Why was it significant for the shepherds to know that the new born baby would be swaddled and lying in a manger where the animals were kept?
These were not just any shepherds, these were Levitical shepherds, they were raising sacrificial lambs, these lambs would be sacrificed at the temple.
Tradition tells us when a new sacrificial lamb was born, these shepherds would swaddle the lamb and place them in the shepherd’s cave because these lambs had to be without spot or blemish.
When they looked upon the new born, they did not just see a baby, they saw a perfect sacrificial lamb.