Why the Gifts of the Wisemen - Part 1

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Thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Your donation today means great podcasts like this remain available to help people look to God daily. Please make your donation today at vision.org.au David Jeremiah clears up some of the mystery of the wise men, offering biblical insights into the meaning behind each gift they gave to the Christ child. From Why the Nativity, here's David to introduce his message, Why the Gifts of the Wise Men.

Well, friends, we have been discussing a lot of the questions about Christmas, and here's another one. Why the gifts of the wise men? The wise men traveled across the continent to see the Messiah. No, they didn't arrive in Bethlehem at the manger, which we often confuse at Christmas time, and I'm not asking you to go change that up. You've got to get all these characters in, and you don't have a whole New Testament time to do it. But it's important to know that the wise men came much later when Christ was not a baby but a little child, and they brought gifts for the king, and we're going to talk about those gifts for the next two days.

Why the gifts of the wise men? Just one of many questions we're examining during the month of December as we talk about Christmas. I love this season. I truly do.

I look forward to it. And you know, this year, more than ever before, it has ministered to my heart. This has been a hard year for all of us. So many questions without answers, so many difficult things, so many unprecedented moments, and yet here is something we can hang on to, something we can move toward, and that is this wonderful message of hope that comes with the gift of Christ. And Christmas is the incarnation, the coming of God to be with us, how desperate we need him during these days.

Well, here we go. Why the gifts of the wise men? The next edition of Why the Nativity. Well, as you know, we have been asking some questions during this season about why the nativity, and today we're going to ask the question, why the gifts of the wise men? Why the gifts of the wise men?

It is that season of the year, and it's a wonderful time of the year, as you know. It's a time we all celebrate, and at our house, along with all the decorations and the snowmen, one of the things that happens is we get hundreds of Christmas cards from all over the world, and it's just a wonderful thing to see it. Most of the cards are filled with verses of Scripture and messages of hope and encouragement, but then we have some friends who send us other kinds of Christmas cards as well, cards that are meant only for one thing, and that is to put a smile on our face. Some of them have some of the most interesting messages. Here's one that has on the front of it, the three great Christmas lies.

When you open it up, it says, easy to assemble, unbreakable, and one size fits all. The three great Christmas lies. Another one on the front of it says, I don't think I'll be getting my wife anything this year, and when you open it up, it says, she still hasn't used the snow shovel I got her last Christmas.

Here's one that says, I get such a thrill out of watching my children hanging up their stockings on Christmas Eve, and then you open it up, and on the inside it says, it's not that it's Christmas Eve, it's just a thrill to see them hanging anything up. In my all-time favorite Christmas card story, I read about a lady who wanted to send cards to a group of friends for whom she had no intention whatsoever of buying a gift. She waited till the last minute to get her cards, and maybe she went to CBC, I don't know, but she passed a hallmark on her way home the week before Christmas and decided to run into the store and grab some Christmas cards, and she rushed into the store. There she saw a box of cards that seemed to be just right.

I mean, on the front it said, from my heart to yours. The cards had pretty gold trimming around the edge, and she quickly signed the back of each one without looking inside, and she sent them off to her friends, believing she had now fulfilled her Christmas obligations. A little bit later in the week, she still had a couple of those cards left, and she decided to see what the inside of the cards said. When she opened up the cards, she found this little poem. This Christmas card is just to say, a little gift is on its way.

You talk about scrambling, man, I'm telling you. So, maybe we should read the inside of the cards before we send them out. Well, today I want to talk with you about gifts and giving. The whole nature of Christmas is to give gifts. And it all started, as you know, with the greatest gift that's ever been given by the greatest giver in all of the world, the Lord God himself, who gave us his Son.

And that's what Christmas is all about. What is it that Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians? Thanks be unto God for his indescribable gift. We start with a giving God, but when we're in the midst of studying the story of Christmas, we haven't gotten very far before we run into some people called the wise men. And these wise men probably have as much to do with our giving gifts to one another and gifts to the Lord as anyone in all of history. The record is given to us of their coming with gifts to the Lord in Matthew chapter 2.

I'd like for you to read with me from Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, and verses 11 and 12, and we can read out loud together. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him.

And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. There is something special and mysterious about this age-old picture that we have read. From across a continent over the desert sand beneath the silent stars trudges this curious caravan. In a distant land, these men have read signs in the evening sky sensing an incredible truth that few other living souls were to recognize for many years. We remember them as the wise men or using the gospel name the magi from which we derive the word magic, and it is indeed a story filled with wonder. For centuries, we have speculated about their identity. They were first sighted in the vicinity of Jerusalem asking a question recorded in verse 2 of Matthew 2 saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. Painters throughout the ages have enjoyed showing the elegant wise men worshiping Jesus on Christmas night beside the shepherds, but such an idea never came from the Bible at all. Matthew tells us that when the magi arrived to worship Jesus, the scene was not the rustic birthplace of Christmas at all, but it was a house. Matthew 2.11 says, And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child. It would seem that a few weeks, a few months, maybe even a year and a half had passed since Jesus had been born in a manger.

Joseph and Mary had situated their little family in a more suitable home. Therefore, it was a bit later that the wise men came. Three, well, maybe there were three and maybe there weren't. As a matter of fact, three names have traditionally been associated with these men, Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar, but they aren't in the Bible. You won't find their names in the Bible. In fact, it was the seventh century before these names were attached to the Christmas story, and they came out of an opera that was created to tell the story of Christmas. So I don't want to undercut your faith in the Christmas story, but I want you to know what the Bible says. The wise men weren't in the manger scene. Now, I hope that doesn't ruin your Christmas pageants or make you go back and rework your Christmas cards.

I remember when the film, The Nativity Story, was being finished and they sent me the screenplay to read so that I could decide whether I wanted to do this book project or not. They asked me if there was anything in the screenplay that was unbiblical. And I said, well, there's only one thing that's not quite right, and that is the wise men are at the manger scene and they're not supposed to be there. And the director said, Jeremiah, this film's only 93 minutes long. We have to get them there before the film is over.

And so we give them a little latitude there. Now, if you really want to know the truth, the wise men came when Jesus wasn't a babe, which is the term that is used in the book of Luke. But here in the book of Matthew, he is called, look down at your Bibles, a young child. That's a different word in the language of the New Testament, which means an older child.

So Jesus wasn't a babe. He was a young child when the wise men came. So why do we say there were three wise men? The only reason we say that is because the Bible tells us there were three gifts, and we assume that each person brought one gift, but we don't know that for sure.

In fact, there may have been many wise men and only three presenters. But having said all of that, what we do know is these men of intelligence, these aristocrats, these Gentile kings came a long way to find Jesus, and they came for the very same purpose for which the shepherds had come. They came to worship him, and they brought gifts.

That's what they bring to the story. These men brought gifts, and these were not incidental gifts. They are not just three things they chose out of their vast treasures to bring to Jesus. They weren't last-minute gifts, I'm sure. The gifts are extremely significant, and when we understand the background of each of the gifts that were brought, we will comprehend the tremendous faith that these wise men had in coming to worship the Lord. They truly are some of the heroes of the Nativity story.

Well, let's look at them. First of all, what the wise men gave to Jesus. They gave the gift of gold for a king. It says in Matthew 2-11, when they opened their treasures, they presented to him gold. Now, we imagine the first visitor stepping forth, opening his little small chest to reveal a breathtaking sight. As he takes over the cover, there is gold.

And the gift needed little explanation. Throughout the world, gold was coveted as the most precious of metals, the standard by which all wealth was measured. Even back then, they had such a thing as the gold standard. Gold is one of the noble metals.

No single acid can destroy it, nor will it rust away, or will it, like iron or tin, be corroded. No one can successfully imitate or fake gold, and it is the metal easily turned into the uses of beauty. All the way back in Exodus 39, we read of them sewing gold into fabric for garments.

Chemists say that the durability of gold is so great that a single grain of gold can be drawn out into a wire one one-thousandth of an inch in diameter, extending for a length of about one mile. Pure, simple, almost indestructible, gold is indeed a royal metal. In the ancient world into which Christ was born, gold was even rarer than it is today. That's why gold is a royal gift symbolizing kingship.

In the ruins of a town that has the name of Messina, which dates from the earliest time of the Trojan Wars, there is an ancient cemetery in which the kings of the towns were buried, and in that cemetery they were buried encased and inundated with gold. There's a very famous mask that has been found in the archaeological discoveries. It's called the Mask of Agamemnon, and it is a mask for kings. It is a death mask for kings, and it is made out of pure gold. John Henry Hopkins Jr. gave us the little carol that we sing at this time of the year, We Three Kings, which includes this stanza, Born a king on Bethlehem's plain, Gold I bring to crown him again, King forever, ceasing never over us all to reign. So gold is a gift which was given to signify the royalty and kingship of Jesus.

Some have pointed out the paradox here. A baby born in the simplicity of a feed trough to peasant parents and three wealthy men journeying from a far country to give this child a gift fit for a king. Some have pointed out that what the wise men gave was the most precious of all metals, and they financed the trip of Mary and Joseph into Egypt, which they had to take to get away from the wrath of Herod. We may not know all of this except we do know that in that day, even in our day, gold is the royal metal, and it was presented to Jesus to signify his kingship. Secondly, the Bible says the gift of gold for a king and the gift of frankincense for a priest. Once again in Matthew 2.11, we're told that when they opened their treasures, they gave to Jesus gold and frankincense.

Another visitor steps forward. This time he doesn't have a box in his hand. He has a little bottle, and he opens the bottle, and this delicious fragrance permeates the small room. It's the aroma of frankincense, the second of the gifts. I did a little homework on frankincense, and I found out it is a resin which is from a kind of tree that is held so sacred in Arabia and Ethiopia where it grew that only a few particularly holy and pure people were even allowed to approach the trees.

To obtain this precious frankincense itself, an Arab cuts a slash in the trunk of the tree, like someone from Vermont cuts a maple tree, and then strips off a narrow piece of bark and about five inches long below the cut, and the sap slowly oozes out of the tree, and it's allowed to harden for about three months. Then it's collected in lumps, and these lumps are yellow or colorless, dusty looking with a bitter taste, but when you light them on fire, they burn with a bright white flame, and there arises from them this beautiful smell that goes to heaven, which certainly made the wise men believe that this was a gift that would be pleasing to God. In Jesus' day, this kind of incense was used in temple worship. It was mixed with oil, and it was used to anoint the priests of Israel. It was also mixed with the meal offerings as they offered them to God, but one of the interesting things about incense is this, that it was always an offering of thanksgiving and praise to God. It was significant of the priests' role among the people, and it is that, I believe, to which Paul refers when he writes to the Philippians in Philippians 4, "'Indeed, I have all and abound.

I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the fangs sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice while pleasing to God.'" In other words, Paul said, like the incense offering of the Old Testament, what you have given to me to support me in my ministry, Paul said, is like an incense offering that goes up to heaven, and the aroma is pleasing to God. In the Old Testament, the incense offerings were never associated in any way with the sin offerings. Never was an incense offering offered with meat offerings or with wine offerings in atonement for sin. The incense was always a thanksgiving and praise offering. It was always an act of worship to bring incense to God. Almost as if to say as they presented this gift to the Christ child, here is the gift that is fitting for a priest, yes, fitting for a sinless priest who himself will become sin for us that we might know his forgiveness and his righteousness. Gold was given because Jesus was the king, and incense was given because Jesus was a priest, the high priest over us all.

And then finally, there is this third gift. In Matthew 2-11 says, they presented to him gold and frankincense and myrrh. Say the word myrrh out loud, myrrh. It is a word which comes from the Hebrew word mar, which means to be bitter. In Jesus' day, myrrh was the ingredient that was used to embalm a dead body. It was an external embalming.

As you remember, in those days, they did not have the procedures that we have today, but when they prepared a body for burial, they would wrap the body in layers of cloth, and then they would place their embalming spices in between the layers and then wrap the body some more and continue to do that. We are told in the Scripture that when Joseph of Arimathea came to prepare Jesus' body for burial, that he brought with him 100 pounds of myrrh for the burial to be wrapped within the cloth that was used to bury our Savior. One of the churches of Asia Minor that we read about in the book of Revelation is the Church of Smyrna. That sounds a little bit like myrrh, doesn't it? And it should sound like myrrh because that's where myrrh was manufactured. Smyrna got its name from the manufacturing of myrrh. Interestingly enough, in the seven churches of Revelation, Smyrna is the church which is associated with suffering. It is a suffering church. Now, ladies, if you were invited to a baby shower to honor a new baby, and you were asked to bring a gift, would it even cross your mind to bring a case of embalming fluid?

I doubt it. But indeed, that's what these men brought. Myrrh had a value. It could have been sold for money, but the significance of the gift of myrrh is that it was given to someone who was born for the particular purpose of dying. Just as Mary of Bethany over in John 12 anointed Jesus' body for burial before he had even died, remember when she poured all of her expensive ointment on him and washed his feet with her hair? And it says in the Scripture that she anointed his body for burial in advance. Well, long before Mary ever did this, the wise men did the very same thing, and the one who brought that gift to Jesus was saying, this one we have come to worship is not only our king and our priest, but we worship him as our Savior, for he has come to die for us, and the gift of myrrh signifies his death.

Mm. Well, as you can see, we don't have enough time to do all of this in one program, so you're going to have to come back tomorrow as we finish up our discussion of why the gifts of wise men. And then on Friday, we're going to talk about why music at Christmas.

That's one of my favorite lessons, and you'll want to be a part of all of this. Going forward till Christmas, we're going to talk about the nativity every single day. We'll see you right here tomorrow. . For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's current series, Why the Nativity, please visit our website, where you'll also find two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine Turning Points and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. Now, when you do, ask for your copy of David's 365-day devotional for 2021. It's called Strength for Today, and it's filled with biblical truth for the year ahead, and it's yours for a gift of any amount. And to keep your spirits bright through the holiday season, visit the Home for Christmas channel at turningpoint.tv, your free source for Christmas music, videos, messages, and more. The Home for Christmas channel at turningpoint.tv.

I'm Gary Hoogfleet. Please join us tomorrow as we continue the series, Why the Nativity. That's here on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. . Thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media. To find out more about us, go to vision.org.au.