| After the last Old Testament prophet Malachi, around four hundred years went by before we heard another voice again. Four hundred years of waiting. It wasn’t like Israel hadn’t been waiting before that time as well. God had used many leaders and prophets to bring glory to His name, but none of them were as highly anticipated as the coming of Christ.
Prophet after prophet was given the word of God that the true King was coming. It was so well known that even some of the Gentiles knew of His coming! We see these Magi, or wise men, coming a long distance from likely Persia into Jerusalem simply saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” They had to have thought something like “Surely the King of Israel is in the capital city, right?” But that was not the case.
We see in verse three that they saw His star having remembered Numbers 24:17, “… a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” While they were searching for the true King to worship Him, everyone in Jerusalem, including Herod and the chief priests, did not have the same motivation and couldn’t be bothered to travel the 20-mile distance to Bethlehem.
The Magi continued on their journey to Bethlehem following the star, having heard before Micah 5:2, “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.”In verse 10, we see that seeing the star brought them “great joy.” They knew that they were on their way to meet the King. Then, in verse 11, we see their journey come to completion, “And going into the house, they saw the Child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him.” This Baby that they bowed down to worship was God in the flesh. This was their great High Priest. This was the Savior not just for the Jews but the Gentiles also. We see this play out in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, but we see it as well in the gifts that the Magi brought for Him.
This Christmas was extra special for my family because my parents had just converted all of their home video tapes to DVD for me, my wife, and my siblings to watch and remember. The great videographer was my dad, and we watched videos from 1998 to about 2008. While these videos were all over the place in occasion and location, one constant was Christmas morning. My dad always had his camera ready for that (and still did this year). My brother, sister, and I would wait for the okay and then run out from our rooms to see what gifts we had gotten for Christmas. Whether it was a new toy, candy, or most likely for myself as a kid, something to do with Pokémon, there was so much excitement and joy.
As a kid, when I read the gifts that Jesus got for Christmas/His birth, I probably thought “Yikes, not my kind of gifts.” But what do gold, frankincense, and myrrh actually point to? Gold, the metal of kings, as Jesus was and is the King of Kings that the Magi knew well. Frankincense, the material used for worship of God in the temple. Never was it mixed with sin offerings because this King was without sin. Myrrh, the material used for embalming. Whether the Magi knew of Jesus’ painful death to come one day or not, the Old Testament pointed to Jesus’ life as one of suffering. Notably in Isaiah 53:4-5, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.”
These three gifts represented Jesus as King, High Priest, and Savior.There has been speculation since this event surrounding the star and how the Magi found Jesus. Some point to the planets Jupiter and Saturn coming close together to form a bright light, while others theorize that it could’ve been a comet or supernova. The most likely answer is that God sent them a celestial sign to guide them. God has used many different ways to bring people to Christ. As James Montgomery Boice says in The King Has Come, “The important thing is that God is behind these means of grace, and it is because He is and has been working in them that Jesus has been found. Salvation is of the Lord! It is His work” (pg.182). As we should rightly give Him the greatest gift we can, as seen by the Magi in our worship of Him, it is He, in His birth, that has given the gift to us. God took on human flesh to dwell with His people and become the sinner’s substitute on the cross. What a great gift we have in Jesus. |
