was born – Beth-lehem (‘house of bread’)!
“I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord. “The days are coming… when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.” Jeremiah 23:4-5
But, why does Luke state that a baby swaddled up be a sign? Even back in that time, newborn babies were usually wrapped up in ‘cloths’. The connection to the sign (the meaning) is in a place in the shepherds’ fields called the “Tower of the Flock.”
The tower in the shepherds’ fields of Bethlehem was a two-story stone watchtower. On the top story, a ‘priestly shepherd’ would stand watching over the flock to make certain that the sheep were not being harmed, vigilant to protect them from their natural enemies, the robber, the wolf, the bear and the lion.
Every perfect, firstborn male lamb from the fields around Bethlehem was considered holy, specifically set aside for Temple sacrifice in Jerusalem. They were born to die for the sins of the people. These sacred sheep had to be without blemish and unspotted in order to qualify to be used as a sin offering. Bethlehem’s shepherds’ fields were the holding pens for the hundreds of sacrificial lambs.
The bottom floor of the tower was for the birthing of these lambs. The shepherds were trained in the requirements for an animal that would be sacrificed. These Levirate shepherds would strictly maintain a ceremonially clean birthing place. When the lamb was ready to be born, the “priestly” shepherd would pull the lamb out of the mother, and carefully wrap it in swaddling cloths to keep it from harming its limbs. After wrapping the baby lamb, the shepherd would lay it in a manger until the newborn had calmed down. The perfect male babies were to be used for sin offerings, the females for peace offerings.
They knew this procedure and, when told it would be a sign, that He would be wrapped in the same cloths as the sacrificial sheep and even more precisely that He would be born in a manger, they recalled Micah 4:8 and, with haste (Luke 2:16), ran to see the newborn Jesus, the Son of God. There may have been other human babies swaddled up in cloths that night, but only One would be in a manger!
Jesus was not placed in an animal stable as a last resort, but in a manger (small stall, a ‘bassinet‘) at the tower of the flock (for sacrificial lambs) to fulfill prophecy (Micah 5:2). Jesus was born in Bethlehem, at the birthing place for the sacrificial lambs that were offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, which Micah 4:8 calls the tower of the flock. Jesus was born in the very birthplace where tens of thousands of lambs had been previously birthed to foreshadow Him. Jesus is not only the “Son of God” (John 1:34) but also the “Lamb of God” (John 1:36)!
The Firstborn Lamb of God would sacrifice His life to atone for the sins of all – a one-time perfect sacrifice, offered by the Father God Himself.
The sure and perfect word of Bible prophecy is assurance that unfulfilled prophecies will also be fulfilled … perfectly.
For our other posts on Migdal Eder, click HERE and HERE.