Matthew 2:1-12

When the Son of God was born into the world, it was in the very small and lowly village of Bethlehem . The wise men obviously thought that "the King of the Jews" would be born in the palace, at Jerusalem . The Lord had other ideas. It was His plan that everything about Christ's birth should have the stamp of lowliness so that the poorest and humblest of men might understand that Messiah took the nature of ordinary people. Jesus was not born as one of the great ones of the earth, but was one of our common humanity. Jesus was born of a lowly virgin, and was cradled in a manger, in the village of Bethlehem , which means the "house of bread", for it is there that the Bread of life is to be found. The main purpose of this passage is to show the reception given by the world to the newborn Messianic King, homage from afar and hostility at home. This foreshadowed the fortunes of the new faith: reception by the Gentiles, rejection by the Jews"

The birth of Jesus was a momentous event, worthy of divine intervention in order to direct these men to find the place of his nativity.

The Bible describes them as Wise Men and Daniel describes the influence of this class of men in Babylon during the time that he lived there. They were confidants of rulers, expected to answer all questions and solve all problems. Many of them were not quite as wise as they were credited with being.

Dan 1:20 none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.    

Dan 2:27-45 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, "The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.

Dan 5:15-16 Now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not give the interpretation of the thing. And I have heard of you that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas.

We do not know exactly who or what the wise men were who came seeking Jesus. It is thought that their home was probably in Babylon , or, as it was at the time of the birth of Jesus , Persia , and that they belonged to a priestly tribe of the Medes. They were known to be seekers after truth who studied astronomy and astrology in their search for knowledge. Some Christian traditions regard them as kings, and that is probably related to the gifts that they gave to the Baby Jesus.

We know that this particular group of men were seeking truth and that God revealed to them that a special child would be born in Judea . This revelation caused them to set off on a long journey to find the Special Child whose birth had been revealed to them. We know that it had been revealed to them that the child would be Jewish. We also know that their journey was guided by a special star. We know that they set off on a journey of faith because they believed that God had revealed these things to them. There seems no doubt that they experienced a Divine Revelation concerning the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As long as they followed the light that they had received they kept going in the right direction but somewhere on their journey they lost sight of the star and did what we are prone to do. They substituted human wisdom for Divine revelation. It may have been the bright lights of Jerusalem that blocked out the light of the star or it may just have seemed logical to them that a Jewish King would be born in a palace in the capital of Judea . Whatever the cause they went to the wrong place, and spoke to the wrong person. The Psalmist reminds us that, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.” By speaking to Herod they started a chain of events that led to much sorrow and grief in Bethlehem .

This problem is still with us. God reveals His will and His way to us and we follow His directions until we think we know where and how the story should end. Then it all goes pear-shaped. We must allow the same vision to lead us on to a conclusion as led us when we began the journey of faith.

Learning that the Bible revealed that the baby would be born in Bethlehem got them back on the right road. When they got back on the right road the Divine Guidance system again came into operation. The guiding star was again visible and it led them to the place where the Baby lay.

God’s Spirit still guides G od’s people by God’s Word and He still leads us on journeys that we may not fully understand. When we find that we have somehow wandered from the path it is time to remind ourselves of the lesson we learned last week. It will again be time to delight in God’s law and to meditate on it until we again get back to where we should be.

God still does not advise His people with advice from the ungodly. Keep your eye fixed on the Lord. That way you get to where you are supposed to be and receive the blessings God wants to give you.