Christmas Speculations: The Wise Men

I'm very picky about the movies I like. I don't like anything at all in the horror genre. Don't like chick flicks. (Confession: Miss Congeniality is actually growing on me because Sandra Bullock reminds me of a girl I know. Brooke Sims.) I don't like anything with animals because something always dies. Don't like anything historical because it's usually about something terrible and I get emotionally tied to it. Don't like anything with too much foul language, don't like anything with lots of blood or killing, and am not a huge fan of jock humor.

So, you may ask, what do I like?

Suspense. Mystery. Something that seems to be headed down one track but veers a sharp right and you don't know where you're going until the credits roll. I love all the Ocean's series, the Italian Job, and the Bourne movies. [And also Princess Bride. Suspenseful yet goofy.]

And today's post, my last about Christmas, is the most suspenseful tale of the Christmas story: the wise men.

Who are they? Where did they come from? What is the star? How did it "appear?" How did it "move?" I spent more time than I want to admit researching these very topics yesterday and I will tell you what I discovered: nobody knows. There are lots of guesses, but it's all a mystery. The Bourne Conspiracy of the New Testament.

So we believe the words of Deuteronomy 29:29, which say, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law," (NIV). So we admire the suspense of the Bible, but we don't dwell on it. We don't focus on it. We don't focus on the mystery more than the Messiah.

So we look at what we do know about the wise men:

• We know they are identified as Magi, which is a non-Christian term referring to a priestly division of men from ancient Persia, which is present-day Iran. This makes sense, because Matthew 2:2 tells us they came from the east.

• We know that these men were wise, not just because we call them wise men but because they noticed a new star in the sky. I mean, back then, there was no light pollution in the big cities to keep you from seeing the stars. You could look up and see thousands on every clear night. These were the astronomers of the day, identifying every star in the night sky and recognizing that a new one had come. Before telescopes. VERY smart men.
• We know they were not Jewish, because they had no clue about any of the prophecies of the Messiah. They saw the star and somehow realized it signified an important event. A very intuitive girl I know (Hope Duke) pointed out to me years ago that way back in Genesis 1:14 when God created the sun, moon, stars, and more, He said, "Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years," (HCSB, italics mine). So God put this very star in the sky at creation, spinning who knows where, setting it on a course to enter our line of sight thousands of years later, knowing the very moment His Son would come to earth as a human would coincide with the exact moment smart men in Iran would be looking for it.

Y'all, God is so amazing. His plan is so perfect. His power and might and wisdom are just infinite (Romans 11:33-36).

Like any wise (and likely powerful and wealthy) men, they assumed that a new king in Israel would probably be found in the palace. So they loaded up their stuff and made the long trek to Jerusalem, the capital, where King Herod lived. Now Herod the Great was appointed king of the Jewish nation by Caesar Augustus, but he was put in that position not by the Jewish people but by the Romans, and therefore he did what was best for the Romans. He was not elected by the people and it seems he didn't like them. He was horribly cruel and ruled with an iron hand. He eventually killed many members of his family, including his own wife.

So you can only imagine the rage he flew into when some well-to-do foreign men paraded into his palace and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him," (Matthew 2:2, in all translations here.)

God was all over these men. From seeing the star, they were able to tell there was a new ruler in Israel, that He was a baby, and that He deserved worship. And don't you know Herod's skin crawled at their words "the one who has been born king of the Jews?" Herod had been appointed king; there was someone out there who had been born king. 

Herod summoned the Jewish priests and teachers, realized that the prophet Micah prophesied that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and sent the Magi to the little old town about five miles south of Jerusalem. Herod gave them a great lie instructing them to let him know when they found the baby so that he, too, could worship him, but we all see him crossing his fingers behind his back.

Now here's where the mystery defies all we know of stars: "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," (Matthew 2:9). Stars don't move and then stop; they circle in a pattern according to how the earth is spinning. (Stars are not actually moving; we are.) And stars sure don't look close enough to earth that they appear to be pointing to a little town only five miles away.

But this one did. 

They came to the house, saw Mary and Jesus, "bowed down and worshiped Him," (Matthew 2:11). These men weren't Jews. They knew nothing of the Old Testament. They were wealthy, powerful, astronomer-scholars who saw something so amazing and overwhelming that they realized only the God of creation could make it happen. He gave them the brains to find that star. He gave them the understanding of what it meant. 

And they worshiped. GLORY.

Can you see the look on Mary's face as the entire procession (we can only imagine it was several beasts of burden, servants, and lots of excitement accompanying the wise men) stopped at her lowly home and bowed to the ground? Can you hear the neighbors whispering? Can you see the reverence and honor on the faces of the men who had been traveling months--and maybe years--to see this king? 

Can you see the toddler Jesus returning their gaze? Oh, He was fully God and yet fully man! So though He babbled like a normal child He certainly still understood the significance.

This was the One that Micah and Isaiah and all the other Messianic prophets had foretold. And though almost everyone in Israel missed Him, these men from hundreds of miles away didn't. 

The neighbors weren't bowing in worship. The town of Bethlehem wasn't declaring Him king. BUT HE WAS. Regardless of who knew it or recognized it or believed it, He was the King of all Kings.

He still is.

And just as they bowed and worshiped Him (Matthew 2:11), so one day EVERY knee will bow and every tongue will confess He is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). One day it won't just be those who were looking for Him that see Him as He really is. No one will miss it when He appears in all His Kingly glory.

But by then it's too late. 

When you seek Him you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13). Use that brain He gave you even if you're not a scholar. "I will be found by you," (Jeremiah 29:14) He declares. 

Though the wise men are a mystery, Jesus is not. Seek Him. Find Him. Worship Him.



MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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