So imagine this scene, unannounced to Mary. Do you like people showing up at your house unannounced? Unexpected.
This entourage shows up, stops traffic. Everybody is going to pour out to see what in the world is going on here. Jesus is probably hiding behind Mary's skirt, wide-eyed, as he receives worship from the kingmakers of the Persian Empire. Why do we celebrate Christmas the way we do? Have you ever wondered if there's more to the symbols and even the music of this season? Today, we discover the unexpected story of the Magi, those mysterious wise men from the east, and how they defied the expectations of their day to honor Jesus. From the surprising origins of the star to the incredible meaning behind their gifts, there's much more to learn about these figures than what Christmas cards show. Stay tuned for a fresh look at a familiar part of the Christmas story.
It will inspire your worship. Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to do something special, but in all of it we exalt Jesus. The fact that we observe Christmas isn't the issue.
Why we observe it is. In fact, what really troubles me is so much of the Christmas drama is lost on the church, not because of pagan traditions, but because of poor exposition and all the myths that have grown up around it. We've been exploring together, if you're new today, some of these myths or some of these erroneous interpretations, and we've been expounding our way through this. So what happens next is picked up by Matthew's Gospel. So turn there, Matthew 2 and verse 1. 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 saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the King heard this, he was troubled.
I bet he was. And all Jerusalem with him. Of all the things they could have said to upset Herod and the Jewish people for different reasons would have been this question. Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? You'll notice they did not ask where is he who will be born one day, but where is he who has been born? In other words, it's already happened.
You can't stop it. But here's the shocking part of what they asked. They are asking for the whereabouts of the King of the Jews. If you'd been standing there at this moment, you would have seen Herod's face flush crimson red.
His blood is immediately boiling. This is Herod the Great, number of Harrods. This was Herod the Great.
He had finally gained the favor of the Roman Emperor and the Roman Senate had agreed to grant him his lifelong wish to carry the title King of the Jews. He was the King of the Jews. Herod was an Edomite. That is, he was a descendant of a long line that traced all the way back to their forefather Esau. You might remember that Esau and Jacob were twin brothers.
When it came time to bless the oldest twin, which would have been the tradition, which would have been Esau, if you're older in the faith, you know what happened. Jacob deceived his blind father, Isaac, into giving him the blessing instead. And a portion of that blessing spoken by Isaac, which was predictive. You go all the way back to Genesis chapter 27, a portion of that blessing in verse 29 says this. Isaac says to Jacob, let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you.
Be Lord over your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Well, Jacob received that blessing and Esau resented it and so did his descendants for 1900 years. So, now you have 1900 years later, Herod gets his wish, the Roman Senate bestows on him the title King of the Jews, is as if Herod is now able to say the birthright has returned to Esau.
Where it belongs in his mind. The descendants of Jacob will now bow to the descendant of Esau. The Jews will bow down to me. Herod was an anti-Christ.
There's a demonic battle taking place here. In fact, in the final two years of his life, Herod's paranoia will be so terrible, he'll murder three of his own sons who rival him. He's soon going to order all of the young boys, Jewish boys in Bethlehem killed to try to kill this King of the Jews. Now, it's during the last two years of his life that this group of wise men show up and ask, where is he?
Born King of the Jews. They have no idea. They just lit a fuse and it's going to explode affecting this part of the world. And that's because it really isn't just anybody asking the question.
It wasn't just the question. But if you go back to verse one again, the latter part says, Behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. Your translation might render that magi. It comes directly from the Greek term magi, gives us our word magic magic or magician or really more closely aligned with who they were, the word magistrate. The magi were high-ranking statesmen in the Kingdom of Babylon and then the Medes and Persian kingdoms.
Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian, informs us that the magi were trained in the arts and sciences. They were the university professors. They were the political power players, all rolled up into one. They were also the priests, the high priests of the Persian religion, which was still in force when Jesus was born. Their national religion was called Zoroastrianism. I know that sounds like they worshiped Zoro, you know, wore black capes. Actually, they wore white robes and tall hats. Their primary temple had an altar with fire that they never allowed to go out.
They believed that their God ignited it, their chief God, whose name was Mazda, the name of that car you're going to sell this week. No Persian prince ever became king without being tutored by the magi. And only when the magi determined that the prince was prepared, would the prince be crowned king. The magi were nicknamed king makers. Herod knew that. So here they are. Where's the king of the Jews?
As if to say to him, you're not it. Where's the real one? By the way, Matthew doesn't tell us how many magi were in this group. Early church tradition says there were 12, but the church later changed the number to three. We don't know why. Probably because the church couldn't fit 12 wise men into the Christmas play. It's just too many on the stage.
I don't know. I would agree with a larger number personally because of their assignment. This would have been a large caravan traveling some 2,000 miles over mountain ranges through valleys and traveling with no doubt with servants to cook and set up their tents at night. Traveling with shepherds who would be tending their herds, which would be their provision. A large contingent of soldiers, Persian soldiers, no doubt accompanying them on this mission to not only protect them but to protect the gold they're carrying from bandits.
So rewrite the Sunday school picture you might have in your mind. These aren't three guys riding on camels with gift boxes in their baggage. This is quite an impressive entourage. The question is, why would they take months to prepare and then many months to travel?
That's probably more than a year to arrive. Why would they care? Why would they even be interested in a Jewish Messiah? Well, to begin to answer that, you have to travel back some 600 years to the time when the Jewish people were conquered and many of them deported into Babylon. Among the deported Jews were several Jewish teenagers.
You remember? They graduated at the top of their class from the University of Babylon. They had impressed their magi professors, so much that they were appointed to top political positions in the kingdom. You know several of them by their new Babylonian names that they had been given, Shadrach, Meshach, and I told you so.
That's how I remembered from Sunday school. The valedictorian among these Jewish young people was named Belteshazzar, but we ignore that. We call him by his Hebrew name, Daniel. He became the leading magi, the leading wise man in the kingdom.
Appointed later when Babylon is defeated by the Persians, Darius keeps him second in command. Now, for decades, he'll live there until he's in his 90s, but he has this faithfulness to God, godly influence. He's evidently been having a Bible study in his apartment. And we know that because 600 years later, spiritual descendants of Daniel are showing up here in Jerusalem saying, again, notice what Matthew records in verse 2, for we saw his star when it rose and have come, get this, to worship him. Not to promote his political ambitions, not even to crown him, but to worship him. They're believers and they've come to worship the Savior. Now, here's this entourage of wise men representing a long line of believing magi that's stretched all the way back to Daniel. There's still another question, why would a star prompt their journey here and now? Why would they have connected some kind of cosmic light with the birth of the Messiah?
I'm glad you asked that question so close to Christmas. Well, Daniel had at his disposal the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, the law. Daniel would have personally known Ezekiel, the prophet who was prophesying in Babylon. Daniel had access to the prophecies of Isaiah. Listen to one verse that Daniel evidently taught his magi co-workers. It's from Numbers 24 16. This is the oracle of him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty.
I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter, that's royalty, shall rise from Israel. So here in this Old Testament passage, the Messiah is called a rising star who will reign in the land of Israel.
Another passage that Daniel evidently taught in his home Bible study group is from Isaiah chapter 60. We love this text, this prophecy of the Messiah. Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people. But the Lord will rise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you and nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. So these are all prophetic images of the Messiah's star, so to speak, rising in brightness in the land of Israel. Now I've read some interesting articles and speculations from well-meaning people about some kind of special astral alignment that occurred at Jesus' birth. The problem with that is that it doesn't fit the narrative of Scripture much like the books that are written about people who have near-death experiences.
Their experiences don't fit the narrative of Scripture. You need to understand that the Magi weren't led to Jerusalem by just any star. The Greek word for star, astair, can be translated simply as brilliance, brightness, radiance. This would have been the radiance or the brightness that guided the people of Israel as they journey through the wilderness back in Exodus chapter 13. This is the brilliant light that knocked Saul, later known as Paul, to the ground and blinded him, the resurrected Lord, Acts 9. This is the vision of John the Apostle as he sees the light of Christ's face as bright as the sun, Revelation chapter 1. These Persian Magi are being led by God's Shekinah glory.
It was miraculous. In fact, the narrative implies that they're the only ones who see it. You don't miss the fact, by the way, that the light led them to Jerusalem, not Bethlehem, where Jesus was.
I mean, did the GPS system get out of whack or something? No, this is the divine plan. The announcement will be made to the nation Israel and to the appointed king of the Roman Empire over that area of the world that the Messiah has been born. So they arrive and they ask Herod, where is this one born king of the Jews? Now, notice verse 4, and assembling all the chief priests and scribes, that's a phrase that means the Sanhedrin, they gather the Supreme Court of Israel. And Herod inquired of them where the Christ was to be born, the anointed one, the Messiah, Christos. And they told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. I mean, they just knew this immediately. They didn't have to go to Bible Gateway or anything like that to find out. In fact, they just quote the prophet. Notice, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. They knew this.
In fact, to me, it's rather mind-blowing that they just don't travel five miles to go check it out. They had memorized this prophecy from Micah. Listen, they knew the scriptures. They were not interested in the Savior.
There are a lot of people today who can tell you about the Christmas story, but they've never cared to travel to the cross and claim Him as Savior. Well, these wise men eventually leave Herod's palace. They head to Bethlehem, go down to verse 9.
After listening to the king, he, of course, tried to deceive them. They went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose, went before them. The radiance, the light rose before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, the shining, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. So, you know, once they leave Herod's palace and they head to Bethlehem now, this star, the shining, brilliant light suddenly appears again.
It had turned on, then it turned off, and now it turned back on. We're told here that it came, verse 11, to rest over the place, the house where the child was. The light literally hovered, it rested, it stayed.
The word means to stand, same word used in Matthew 13, verse 2. And great crowds gathered about Jesus so that He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood, same word, on the beach. This wasn't some star somewhere in the sky sending starlight down into the town of Bethlehem.
This is more like a spotlight hovering over, illuminating just this one spot in the neighborhood. Their journey of 2,000 miles, taking months to travel, months to prepare for. This is why when they finally arrive in Bethlehem, they never went to a stable. Verse 11 says, and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary as mother. They didn't come to a stable, they entered a house. I know this is going to mess up a lot of Christmas cards.
If you've already sent them, don't worry about it. I'm not trying to hurt Hallmark in any way, but three wise men never knelt down next to a cow in a stable next to a manger. In fact, the Magi saw the child, not braefos, that's the Greek word for baby, but pydion, the typical Greek word for child. So by the time the Magi arrive, Jesus is a year or more older. He's a toddler.
He's walking around the house. We're told here the Magi fell down. This is true oriental fashion and worshiped Jesus. So imagine this scene, unannounced to Mary. You like people showing up at your house unannounced? Unexpected. Joseph's evidently at work.
Mary's working around the house. Jesus, I'll be playing with his favorite toy. This entourage shows up, stops traffic. Everybody is going to pour out, you know, to see what in the world is going on here. Jesus is probably hiding behind, you know, Mary's skirt, wide-eyed, as he receives worship from the kingmakers of the Persian Empire.
Man, what a scene is this? And they now bring gifts, verse 12. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts. They gave him gold.
Seneca, the Roman philosopher who lived during the days of Christ, wrote that over there in the kingdom of Persia, you never approached the king without a gift of gold. They're declaring that Jesus is royalty. They gave him frankincense. It's a substance from the boswellia tree used by the Old Testament priests in their ceremonies of intercession. This is a gift to the high priest. They gave him myrrh.
This is a strange gift for a child. This sweet substance came from a small thorn tree. They would boil the sap and produce a gum that would be mixed with wine to form a narcotic pain-eliminating beverage. This will be the drink offered to Jesus on the cross.
He will refuse it. Mark 15. Myrrh was also formed into a sticky, sweet substance, sweet-smelling substance they would use to wrap a corpse. They would wrap strips of linen around the body, and they'd keep it in place with this sticky substance. So the magi gave myrrh to the one predictive of his death. Gold for a king, frankincense for our high priest, and myrrh for the suffering savior who'd come to die, to redeem his bride from every nation of the world. Now, in these few verses, you have the same three responses to this announcement today.
Cultures change, but responses do not. You have anger and defiance from Herod. He wanted nothing to do with a rival to his throne, which represented his life.
You have apathy. You have disregard from religious people who knew some scripture but didn't want the savior. Then there are those who claim Jesus as their Messiah. So to this day, you have those who hate him as Herod did, those who ignore him as the Sanhedrin did, and those who worship him, those who join that entourage of the magi and praise him as their king.
What's your response to this announcement? Is he your king, your savior, your Lord? The magi's journey wasn't just a historical visit. It was a profound act of worship. Their gifts signified who Jesus was, king, priest, and savior.
That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today's message is called Meeting the Magi. Thanks for joining us today.
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