Wise Men

Matthew, chapter 2:1-2. "Now  after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."

Wow, right off the bat, what struck me was this incredibly profound  statement from these men who Matthew labeled as wise men. Here we not only  have the proclamation that Jesus is to be the future King of the Jews but look closer at what follows, "For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."

"Worship Him" That is what our sole purpose in life is to be about, worshiping God, fellowship with God and putting everything else on hold to seek after Jesus! These were wise men indeed and note also that there is no mention of how many there were. Unfortunately,  from Christmas cards, bad theology and criminal exegesis we have deducted that there were just three wise men who came to Mary, Joesph and Jesus. While we can not prove it either way it makes more sense that there was probably a very large group of Magi seeking this new born King! I doubt that three wise men would have made king Herod very nervous but an entire caravan would have definitely caught his attention.

Remember from scripture when people mentioned in the bible saw an angel what they would do? They fell on their faces and worshiped them provoking the angelic response of "Please don't do that"  probably with one eye glancing upward in an expectant arrival of a devastating bolt of lighting or two.They always told the humans not to worship them because they were only messengers but rather worship God the One who had sent them. Here the Holy Spirit is making it clear we are to seek after and worship Jesus!

Now, lets talk about the star these wise men followed. Many of you after reading what I'm about to write will want to attempt to tie me to the burning stake of heresy but do the research yourself and discover the truth. From my understanding of Chuck Missler's research on astrology, the zodiac and horoscopes developed in Babylon from the pre-existing Jewish knowledge labeled as the  Mazzaroth. The Mazzaroth is the Hebrew Zodiac containing the 12 signs. Basically, God put the gospel, the entire story of redemption, into the position of the stars known as constellations. He did this so that early worshipers of Yahweh could remember how much He loved and provided for them by promising a Messiah would come to free them. Psalm 19 says "the heavens declare the glory of God"   God created the heavens and earth with His plan for redemption in place, even before Adam. He wrote the story of salvation in the stars as a device for the early worshipers to remember. The names of the constellations have been corrupted from ancient pagan traditions that distort the gospel message.  Here's Chuck's link if you are interested  http://www.genesisfiles.com/Mazzaroth.htm 

Remember Balaam uttered a prophecy in Numbers 24:17 where he said that "there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel." Now a picture is starting to develop of a coming King who will be a branch out of Jacob and will arise to be the King of Israel. Also, don't be thrown by the fact that the star was actually to the west they were viewing it from the east and were coming from an easterly direction.

The message is not that these were mysterious fortune tellers from the east, having seen a star in the sky they followed it to the King, which by the way is true but rather that they came to worship Jesus. Only if we would worship Jesus with that kind of childlike faith. Not just on Sunday mornings singing quaint Calvary chorus but rather every waking moment of our lives. Only if we would touch people's lives the way Jesus did.

Jesus is so much more than our savior. He is our bridegroom and we are His bride. God laying down His own life to save our ours. That is why Jesus  is our Master and the reason we should want to desire to obey Him is this greater love He has for us. Please don't just memorize scripture only to regurgitate it at will but rather hide God's word in your heart so that you can start living it out on a day to day basis. look for Divine appointments and the choreography of the Master  in and around your life through your friends and neighbors. Come and worship the King!

Psalm 19  "The heavens declare the glory of God"