Gifts from the Wise Men
- Dr. Joshua Tilley
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Matthew 2:1–12 (HCSB)
2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
3 When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born.
5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet:
Bethlehem was the village King David came from and also the messiah.
6 And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah:because out of you will come a leader who will shepherd My people Israel.”
7 Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find Him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship Him.”
9 After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was—the star they had seen in the east! It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure.
Jesus was called a Child rather than a newborn Infant.
11 Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route.
Matt 2:1-12
Beyond the nativity, we have here a great example of how people approach the reality of Jesus.
1. At first, people are indifferent
Most people did not pay attention to baby Jesus. Even the religious leaders didn’t pay much attention. They quoted Micah’s prophecy but they didn’t take it seriously or visit the town. Of course, some might say most people didn’t know about the prophecies but this is likely untrue.
First of all, with bible prophecies from Jeremiah, Micah, and with 70 weeks of Daniel coming up, many Jewish people expected something big was coming. The Jewish historian Josephus recorded that this was the reason for the revolts all over Rome. The zealots believed the messiah was coming to bring a war. He wrote, “about that time one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth”.
But it wasn’t just the Jewish historians who knew about these prophecies, the Roman historian, Suetonius wrote, “There had spread over all the Orient an old and established belief, that it was fated at that time for men coming from Judaea to rule the world”.
The Roman politician Tacitus said,
“there was a firm persuasion…that at this very time the East was to grow powerful, and rulers coming from Judaea were to acquire universal empire.”
This and the movement of the stars was likely what led the wise men or magi to Jesus.
The Magi were men who were skilled in philosophy, medicine, and natural science. They were the doctors, scientists, and astronomers of the day. They were everywhere. Ex: History records Magi in Athens sacrificing to Plato partly because he died on his 81st birthday.
We are told a different group of Magi visited Nero in Rome (Suetonius, Life of Nero, 13:1) to commemorate the crowning of a king and a peace accord…
But even with all the prophecies and myths surrounding the messiah, most people didn’t care because he didn’t actually affect their lives; that is until the reality of a God enters our minds and we are confronted with the reality of our sin, which leads to the most natural response,
2. Herod was filled with Hatred & Anger
As you may remember, Herod gained control over Israel after Caesar defeated Cleopatra and Anthony. He gained the title “Herod the Great” because he became a great builder and even helped rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem but he was a paranoid and evil man.
Herod had at least three of his own sons killed because he feared they were plotting to overthrow him. He even had his favorite wife, Mariamne, executed by strangulation in the city where they had gotten married 30 years earlier. So it is no wonder that he feared the prophecies.
But it wasn’t just the prophecies and a few philosophers visiting that scared him: it was also his fear of what the stars were saying. At this time, the predictable course of the stars represented the order of the universe and it was trusted by many pagans.
The Romans recorded that the planets Jupiter and Saturn had converged in the constellation Pisces in 7 b.c. This was significant because Jupiter was considered to be the planet of royalty, Saturn represented Palestine, and the constellation Pisces was the sign of the last days.
As a man who was half Jewish, Herod should have been excited about the coming messiah, as a half gentile, you would think he would see the signs in the sky, but rather than rejoice he became all the more paranoid and fearful that this child would some day interfere with his money, his power, and his influence. The fact is people are indifferent until the reality of Jesus sinks in: he is God and king and he commands our lives.
We see that people are more than happy to ignore Jesus until they think his existence will infringe upon their lives, their power, and their perceived happiness. Even today, there are still people all across the planet who would gladly destroy Jesus because they see him as the one who interferes with their lives.
This is when people rebel against their God and this anger often destroys the lives of those around them but not all people go the way of hatred and anger, when confronted with an all-powerful God
3. Wise Men Worship their God
There is more to the story of the Magi. Interestingly, the normal amount of time to travel from Jerusalem to Bethlehem would take around 5 months so, if we do the math, this means they saw the December conjunction of those planets at 15° of Pisces, which would be in front of them in the direction of Bethlehem.
And for these pagan gentiles, this would have been a sign of God’s power over everything from his people to the stars themselves and this is when humble people come to realize that God is not here to control our lives but to guide our paths.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.” (Proverbs 3:5–6)
The problem we face is our nature. It is a natural impulse to control our surroundings. We were created by God to rule. The planet was created for us to rule but we don’t know how to do it correctly so, out of love, God has been teaching us for millennia how to do it right but we must also learn to rule our own bodies, our attitudes, our emotions, and our own passions which requires submission to God’s will and that is where we rebel.
No one likes the idea of having anyone or anything above us. No one wants to be wrong, so we rebel against the God who is always right and this is when indifferent people get angry and angry people become violent.
"5 When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, 6 the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."
Gen 6:5-6
And this is why Jesus lived and died for us because we failed to rule ourselves.
The problem is that we are still limited, frail, and selfish so Jesus came and showed us how we should act and what we should think but we ignore the fact that this power didn’t come from violence or politics or anger, real power is found in submission to the will of God.
People are happy to embrace freedom and forgiveness but they don’t want to submit. The fact is the path of Christ is paved by servanthood and suffering but no one wants that. We want the easy road. We want to blame others for our problems. We want to be victims because victims can’t be blamed for their crimes. We want to be victims and victors but this is not possible.
Victory comes through Christ alone and until people embrace that they are sinners who do not know how to rule themselves, they will never find true joy because real joy comes from gratitude and if you have no God you have no one to be grateful too and if you can’t be grateful you will either be indifferent or you’ll be angry. The answer is to humble yourself and worship.
The Magi brought specific gifts with specific meaning in their time:
Gold was the gift of a king.
May he live long!
May gold from Sheba be given to him.
May prayer be offered for him continually,
and may he be blessed all day long.
Psalm 72:15
Frankincense was the gift for a priest. Frankincense was used in the Temple worship and at the Temple sacrifices.
Caravans of camels will cover your land—
young camels of Midian and Ephah—
all of them will come from Sheba.
They will carry gold and frankincense
and proclaim the praises of the Lord.
Isaiah 60:6
Finally, we have myrrh which had two meanings: First, it was what you would expect to smell when your king approached.
What is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke,
scented with myrrh and frankincense from every fragrant powder of the merchant?
It is Solomon’s royal litter surrounded by 60 warriors from the mighty of Israel.
Song of Solomon 3:6-7
Myrrh was a symbol of joy and celebration and the Magi would have known this was an appropriate offering for this king but we also know they believed he was a God because they worshiped him. This is the only proper response to who Jesus is and your life should reflect and imitate that worship but myrrh had a second meaning: it was also a gift for the dead.
Myrrh was used to embalm corpses in Egypt and it was used to wrap dead bodies in Israel.
Nicodemus (who had previously come to Him at night) also came, bringing a mixture of about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes. Then they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the aromatic spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews.
John 19:39-40
Which leads us to the words of Paul to the Corinthian church,
14 But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
15 For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life…
2 Cor 2:14-17
This ability to grow and learn begins with your attitude towards yourself. Do you think you are good enough? If so, you can’t learn….
If you do recognize you could do better, you need to confront your attitude towards submission. The fact is that what it means to be a good human being, a good man or a good woman, is not for us to decide, it is a part of our essence and our design and the only one who can tell us what that design is for is our designer our, our creator, and that creator is Jesus Christ.
This is what determines your response to the existence of God, your attitude. When someone hears about the gospel they must respond and that response is determined by whether you smell death or life in the message but the experience is grounded in the life you have created.
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