The Birth of the King
Who Were the Wise Men?
by
John MacArthur
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Matthew 2:1 Tape GC 2182
Who were the wise men? Are you. ready for that? Matthew chapter 2. All of us
have wondered. I remember when I was a little boy I wondered who those guys
were. How many were there? Were they really kings? Did they really ride camels?
Why did they come to Bethlehem? And, as Paul said, we have most of our ideas
about this fascinating group from the people who draw Christmas cards rather
than theologians. Vincent, who has written some very helpful word studies says
in regard to this, "Many absurd traditions and guesses respecting these visitors
to our Lord's cradle have found their way into popular belief and into Christian
art. They were said to be kings and three in number. They were said to be
representatives of three families of Shem, Ham and Japeth and therefore one of
them is pictured as an Ethiopian. Their names are given as Caspar, Belthizar and
Melchoir and their three skulls, amazingly enough, are said to have been found.
Yes, they were found in the twelfth century by Bishop Rinald of Cologne." The
bishop dug those up and knew right off they were skulls, very clear. Their eyes
were still in the sockets fixed toward Bethlehem. Today, believe it or not,
friends, they. are on exhibit in a priceless casket in a great cathedral in
Europe. Now frankly, folks, the only thing we know about these wise men is some
history and what is said in Matthew.
We really are very, very limited in terms of specifics. In addition to what we
have here in Matthew which is very limited, it says, "There came wise men from
the East." That's it, folks, right there. We don't know their names, we don't
know anything from that. But as we put the pieces together historically and we
do have some very fascinating history. Some of it from the Old Testament, books
such as Daniel where the Magi or wise men appear in several different texts,
other Bible books as well as the writings of Herodotus and other historians. We
basically have found, and here's the basic thrust of who they were and then
we'll get into the specifics and I think you'll be fascinated by it, we're going
to spend a lot of time with history tonight, this is going to be teaching not
preaching W+ believe they were members of an Eastern priestly group, descendant
of a tribe of people originally associated with the Medes, M e d e s Now I just
want to remind you of something so you'll get a little bit of a picture.
Basically in the history of the world there have been four major world empires,
all right? First one was the Babylonian Empire. And that basically was settled
in the fertile crescent area east of Israel in the valley of the Tigris and
Euphrates River, north or the Arabian gulf, east of what we know is Israel
today. That was where the Babylonian Empire was. It was followed by the second
great Empire that Daniel talks about and that was the Empire known as the Medo
Persian Empire, it was a conglomerate Empire made up of the Persians and the
Medes. The Medes were a very large and powerful people. The third great world
Empire was Greece. When the Medo Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the
Great the world became Greek, as it were. The fourth great Empire was the Roman
Empire.
Now as we go backwards even while the Babylonian Empire was in existence there
was still Medes and Persians. So they are very ancient people. In fact, there
are many people in history who trace the origin of the Medes all the way back to
the time when Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, way back in the 12th
chapter of Genesis. So it may well be that these are very, very ancient people.
Certainly they are people who appear in the Babylonian Empire because we see
them in the book of Daniel. They are people from the Medo Persian Empire and
existed on through the Greek Empire and are still in existence in the Roman
Empire when Christ is born. So they are a very ancient and long lived people
were these wise men. And by the way, the word wise men it says, "When Jesus was
born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king behold there came
magi." The Greek is magos, magoi, magi, it is really an untranslatable word. It
is not a translatable word it is simply the name of a certain tribe of people.
It should better be translated, perhaps, magi. The magi were a priestly line, a
priestly tribe of people from among the Medes. This very ancient and large
people. They were very skilled in astronomy and astrology, this was a very great
preoccupation with them. Their interest in astronomy and astrology was only part
of their involvement they were sort of occultists in a way, they had some sort
of divination processes, they were involved in certain kinds of things that we
would assume, perhaps were like a sorcery and that's why the word magi was
corrupted through history into the word magic, magician which is a synonym for
sorcerer. But the magi originally were basically a pagan, priestly tribe of
people from the Medes and the Persians and there are many, many historical
sources to validate this.
They became interested in astronomy and astrology and the study of the stars and
in those days they didn't make much of a separation between the superstition and
the science. The science is astronomy, the superstition is astrology and they
were pretty well blended at the time. Now what's interesting about this is that
during the time of the Babylonian Empire these magi were dwelling in the area of
Babylon. They were there during the Babylonian time and the Medo Persian Empire
as well. Now while they were there during the Babylonian Empire they were very
heavily influenced by the Jews. You remember that one of the things that
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon did was take Israel, rather take Judah into
captivity. Do you remember that?
That's what Jeremiah was saying, You are going to be taken into captivity.
Jeremiah pronounced this fact and of course even the book of Lamentations
laments this reality. And they were carried off into the Babylon captivity.
Well, here in Babylon were existing these magi and they were very high ranking
officials, by that time they had ascended to a high place in the Babylonian
Empire because of their amazing intuition, wisdom, knowledge, astrology,
occultic ability whatever you want to call it, they had risen to a place of
prominence and so immediately they came into contact with all these Jewish
people who had been brought into captivity. They also came into contact wit one
very specific Jew by the name of Daniel who was elevated in the Babylonian
Empire. Consequently, they were very familiar or made familiar in the dispersion
of the Jews in Babylon with Jewish prophesy regarding the Messiah. They were
made aware of what was really on the Jewish prophetic plan for this one who was
to come. And so that's basically who they were.
Now I want to really dig into that a little bit and set the scene for what
happens in this incredible incident in chapter 2 of Matthew. Let's go back and
see their history. According to the ancient historian Herodotus the magi were a
tribe of people within a larger people called the Medes. Now listen to this.
They were a hereditary priesthood tribe. In other words they were like the
Levites in Israel. In Israel there were twelve tribes but one of those tribes
was set apart as the priestly tribe and they were the ones who ministered in the
rituals and the religious ceremonies of the temple and they were the Levites.
Well the pagan Medes had a similar thing. Of all of the tribes within the Medes
they had selected one of them to function as priests in their pagan rituals.
And that tribe which they had selected was the magi, again it's an
untranslatable word, really. This is the name of that priestly group of people.
It was a hereditary priesthood. Now as I said earlier some historians see them
all the way back in Ur of the Chaldees as a part of a nomadic people that were
wandering about in that part of the world. Whichever is true, whether they go
all the way back to Ur or whether they first kind of surface in the Babylonian
time we don't know, the point is this during the Babylonian World Empire they
were significant, during the Medo Persia Empire they were significant, during
the Greek Empire they were significant and during the Roman Empire. they were
significant. And in all of those empires they maintained a place of tremendous
prominence in the orient, in the east. You see, even when the Greek Empire was
in vogue there was still certain eastern culture and power. Even when the Roman
Empire was in vogue there was certain eastern power. And in both of those
periods the Magi were really the key people in the government of the East,
centered in the fertile crescent, the area around Babylon and Medo Persia.
Now they always appear with tremendous political power. Now this is very
important for you, you have a little history lesson. They always appear with
tremendous political power. I would say the majority of historians, at least the
ones that I read and the ones that were referred to, see them as an eastern
people who rose by virtue of their very unique priestly function, by their
unique rather occultic powers of divination, by their astrological, astronomical
knowledge, they rose to places of prominence. And they rose high in Babylonian
government, Medo Persian government, even in some cases in the East during the
Greek period and for sure during the Roman period to be the advisors to the
royalty to the East. And that's where they got the name the Wise Men. They were
the ones that were consulted about the various things that the kings and the
rulers and the nobles and the princes wanted to know. Now we even have some
history that tells us about their religious activities. Now I'll give you a
little description of the kind of religion that the Magi were involved in. Their
priesthood had certain functions and here are some of the things:
The principle element of their worships seems to have been fire. It's apparent
from history that they worshipped or that they sort of reverenced fire. And we
don't know for sure why but perhaps they saw fire as some kind of incarnation of
deity. And, by the way, they were monotheistic, they only believed, really, in
one God and so they had that in common with Israel. But they looked at fire as
the principle element of their worship. And in connection with that they had an
altar which burned with a perpetual flame. And they believed that that perpetual
flame was kindled by God from heaven.
So they had this perpetual flame altar. Now, over beside that in their temples
and wherever they also had another altar and on that altar they offered blood
sacrifice. So they actually had a blood sacrificial system. And they lit the
fire to burn the sacrifice with the flame off the perpetual altar. And then when
they had burned their sacrifice, this is interesting, the victim was then eaten
by the worshiper and by the Magian priests. What's fascinating about that is
that's almost a direct parallel to Judaism. And you can see how way back then
Satan was counterfeiting true religion ' from the very beginning, you see.
He's always done that. You know, even today, there is real Christianity and
there is phony. And in that day there was real sacrificial system with genuine
worship toward the one right true God and there was phony monotheism, phony
blood sacrifice, false sacrifice and offering burned and then eaten by the
worshiper and the priest.
Additionally, these people had a hereditary priesthood. Again, a counterfeit of
the Levitical priesthood. These people carried about small bundles of divining
rods in their garments and they used these divining rods for their little
ceremonies. Not unlike the Urim and Thummim of the priests, the high priest, by
which the knowledge of God was sought. They believed in the distinction of
certain kinds of unclean animals. That's interesting. They believed that certain
insect and certain reptiles were unclean. Again this is an interesting parallel
to what God truly revealed to Israel. And another thing that I felt very
interesting as I was reading about it was they were very ritualistic about ever
touching and disposing of a dead body. Another thing common to God's standard
for Israel.
So in the Babylonian Empire this very interesting religious group of people
appears. And they rose to tremendous prominence. In Jeremiah 39:3 and verse 13.
A man by the name of Nergal sharezer is mentioned. And Nergal sharezer is the
chief of the Magi in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.
Okay? These oriental kings starting with Nebuchadnezzar had elevated the Magi,
and even before that but as far as the Scripture is concerned we see them first
with Nebuchadnezzar, they had elevated this priestly group from the Medes to the
place of being the official advisors to the king. And so they are tremendously
powerful people.
And even when Babylon fell and the Medo Persian Empire came in and you have
great rulers like and Cyrus and others you still have the high ranking officials
of the Medo Persian government being taken from this group called Magi. They
were unmatched in political power.
Now I want you to turn in your Bible with me for a minute, back to Daniel and I
want to show you how they appear in the book of Daniel.
Daniel, chapter 2, when I get all done with this and you re read verse 1 of
Matthew 2 it's going to make a lot more sense. Daniel chapter 2 and verse 10,
and we won't take time to set all the context, but here we are in the court of
Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel is there, the Jews are in captivity in Babylon and it
says, "The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man on
the earth that can reveal the king's matter: therefore, there is no king, lord,
nor ruler that asked such things of any Magi or astrologer or Chaldean." And it'
very likely that those are all synonyms. And then astrologer and Chaldean may
just be other ways of saying the same thing. So here we find the word Magi, it's
not strictly the word magician, that's an English corruption it's the word Magi.
It's talking about this priestly tribe.
They had a very prominent place at that time. They were known as those who could
interpret dreams. Now you remember Nebuchadnezzar had this bizarre dream and
none of them could handle it. New you know what's so fascinating about it is
there was one man who could interpret it.
You know who that man was? It was Daniel. Let's go on a little bit, Chapter 4
verse 7. We again see the Magi. Chapter 4 verse 7: "Then came in the Magi, the
astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers, and I told the dream to them but
they didn't make known unto me its interpretation." Verse 9, "O Belteshazzar,
master of the magicians.” Now here we meet the master of the Magi.
And I'm just trying to point out that they are mentioned repeatedly in the book
of Daniel. And rather than call them magicians, they should .be Magi, that's
essentially what he is referring to. Now when Daniel came along and all these
Magi who were in the high, high ranking place of advisors to the king couldn't
give any answers, Daniel could, something amazing happened. Daniel 5:11, "There
is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and in the days
of thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was
found in him:" talking about Daniel now, "Whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy
father, the king I say, thy father made master of the Magi." Now how
interesting. Daniel was so adept at telling the dreams of the king that the king
made Daniel the master of the Magi.
So that Daniel was literally in Babylon the chief over this whole priestly
group. Okay? It's fascinating. Now, that puts Daniel in the tremendously unique
position of being able to dispense to these Magi all of his information about
the Old Testament which without a shadow of a doubt is precisely what Daniel
did. We know that Daniel was a man of God. We know that Daniel was a man totally
devoted to worship and expression of his faith because he wound up in a lion's
den because of it, didn't he? And there's no question in my mind but that Daniel
and the other godly remnant in the diaspore of the dispersion shared their
knowledge of the Old Testament and their copies of the Scripture with these
people in Babylon and additionally, when the final decree of Cyrus came that
they could go back to the land the majority of the Jews never went back. The
majority of the Jews stayed in Babylon, intermingled, intermarried and
throughout the remaining history of Babylon and Medo Persia there were people in
the noble families, people in the high ranking offices, some say even monarchs
in that part of the world who had part Jewish blood. And certainly we would have
to conclude that Daniel had a profound impact in the dispensing of that
information. And, by the way, I want to add another footnote to this that as I
was studying this it was very fascinating to me because I began to think about
this if Daniel was so good at winning these Magi over and convincing them about
this fact of the coming Messiah why was it that they plotted against him and
threw him in the lion's den? If he was so influential and believable. And so I
began to study and the 6th chapter of Daniel revealed a most interesting thing,
you don't need to we're not going to go all through it but this, in the sixth
chapter of Daniel we find a plot against Daniel based on jealousy but what is
really amazing about this plot is that it is not a plot devised by the Magi who
dominated the hierarchy of the royal court, it is a plot developed by men known
as the satraps, and I don't mean s e t I mean s a t, satraps. That was the term
used to describe the regional governors who had nothing to do with the palace.
So remember, the plot that was hatched in jealousy against Daniel was not a plot
hatched at the hands of the Magi. Which again leads me to see that very likely
Daniel was extremely believable and convincing in his impact.
In fact, do you realize that when Daniel was actually being thrown in the lion's
den the king said, "Daniel, I know that your God will deliver you." You remember
the king actually said that? He was so convinced of the power of God through the
testimony of Daniel. And I'm sure he just checked it as often as he possibly
could to see that that anticipation was in fact a reality.
So, the Magi kept their place of prominence. Influenced, no doubt, by such a
great man as Daniel and there were few ever lived like him, influenced by Godly
Jews in the dispersion.
Influenced by the intermarriage and the constant Jewish culture that was imposed
upon them in many ways. And they became and maintained a position in the Medo
Persian Empire of great power in the court of the king.
Now let me tell you something else interesting. In the sixth century B.C. there
was a great king of Persia by the name of Darius. Darius the Great, this is in
the Medo Persian Empire.
This is right around the time of Daniel. And Darius came in and Darius said "I
am going to establish a national religion." And you know which one he picked?
Zoroastrianism. Now we don't have time to go into Zoroastrianism but
Zoroastrianism had with it a lot of astrology. And it may well be that the final
little nuances of astrology and the pre occupation of the Magi with that came in
the merging of Zoroastrianism..
So, now what you've got, you've got these Magi who have their own culture
religion on top of that has been superimposed Judaism and on top of that has
been superimposed Zoroastrianism. Now that's really a can of worms to put it
mildly. But what's so interesting is the Magi was so anxious to maintain their
political power and they were so anxious to maintain their religious power that
when the decree came from Darius that Zoroastrianism was the religion that was
going to exist they just slid right in and said Fine with us. And they made some
adaptations. But now what you've got is very interesting. You've got the Magi
all gobbled up here and you've got some of them, no doubt, committed to
Zoroastrianism as time went on, some of them committed to ancient magian
formulas and some of them maybe believing honestly in their heart that the God
of Daniel was the real God. And so this is the key as history moved on from
here, the Magi began to depart from a singular commitment to their historic
religion and they began to find their way into different things. Some of them
may be leaning toward Zoroastrianism, some toward the ancient magianism and I
believe in my heart that some, like these Magi that show up at the birth of
Christ were really true seekers of the true God. So that gives you a little bit
of the background.
Now, I'm going to talk some more about this history. The Magi were so powerful
that historians tells us that no Persian was ever able to become king, now watch
this one, never able to become king except under two conditions: one he mastered
the scientific and religious discipline of the Magi: two he had to be approved
of and crowned by the Magi. Now that's something, that's power.
Do you know what they called the wisdom of the Magi? They had a name for it. The
name for it was this the law of the Medes and the Persians. That law was the law
or the code defined by the Magi. And if you want to see that phrase it's in
Esther 1:1? and Daniel chapter ? a couple of times. The law of the Medes and the
Persians was the code the scientific religious discipline of the Magi and their
wisdom was that which was required for anyone to be a monarch in Persia.
Additionally, historians tell us that they controlled the judicial office as
well as the kingly office.
In Esther 1:13 we have the indication that the royal bench of judges was all
chosen from the Magi. Man, they were powerful. And you have to remember when you
talk about the Persian Empire and the Median Empire and the Babylonian Empire
you are talking about control of the Orient. These were powerful men. And they
were not only responsible for making every monarch that was made in that era but
they were responsible for setting up the judges as well. They had a check system
for the despotism that could grow out of a kingship and so they were the judges
that counter balanced the dictator king. History tells us they knew astronomy
that they were very good in mathematics, they knew natural history, they were
good at agriculture and architecture And do you remember back in I think it's
Acts 7 that talks about the fact that Moses was raised up in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians?
Same thing was true of anybody who was raised in a nobility in the East, the
were raised in the law of the Medes and the Persians. All nobility, raised by
them. And they were the king makers. They were the king make And no one ruled at
all apart from them. Now, as I mentioned earlier on of their special skills was
interpreting dreams. And when they failed to do that and Daniel moved in on top
of it and became the chief as we saw in Daniel 5:11, the set up was made by God
to set the scene from Matthew chapter 2. Hundreds of years before Jesus was
born. Six hundred. God was setting up the situation for a great Hebrew prophet
to rule a group called the Magi so that one day when a baby was born in
Bethlehem some of those Magi would find their way to the house where the baby
was. That's planning history. And so the syncretistic hybrid religion of the
Magi very much like Judaism, monotheistic and hereditary priesthood, blood
sacrifice, believed also in supernatural revelation, believed in prophesy, these
common things sort of made Judaism an easy thing for them to accept and I
believe in my heart, and this is just what I believe because of what I see
happen in Matthew 2, I believe that apparently there were some God fearing
Gentile Magi historically existing in that eastern part of the world.
Now I want to move to the time of Jesus. Look with me at Matthew 2. Time has
gone one, century after century until Jesus is to be born. Somehow and by some
marvelous way God has managed to maintain some true seeking Magi. Most, may be
corrupted. Certainly, may corrupted. And we'll meet a few of the corrupt ones
that are in the New Testament. But there were some real ones, some like
Cornelius, you know, God fearing Gentiles. There were some like Lydia, a God
fearing Gentile.
There were some back there in that part of the world, some from the Magi, high
ranking king makers in the great Empire of the east. There were some at that
time who were still waiting for Daniel’s great hope to be fulfilled, you see.
Now let me set the stage. Politically speaking, Rome was scared of the eastern
Empire. Now if you'll just focus in your mind a little map of Europe and that
was the Roman Empire, this massive chunk of Europe. And technically it swept to
the east. But by virtue of distance cross the Mediterranean, across the blazing
desert to get to the east, there was a certain isolation in the east which
caused Rome a lot of anxiety. And they were always fearful that what then became
known as the Parthean Empire, the eastern empire made up of the Medes and the
Persians and the old Babylonian Empire that Parthean Empire was always kind of
an anxiety for Rome. Rome, you know, had stretched its tentacles out as it were
to rule the world but they never really felt secure about the Parthean Empire.
And they had become violent enemies, violent enemies. And they fought. In 55
B.C. they fought. In 40 B.C. they fought. And what's fascinating is, you know
where they always fought? The great empire in the west, the great empire in the
east came together and guess where they always fought?
Right along the coast of the Mediterranean, Syria, Jordan, Palestine.
Israel was a little no man's land between the powers of the east and the powers
of the west.
Now Rome was afraid of them. And if you look at verse 3 of Matthew 2 it says,
"When Herod the king had heard these things, he was", what? "Troubled" When he
heard that Magi, oriental, Parthean king makers had arrived in Jerusalem he was
rattled. And we'll see more about that in a few minutes. Now, let me tell you a
little more about what happens. By the time we get to the time of Christ the
Magi are still in tremendous power in the east.
Some of them used their power their position, their skills with a great amount
of human wisdom. Some of them just really turned into awful people. Like any
scientist, any priest, any preacher any other skilled person of modern days we
can either apply our craft deceitfully or we can apply it honestly. Some of the
Magi were honest and they exalted the craft of wisdom and political advice. Some
of them were corrupt and they prostituted it. Both kinds were vary common in the
Mediterranean era when Christ was born.
Let me introduce you to a couple of corrupt ones. Turn in your Bible to Acts 8.
Acts 8, verse 4: "Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere
preaching the Word", Acts 8:4 says. "Then Philip went down to the city of
Samaria and preached Christ to them and the people with one accord gave heed to
those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did."
And it tells all about those.
And you come to verse 9, "But there was a certain man called Simon who
previously in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria,
giving out that himself was some great one:" Some great one.
"To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying, This man is
the great power of God." Now here is Simon, Simon Magus if you will, Simon the
Magi. And here is a man who has prostituted his position into deceit as it were,
he has sold himself to Satan. He used sorcery, did you notice that? The root of
that word is Magi, maguo in the Greek, he used his Magi art in a prostituted
manner.
And later on he tried to buy the Holy Spirit and Peter really lays him out, he
says in verse 2O your money perish with you, you have, verse 21, neither part
nor lot in this matter. Verse 22, repent of your wickedness. Verse 23, I
perceive you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. Boy, oh
Peter didn't mince any words.
Look at the 13th chapter of Acts. Acts 13:6: "And when they had gone through the
isle unto Paphos", and this is, of course, Paul and Barnabas starting on the
first missionary journey, and they're in Cyprus the little island there in the
east coast of the Mediterranean, "the isle of Paphos, they found a certain
sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar jesus." And it goes down in
verse 8 and it say "Elymas, the sorcerer." The Greek is Elymas the magos. Elymas
the Magi Here's another one who also has prostituted this craft, prostituted
this strange pagan religion in order to seek the ends of Satan. And of course,
he tried to mess up Paul and Paul says, O full of all deceit and mischief, you
child of the devil, you enemy of righteousness will you not cease to pervert the
right ways of the Lord and now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you, verse
11, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a season and immediately there
fell on him a mist and a darkness and he went about seeking some to lead him by
the hand. Paul dealt with this one. Now you see, both Simon and Elymas were
brought into the bondage of Satan himself who is the god of all astrologers and
the god of all sorcerers.
And frankly, these were the kind of people that made intelligent folks in the
Roman Empire despise such sorcerers. Philo the Roman says they are are vipers,
they are scorpions and they/other venomous creatures. You see, these were the
kind of people the kind of Magi the Romans despised Put in the east as I said,
they were tremendously powerful men. And some among them, no question in my
mind, were genuine men.
Now at the time of Christ, at the time of Christ in the eastern empire there was
a ruling body called the Megastones, you don't need that won't be on the quiz so
you don't need to worry about but there was a ruling house called the
Megastonnes and they would be like the United States Senate. Okay. That's just a
name Megastonnes. And this ruling house ruled in the Parthean Persian Empire at
this time.
Now listen, it was totally composed of Magi whose duty it was, now watch this,
to have absolute choice for the selection of a king. They were king makers. And
you know what happened? They had some real problems with the king that they had.
They wanted to fight Rome and knock off Rome but they had a loser for a king,
Freidas the Fourth and Freidas the Fourth had been deposed and listen, the Magi
were looking for a new king, a new king for the east, a new king of the eastern
empire who could come against Rome. When they arrived in Jerusalem Herod knew
what was going on. They were king makers and when they wandered around town
saying Where is this new king of the Jews?
Herod got panicky. When suddenly these Persian king makers appeared in Jerusalem
no doubt traveling in full force with all their oriental pomp and they use to
wear conical hats with points on the top and big deals clear down to the bottom
of their chin and they rode Persian steeds not camels. And when they came in
they didn't come alone, the estimates of history are they came with Persian
cavalry. When they came charging into the city of Jerusalem and Herod peeked out
his little palace window he flipped.
These are powerful men and to make it worse his army was out of the country on a
mission. And the Bible says Herod was troubled. I guess he was. The word in the
Greek is he was agitated like your washing machine he was shaking. You see,
Herod had a title. You know what Herod's title was? King of the Jews. He got it
from Caesar Augustus. Caesar Augustus crowned him king of the Jews.
And he realized the great dream of his life was to get that little buffer state
under his power and here he was in the middle of two huge contending empires.
And all of a sudden this massive coterie of Persians arrive in the city and he
is panicked and they say we're coming to find the new king.
Now at the time Herod was close to death. And Caesar Augustus was really old and
hanging by a thread. And since the retirement of Tiberius the Roman army didn't
even have a commander in chief.
And they knew that this would be the time to bring about an eastern war against
the west. It was right. And so Herod was shaking. You say, Well, what were the
Magi thinking? I don't know. Maybe, they had looked at it politically. Maybe
they thought Oh, man, here comes the king. And I think that that's probably true
but additionally I think they looked at it spiritually. Because when they got to
that little room in Bethlehem the Bible says they worshipped Him. They saw more
than just a king. I believe they saw the Messiah they had heard about from the
days of Daniel. I think we have God fearing, seeking Gentiles. And it was two
fold. I'm sure they were thinking maybe this is the Savior. The Savior who is
called the Anointed One which is a term describing a king. And maybe He will not
only be the Savior, the Messiah but maybe He will be the one who will gather all
this people of the east together and go against the oppression of Rome. By the
way, the Magi knew that the people of Israel were on their side, not Rome's. And
so that's why they came into town and started asking the people where this new
king was. They thought the people of Israel would be just as excited as they
were. But you see the people of Israel were blinded by their unbelief. Isn't it
fascinating to you?
It is to me that the first people in the world to recognize the arrival of the
King were Gentiles. Gentiles! Does that tell you something about history? He
came unto His own and His own what?
Received Him not.
And Matthew follows that all the way through. The rejection of the King. Could
this be the invincible monarch? They could crown Him.
They could take Him back and they could make Him king and they could unify the
east and with this great Messiah that Daniel had prophesied they could go
against Rome with invincibility. And so into Jerusalem rides the group of Magi.
King makers of the east on their fine Persian steeds escorted by mounted
cavalry. And so the stage is set What happens after this? Come back next week.
We don't have time.
Let me close by saying this. Isn't it exciting to you how God controls history.
Does that excite you? Now see, you looked at every thing I said and you listened
to it and I talked to you for fifty minutes and you know why it was so
fascinating to you? Not because it was just a bunch of historical facts but
because you were seeing God at work History is His story. Long ago He picked out
a man named Daniel, put him in a place to influence some men who had arrived in
perfect timing.
You say, Well, why does Matthew present this? Why? Listen!
Matthew, all the way through his gospel is trying to tell the world that Jesus
Christ is what? King. And just to make sure nobody misses it he has the most
famous king makers in the world come and bow down at His feet. Do you see= It's
all a part of Matthew's strategy. He's the king. And if Israel isn't going to
acknowledge it then God is going to drag a bunch of people from Persia to
acknowledge it. He's king. God has master planned history. And the sad part of
it is that the people who should have known, the people who should have known
missed it and the people from way off who should have never guessed showed up
and worshipped. That's history. Jesus came. Paul said, To the Jew first, also to
the Gentiles. Jesus came and said, "I'm but come not/for the lost sheep for the
house of Israel." Israel turned his back on Christ and He called a people from a
no people. He reached out to the Gentiles, Romans says, and grafted us in. And
the hint of that was right here in the beginning.
Remember what it says, if the Bible says if we don't praise Him what? The very
rocks will cry out.
And when the king arrived, beloved, when the king arrived, if His people
wouldn't praise Him then God will make sure that there's somebody there to do it
and there was. And you know in our world today they celebrate Christmas. Pass
around the Christmas cards, look at the wise men, they don't understand the
point, they don't know the meaning, they don't see who He is but here and there,
hither and yon some of us do. Right?
And there's some of us who bow to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Next week we're going to discuss Herod, what kind of a man he was and why he
panicked. And I'm going to tell you what the star was that led them to
Bethlehem. Let's pray.
Father, it's just really it's just beyond us to see how You work in history.
With our little finite minds we look at things and we think we understand and
then we dig deep and deeper and deeper and all of a sudden we discover a world
we never knew existed, a world of information a world of insight that expands in
our minds Your incredible greatness, Your unequaled power and wisdom. God, I
thank You for the wise men, the Magi, however many there were and whatever their
names were who were seeking the King. And I feel grieved in my heart for the
people of the King who didn't want him. And I would pray, Lord, tonight that in
our fellowship there are some who have been like the people of the King and
turned their back on Him and said I don't want Him we will not have this man
reign over us, they said. Father, I pray that You convict their hearts. They be
like those who came from afar and rejoiced with great joy and fell down and
worshipped Him. Thank You also that You planned us to be a part of the church
that bows before Him in worship. We'll give you praise, Lord, for all that You
have done that shows us Your mighty hand in Jesus name. Amen
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "John MacArthur Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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