Christmas - How wise were those wise men?

The Bible does not tell us very much about those visitors from the East who came to worship the Christ Child.

Christmas carols and Christmas cards speak of the three 'kings' presenting their treasures to the infant.

Were there three? We don't know. There were three gifts mentioned, but nowhere are we told how many Magi came.

We are not told they are kings and we don't know when they arrived in Bethlehem.

Since they came from a great distance, their journey would have taken more time than the shepherds' trip. And since Herod had all children under 2 years of age be killed, we would think that they arrived some months after Jesus was born.



In Matthew 2:16 we read:

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.


Likely in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi indicated that they had seen the star almost two years earlier and Mary and the family were then settled in a house in the area.


On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh (Matthew 2:11).


What about that star?

We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him, the Magi told the people in Jerusalem.

Many scholars have explained 'his star' as an astronomical phenomenon.

One of the earliest explanations was that it was a comet. That was the view of the great church father
Origen of Alexandria.

Later, Johannes Kepler, the father of modern astronomy, explained it was the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces in the year 7 BC.

This fits a logical timeline and is probably the favorite view of astronomers today. (It makes a great planetarium demonstration!)

More likely, though, is that the 'star' was a miraculous phenomenon. (Remember Jonah and the great fish? The text says God "provided a great fish to swallow Jonah").

Maybe God "provided" this miraculous appearance in the eastern sky.

And maybe, since the Jews were scattered throughout the known world, the Magi had heard rumors about their coming Messiah/King and understood he would come to Israel.

So when they saw the display in the sky, their thoughts turned toward the Jewish homeland.

Maybe this miraculous star was the appearance of the Shekinah glory that accompanied the people of Israel in their desert wanderings, signifying God's presence with them. James Montgomery Boice favors
this view.

Only something like the Shekinah manifestation could have led the wise men over the desert to Jerusalem, reappeared after their meeting with King Herod, guided them to Bethlehem, and then "stopped over the place where the child was" (Matthew 2:9), which seems a clear explanation of the written record.

What's most important?

Matthew doesn't seem concerned with exactly where the wise men came from, how many there were, or with the star itself.

Rather, he wanted us to know that from the very beginning of Jesus' story, Gentiles came to worship the Jewish Messiah, and that the message Jesus brought was for the whole world.

Which brings us back to Matthew's closing words when Jesus, after His resurrection, appeared to His disciples:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,  baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).

So during the first months of the life of Baby Jesus, Gentiles, not just Jews, came to worship Him. And at the end of His earthly life, He reminds us to go out to the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike!

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations....



From John's Revelation of the future....

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb....
(Revelation 7:9).

Disciples from all nations!

Christmas - What about that curse?

Joy to the world!

A favorite carol of almost everybody - written by Isaac Watts, in 1719, the same year Robinson Crusoe was published and 13 years before George Washington was born. The melody we use was arranged from a composition  by George Frederick Handel.


Words we usually miss are:

No more let sin and sorrow grow

Nor thorns infest the ground

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found!

    What curse? And His blessing are to flow...as far as that curse is found...how far is the curse found?

Back to Genesis. Chapter 3

Cursed is the ground for your sake...through suffering shall you eat of it all the days of your life...  thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you...in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...

     So the ground was cursed and would bring forth weeds among the food (and remember, those were days of vegetarian diets) and so producing crops would be harder and apparently there would be some physical change in man--he would perspire when he worked because it would be much more laborious to harvest food now. Maybe he wouldn't be as strong, either.


    We don't know all the details. God has just left us the outline of what happened when sin entered our glorious garden world.

     Looks like wherever man goes on this earth,  the curse is there. As civilizations spread out to seek new land they encountered (and brought with them) the curse.

     Does the curse go with man into space? Man, who is fed with food from a cursed earth and machinery that is built with items from the cursed earth -- even man himself..."For dust you are and to dust you will return...."

      I can remember when the two Voyagers left on their missions in 1977.

     For almost 50 years they have plummeted into space, still going, still sending out messages and reports back to us....still searching for other life.


The Golden Records

     Remember the "Golden Record" that was placed on each Voyager?

     These records contained information from our planet, in case the rockets were intercepted by another civilization or perhaps landed on an alien place where life forms might find them.

      On the Records were things like sounds from earth (a wave crashing on a beach, a sound of wind, a waterfall, birds, whales, etc.) and sounds of human beings (baby's cry, a kiss) and music from around the world.

      The one thing it did not include, and certainly should have, was a "Warning" sign, with the words from Genesis 3. After all, shouldn't life forms through out the  universe know who they were dealing with? We are containers and generators of a curse - we are violent, selfish people who seek control and set out to hurt each other. The whole universe should be warned! Stay away from planet earth.

   "Open these doors at your own risk" it should say.

   But in the future Kingdom to come, what happens to that curse?


      And there shall be no more curse  (Revelation 22:3)

His blessing will flow...as far as the curse is found! Throughout the earth - throughout the universe!

Voyagers 1 and 2 are now the farthest from the earth than any other made-made objects!

Christ's rule will dwarf that distance!

When the curse is removed,

all things will be made new for Christ's new kingdom.

P.S. I have seen copies of the material on these Golden Records. Carl Sagan selected the earth's sights and sounds that he felt should be included -- it is a total distortion of what life is really like here! (We were strange people in the 70's....we had great difficulty seeing reality...)There were pictures of interracial and trans cultural  families eating bountiful meals around the world... plates heaped with food...everyone happy and joyous....lots of crops and content, satisfied people. No scenes of war...none of hunger...none of prisons...no crime, no abortions...just happy people eating and playing with each other without a care in the world! What idiotic propaganda!

     You can go online and see what was on the record. Chuck Berry, but no Silent Night... no Amazing Grace....nothing spiritual.

     Perhaps one day in the far future, some unsuspecting life form will arrive here in their space ships, with one of those "Golden Records" in their "hands" and find out what we are really like - then sue us for false advertising!

    (It would be like booking a vacation trip to a leper colony!)

    

P.P.S. Isaac Watts based this wonderful song on Psalm 98, which is primarily about the 2nd coming of Christ, and which is also the main topic of his famous carol. So it will be more appropriately sung at Christ's return as King, not to celebrate His first coming as a suffering servant. Read Psalm 98 and check it out.


Joy to the World is not about the Nativity -- it's about the 2nd coming of Christ as King!

Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Learning from Simeon - Timothy Keller

Little Jesus was presented at the Temple.....From Luke 2:34-35


Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: 'This child is destined to cause the rising and falling of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul, too.'


Jesus said He came to bring a sword. Simeon said so, too. Do we see what that means? It means we will get hostility for Jesus' sake.

It means we will have many painful struggles in the Christian life. Christmas, then, teaches us that Christians should not give in to self-pity. Nor should they be shortsighted, because the ultimate results of these conflicts are deeper peace and joy.

The word of Simeon is that Christians should expect and be ready for trouble. They should expect conflict as a way to get to peace. We can see it in Jesus, in how He brought peace through the agony of the cross. We should not be surprised, then, when conflicts come upon us.

How can we resolve to face the "sword" of trials and difficulties? Only by seeing how Jesus got the resolve to face the ultimate sword for us. Genesis 3 describes how God exiled humanity from His presence and from the tree of life. When He did that, we are told that "a flaming sword" was put in place to guard the way back to eternal life (Genesis 3:24).

That was another way to say that "the wages of sin is death"(Romans 6:23). The entire Old Testament bears witness to this, because every time sin is atoned for in the tabernacle or temple, a substitute animal goes under the knife and dies.

What was Jesus doing, then, when He went to the cross? He was paying the penalty for sin; He was going under the sword. It came down on Him. "He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished" (Isaiah 53:8).

Let's not give in to self-pity or cowardice. The sword that passed through Jesus, the battle that He fought for us, was infinitely greater than anything He asks us to endure. And when He faced His final moment, and the sword was descending, He was utterly alone and forsaken, even by the Father. (Matthew 27:46).

When we walk through our difficulties, however, we are never alone. He always walked there with us. "I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless and sanctity to thee thy deepest distress" (From the hymn How Firm a Foundation).

When Simeon said to Mary, "There'll be a sword through your soul, what if Mary had said, "I don't want a sword in my soul"? What if Jesus had said, "I don't want a sword in my soul! I don't want to bring peace that way," and then where would you be? Where would I be? 

Don't shrink back. Follow Him to  peace.

          -- From Hidden Christmas, by Timothy Keller, Chapter 7.

Herod the Horrid - (Part 2)

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi (Matthew 2:16).

If Joseph is the model of goodness and mercy in the Christmas story, Herod is certainly the model of evil and cruelty.

It was a brutal world into which the little baby Jesus was born.

Some challenging thoughts from Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey:

"Those who lived in the Middle East across the second half of the twentieth century (including this author) experienced frequent warfare.

"In Lebanon, particularly, there were seven wars in a thirty-five year period. One lasted for seventeen years. Others were quick, yet brutal. People saw friends and family killed by bullets and explosives and all the other horrors of modern war.

"How do people retain their faith under such conditions? One answer is that they remember both the Christmas story and the cross.

"A mindless, bloody atrocity took place at the birth of Jesus. After reading that story, the reader is not caught unawares by the human potential for terror that shows its ugly face again, on the cross.

"At the beginning of the Gospel and at its conclusion, Matthew presents pictures of the depth of evil that Jesus came to redeem.

"This story heightened the reader's awareness of the willingness on the part of God to expose Himself to the total vulnerability which is at the heart of the Incarnation.

"If the Gospel can flourish in a world that produces the slaughter of the innocents and the cross, the Gospel can flourish anywhere.

"From this awareness the readers of the Gospel in any age can take heart."

Herod the Horrid - (Part 1)

One of the stories recorded in the Christmas narrative involves Herod's rage when he realizes he has been tricked by the wise men and so orders the murder of all boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity, two years and under.


When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and gave orders to kill all boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi  (Matthew 2:16).


The story is only recorded in Matthew, and it is sometimes purposely overlooked in all the peace and good will messages of the season. It is not a story that fits into pageants and nativity scenes very well.
Its brutal tones disturb us when we ponder "Joy to the World."

In church history the event is known as the "Slaughter of the Innocents."

Why was the story even included in Matthew's account?

Maybe to tie the remarkable historical connection between the birth of Moses and the birth of Jesus.  Two leaders were arriving on the world stage to lead their people from slavery into freedom.

Not a welcome thought for Pharaoh or Herod.

Or maybe to remind us that Jesus was born and lived in a cold, cruel, harsh world, and yet, in spite of that, a world that could and did receive and spread the gospel message of peace and joy.

A world not unlike our own world today.

So what kind of a man who make such an order to murder infants and small children?

More About Herod....

Our information on Herod is brief, but the picture that emerges through the centuries is of a cruel, self-serving, arrogant leader.

His background was complex. He was an Arab, whose father was from a tribe in the southern part of the Holy Land called Idumea (Edom - where descendants of Esau settled and whose people refused to allow the Israelites to pass through their land after the Exodus many centuries before).

His mother was from Petra, which was the capital of an Arab kingdom in northern Arabia.

But Herod's religion was Jewish. A century earlier a Jewish ruler had conquered the Edomites and on threat of death forced them to become Jews. His grandfather, Antipater the Elder, was a provincial governor.

Culturally Herod was a Greek and Greek was his first language. His name was Greek and he was known for various attempts to turn Jerusalem into a Greek city.

Politically, Herod was a Roman. He always sided with Rome in any conflict.



He was a well-known military figure. He personally led his armies in ten major wars. One of the most famous was the war between Cleopatra and Antony against Octavian.

Herod chose to side with Antony against Octavian for control of the Roman Empire.

When Octavian won decisively, Herod showed his clever ingenuity by traveling to meet Octavian and gaining his attention.

It was a brilliant move. Octavian (who called himself Caesar Augustus) granted Herod an audience.

Herod boldly appeared without a crown and freely admitted he had helped Caesar's enemies. He even admitted his high regard for Antony and his loyalty to him.

Then he climaxed his audience  by saying, "What I ask you to consider is not whose friend, but what a good friend, I was."

Caesar did consider the words and told Herod to put his crown back on and to return to Palestine to rule!

It was down hill for Herod from there. He had ten marriages. He considered his sons to be political rivals and had two of his 'favorites' strangled in Samaria. He began to suspect his favorite wife, Mariamne, of disloyalty, and had her killed. Later he wandered helplessly through the palace halls calling her name and sending servants to find her. When they failed, he had them beaten.

He attempted suicide and the crown prince, who Herod had imprisoned, was released to assume leadership. Herod survived and killed that son also, and then died a few days later.

His last order was to command his troops to arrest thousands of notables from across the country and place them in a stadium in Jericho. Upon Herod's death, the notables were to be executed so that there  would be mourning in the land when the king died.

Herod knew only too well that no one would weep for him.

That order was not carried out.

But it does show us that as an old man Herod certainly had the capability of ordering the killing of the babies in Bethlehem, the act we have called "The Slaughter of the Innocents" in the Christmas story.


It was truly a brutal world into which Jesus was born, and Herod was a man of his times.

A fact we should not ignore. Because it looks more and more like our world today.