We are in a time of year when most of us are thinking about very special family events, especially Christmas. So ad we think about the Christmas story, one of the great events is the visit of the “wise men.”We don’t know who these “wise men” were. If we take the most literal meaning, they were a group of Persian scholars who seem to better understand the good news that the Messiah was coming more than the Jews who have been watching and waiting for their promised Messiah.The Bible doesn’t give many details as to who these men were, just simply that they are wise men from the east. Various traditions have developed over the years, including different terms to describe them. They are magi, priests, advisors, astrologers, and some even call them “kings” — but they weren’t really kings. So this term applied to Persian scholars; however this term may refer to Jewish scholars who still lived in the lands of captivity, and they were studying the prophecies of Scripture.Because there are three types of gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh, tradition often speaks of the three wise men, however, scripture doesn’t say how many there were. The main thing that we should recognize about these men was that they were watching for the birth of the Messiah—a king.The Bible only tells us from the east. Some surmise they came from Persia or modern Iran—about a 6,000 mile journey. They had seen a special star and were hoping it would lead them to the child who had been born king of the Jews. This was based on Numbers 24:17. Then as they neared Jerusalem, it seems they lost sight of the star, so they went to King Herod thinking he should know where the child would be.But the reaction of King Herod seems to indicate that he was caught off guard and there was no way he was going to relinquish the throne. He calls his wise men who point to Micah 5:2 that indicates the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They continue their journey and find the star again and are able to follow it to find Jesus.A lot of our nativity scenes show the wise men arriving at the stable and worshiping the newborn king. However the text indicates that they came to a house. Then Herod realizing that the wise men had not reported back to ...
