READ MATTHEW 2 FOR THE WHOLE STORY
Matthew 2:16
When Herod realized that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated. So he sent soldiers with orders to slaughter every baby boy two years old and younger in Bethlehem and throughout the surrounding countryside, based on the time frame he was given from interrogating the wise men.
I grew up in a Greek Orthodox religious tradition. We did not listen to church services in English, but Russian. We did not follow the Gregorian calendar but the Julian calendar. Therefore, we celebrated Christmas on January 7th. It was an additional day off school for all us Russian kids, but we took a lot of ribbing from class mates as we typically spent most of the day in church! In later years I left that faith when I began a relationship with Jesus. I did some research about my old faith and I believe they very much follow the Old Testament traditions and have not really made any changes since years were measured in B.C.! One thing I did discover is that January 6th is Epiphany! This is not only Christmas Eve in a Russian household, but it is celebrated as the day when the Magi came to visit Jesus. Of course, it would have been a year or two after Jesus was born. Traveling from ‘the east’ to Israel on camels would have been an extensive trip!
I was thinking about these ‘Magi’ that came from the east to see a new king that was born. They have a variety of interesting functions in history, some may even be accurate! My limited research led me to the fact that they were priests in the Zoroastrian religion. Wondering what Zoroastrianism is? Well, It is an Iranian religion that has an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good. As far as I can tell that is the only similarity with the Christian faith. Some have said boldly that it is a satanic faith. We know that anything that does not line up with the Word-is from the enemy. This clearly aligns with the satanic thought.
So, back to the wise; ‘wise men’, we don’t know how many, traveled from afar to find this child that was to become king. They seemed sincere in their search, and they were men who were interested in learning. They were also men with some means because even after a long journey that would have cost them a lot of money, they had great treasure to bring the child. We do know that they had some familiarity with King Herod as he asked them to tell the king where the Christ was so he could worship the new king as well. Through some means, I believe it was God’s spirit in a dream, these magi did not fall for Herod’s lies and they did not share the good news of Jesus with this deplorable king. As a result, when the king realized they were not coming back to give him directions to the new king, Herod did the despicable! He did what so many power hungry rulers have done from before that age-even into this age. He had all male babies killed 2 years and younger that lived in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. He assumed he got rid of the competition.
When I look at the Nativity scene and the kings make their grand entrance, I don’t think about the moms and dads whose innocent boys were murdered because this power hungry monarch could not control his jealousy! I don’t think about the fact that if those seemingly followers of God’s arch enemy did not listen to a nudge by the Holy Spirit, Jesus very likely would have been among the murdered children and God would have had to use plan b. That was not the case, of course. All I think about is the majesty of these very influential men of a religion so far removed from Christ that it is amazing they made it into the story. But they did, and they had a function in the story as well.
God allowed these ungodly men with great influence to worship this child that was not in a palace or any other place that these dignitaries would frequent. They came to a humble home in Bethlehem and bowed in humility to a powerless child.
Sadly, because of their trip, all male Bethlehem toddlers were murdered. Not directly by the Magi, of course, but indirectly by an insane ‘leader’. Actions have consequences. These Magi could not have predicted this horrific act by a maniacal king. But God did. Still, God allowed it to happen. Why?
In our small, self-centered thinking, we will never know why God allowed that, or Nazi Germany, or Viet Nam, or 911, or any of the horrors that people impose on other people. That is where our trust in the God of the Universe really kicks in. It has to! No one else has the ability to create a world from, well, from nothing. Since He did all that we must just believe with our whole hearts that He has the rest of it under control.
The world seems a little crazy right now. Just in the US we have had snow storms in the south tornadoes and wildfires in the west, a pandemic everywhere, and countless other tragic occurrences. I do wonder…is God trying to get us to wake up? Is He trying to get our attention? In Biblical times when tragedies occured it did provoke people to turn to God. I pray that would be the case today, with no delay! WE NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER, GOD. COME QUICKLY TO OUR RESCUE…AGAIN!
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