Truth About Christmas - Part 4

Beautiful star of Bethlehem. At the same time that Luke’s version of the birth of Christ is taking place and the angels are informing the shepherds of the birth of the Savior, Matthew is telling about additional events taking place hundreds of miles away that same night. As the angelic host lit up the sky around the shepherds, a beautiful star was over Bethlehem for all the world to see and it caught the attention of wise men in the East.

Chapter two of the Gospel of Matthew gives us further insight into the events that took place on that fabulous night. Wise men, probably astronomers, noticed something different in the sky that evening. The East probably meant somewhere around Babylon, present day Iraq.

Because they were “wise men” they searched for a meaning to why this magnificent star appeared in the night sky on this specific occasion. This led them to the scriptures of the Old Testament and possibly directly to Numbers 24:17 that the star had come from Jacob and the scepter from Israel.

It would have taken a considerable amount of time from the appearance of the star until they made there way to the location of the star they saw that night. First, they had to find out what the star meant, then they would have prepared for such a journey and finally they would have made the 600-800 mile journey by land. In all, it probably would have been between eighteen to twenty-four months before they made it to Israel.

Tomorrow we will look at what happened when the wise men finally made it to King Herod to inquire of the appearance of the star.

Have a great day and God bless.