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, 2 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.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
6 “‘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.’”
7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
As we explore the coming of the Magi to pay homage to and worship the King, let me start…at the end.
In Revelation 5, we have the vision of heaven that the Apostle sees and there the redeemed sang a new song and we are told that the throng is made up of people from every tongue, tribe and nation. At the end of the book in chapter 21, where we have the vision of heaven, of the New Jerusalem, of the eternal dwelling of all God’s people we read, “And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor to it…”
This is God’s purpose from the beginning of time, the nations of the world in unadulterated praise of God the Son. That is where the history of redemption is moving and has always been moving, the redemption of the World. Therefore, we would expect to see that movement within the pages of Scripture and indeed we do, the gospel preached to Abraham, the covenant as it was established at the beginning, spoke of the day when the nations of the world would be blessed…God said to Abraham:
In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed…
At the end of Zechariah we read of the nations of the world going to Jerusalem to worship, but more shocking is the mention of Egypt and Assyria! These nations were Israel’s arch-enemies!
Even those who were the enemies of Israel, are going to be coming up to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast of ingathering. Now you need to understand that this has never physically occurred, the nations have not gone to the earthly Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, it never happened. Zechariah is referring to the nations worshipping the Redeemer in the New Jerusalem, he is speaking about the glory of the new heavens and the new earth!
The wise men, foreigners, Gentiles, coming from the nations to bow at the feet of the King, to bring, as Revelation says, their treasures, is but a small picture, a beginning of the nation’s coming, gifts in hand to lay their treasures before the King. The wise men coming to bow before the King begins to demonstrate the full meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles and Zechariah’s vision of a super-celebration is coming to pass.
But there is so much material in the Bible that points us to this reality. When Simeon, who was told he would not die until he saw the Christ, the Messiah of God, sees the baby Jesus at the temple, he said:
“…my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.”
When Paul was addressing the mob at Jerusalem, the text says they listened to him quietly until he said that God had called him to bring the message to the Gentiles, and with that they raised their voices demanding he be put to death. And yet Paul would say to Agrippa that he was only preaching what Moses and the prophets had preached, that Jesus would suffer, be the first to rise from the dead and would proclaim light to the Jews and to the Gentiles.
Jesus himself had parables that were speaking to this very fact, that the wedding feast was prepared and God sent his servants out but the Jews wouldn’t come so the servants were sent into the highways and the byways and brought people in from everywhere.
And then in Revelation 12 we are told that Satan has been cast out of heaven and that he seeks to deceive the whole world, that is his task, world deception. But then in chapter 20 Satan is bound so that he can no longer deceive the nations. He is bound in and by the victory of Jesus. The Lord binds him so that the nations would no longer be deceived but would flock to the Lord.
The wise men were a precursor…a reminder, almost as though the New Testament can barely hold back what is about to explode as the Lord seeks to save the world. Satan will be bound and not able to deceive the nations and the ingathering will begin! It has begun!
Now, for us Gentiles every one, this might not strike us as it should. But what the wise men knew and the picture that they are, of the nations coming to the King, was by no means understood or embraced by the world at that time.
When Zechariah and Isaiah said the things they said about the nations, most Jewish folks assumed that the Jews would rule the world and every nation submit to them and fear them as they once did King David. Anything else would have been considered highly unlikely. Other than Herod it doesn’t seem anyone took the wise men all that seriously. After all, this baby, this so-called king was a Jew and that was certainly no recommendation to the Greco-Roman world. There was a huge prejudice against Judaism. People in the world today often object to Christianity for similar reasons: it is a Western religion or a white man’s religion. Well, it was so in that day too. It was a Jewish sect.
Jesus was born in Judea, a minor and troublesome province in a distant corner of the empire. His family circumstances were unremarkable, to say the least. This child would hardly be anyone’s candidate to be the King of kings and Lord of lords! It would have been hard to conceive of a message less credible, less likely to be acceptable to the Greco-Roman world than what the wise men were convinced was taking place. Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection the apostle Paul said that the Jews were scandalized by the message of Jesus and the Greeks thought it absolutely ridiculous.
And once Christians began to multiply, the gospel message had to bear a still further burden: the active displeasure and eventually violent opposition on the part of the Roman authorities. Become a Christian and make your life a lot more difficult than it already is! Who is going to sign on for that? The prospect of the gospel’s success, humanly speaking, in other words, was zero to none!
As I mentioned Herod took it seriously enough to have all the male babies two years and younger murdered, but he also murdered two of his own sons because in his paranoia he thought they wanted his throne. However, through the wise men, we begin to see the power of God being unleashed in the world as the proclamation of Jesus begins to march in conquest.
You and I take all of this for granted because people all over the world today bow the knee to the King in true and heartfelt adoration and praise. But you have to appreciate that when the wise men knelt at feet of the king, no one, not even they, would have been able to tell you what we now so take for granted. The nations now make up the bride of Christ; Jew and Gentile, male and female, and people from every nationality under heaven, in Christ Jesus, we are one in our Lord.
There is a lot of talk in our day about racial reconciliation and white privilege. It strikes me as a bit odd that most of the answers to deal with the hatred, sound rather, well…hateful. Man’s attempts to solve this problem will fail. I am 100% in favor of racial reconciliation and I think that all Christians should be fighting for it and, by the grace of God, I know of the plan, the only plan, that will not fail. All the peoples of the world, all the races of the world will be reconciled when we meet at the foot of the cross…acknowledge in the deepest humility that we are all, every one of us from every nation under heaven, guilty of sin and rebellion against our God. And then, reach out and take hold of the One who came to save us all.
Jesus reconciles the races as we all come together acknowledging that we are all broken and can be saved by the grace of God, alone. It is going to be quite a day, when we gather with 10,000 times 10,000 and every color you can imagine, all singing the Song of the Lamb. And one of the most powerful glimpses of this reality came on a night a long time ago, when wise men from the East, traveled to a house in Bethlehem and knelt before the One to whom all the nations will bow. The Magi received word of the Lord and they followed that word, they believed it, and they would not stop until they landed at the feet of the Messiah King. We see in them what we want to see in ourselves, an immediate and intentional attending to this King.
Prayer: Father, forgive me for my refusal to love those who are different than me. You came to me, a broken and sinful person, wrapped up in myself with no love for any who threatened my selfish wants and demands and changed and are changing me. May I see your love for all humanity and especially the work You are doing in those who are my brothers and sisters. May I love them as You have loved me, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: We Three Kings