Joy to the World - Pt 10

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2 ESV).

There are so many events in the Bible that challenge our experience and logic. The star at Bethlehem is merely one of these. We may ask how the star got the wise men, as the Bible says it never moved. It only says they “saw a star in the east” (v 2), and came to Jerusalem. Even then, how did they get from Jerusalem to Bethlehem? And, how did the star stand “over the place where the Child was”? We simply don’t know. There are numerous efforts to explain it in terms of conjunctions of planets or comets or supernovas or miraculous lights. We just don’t know. And, I want to encourage you not to become preoccupied with developing theories that are only tentative in the end and have very little spiritual significance. In general, people who are overly preoccupied with such things as how the star worked, or how the Red Sea split, or how the manna fell, or even how Jonah survived the fish have what I call a “mentality for the marginal.” You do not see in them a deep cherishing of the great central things of the gospel. They find it difficult to really appreciate the holiness of God, the ugliness of sin, the helplessness of man, the death of Christ, justification by faith alone, the sanctifying work of the Spirit, the glory of Christ’s return and the final judgment. They always seem to be taking you down a sidetrack with a new article or book. There is little centered rejoicing. Now, what we can be certain about is that the star is doing something that it cannot do on its own. It is guiding them to Jesus to worship him. There is only one Person in biblical thinking that can be behind that intentionality, and that is God himself. God is guiding foreigners to Christ to worship him. Luke shows God influencing the entire Roman Empire so that the census comes at the exact time to get a virgin to Bethlehem to fulfill prophecy with her delivery. Matthew shows God influencing the stars in the sky to get foreign wise men to Bethlehem so that they can worship him. This is God’s design. He did it then. He is still doing it now. We cannot miss the truth that at the beginning of Matthew we still have a “come-see” pattern. But at the end the pattern is “go-tell.” The magi came and saw. We are to go and tell. What is not different is that the purpose of God is the ingathering of the nations to worship his Son. The magnifying of Christ in the white-hot worship of all nations is the reason the world exists.