Dwight Watt - Watt Thoughts #146 1/14/2008
#146 - How did the other experts react with the wise men? (Watt Thoughts)
Notes from sermon given on 1/6/2007 at New Beulah UMC
Scripture Matthew 2:1-12
We see several groups of people in this scripture and different
reactions to the world around them.
The three wise men we see represented in the manager scenes each year
and we sing songs about them. The others, although just as prominent
in their day are not hardly recognized today.
The wise men arrived after the birth according to the
scripture. They may have been months later as they came from another
land when the star first appeared. They may have been kings, rich
people or most likely astrologers who watched and studied the stars.
Upon arriving in Israel they went to logical place where king would
be born and that was Jerusalem and leaders, which led them to Herod.
Think of the others in the story and how they had missed a star in
the sky and the birth. How often do we miss eclipses and meteor
showers and even comets? For most of us we could have see the
Hale-Bopp comet a few years ago but did you? The religious and
political leaders in Israel missed the birth of the Messiah.
Herod called for the religious leaders when the wise men arrived to
ask about it. That was logical for him. The religious leaders knew
the story and the prophesies and gave Herod the information but they
missed it actually occurring. They gave the information to Herod and
the wise men and only the wise men heard and understood and acted and
interesting is they were the non-believers. The religious leaders
still missed the story and failed to act. They could have gone to
Bethlehem with the wise men.
Herod heard the information and was badly scarred. Think about it,
the leader appointed by Rome with the Roman army behind him was
scared to death (and may have been literally) by a little baby of
earthly peasant parents. If you read further he was so scared of the
"King of the Jews" as he was told the person was by the wise men,
that he killed all boys under the age of two. He knew the exact time
of the birth, the wise men told him when star appeared, but he killed
for a two years birth period. Ironically Jesus was no challenge to
him as Herod only lived a short time. We know that as the family went
in exile to Egypt until he died and they were back in Jesus early
childhood. How long exactly we do not know but before Jesus could
have ruled as before he turned 12.
Wise men from another country, who would have chosen them to see the
birth of the Messiah and worship him then? Yet they were the ones not
the Jewish religious leaders or the political leaders of Israel that
went and worshiped him.
Who would we be? Do we miss stuff non-believers see? See and
participate in miracles as the wise men did.
Dwight
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