Fools and Wise Men, Part 1

Here you have pagans who had nothing to guide them but smatterings of Old Testament prophecies. Nothing to guide them but their own science mingled with its funny superstitions.

And yet they are the true seekers of God. They were enthusiastically embarking on a journey to seek a king they had a long time waiting for. Some say it was a comet. Others say it was a nova, the bright flaring up of a star. Plenty of people have looked for scientific proof that this strange light was a real astronomical event.

What do you think? What was the star of Bethlehem? John MacArthur examines this intriguing element of the Christmas story and shows you why it matters as John continues his study of the birth of the king on Grace to You. But before today's lesson, John, talk a little bit about what a great privilege and a great responsibility it is to teach God's Word on the radio. Certainly, Grace to You is not a church, but we do provide spiritual nourishment for lots of people. So how would you describe our commitment to those men and women who listen and learn and grow along with us as we study God's Word?

Well, I think, as you said, it's not the church, but it supplements the church, and that's not anything unusual. As far back as you can go in Christian history, there were always Bible teachers who would teach the Word of God. I mean, even you take John Calvin, for example, and when he was in Geneva, he would preach on a Sunday, and he would preach multiple times on a Sunday, but he would teach in the little auditorium next to the Geneva Cathedral. He would teach virtually every single day the Bible, supplementing what was happening on Sunday. And there would be other men in the group of Reformers who would also be teaching the Word of God. He had some guys with him that were teaching the Word of God. So there's always been kind of the focus of the church as it meets together in worship and the Word of God is proclaimed and preached, but there's always been supplemental resources, whether they were preachers and teachers or whether when you get into the period of the time when you have a printing press and you can print books, books exploded and nobody questions the validity of books. We've all basically built our life ministries by reading the books, the great books that have changed our lives.

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You will hear our contact information before we end today. But right now, here's John with a timely Christmas message from his study, The Birth of the King. I'd like you to take your Bible and turn with me to the second chapter of Matthew, Matthew chapter 2.

And we're looking at the biblical story of the visit of the wise men to the birth of Jesus Christ, to Bethlehem. I want you to see five acts in this incredible drama that is played out in chapter 2, five separate acts. And we'll just title them with a simple word so we'll remember them. Arrival, that's act 1. Number 2, agitation. Number 3, acting. Number 4, adoration.

And number 5, avoidance. First of all, we come to arrival. Let's look at verses 1 and 2. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came these magi from the east of Jerusalem saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. Two things hit me out of that verse as I read it.

And I want to answer those questions because they were the two ones that struck me. Question number 1, what was the nature of the star? We have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. What was the nature of the star? The chief word in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for star is the word kochav.

Not that that's important, just a point of contact with the Hebrew. But it has a basic meaning and its basic meaning is to shine or to blaze forth. To shine or to blaze forth. Now sometimes the word kochav is used of a real star. Sometimes it's used to speak of just the regular star. Sometimes it's used to speak of an angel. Sometimes it is used to speak of men. So it doesn't necessarily always mean a real star.

It can mean anything that blazes, anything that shines in an incredible way. In fact, in Numbers 24, 17, a most interesting scripture, it says, and this is a messianic prophecy, I shall see him but not now. I shall behold him but not near. Now listen, there shall come a kochav out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

That's Numbers 24, 17. That is a messianic prophecy. There will come a blazing forth. There will come a shining one.

There will come a star. And people, I believe that the prophecy there is that none other than the glory of God incarnate is the star, the blazing. Look for a moment at Matthew chapter 24, Matthew 24, 4. Well, let's go over to verse 30. Then shall appear...now watch this...then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man.

Now mark that phrase out. The sign of the Son of Man. In other words, whenever the Son of Man is about to show up, there will be a sign pointing to him.

And what is it? They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now here is his kochav, his blazing forth.

And although kochav, the Hebrew word, is not used in the New Testament, it is the same idea. I believe that this sign of the Son of Man is nothing more and nothing less than the Shekinah glory of God himself. God revealing himself in ineffable glorious light. In fact, it even tells us, I think it's Revelation 1.16, that the Son shines, the Son of God shines as if he were the Son in its strength.

Somehow...now watch this...somehow connected to Jesus Christ is this incredible blazing glory of God. It is his sign in the heavens. He is a spirit. He is a spirit being.

He is also, in a sense, a physical being in the glorified body that he has from his resurrection. But there is a sign that goes with him and it is blazing glory. And one day on the mount he showed it to his disciples. And one day when he returns, the sign of his coming, the sign of the Son of Man in heaven will be there, blazing glory in the heaven.

Well, you know what I think? I think he had the very same sign the first time he came too. I just think it was the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And the sign of the Son of Man in heaven is not a star. It's not an astral body.

It's not a conjunction of planets. It's not the thoughts of human destiny rattling around in somebody's mystical mind. The sign of the Son of Man is nothing more and nothing less than the Shekinah glory of God revealed in light blazing, dazzling in the heavens.

I would add this thought. Verse 2 says, We have seen...watch this...his astair. His blazing. The word astair, incidentally, people, the word is translated star here, but it is used of other things than stars. So he has his own...and again, it means a blazing forth or a shining. We have seen his shining in the east. We have seen his kochav, his astair, his blazing, his glory. And the very fact that it's his star means it's something very special. It has appeared.

That's an interesting word. We have seen his star in the east. His star. Verse 7. Herod says, I want to know the time the star appeared. And the word phino in the Greek means that which lights up.

What time was it when that thing lit up? And there is the sense in which Herod says, When did this particular shining forth light up? And even that is sort of a hint that it was something that never existed and was called into existence only because Jesus was coming. And so I believe this was his astair, the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens. It was there at his first coming and, beloved, it will be there at his second coming. It's his sign. It's his star.

It's not some astral body. The pseudoscience of astrology could never predict the Lord. God revealed himself. It was no different than the pillar of fire in the Old Testament. And you remember the pillar of fire and the cloud in the Old Testament stood over the Holy of Holies? Well, in this it tells us that whatever this star was, it went and stood over the house where he was born. Now you tell me how a literal star would ever do that.

They'd do it. It's none other than the sign of the Son of Man. You say, Well, if it was such a blazing, magnificent glory of Christ's sign in the heavens, how come only the shepherds over there in Bethlehem Field saw it and the wise men over there in Persia and nobody else saw it? Well, that's a fair question.

That's the second question I ask. How come God is so selective? Well, you know, that's nothing new for God.

He can make everybody in the world blind to something if he wants to. There's something about God revealing what he wants to reveal just to those to whom he wants to reveal it. And that's all I can say about it. How did they connect it with Jesus Christ's birth? I don't know.

I really don't know. Except that God made it so obvious that they knew. That they knew. And Matthew doesn't give us all the bits and pieces and details of how they saddled a Persian horse and how many miles and how it was and where they ate and all of that. Because this isn't the story of these people. It's the story of Jesus Christ. And they have a place only insofar as it's related to him.

So the details aren't there. But it's incredible to me how God works things out when he wants to get his things done. He gave these magi, God-fearing Gentiles, way off in Persia, kingmakers, his sign and they knew that it was his sign and they knew where to go to Jerusalem. And the emphasis of Matthew is so beautiful. He says in verse 2 that they said, we have seen his austere in the east and are come.

For what purpose? To worship him. They knew that he was to be worshiped.

To worship him. They knew there was no other one as worthy as this one. They were right.

Here you have it. Pagans who had nothing to guide them but smatterings of Old Testament prophecies. Nothing to guide them but their own science mingled with its funny superstitions. And yet they are the true seekers of God. And when the sign came with all of their misgivings and lacks in knowledge, they were enthusiastically embarking on a journey to seek a king they had a long time waited for. But the Jewish hierarchy with the Pentateuch in their hand, studying it every day, with the prophecies in their hand, reading them every day, ruled by a bitter and evil man named Herod, were content to be totally indifferent to what was happening five miles away. And here again we see Matthew's constant attitude of condemnation toward the officials of Judaism and his constant sensitivity that God is opening the church. He's opening the gospel to the Gentiles.

Listen. There always are somewhere hungry hearts yearning for a divine Savior and willing to follow even a faint sign that might lead to His feet. And it's super when you find somebody like that. There always are those seeking hearts.

There always are prepared hearts. And here were some who came to Jerusalem. So we see the arrival, secondly. And this is really interesting. The arrival is scene one and it quickly leads to scene two, agitation.

Agitation. Herod is an exact opposite to these people. Verse 3. When Herod the king had heard this, heard that these guys were there and that they were asking this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Now Herod knew very well that he was sitting on a powder keg. In the first place, he knew that the people of the city didn't like him and they didn't like Roman rule and they wanted their own independence and autonomy. And he knew that they had aspirations of overthrowing him and overthrowing Rome. And he also knew that if the Persians got in on the act and built this huge confederacy engulfing this individual called the King of the Jews, he was really in trouble.

He knew that the Eastern Empire posed a constant threat to Rome and conflict was always fomenting. And he knew his job was in the balance and his life was in the balance and even though he was 70 years old, at least by this time, he still wanted to hang on to every single thing he had. So he was troubled.

He was panicky. It's a word that really means to be stirred up and upset. In fact, I don't know if there is a stronger word than this one in reference to this thought. A good comparative one would be in Matthew 14 26 where the very same word is used and it says this, And when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea, they were agitated.

It's the same word. I mean, this was really an abnormal thing. This was very, very upsetting and they were in a state of panic. Now he was agitated and he had a reason. After all, he was the king of the Jews in his own mind.

He had been given the title by Caesar Augustus. He had fought hard to keep it and maintain it and now all of a sudden somebody's arrived who's going to take his throne and here are the king makers to make sure he gets it. Boy, this is serious business. And this kind of rumor, he could just imagine, this kind of rumor is now floating all over the city. There's a new king. There's a new king of the Jews. There's a new king of the Jews.

Did you hear? The Persians are here. The king makers are here. There's a new king of the Jews. And he can imagine the stirring up of freedom riots among the fanatics and the zealots in the country. And boy, he's shaky. And so he realizes I've got to take some radical steps.

And in his rotten, depraved mind, a plot begins to brew. Well, he overstated his case, frankly, because from Matthew's record, it doesn't appear that the Jerusalem population was at all impressed by the Magi's questions. You don't see a mass of people scurrying down to Bethlehem. They didn't seem to get the picture. There doesn't seem to be any stir. And that's so hard for me to believe. It's shocking. I mean, these famous king makers from Persia asking a question like this, you would have imagined that the people would have just come in an uproar.

But it's just part of the way it was going to be because it's simple. The Bible says he came unto his own and his own what? Received him not. He was in the world and the world knew him not.

And it's true. What all of normal circumstances should have dictated a high level of interest, there was none. None. There was no we shall overcome revolt fomenting in Jerusalem. There was no let's get a new king and knock off Herod.

And I think there's a reason for it basically. And the reason is they were more afraid of Herod than they were trusting in God. They had more fear of Herod than they had confidence in God's Word. They were really afraid of what he would do.

Look what it says. It says that he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Why were they troubled? Because they feared him so much. And they had a lot to fear. They had learned by a long and sad experience that there were no limits to the wrath and vengeance of this maniac. And I mean, he was a maniac. And they figured, man, if these guys upset Herod, we are going to be in a bloodbath.

They dreaded it. Now let me talk about Herod for a minute. He committed some atrocities that are hard to describe.

But first of all, let me talk about the positive things. He was a very capable man and usually diabolical people who rise to this level have some capability. While a young governor in Galilee, he had tremendous victories over the gorillas. There were always these mountain gorillas.

I don't mean animal gorillas, but soldiers. But he used to defeat these little bands of gorillas in Galilee and he brought real peace there. He was very efficient in collecting taxes for Rome, so Rome liked him. He was a capable orator and a very subtle diplomat. History tells us he was a very decisive leader in battle and could turn the tide of a battle from defeat to victory. He was the only ruler in the history of Palestine who ever succeeded in keeping peace and bringing order. In times of difficulty, he even gave people back their tax money so that they would have enough.

In 25 B.C. there was a tremendous famine and he melted down the gold plates in the palace and gave the money to the poor. That was a subtle guy. He was a sharp guy and he did things he could to get in with people. He was a great builder. He built a theater in Jerusalem. He built an amphitheater and he built a hippodrome. You know what a hippodrome is?

It's a racetrack. And he also built a magnificent palace for himself and he even began in 19 B.C. the construction of the temple, a great Herodian temple, and died long before it was ever done.

And of course it was totally demolished in 70 A.D. when Titus Vespasian and his Roman army came and conquered Jerusalem. He restored Samaria from its depraved situation. He built the city of Caesarea, which is a magnificent port city.

He built the fortress at Masada, which was an impregnable fortress. He had a great welfare program. And when people had trouble getting clothes, he imported clothes for them. So, you know, he did some things to endear himself because he was a smart politician. But he was also cruel, diabolical, and maniacal. The guy was incredibly jealous and he was hopelessly suspicious of everybody. He was threatened by everybody and everything. And so he spent his entire life plotting the murder of people.

He was plotting murders constantly. He didn't like the Hasmoneans, who were a family of people, so he plotted to murder all of them. They were the descendants from the Maccabees.

And you remember that the Maccabees were a group of Jewish people who had fought for the freedom against the Greeks. And when the Romans came in, he was afraid that the relatives of the Maccabees might do the same against him, and so he would rather just kill them all so none of them would have any hope of ever doing that. He even killed his own wife, Mariamne. He also executed her mother because he didn't want her bugging him, Alexandria. He had two sons of his own that he didn't like, so he slaughtered both of them because he was afraid they'd want his throne.

Five days before his death, he ordered his third son executed. He had a lust for power, suspicion, and insane eagerness to avenge himself that enslaved the man all the days of his life. Cruel, bloodthirsty, panicky tyrant. He was known as a killer.

The climax of this characterization has to be this. He was about to die. I mean, he knew he was about to die.

It was a matter of days. So he retired to Jericho. He gave orders that a collection of the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem should be made, get all of them, arrest them, and trump up charges and put them all in prison. All the most distinguished Jewish citizens of the city. And he said, The moment I die, slaughter them all. And they said to him, Why? And he said, Because no one will mourn when I die and I am determined that when I die there will be mourning in this city.

Now, when these magi rode into town saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? And the Bible says, He was agitated. He was agitated. That was what disturbed him more than anything. A threat to his power. And he was really shook.

That's so interesting to me. The contrast between the peace in the hearts of the magi and the panic in the heart of Herod. And maybe it's because there were wise men and there were fools. And Herod was a fool. Dr. Gablein says, The great city with its magnificent religious institutions, its wonderful Herodian temple, then still in process of erection, its aristocratic priesthood and benevolent institutions had no knowledge of the king. Nay, they did not desire the king to come. They were self-satisfied. This foreshadows the whole story of the rejection of the king, the Lord from heaven, that there was not alone no room for him in the inn, but there likewise was no room for him among his own.

They received him not. And Herod the king was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. He feared for his throne which was not his and Jerusalem knew what Herod's fear meant. It meant rebellion, bloodshed and suffering." End quote.

He's right. What he's saying is the reason everybody else was upset was because they knew the kind of man that Herod was. And they feared what would happen. And let me tell you some folks, they had a right to fear because it wasn't a matter of days until Herod sent his soldiers to slaughter every single baby in the land under two years of age to make sure in his collection he slaughtered this potential king. That's why Jerusalem was shook up.

Let's have prayer. Our Father, we are thrilled when we see the Word of God opened to our understanding. And our joy comes because we so deeply desire to understand your Word.

And there's a certain sense of exhilaration that comes with that understanding. But we confess, Father, that there is absolutely no exhilaration. There is absolutely no joy when we realize what all of this meant. We look back at a man like Herod who now burns in eternal hell. We look back at chief priests and scribes, elders of the people, now lost forever, and recognize that when the king came, they didn't want him. They didn't know him.

They didn't bother to find out. Help us to focus on the fact that all humanity is divided into those two areas, those who reject and those who believe. Help us to realize that that's the dividing determiner of destiny, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us.

Today, John continued his look at the surprising, history-changing birth of the king. Well, friend, thanks for remembering that messages like today's are heard every day on stations like this one because of the support of listeners like you. To partner with us in connecting people with biblical truth that changes lives, you can make a tax-deductible donation when you contact us today. You can mail your gift to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 21412.

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Your gifts now will help us launch into 2023 on solid footing. Again, to make a donation, call us at 800-55-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. And, friend, remember, you can still get gifts from Grace to You in time for Christmas Day, but you'll need to call our customer service line between 730 and 4 o'clock p.m. Pacific time today or at the very latest tomorrow. Our number here, 800-55-GRACE. Again, that's 800-55-GRACE. Or choose the next day shipping option when you order at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here at the same time tomorrow, when John looks at why the reign of the King of Kings will be nothing like the world has ever seen. John is continuing his study from the book of Matthew with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.