Random exegesis...
The Nativity story of the shepherds clearly is about God's love for the every-day fella, the poor, the not-royal. The angels first announce the birth to pastoral rustics, not the established political hierarchy or the wealthy.
I'm not debating that.
But it popped in my head this morning that the shepherds might also be read typologically. The Bible loves its shepherd kings. Moses did a stint as a shepherd before leading the Israelites out of Egypt. David, of course, was a shepherd boy before being anointed. And these are probably the two most successful rulers over the ancient Hebrews.
What if the shepherds are not just the poor, but Moses and David?
After all, the receive divine revelations from the angels...meet God face-to-face as it were...and then spread the word of God to everyone they meet.
Sounds to me like a kind of reverse typology, expressing how Moses and David spoke to God directly, then spread his word to the people--(traditionally through writing the Torah and the Psalms respectively).
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