| Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus
was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there
came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. 5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. 7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. 9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. |
From the clues left by the wise men and Herod's response, it seems that the baby Jesus was about two years old by the time these events took place. The holy family was living in a house at that point, not in a stable. It was not a part of the Christmas story, as such, but the events are so interrelated in the minds of most people that the wise men are almost always featured in the Nativity scene. We always think of three wise men; the Bible doesn't say how many there were, but the assumption arises from the fact that they gave three gifts to the Christ child.
Like the shepherds before, and like Simeon and Anna in the temple, the wise men, probably astrologers from the region of Persia, recognized the young Jesus as worthy of worship. They initially responded to a matter of great curiosity to them, a remarkable star that they, as students of the stars, had never seen. It was all the more remarkable in that it moved before them; we don't know how long they had followed it, but it had appeared about two years before. Drawn by curiosity to inquire of Herod, they were drawn finally to worship, when the star at last stopped to reveal the location of the Savior. The light of the Holy Spirit still draws people to Jesus; whatever motives draw them to him, if they do come, it is finally to worship and adore him as Lord.
What do we give to Jesus? All we can really give him is ourselves, a process that lasts a lifetime if we pursue it at all. We have nothing more precious than our souls, the core of who we are. In return, God gives us an eternal spirit, a part of the spark of his own being. We don't know for certain the degree that the wise men gave of themselves to God, but we do know that they worshipped his Son, and that they listened when God spoke to them in a dream. They came asking for information from men; they went based on information they received of God.
To Herod, the young child was a threat. The world always sees Jesus as a threat, and does its best to destroy him and the message of the Gospel he proclaims. The virulent attacks we see now on the whole custom and tradition of Christmas, and on the role of God in public life, are evidence of that hatred. We'll look more at Herod in the next section.
| 13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the
Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child
and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee
word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. |
As seen in the last chapter, Mary and Joseph were very poor. The gifts from the wise men didn't have just spiritual significance, signifying the royalty, worship, and death of Christ, but they were very valuable in their own right. It is probable that they were the means by which Joseph and Mary were able to finance their flight to Egypt. As with his dream about taking Mary as his wife, Joseph was once again visited by the Lord in a dream and given advice as to what he should do. As he did with Mary, he obeyed without question or hesitation. God's call for us to obey doesn't always have with it the same explicit instructions and warning, but we should use Joseph as our example. Refusing to obey the Lord's leading can have consequences just as devastating in our own lives as refusal to disobey would have had for Joseph and his family. The scale of the consequences would have been infinitely greater, of course, but the lesson is the same.
Herod was the personification of evil; like so many before and after him, he was used of Satan in an attempt to destroy God's plans. Like Satan, he had the capacity and power to steal, kill, and destroy, but, also like Satan, he had no power to change what God had already ordained. This was but the first of several attempts the Devil made to corrupt or destroy the Lord Jesus, and when he thought finally that he had succeeded, his failure was absolute. Even evil Herod was an agent of fulfilling a prophecy relating to the birth of Christ, albeit a dire one (Jeremiah 31:15).. The prophecy of God's calling his son out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1) also had its ultimate fulfillment only because Jesus had to go to Egypt to begin with. This symbolizes also that Jesus was born in the world, but called out of the world to serve his father at the appropriate time. All of us are born in the world as well, but when we are born again as children of God, we are called out of the world.