OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON Part 2

Mathew chapter 2 verses 1 - 12 picks up the narrative after the birth of Jesus.

Giving us the geographic and chronological context, we learn that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea and that He was born during the rule of King Herod. We are then introduced to the magi.

The magi were a class of spiritual surveyors who likely arose in the same royal courts that Daniel the prophet had served  (centuries earlier) and were students of his writtings. They arrived in Jerusalem inquiring about the divine king of the Jews whom they had spiritually detected and for whom they had traveled to pay homage and  worship. 

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The arrival of the Magi caused a firestorm in the political circles of Jerusalem. 

The magi had presumed that the Jews would know that their own eternal king had arrived but the ruling classes were clearly caught by surprise triggering a frenzy of consultations with the priests and the legal scholars of the land.

When asked, the religious leaders replied immediately that Bethlehem was the location that the king of Israel was to be born. They knew from the scriptures which town the Messiah would arrive in but they had not been alert enough to detect the time of the Lord's visitation.

King Herod felt politically threatened by the developing events and began to plot a way to snuff out the possible emergence of a rival. 

After learning that Bethlehem was the place of birth, Herod discreetly pressed the Magi to give him the exact date that they had detected the Messiah's star so that he could zero in on the most likely candidate.

He asked the Magi to find the one they had come to worship and then to return to him with the  details of his identity so that he could go to worship him as well.

The magi then journeyed to Bethlehem and to their elation, the star they had seen and followed led them directly to where the young child Jesus was.

They worshipped Him and gave Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh;

• Gold represented His kingly office
• Frankincese represented His priestly office
• Myrrh represented His sacrifice of His life

Whereas they had been instructed by Herod to return to Jerusalem to provide him with intelligence on the child, the Magi were warned in a dream not to report to Herod and so they bypassed Jerusalem returning to their homeland.

The story of the Magi gives us a glimpse into the legacy of the prophets who left writtings about the future they had seen and these writtings remained potent through the centuries.

The Jewish diaspora in Babylon had clung to the prophet Daniel's work and on the day of God's visitation, those who traversed the spiritual landscapes were alert and picked up the most significant event to ever occur up to that time.

The great God who made us  and everything that exists, touched down on earth as a human child and the salvation of mankind was now in its final and most critical stage.

Amen.

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