Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE WISE MEN”
I want to speak to you about a class of people who have a difficult time identifying with this time of year and with the birth of Christ. It isn’t so much because they don’t want to visualize and enjoy the Christmas manger scene as it is an inability to step into someone’s shoes to see the scene through.
Think about it for a moment. If you are a working man, a skilled artisan, or someone who is involved in physical labor, you have someone’s shoes to step into to imagine that manger scene. You can picture yourself as Joseph, looking down into the tired but happy eyes of your young wife, Mary. And then the urgency of running to and fro to see that her and the Child’s needs are met.
Perhaps you can visualize yourself as one of the shepherds keeping watch by night who, when told of the things which happened just a short time before in Bethlehem, dropped everything and ran into Bethlehem. And arriving breathless, you beheld the Christ child, recently cleaned from His birth, and Mary, extremely tired but still modest and embarrassed at your arrival so soon after her delivery.
For you ladies and girls, you can imagine what it must have been like to be Mary with your mind's eye. To ride a donkey for almost 100 miles when you are nine months pregnant. To be so weary you couldn’t keep from crying, and then to find no suitable place to stay and rest.
And to top off the frustration, the backache, the thirst, and the hunger that made the fatigue almost unbearable ... you went into labor, prolonged labor, hard labor perhaps. And just when you were looking forward to resting with your new baby in your arms, the shepherds arrive. Wonderful! Oh, they are very friendly and polite ... but you are so weary. Yes, ladies, you can imagine the Bethlehem scene.
But what if you happen to be highly educated? What if you happen to be somewhat intellectual, or imagine yourself to be somewhat intellectual? Is there no way for you to imagine yourself at Bethlehem on that night so long ago? The answer is no. You are not a woman, perhaps. You have never devoted yourself to hard labor, and you are unfamiliar with the life of a skilled craftsman like Joseph. You might have great difficulty relating to the scene that I have described.
Why? Your education. Paul informed the Corinthians that “knowledge puffeth up,” First Corinthians 8.1. He would know, wouldn’t he? It makes one seem intellectually powerful and independent. The pride of accomplishment and the assumption that intelligent men do not believe in such things as the birth of Christ make it very difficult for you to appreciate, make it very challenging for you to see, and make it virtually impossible for you to enjoy the Bethlehem scene.
Were there no educated men connected with the birth of Christ? Was there no one involved who was highly educated? No ... no one, except for the wise men. The wise men. Weren’t they three old men who came a long way to see Christ the night of His birth? No. No, they were not!
First of all, there weren’t three wise men. Second, they did not arrive in Bethlehem on the night of Christ’s birth. And third, there is no indication they were old. For that matter, we don’t even know that they were wise.
The Greek word translated “wise” used to describe them is má½±goV, coming into English as magi. Má½±goV is a “person or Babylonian priest or ‘wiseman’ who is esp. acquainted with the interpretation of stars and dreams as well as with other things.”[1]
But these are the men who the highly educated and the intellectuals can identify with during this time of year, so let me tell you about them and how they happened to come to Bethlehem one to two years after Christ was born. To do this, I shall divide my examination of the magi into three headings: Their study. Their sighting. Their search.
THE STUDY OF THE MAGI
To understand the study of these intellectuals called the magi, you need to know some of their history. Their brotherhood goes back 4000 years beyond the birth of Christ to the time of Nimrod, the founder of the city of Babylon.[2] When Nimrod rebelled against God’s command to disperse and replenish the earth, he established the city-state of Babylon instead.[3] After his death, his wife, Semiramis, he consolidated his power by gaining control over the political lives of the people through an army and the spiritual life of the people through a brotherhood of priests known as magi.[4]
With time the magi delved into things other than false religion. Archaeologists tell us that the magi were the inventors of algebra, the debit and credit bookkeeping developers, and observers of the stars in both scientific and non-scientific fashion. They invented astrology and astronomy, and those two were not distinguished as disciplines back in the day.
When the Medo-Persian Empire defeated the Babylonians, a fascinating migration took place during the lifetime of the Old Testament prophet Daniel. The magi who were oriented toward religious pursuits fled to the Asia Minor peninsula. The scientifically inclined magi, being no threat to the Persian rulers’ religion, chose to and remained in Babylon.
Though they continued to be idolaters, most of them did follow their scientific pursuits. They were the olden-time counterparts to our seekers of truth. They were the true intellectuals of their day. Not wasting themselves away with the abstract rationalizing and metaphysical hairsplitting of the Greeks or their homosexual perversions which destroyed their empire, the magi began the long journey toward objective, observable truth.
Even though they were subjects of a Gentile king, far away from the land of Palestine, over the centuries, this brotherhood of magi had access to certain Biblical truths to attract their attention as a result of their interaction with Daniel and his three friends, certainly, as well as a familiarity with a guy named Balaam from Israel’s wilderness wanderings centuries before.
Approximately fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, God raised up a man named Moses to deliver the nation of Israel from Babylon’s rival power during that time, Egypt.[5] Such a deliverance, no doubt, was noticed by the Babylonian magi. They knew what was going on in that part of the world.
After a year at the foot of Mount Sinai, where they received the Law and instructions for constructing their Tabernacle, the Jews began their forty years of wilderness wanderings. During those wanderings, a strange event happened. A king named Balak hired a well-known prophet named Balaam to curse the children of Israel. It just so happened that Balaam was from Pethor, on the Euphrates River, in the vicinity of Babylon, and was likely known to the magi.[6]
At any rate, instead of cursing the Jews, which he found he could not do, he blessed them, saying,
“I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel,”
Numbers 24.17. When the Jews slew Balaam, don’t think his prophecy was forgotten. The star he referred to accounts for the magi’s response to the star they saw when Christ was born, and the Sceptre he referred to is a well-known description of a ruler.
Another thousand years passed, with this information probably recorded on ancient tablets, until the arrival of a great and notable man, Daniel. Captured when the Babylonians overran Jerusalem, Daniel eventually became head over all the magi, even though he was very different, for he worshipped not as they worshipped nor ate the foods they ate.[7] He was made chief of all the magi because God gave him the power to truly interpret the king’s dreams, Nebuchadnezzar, and predict the future rise and fall of nations.
We are all aware of Daniel’s predictions concerning the rise of the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires, in some cases centuries before it occurred, but most of us forget that this same Daniel predicted the year that God’s Messiah would come to Jerusalem. He predicted that from the time the Jews were allowed to rebuild their wall around Jerusalem (something unheard of in that day for a defeated city, like us giving the atomic bomb to Japan in 1955), the Messiah would enter Jerusalem exactly 483 years later.[8] The magi knew when permission had been given for the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem’s city walls. They could easily have reasoned that the Messiah would be a man full-grown when He entered the city, so it just made sense for them to begin to expect His birth some 440, 450, or 460 years later.
Not that these men were really believers in the God of Israel, mind you, just scientists. But they had to admit; Daniel had been perfectly correct about the rise and fall of four empires. He had correctly interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams. His companions had endured the fiery furnace, as dozens of witnesses testified.[9] And Nebuchadnezzar had even become a believer in Daniel’s God, no one could deny.[10] The magi could not have denied that Daniel was a man respected and revered for his wisdom. And his Scriptures, which he studied every day, did they not contain the account of Balaam? He even knew on the very night that Belshazzar would lose his kingdom to the Persians and be slain.
Though they could not see this God of Daniel’s, though images of Him were not permitted, the true intellectual, the objective, the scientific mind could not deny that some invisible hand was moving in the affairs of men. And if Balaam’s prediction was correct, someday that God would appear to men. It was their study of history. It was their study of miracles unaccounted for except the hand of God. It was their genuine search for truth, which resulted in this group of unbelieving scientists, while making their nightly observations of the stars, sighted the star.
THE STAR
Could it be the star that Balaam talked about almost 2000 years ago? What else could it be? It was no ordinary star. It had never appeared before. It was no comet or meteorite they observed, and they could tell. They were astrologers/astronomers, remember.
The sighting of the star in the eastern sky triggered those men’s minds. The unexplained phenomenon spurred their studies of the old parchments, the old scrolls, and the old tablets.
They had all seen it. They had all made calculations about where it was. They had all examined the ancient knowledge, discarded and explained so long ago by skeptics. But then it disappeared.
Was that star the star? There was no way to know for sure. How could they find out if the star did signal the coming of the Messiah that Daniel predicted would come? The only way to be sure was to journey to Daniel’s homeland. They prepared a caravan.
THE SEARCH
When they sighted the star in the eastern sky, it took almost a year to assemble the men and materials needed to make a caravan journey of such distance. They had to purchase the camels and donkeys, and supplies. They had to hire men. And they had to wait for the right time of the year to travel the fertile crescent west to the route known as the king’s highway.
Where would they go? They had to depend partly upon their calculations and Daniel’s Scripture. They were apprehensive but filled with a curiosity that only the scientific mind possesses. They set out more than a year after the star had been sighted.
As they came upon the king’s highway, they journeyed south to the city of Jerusalem. There they innocently asked, “Where is He that is born king of the Jews?” To their dismay, no one knew, for grisly old Herod had been on the throne for many years. They asked to see this king Herod to get to the bottom of the problem.
Throughout their journeys, they discussed this star they had seen, and the meaning of the Sceptre Balaam prophesied. Undoubtedly, only a king wields a sceptre. Yet Daniel taught that his God was the Most High God. He taught that his God was the creator of all things. Daniel taught that this Messiah-King would be the king of all. How, then, could this king not reign? Of course, He has just recently been born. This Herod must be His regent until He assumes His throne.
When they arrived at the palace of Herod the king their questions had preceded them. But they asked again,
“Where is He that is born king of the Jews? We have seen His star in the east and have come to worship Him?”
Matthew 2.2.
Herod consulted the chief priests and scribes and asked them where the Messiah was born. They said, “Bethlehem,” according to the prophet Micah.[11] Is it not astonishing to discover that those who had the truth cared not for it until those who were searching for truth wanted it?
At any rate, Herod told them it was Bethlehem, which is about 13 or 14 miles south of Jerusalem. So, apparently at nighttime now, they headed their caravan toward that small village which had been, before the time of Daniel, the home of the king of the Jews named David.
As they journeyed, a marvelous thing happened. The star they had seen almost two years earlier appeared again and shined directly over where the young child King was, so they found Him directly.
There are gruesome details of death and slaughter which give evidence that these magi arrived almost two years after our Lord Jesus Christ was born and placed in the Bethlehem manger. So far behind the common man (think about it), so far behind the common man did the intellectuals arrive at the feet of the King.
But when they arrived and came into the house where He now was, they fell and worshiped Him.[12]
The journey of the magi has a modern-day parallel among men. It is the life’s journey of the extremely intelligent or the highly educated to the feet of Jesus.
For those people who are simple thinkers like you and me, God simply and in a straightforward manner presents the facts. They are considered, they are pondered, they are weighed in the heart, and they are responded to.
But the great mind, or the person who is highly trained as a thinker, accepts nothing at face value. He doubts everything. And he certainly doesn’t take simple explanations without a great deal of supporting evidence.
The difference between the two kinds of men is mirrored in the arrival of the shepherds and the arrival of the magi at the feet of the King. With uncomplicated thoughts and a willingness to accept things at face value, the plain men arrived two years earlier than the magi.
The magi are like the scientists of modern times. They won’t (they use the word “can’t”) accept the testimony of the Word of God at face value. No, they have to involve themselves in scientific endeavors for twenty years, they have to make a name for themselves, and they have to discover that their life still has no meaning.
If they truly are seeking truth they will arrive at the feet of Jesus. But at what cost? Will they live long enough to arrive at their destination? Most of the magi over the centuries died before they found the Fountain of truth.
Will they find truth at a late age in life? By then they have married, managed to wreck the lives of their spouse and children, and have a horrible home life.
No, the path of the magi does lead to the Lord Jesus Christ. An open and honest inquiry of scientific truth, physical evidence, philosophical reasoning, will lead to a belief in God and finally to a trusting in Christ as Savior.
But God would rather that we, I fancy, be like the shepherd men. Just take God at His Word. Just take Him at His Word.
God created the heaven and the earth and all of the things that lie therein. And on the sixth day He created man in His image and after His likeness. But mankind sinned. Mankind rebelled against God.
At this time in which we live, all men are born into this world at odds with God, literally at enmity with Him. There is a war on, and man must lose in a conflict with God. But two thousand years ago, according to longstanding prophecies that men of learning were acquainted with for thousands of years, God sent forth His Son, made in the likeness of men. His goal? To reconcile people to God.
Man’s rebellion created conflict with a holy God. Christ came to establish peace. Indeed, He is the Prince of Peace, and there can be no peace without the Prince of Peace. No peace between God and man. No peace of heart and mind.
How many magi were in the caravan, we do not know. But we do know this. By the time they arrived at Bethlehem, they were truly wise men, for they fell down before Him and worshipped Him.
You may be a great deal like the magi. You don’t have to be an astronomer or intellectual like them. Anyone can have a doubting streak running through them. Maybe you’re like a magi in this respect. You just doubt. You’re skeptical. But you do know that Jesus is the Son of God. The Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth of my words, the Bible tells me. And you also know that in your personal search for truth, your personal search for life’s meaning, you have not arrived at your destination.
If your search is for truth and meaning, you will arrive at His feet. So why not come directly to Him now? You say, “How do I know the path to truth leads to Him?” Remember, it was He Who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” The path to truth always and only leads to Him. It does not lead anywhere else.
If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, if you’ve never really fallen at His glorious feet and worshipped Him, do so now.
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[1] Fritz Rienecker & Cleon Rogers, Linguistic Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1980), pages 2-3.
[2] Genesis 10.8-10, Henry H. Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 24th Edition, 1965), page 82.
[3] Genesis 9.1
[4] Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons Or The Papal Worship Proved To Be The Worship Of Nimrod And His Wife, (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, Second American Edition 1959), page 5, 21, 30-31, 40, 68, 141.
[5] Edward Reese, The Reese Chronological Bible, (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 1977), page 119.
[6] Numbers 22.5, https://bibleatlas.org/pethor.htm
[7] Daniel 1.8-21
[8] Daniel 9.25, John F. Walvoord & Roy B. Zuck, General Editors, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 1985), pages 1362-1363.
[9] Daniel 3.8-30
[10] Daniel 4.1-37
[11] Micah 5.2
[12] Matthew 2.11
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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church