Jesus's Childhood - Part 2

 The Maji and the Star

• When Jesus was a young boy, two years old or younger, the Magi who were probably astrologers from Persia or southern Arabia, came to worship the King of the Jews. They traveled a far distance and presented him with gifts. They bowed down and worshipped Jesus (Matthew 2:1).

• Exactly who these men were and why they wanted to come and worship the King of the Jews is unknown.

• It seems that these were not just some random men that decided to travel really far to see the child, Jesus. Somehow these men knew and believed the prophecies of the Jewish Messiah who would be King of the Jews, and they recognized the sign that revealed His arrival.

• It seems that these men had been waiting and watching for the Messiah. They traveled far to worship Him, and they brought gifts to give Him, indicating that seeing the King of the Jews with their own eyes and worshipping Him before Him was very important to them, similar to Simeon and Anna.

• Perhaps it indicates their allegiance to God. The fact that they wanted to worship Jesus indicates that they knew God.

• Also, God provided a way for them by the star to find Jesus and He sent an angel to them. These are things that God does for His own people and for those who are seeking Him.

• How they knew of the promise of the Jewish Messiah is perplexing. If they were Jewish, they would have likely been aware of the prophecies made about Jesus, but if they were gentiles, they probably would have only known by hearing about it from other sources.

• It’s possible that rumors of the God of Israel had spread beyond the borders of ancient Israel throughout the centuries. Many of the people who had left Egypt with the Hebrews when God led them out of Egypt to the Promised Land were of other ethnicities, as well as the people of Canaan whom Israel conquered.

• Although they were not of Hebrew descent, they were witness to God’s awesome power, and many of them would have genuinely worshipped God. It’s possible that some of these people dispersed to other parts of the world where they raised their children in the fear of the Lord, and shared the stories of the Almighty God of Israel to the inhabitants of those nations.

• One very likely possibility is that the magi were either descendants of Jews who were exiled to Babylon, or they had been taught about God and the coming Messiah from Jews who were descendants of the exiled Israel.

• Another possibility is that they heard about the birth of the King through word of mouth. The things God was doing were much more amazing than we can understand by reading it in a book.

• To many people, these are just old stories, but the power that God displayed while leading His people to their destined kingdom, provoked immense fear to both the people of Israel, and the surrounding nations. Stories about the God of Israel would have traveled far and wide. 

• Whatever the case, the wise men not only heard of the coming Messiah, but they believed it, which caused them to travel very far in order to worship Him.

• The fact that Gentiles from a distant land were the ones who came to worship Jesus as King, and that very few Jews who were in much closer proximity to Jesus paid no attention to him, seems to be Luke’s way of indicating that the Gentiles recognized the signs of the coming King, when the Jews did not, thereby indicating that God is the god of all people, not only the god of the Jews. 

• The star that the magi followed to find Jesus is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.

• The prophet Balaam said that a star would rise out of Jacob, but he is speaking metaphorically of Jesus, not an actual star. 

• Jesus called Himself the bright morning star in Revelation, but this is a description of Himself that He is using, again not an actual star. 

• So what is this star and where did it come from? My opinion, and this is total speculation on my part, is that the star was shown to these men from the east because they were a part of His special people who were chosen for His holy nation, and its only purpose was to guide them from the east so they could find and worship the King they had been waiting for, and then to return to their homeland to tell others that the King had arrived.

• An angel appeared to warn them to not return to Herod because he wanted to kill Jesus, but maybe also because Herod would have killed them, and they would not have been able to return to their homeland with the good news of great joy that is for all people.

• Regardless of who these men from the east were and why they wanted to worship the King of the Jews, they seem to have been men of authentic faithfulness and devotion to God. When they heard about the King’s arrival, they wanted to go and worship Him, therefore God provided the way for them to both find the King, and to return home with the good news.

• After  worshipping Jesus, an angel appeared to the Magi to warn them not to return to Herod. So they departed for their own country, going a different way.