‘And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,'
And then all Heaven broke loose, for as the shepherds watched in amazement they saw with the angel a whole mass of the heavenly host, praising God for what He was doing. Great legions would be called on to welcome the Emperor's son when he was born, and to hail his birth. But even greater legions welcomed into the world the Son of God. The legions of angels, which would not be called on to prevent His death (Matthew 26:53), came to celebrate His birth. What was happening was strange to these shepherds, but it must have seemed even stranger to those angels. No one knew better than they that this baby deserved the highest place that Heaven affords. And yet all He had here was a manger. How they must have cringed to see Him lying there. But it was not for them to criticise their Lord and God. They could only wonder and sing His praise for what He was willing to do in order to save men and women.
When God laid the foundations of the earth, ‘the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of the elohim (‘heavenly beings' or ‘God') shouted for joy' (Job 38:7). How much more fitting that when God laid His new foundation stone (1 Corinthians 3:11) and new cornerstone (Luke 20:17; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6) for His new heaven and earth, they should do so even more rapturously.
The contrast with the other appearances of an angel is striking. Gabriel had pointed ahead to what was to be. The angels would have been listening to that also but their cries of praise and their declarations of God's glory at that point remained hidden as far as earth was concerned. But now that the wonderful and amazing event has actually happened it can no longer remain completely hidden. For a short while, so wonderful is the event, that the curtain between Heaven and earth is allowed to fall away and Heaven's view of things is revealed on earth to the shepherds (compare 2 Kings 6:17).