The Wisemen

Bible Study with Merrill Mow The Wise0en Matthew 2:1-23 1 Copyrights Please share a link to this e-book with your friends. Feel free to post and share links to this e-book, or you may e-mail or print this book in its entirety or in part, but please do not alter it in any way, and please do not post or offer copies of this e-book for download on websites other than the ones listed below or through another internet-based download service. if you wish to make multiple hard copies for wider distribution, or to reprint portions in a newsletter or periodical, please observe the following restrictions: • You may not reproduce it for commercial gain. • You must include this credit line: "Copyright 2011 by The Plough Publishing House. Used with permission." This e-book is a publication of The Plough Publishing House, Rifton, NY 12471 USA (www.plough.com) and Robertsbridge, East Sussex, TN32 5DR, UK (www.ploughbooks.co.uk). Copyright © 2011 by Plough Publishing House Rifton, NY 12471 USA 2 The Wise0en Bible Study with Merrill Mow Around 1,500 years ago, that is in the year 525 AD, there was a man in Europe called Dionysius who calculated the dates of different historical events. Unfortunately he miscalculated the reign of Herod the Great as 37 BC to 4 BC. He got it wrong but everybody accepted what he did and so it stuck. He figured Herod died in 4 BC but we know that Herod talked to the wise men and knew about Jesus. It was this Herod who ordered that all the baby boys in Judea should be killed so that he would get rid of Jesus, the Messiah King. So Herod could not have died four years before Jesus was born. Now historians say Jesus could have been born anywhere between 7 and 4 BC. Actually it`s not so important; we can think of it as year zero. It’s just good to know that a mistake was made 1,500 years ago and that is why there is this disagreement. Let`s read what it says about it here. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men from the East came to Jerusalem. Is there anything familiar about this word Magi? Yes, if you put a “c” after it, you`ve got the word magic. It means “a man of wisdom”, but in the ancient courts of the world, kings would consult these Magi as advisers whom they thought could do mysterious and miraculous things. So the words magi, wise man, astrologer or magician all had similar meaning. The word "astro" means star. Astronomers are people who study the stars. Astrologers are people who study the stars and try to relate what they see in the stars and in the heavens to things on earth. They believe that things on the earth are influenced by things in the heavens. These days there is often nothing to all that —like the astrology section in the newspaper - it`s probably all nonsense. But back in those days those who studied the stars always saw it as having a relationship with the earth. There is a certain amount of truth in that. 3 Wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” That in itself is extremely unusual, that Gentiles would come seeking the one who is to be the future king of more than just the land of Judea. From their writings they believed that there would be a king who would be greater than a king who only rules one country and that there would be something divine about him from God. So to these people it was important enough that they made this long journey of about five hundred miles. If you went by camel caravan, you couldn`t go straight across the desert unless you really knew what you were doing. Normally, you always went around another way. Five hundred miles with camels, if you go straight across, stopping to camp every night, or maybe eight hundred miles if you go around the top, would be a very long journey. It would take months. So by that we already know that this was some time after the birth of Christ, because they knew that he had already been born when they saw the star. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, (because he wanted to be the only king) and all Jerusalem with him. Now that doesn`t mean all the people in Jerusalem, but it means those in power were disturbed by this, for they had not heard anything about it. It was bad news for them. So he assembled the chief priests, who were the religious leaders and the scribes of the Jews, who he believed would be able to tell him what was going on. They were the people who could read and write and would know. He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, “He will be born in Bethlehem of Judea.” Of course this is where King David was born. For so it is written by the prophets, “And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.” Herod quickly and quietly arranged an audience with the wise men. He summoned them secretly to learn from them what time the star appeared. He wanted to know when and where they had first seen it. They told him they had seen it already when they were back home in the East, and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.” The wise men saw through that without any trouble whatsoever! They knew Herod had no interest in worshiping the new baby. When they had heard the king they went their way, and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house, 4 they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. What is known and really true about the whole story is what you read right here. Nothing else that you have heard has any certainty about it. And they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now that warning came directly from God. Maybe they headed down a different way and came somehow around the other side, because going up the main highway the way you would normally go, they would have met Herod`s men. Maybe they came around below the Dead Sea because God told them they shouldn`t have anything to do with Herod anymore. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under. This was just terrible. The Emperor Augustus in Rome knew that Herod was a ruthless and cruel man when he made Herod king. He had murdered lots of people long before killing the babies. The Emperor had said, “I would rather be Herod`s dog than his son, because he would be kinder to his dog than his son.” That is just terrible! He did not hesitate to cause tremendous suffering. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel.” And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. And so Jesus was always kept safe by His Father in Heaven. 5 ... - tailieumienphi.vn