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There is a very interesting story that very few people know about the wise men who visited Jesus as a very small child. It dates back to the time the prophet Daniel about 450 years before. Most of this story is a Jewish tradition, not found written in the Bible. What the Bible does tell us is that Daniel as a young was taken captive into Babylon from his home in Judah. Daniel never saw his homeland again. He served for several years in the court of the king of Babylon and later in the court of the king of Persia.
According to the tradition, by the end of Daniel’s life he had become very wealthy, but since he had no children (Daniel had probably been made a eunuch), he had no heir to whom he could leave his fortune. Besides being a man of God, Daniel was a man science, and the chief of all the wise men of Babylon and Persia. He firmly believed in God’s promise to send His Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world.
Shortly before his death, Daniel had told the wise men who were his subordenants that, when the Christ arrived, he wanted them to take the treasures which He had accumulated and lay them down at His feet. For four and a half centuries the treasures remained stored in Persia, waiting for a sign from God. They knew that the Christ Messiah was to arrive in Judea, but they didn’t know exactly when. That sign finally came in the form of a very unusual star which appeared in the western evening sky. They only saw the star once, but they were so convinced that this was the long-awaited sign from God, it was enough make them collect the treasure left by Daniel and start the long, 2-year trek toward Judea.
Here we must clarify some common misunderstandings about the story in Matthew 2 of the wise men as they arrived in Judea. First, the Bible never says that the wise men were kings. Many people assume that they were kings because the gifts they brought were so expensive, but, assuming that the traditional story is correct, the gifts were not from them but from the prophet Daniel. Also, the Bible doesn’t say that there were three. People assume that there were three wise men because there were different gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Probably there were many more than three persons in the company since it would be very dangerous for just three people to take such a long trip with such expensive treasure. They probably had a large armed contingent of guards to keep them safe from thieves along the way. Also, the wise men did not arrive on the day that Jesus was born. Jesus was about two years old when they arrived.
The star which the wise men followed deserves special consideration. What exactly was it? I have heard theories that it might have been an aligning of planets, but an aligning of planets or a comet or nova could not do what this star did. This star was only seen by the wise men, and by nobody else. It was only seen twice: once on the day that Christ was born, and once when it led the wise men to Bethlehem. It has never been seen since. The star traveled at walking speed and was able to stand still over the house where little Jesus was staying. I believe that it was actually an angel appearing as a star. In the Bible angels are sometimes referred to as stars. For example, Revelation 1:20 says, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches…” That would explain why the star was seen only by the wise men, and only when God wanted them to see it.
The wise men were not the only ones seeking Jesus. There was also a fool seeking Jesus. That fool was King Herod. When the wise men were led to Christ they rejoiced. When Herod heard the news of Christ, he was terrified. The wise men sought Jesus to worship Him. Herod sought Jesus to destroy Him. The wise men found Jesus. The fool missed him. The fool thought that he could outsmart God. According to Jewish tradition, there were 22 babies killed in the massacre of children in Bethlehem. Herod thought that surely Jesus must have been among the dead, but Jesus was the only child that he missed. Jesus was already well on His way way to Egypt where He and His family stayed, we believe, till He was about six years old. The gifts brought by the wise men were probably what the family lived off during that time. About four years after the massacre of the children in Bethlehem, Herod himself died. He perished without ever realizing that he had failed to destroy the Christ whom he hated.
The big lesson to learn here is that God is not mocked. Nobody can outsmart God. His plan is the only one that will work. God’s promises will be kept, and nobody can stop that. Fools think that they can outsmart God’s plan. Wise men realize that God’s purposes are unstoppable, so instead of resisting they submit to it. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). God says that the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, opens the only doorway into heaven. Any other way leads to hell. Don’t be the devil’s fool. Don’t trust in your own good works to save you from your sins. Come to God the way Jesus said by depending on the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ to be the payment for your sins. Ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart and to wash away your sins by His blood. Wise men find Jesus because they come to Jesus in the way that God said.
