Not knowing where to go and who to go to for information about the appearance of the star, they decide to go to the king to find out about the King of the Jews. Not knowing the answers to the questions of the wise men, King Herod inquires of them when the star appeared and then sent the scribes and chief priests to learn more information. The king’s scholars point the wise men in the direction of Bethlehem because of the prophecy in Micah 5:2 and the wise men leave to find the baby.
At some point from their journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the star appears once again over where they would find the baby. The star lead them to Jesus, not to Bethlehem, but to where Jesus was. Bethlehem is never mentioned again after King Herod sent them in that direction other than killing the male children there and the surrounding areas . If Jesus was still in Bethlehem, the appearance of the star would not have been necessary. But Jesus wasn’t in Bethlehem.
When the wise men arrived, Jesus was no longer a baby. It said the child was with His mother. This means he was independent of her or else it would have said the mother was with the child. The wise men found them in a house and not in a stable, another way we know they were no longer in Bethlehem. Finally, the wise men offered their gifts directly to Jesus showing that He was old enough to accept them Himself.
The text of Matthew never says that there were three wise men, only that the wise men gave three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. There could have been four, five or six wise men, we don’t know but we always assume three.
Tomorrow we will look at the final part of the Christmas story.
Have a great day and God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment