Bible Wonders- ABRAHAM'S MAGI

Did you ever wonder? Did you ever wonder?

I do. Did you ever wonder? Why the sun always rises, but the stars never fall?

Why dry land is never satisfied by water? And why fire never says enough? In Matthew's Gospel, I think there's a significant reason, because Matthew's Gospel, as you may know, was written to the Jews themselves to try to awaken them and help them to thirst again for this Messiah of Jesus, which is really what's, in my view, the entire Old Testament is speaking to, here comes Jesus. And so, what I find interesting is there are, at Shabbat.org, and again, I'll put this in the show notes, these commentaries. So, like, you know, we have Matthew Henry, which writes commentaries on the Bible. Well, the Jews have their commentaries, and they're usually commentaries on all three books that they study.

They study the Torah, obviously, and then they also study the Midrash and the Talmud, which are essentially oral traditions that eventually got written down, oral traditions, and really commentaries of what the Bible has and what it kind of meant to them. So, what I want to read for you right now is, it's a little bit long, but I think you'll be worth it, because the whole idea is to whet our appetite for the Bible itself, to see what's in there and to see where we see Jesus. And I think, by hearing these stories, I think it's going to whet your appetite to go study the book of Genesis some more.

It surely did for me, and I found some amazing things that I'm going to be wondering about all week. But I need to tell you this story the way it's written here at Shabbat.org. It's written by a rabbi called Nisan Mindal, and again, I've got the link for the whole story there on the show notes. This is called Nimrod's humble heritage, but it has a whole lot to do with Abraham, as you'll hear. His followers grew in number, and soon Nimrod became the mighty king of Babylon, and his empire extended over the great cities. As was to be expected, Nimrod did not feel very secure on his throne. He feared that one day there would appear a descendant of Noah's heir and successor Shem, and he would have claim to the throne.

He was determined to have no challenger. Some of Shem's descendants had already been forced to leave the land and build their own cities and empires. There was only one prominent member of the Semitic family left in the country, and he was Terah, the son of Nahor. Terah was the eighth generation removed in the line of descendants from Shem, but Nimrod had nothing to fear from Terah, his most loyal and trusted servant. Terah had long before betrayed his family and had become a follower of Nimrod.

All of his ancestors were still living, including Shem himself. But Terah left his ancestral home and became attached to Nimrod. Terah, who should have been the master and Nimrod his slave, became the slave of Nimrod. Like the other people in that country, Terah believed that Nimrod received his kingdom as a gift from the gods and was himself a god. Terah was prepared to serve Nimrod with all his heart.

Indeed, he proved himself a very loyal and useful servant. Nimrod entrusted into his hands the commands of his army, Terah, the highest minister in his land. Terah was short of nothing but a wife, so he found himself a wife whose name was Amathialai. They looked forward to raising a large family, but they were not blessed with any children. The years flew by, and Terah still had no son. His father was only 29 years old when he, Terah, was born, but Terah was getting closer to 70 than to 30, and yet there was no son. He prayed to Nimrod and his idols to bless him with a son, but his prayers were not answered. Little did he know that Nimrod felt happy about Terah's misfortune, for although Nimrod had nothing to fear from Terah, he could not be sure if Terah's sons would also be as loyal to him as their father.

Therefore, he was inwardly very pleased that this servant Terah had no children and probably would never have any, but he could not be sure. And Nimrod was not taking any chances. He ordered his stargazers and astrologers to watch the sky for any sign of an appearance of a possible rival. One night, the stargazers noticed a new star rising in the east. Every night it got brighter, and they informed Nimrod.

Nimrod called together his magicians and astrologers. They all agreed that it meant that a new baby was born who might challenge Nimrod's power. It was decided that in order to prevent this, all newborn babies would have to die, starting from the king's own palace down to the humblest slave's hut. And who was to be put in charge of this important task? Why, Terah, of course, the king's most trusted servant. Terah sent out his men to round up all expectant mothers. The king's palace was turned into a gigantic maternity ward.

A lucky mother gave birth to a girl, and then they were sent home laden with gifts, but if the baby happened to be a boy, he was put to death without mercy. One night, Nimrod's stargazers saw the star go very bright and then dart across the sky, first in one direction and then in another, west, east, north, and south, swallowing up all the other stars in its path. Nimrod was with his stargazers on the roof of his palace and saw this strange display in the sky with his own eyes. What is the meaning of this, he demanded?

There can only be one explanation. A son was born tonight who would challenge the king's power, and the father is none other than Terah. Terah, Nimrod roared, my own trusted servant? Nimrod had never given a thought to Terah as becoming a father at the age of 70. However, if he did become a father, he would surely be glad to offer his firstborn son to his king and god. Nimrod dispatched a messenger to Terah at once, ordering him to appear together with his newborn son. That night, Terah and his wife had indeed become happy parents of a baby boy who brought a great light and radiance into their home.

Terah had hoped it would be a girl, and he would have no terrible decision to make. Now he could not think of giving up his lovely baby boy, born to him at his old age, after such longing. He had managed to keep his wife's expectancy a secret.

None of his servants knew about the birth of his son. There was a secret passage leading from his palace to a cave in the field. He took the baby to that cave and left it there. As he was returning to the palace, past the servant's quarters, he suddenly heard the cry of a newborn baby.

What good fortune, Terah cried. It so happened that one of his servants had given birth to a baby boy about the same time as his own son. Terah took that baby and put him in silk swaddling and handed him to his wife to nurse.

Just then, the king's messengers arrived. When Terah, with the baby in his arms, appeared before Nimrod, Terah declared, I was just about to bring my son to you when your messengers came. Nimrod thought it was mighty loyal of Terah to give up his only son, born to him at his old age. Little did he know that it was not Terah's son who was brought to die, but his servants.

Now I'm sure, like me, there's something about this story that sounds awfully familiar in so many different ways, right? I mean, the birth of Moses wasn't all that different from there, and when you really think about some of the life of King David, I think you're going to see that in that as well, but certainly anybody who can hear this story and not think about Jesus, I mean, oh my goodness, and who tells this story? It's the Jews who tell this story. I mean, it's in their Talmud. It's in their Midrash, and when you look at some of the details in this story, I think you'll agree that, oh my goodness, they line up with Matthew's gospel in a great way. Again, so much of the themes of the Old Testament are telling us the story of what God's redemption will look like through Jesus. If you're like me, I bet I'll send you back to check out Nimrod, the Tower of Babel, and all those things, because they all kind of fit together as we'll discover later this week in more Bible Wonders.