December 12 – Matthew 2:1-12

Which is really interesting, because the wise men who sought out Jesus’ birth weren’t Jewish. They were magi, a Persian term used for folks who practiced astrology, magic, and obscure philosophies. They didn’t necessarily worship the Jewish God, and they most certainly didn’t abide by the Mosaic Law. So what in the world are they doing in this passage? And why in the world would God speak directly to these outsiders through astrology and dreams?

This was in part to fulfill the prophecy that the Messiah would be visited and worshipped by foreigners. This points backwards in time by recalling the image of foreigners monarchs paying homage to Jewish kings (1 Kings 10:22), and it points forward in time, echoing when Gentiles would be fully welcomed into the family of God (Acts 15:14; cf. Mic. 4:2). This was also in part to pronounce judgement on Israel, considering foreigners recognized their king when they didn’t. This calls to mind prophecy from Isaiah 28:11, “For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people.” In this we can see a comparison between the surprising faithfulness of these foreigners—who traveled for months just because they saw some stars acting strangely—and the faithlessness of Herod and Jewish leadership.

This Herod is Herod I, or Herod the Great; the Herod who ruled later in Jesus’ life was his son, Herod Antipas (Matt. 14). Next week we’ll see just how brutal of a ruler Herod I was, but even here we see his paranoia and shrewdness (also as an example, later in his rule he executed his wife over a murder plot that was totally fabricated). As a Roman ruler of an occupied nation, he must’ve known just how tenuous his hold on power was, and at the mention of a rightful king of Israel he was troubled at the threat it could pose him, coming up with the ploy to send the wise men ahead of him to ferret out this new heir.