Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Good morning, everyone. My name's Stephen. I'll be sharing a devotion about Christmas with you today, so let's pray.
[00:00:10] Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your son. We celebrate his birth into our world.
[00:00:18] That God became man.
[00:00:20] Bless this message to our ears and touch our hearts. In his name we pray. Amen.
[00:00:27] So today I want to look at the account only found in the Book of Matthew about these mysterious people called the Magi.
[00:00:35] The Magi come to visit a young family, a poor family, by following a star.
[00:00:42] They were called Magi from the east. That's all the Book of Matthew says about them. So who were they? And why is it so important that these people show up?
[00:00:55] So the Magi, who are the Magi?
[00:01:00] So there are many myths around the Magi that have grown up since the time of Christ.
[00:01:07] So we'll just look at, first of all, who they weren't. They weren't three. It says there are three gifts. There wasn't three Magi. We don't know how many Magi there was. Could have been 15, could have been two.
[00:01:22] But that's what we see from the text. We call them kings, but they weren't kings. We'll find out what they were in a minute. They weren't three kings from the east, and we often see them in the Christmas Nativity, coming to the manger. But it says in the text that we just read, they came to a house and they saw mother and child. So Joseph may have been off working, as he would have had to do with the young family, but it just says they came there and came to a house. So it seems that it was after that first night when there was a manger.
[00:02:00] So that's a few things dealt with. But who were they?
[00:02:03] Now, I'm not a historian, my brother is, so I have to be very careful. And I ran this thing by him this morning. He's not a believer and he said, oh, that sounds interesting. So I got the thumbs up from my bro.
[00:02:18] But I am a linguist. So the Magi, we're actually using a Persian word, an Iranian word, magi, Magi.
[00:02:29] And that's an ancient word. We have other Persian words in English like pyjamas.
[00:02:35] Don't know if you knew that. Bazaar, if you go to a bazaar, is a kind of market.
[00:02:42] Lemon, apparently, is a Persian word too. There's a lot of Persian words we have because the Persians were a powerful kingdom.
[00:02:51] And the word Magu that was in ancient Persian was borrowed into Greek and borrowed into Hebrew and borrowed into English through the Bible.
[00:03:04] So we're using a word that is not English. Now, in English, we do have a word, not just magi here in the Bible, but magic is a word that's directly related to that magician and magic, which isn't very helpful because if we think of magic, we think of entertainers, we think of fancy entertainers, basically. Maybe a little bit of deception going on there.
[00:03:34] That's not really how they were thought at this time. They weren't thought of as just mad magicians. So if we're not careful, we can get a picture of three kings coming on camels, bit of a circus troupe coming to see Jesus. And we would be missing the point if that's what we were doing.
[00:03:54] So that's why I think it's sometimes it's good to think about what was actually going on.
[00:04:01] So what do we know about the Magi? The interesting thing here is in the Gospel of Matthew, it just says magi came from the east and they did this and they did this and they did this.
[00:04:13] So everybody at that time knew who the Magi were. They don't have to explain. The Magi were these people and they came from here and they did.
[00:04:22] But that's not the case for us. We don't know who the Magi were. So I thought we'd have a bit of a deep dive.
[00:04:30] That's not too deep because we don't have too much time.
[00:04:34] I personally had a bit of a deep dive. And you'll get the fruits of that. So the first time in history the Magi are mentioned is in the book of Jeremiah when the Babylonians come in and defeat Jerusalem.
[00:04:52] Right there alongside Nebuchadnezzar is this guy, Nergal Shareza.
[00:04:59] And he was called a high official if you look at the English. But in the Hebrew, he's a high mag because he's a Magi. That's in Jeremiah 39, 3, 13.
[00:05:13] Then not long afterwards, when a lot of the Jews were taken into Babylon.
[00:05:20] In Daniel 2, Daniel calls them, it's the same group of people, Magi, or they're also called Chaldeans.
[00:05:29] He calls them Babylonian wise men, magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, dream interpreting, astrologers.
[00:05:36] And because the God of heaven gives Daniel the interpretation of the dreams of the king, the king makes Daniel the chief of the Magi.
[00:05:50] And that's a bit surprising.
[00:05:53] So these accounts are like more than 2,500 years ago of the Magi.
[00:06:02] And then moving along in Iran, there is this.
[00:06:09] I think it's 25 meters long inscription called the Beholdun inscription of Darius I. It's an easy mouthful.
[00:06:19] And Darius I first has his foot on a magi.
[00:06:25] And this magi had risen up and gathered the Medes and the Persians and said he was the son of the previous king. And Darius made mincemeat of him and took over. So that's kind of an inscription that includes the term magi in it. So magi were not just some vague thing, they were very well known. This is. We're talking 500 BC, that all of this was going on.
[00:06:56] I like this picture. This is the bust of Herodotus. I don't know if you know one. They're called the father of history.
[00:07:02] And AI recreated what he looked like and I thought he looked a bit grumpy, but if you wrote the book that he wrote, it's like this, the histories, you might have been a bit grumpy too. But. But he talks quite a lot about the magi. He said they were Medes, they were Persians, that's like what is now Iran. They were priests, interpreters of dreams and they were very active in the king's courts.
[00:07:30] So that's still 400 BC. And then at the time of Christ, there was a Greek who is very famous who wrote a book called the Geographies or Geography, and he talks about the magi as well. He said they're still around in the Parthian Empire, which is what is now Iran.
[00:07:51] And he called them kingmakers.
[00:07:55] They were the ones who decided there were two groups in the Parthian Empire, those from which the king could come and those who would make the king.
[00:08:04] So you go, oh, hang on, Jesus is the king. Messiah means king.
[00:08:10] So what's going on here?
[00:08:13] So just to summarise it, the magi were active for hundreds of years, right up into Jesus time and beyond.
[00:08:22] They had spread from Persia to Babylon and were active internationally. So they were widely known. They were powerful advisors in the courts of kings. They were not just magicians. They had knowledge that was considerable, revered and respected.
[00:08:37] They were priests, astrologer, administrators, and they were known as kingmakers.
[00:08:43] So why did they come to see Jesus?
[00:08:47] Why would these people come?
[00:08:50] It's quite a long way, it would take quite a lot of time. So what did they know that brought them?
[00:08:58] Now, it doesn't really say that much about them, but in the time of Jesus, Israel was no longer what it had been under King David and King Solomon. Israel had become a very powerful nation.
[00:09:13] But Assyria came in and took away part and Babylon came in, took away another part, why would they even be thinking about Israel? Why would they want to travel all the way to Israel, which was under the Romans?
[00:09:29] Well, there was a very famous prophet going back to the time of Moses.
[00:09:38] So that's like 3,000 at least 3,200 years ago.
[00:09:44] And his name was Balaam, son of Beor. And we read about him in Numbers.
[00:09:49] Now this guy is interesting because he's also found outside the Bible. In the 70s in Jordan, they discovered a cave and it had on it a kind of stucco writing and an earthquake had hit it and collapsed it.
[00:10:05] So the scholars had the job of piecing it all back together.
[00:10:09] And it was from Balaam, son of Beor.
[00:10:12] And so he's one of the first people that you read about in the Bible that you have extra biblical kind of evidence for as well.
[00:10:22] And he said in numbers 24, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob, a scepter will rise out of Israel, he will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth.
[00:10:39] And so here's a prophecy from a non Israelite, and he said, there's going to come a king out of Israel, a star. And at that time, stars were seen as stars in the sky, but they could also mean angels or they could also mean rulers.
[00:11:01] So they, whatever happened, they thought, we've got to get over and see this guy.
[00:11:07] Now, the Magi, as we know, they knew about the Bible because Daniel was in Babylon and the Jews were in Babylon until recently, quite recently from that time.
[00:11:24] And so the Magi may have indeed read the book of Daniel, we don't know.
[00:11:31] But it's not just some random story, it's historically very well founded.
[00:11:40] So yeah, that's Balaam.
[00:11:42] And let's keep moving on here who the Magi weren't before we go and try and restore the lost knowledge of the Magi, which is possible these days. You go down to a New age festival and you might see the knowledge of the Magi and all sorts of things. I wouldn't bother with all of that because they weren't all knowing. Their information wasn't all from God.
[00:12:05] We don't actually have a lot of information. We just know they came and they brought gifts.
[00:12:11] And we also know that they didn't know this verse because they went to King Herod of Judah and they said, where is the king going to be born?
[00:12:23] And he quietly got all of his wise men of Israel together. And they said, oh, we know that that's in Micah 5:2. It says Bethlehem. Ephrath, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me, the one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old.
[00:12:43] So the Magi didn't know that they needed to be told that.
[00:12:47] Now the most important thing is they weren't Jews. So they weren't the people of God. They didn't have the Torah, they didn't have the law, they didn't have the prophets, they didn't have a covenant with God like Abraham. They didn't have David as their ancestor.
[00:13:04] They were completely different place.
[00:13:08] They were Gentiles. They were not the ones that God was revealing himself to.
[00:13:14] Now, God gave the law to the Jews so that they would be a light to the nations and shine and let the world know what God was like.
[00:13:25] But here are these Gentiles, they saw a star and where were the Jews?
[00:13:33] So it's an interesting question.
[00:13:36] The Magi, they see the star and they travel a long way, they bring gifts and they worship.
[00:13:46] But there was no high rabbi there, there was no chief priest there come to celebrate Jesus.
[00:13:57] So why were the Magi so important?
[00:14:00] Why are they so important? There's quite a big section there given to them, and there's several reasons for that.
[00:14:09] They were the most powerful people who could have possibly come, besides and present kings themselves.
[00:14:18] They came from some of the most respected, historically powerful civilizations in the world. What we call the cradle of civilization.
[00:14:27] Babylon, Persia, the most developed nations. The Romans didn't care about the Jews. They did a good job of wiping out the temple and wiping out the Jews, actually.
[00:14:44] But here we have people from the most historical, most powerful nations coming to a little town called Bethlehem that would be noticeable.
[00:14:57] They would be coming on camels, they would be coming in caravans, in an entourage. It says the whole of Jerusalem was shaken. Like, why are these really important people showing up?
[00:15:09] Not for Herod, it was like, oh, a massacre's coming.
[00:15:16] Who were these guys celebrating?
[00:15:19] It would have been a bit of a shock, like, oh, we know what's happening with the things of God.
[00:15:24] Except these guys show up going, oh, the King of Israel is coming. And they go, whoa, have we missed something?
[00:15:30] Oh, it said that Herod thought they were important enough to justify the death of many children in Bethlehem. Now, Bethlehem at the time wasn't a massive city. It was a couple of hundred people, they believe, and they estimate 20 to 40 children would have been killed.
[00:15:51] And that's a lot of children. If it's your children but it's not as many people as Herod went on to kill.
[00:16:00] So Herod definitely thought these people were significant, significant enough to murder.
[00:16:08] So what can we learn from the Magi about them themselves, about Jesus, about the kingdom of God?
[00:16:17] The first thing I think is when I was meditating on this is how life is not all roses.
[00:16:25] Could you imagine Joseph and Mary?
[00:16:31] They have their child and kingmakers show up from these nations that you've heard about Persia and Babylon.
[00:16:40] They show up with gifts, they bow down, they worship your son.
[00:16:46] That would be a bit surprising.
[00:16:49] Imagine we're up at the hospital and then these guys come in, you know, with their fancy clothes and turbans and they're bowing down to your child.
[00:16:57] You go, okay, this is a bit different. I know what I would think, and go, this is a good start.
[00:17:05] This is going to go really well.
[00:17:07] If this is the beginning, where is this going to end?
[00:17:12] But we know that very soon after they had to run for their lives.
[00:17:20] So just because God blesses you and God is with you, doesn't mean life's going to be roses all of the time.
[00:17:29] And that would have been quite a shock too. Run for your lives. Herod's coming for your kids. And so Joseph had a dream that warned him, go now, get up, go. And he obeyed.
[00:17:44] We don't hear much about Joseph, and we don't even hear about these gifts. The gifts they brought frankincense, myrrh, gold. Frankincense and myrrh. They were expensive items.
[00:17:59] Frankincense and myrrh were basically sold from a place we call Nabatea, which is now called Arabia, and they were very expensive gifts.
[00:18:12] Frankincense was used in prayer and worship. It was in incense.
[00:18:18] Myrrh was used medicinally, but it was also used on dead bodies.
[00:18:25] And gold. We know about gold. We still have gold, and we don't hear about it again.
[00:18:34] So you go, well, what happened? Well, we do know they didn't go and buy Lamborghinis. They didn't go and waste it on a new house or anything like that. It's most probable that they survived off that money. In Egypt.
[00:18:50] They probably went down to Alexandria, where there were a lot of Jews, tried to get a job, worked a bit and had other children.
[00:19:00] And they used. It seems that they used it wisely, which is interesting. I don't know if I was given gold and frankincense and myrrh and, you know, I'd sell it all off and have a party.
[00:19:14] But it seems like Joseph And Mary were sensible people because you could imagine they go to Nazareth and they buy the best house with the best view.
[00:19:24] And you hear, you would have heard about that.
[00:19:27] So yeah, what we learn about them is the Gentiles, these Gentiles came, they worshiped and then they disappeared.
[00:19:36] And the first assassination attempt on Jesus life was made very soon afterwards.
[00:19:42] And they've counted five assassination attempts. So life, don't be surprised if life isn't all roses.
[00:19:51] Jesus said, in this world you will have trouble, but take courage.
[00:19:56] I have overcome the world. God is with us in our trials. And you look at what happened, Jesus did go on to become the king of the world.
[00:20:11] Number two. The first can be last, the last can be first. And this is something we learn from this as well.
[00:20:19] So the Gentiles here that came, the Magi were not the people you would have expected to come and celebrate. You would have expected the high priest, the rabbis, even Herod. You had these people that we don't know their names, we don't know where they came from specifically. We don't even know how many there were of them. We just know this class of people that were not Jews came and worshiped and gave gifts. It's like the last very important people, but the last were first. And the first, the people who should have been there were not there.
[00:20:57] And Jesus went on to say this several times. A bit of a principle of the kingdom of God is don't think you're, don't get too full of yourself.
[00:21:09] You know, I've got it sorted, I'll be right, I've got it all down path because God has his eye not just on people who think they've got it all right.
[00:21:22] And that encourages me. These foreigners involved undoubtedly in some practices that God doesn't condone. But they got it right.
[00:21:34] They got it righter than anybody else. When they bowed down to him, they were the first people to say, this is God as man.
[00:21:45] And nobody else had that for the rest of Jesus life pretty much until he came and resurrected. And then they go, oh, maybe you are God.
[00:21:56] Here you have it. The last have become first and finally the kingdom of God is here in Christ, in Jesus Christ.
[00:22:07] The kingdom of God has arrived. Now the Magi didn't know it at that time, but a fulfillment of a prophecy made by Daniel happened on that day.
[00:22:22] So in the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people.
[00:22:31] It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it itself will endure forever. In that baby was a king. They recognized this king. And this king has set up a kingdom.
[00:22:45] And we're invited into that kingdom. The kingdom of God, Jesus said, has come.
[00:22:52] Now. It's not in its fulfilment as you can look around the world.
[00:22:58] There's a bit of chaos, but. But the kingdom of God is here and it is remaining.
[00:23:05] It's not crushing other kingdoms through violence. It's a revolution that occurs in the hearts.
[00:23:10] It's a revolution that overtook the mighty Roman kingdom. And from inside, from the last, the slaves.
[00:23:18] Christianity ended up taking over Rome.
[00:23:23] It's not a violent revolution. It's one of grace, of forgiveness and of love, of transformed lives.
[00:23:31] And it spread to North Africa, to the Celts, to the Germans, to the Slavs. And it continues to spread until today the kingdom of God is open to us. It's a new way of living where we say, jesus, you are God.
[00:23:46] Jesus, you are the king. Jesus, I will obey your teachings and live in your kingdom, where we say, jesus, you are the Lord.
[00:23:58] So let's spend today remembering we are invited into this kingdom. We are in this kingdom. We can live according to this kingdom by his power, not by our own strength, by his power and his grace and his leading of us.
[00:24:14] And we can wait for him to come again and establish his kingdom on the earth. So the Magi, they were caught up in something so big, so much bigger than they knew, but they knew it was big. They knew it was big enough to get on their camels and bring expensive gifts and to bow down and worship and to disappear again.
[00:24:37] They knew it was big. And we're caught up in that as well.
[00:24:42] So let's pray and let's acknowledge the king has come.
[00:24:47] Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that on that day you were a child, you were a baby.
[00:24:54] And these Magi, these wise men from the east came. They saw you. They recognized the signs in the heavens and they came and they worshiped you.
[00:25:06] We worship you too, Lord Jesus. Today we acknowledge that you are God's only son. You are the king, not just of Israel, but of the whole world.
[00:25:16] May your kingdom come. May your will be done. Thank you for the goodness, the grace, the forgiveness, the mercy, the power that you have brought into our lives. We pray it in your holy name. Amen.
