"1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.'
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. " New International Version
So who were the Magi (wisemen)? The Bible doesn't tell us much of anything about them:
- They came from the east (most likely Persia but who knows).
- They studied the stars (Magi in Persia were astrologers and dream interpreters for the king).
- They came to worship the King of the Jews (could imply that they had some understanding of the Old Testament prophets who prophesied about the coming Messiah).
- They were wealthy (gold, frankincense, and myrrh were not cheap in the ancient world).
 |
| "They opened their treasures..." |
That's all we really know. We could infer some things, make some educated guesses, but it would still be just a guess. Though we know little about them, they can still teach us something important, something about worship. If we look at verse 2 above, we see that their reason for making this journey was to worship the new king. In verse 11, we can see their worship. They bowed down and brought the new king gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
There is a fascination with the three gifts given to Jesus. I attempted to do some research online concerning the worth of the gifts, but there were a lot of people with less knowledge than me flooding the web with their facts and figures. There is also a lot of conjecture about the purpose behind the gifts; gold for royalty, frankincense for priestliness, myrrh to represent his sacrifice. But it could just be that these were the presents you were supposed to bring. These same three items were apparently among the gifts, recorded in ancient inscriptions, that King Seleucus II Callinicus offered to the god Apollo at the temple in Miletus in 243 B.C. according to biblicalarcheology.com. So, let's take all the extraneous presumption out and just focus on the facts. The magi brought expensive gifts because the person they were going to worship was worth them. And that is our spiritual truth for the day.
The book of Leviticus is fascinating. Yes, it can be a bit dry and tedious, but when you read through it, you leave with a better understanding of God's holiness and our own sinfulness. By God's rules, certain offerings require certain sacrifices depending on the economic status of the individual. What was brought was supposed to be the best you had; there couldn't be any defect or blemish. I was reading through Leviticus last year and I noticed something interesting in Leviticus 1:9:
"You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord." NIV
 |
| "...burn all of it on the altar..." |
Offerings made to God are supposed to be the best we have and be without blemish. Each sacrifice has specific instructions that must be followed if God is to find it acceptable. Even the internal organs must be cleaned before they are put on the altar...and the legs. This is pure speculation on my part; please don't base your personal salvation on this. When an animal is killed, the bowels release and "stuff" comes out. Basic animal anatomy would suggest that when "stuff" comes out it plop on the back legs of the animal. It seems to me that God doesn't want poop on His offering. I can't say I blame Him; no one likes the smell of poop encrusted leg of lamb. The offerings we bring to God should be well prepared and of the best we have. To bring anything else is an insult and a violation the covenant. Here is a rather long passage from the book of Malachi. Let's read 1:6-14:
6 “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LordAlmighty.“It is you priests who show contempt for my name.“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’7 “By offering defiled food on my altar.“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’“By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.
9 “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty.10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty.12 “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ 13 And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty.“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices,should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. 14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.
When we fail to give God our best, it is a slap in the face to Him. We are saying to Him, "Though we made you Lord of our lives, I value myself more than I value you."
In today's Christian society, it's easy to get lost in the love of God and forget that He is our Lord and Master. We sing songs telling God how much we love Him, but forget to bend the knee on a daily basis. When we saturate our worship with God's love and forgiveness only, we can make sin permissible. Stop and consider that for a moment. If all you talk about, sing about, and listen to is how forgiving God is and how much He loves you, then the importance of personal holiness and integrity diminish. If we slip up, it really doesn't matter because God is so full of love and forgiveness. We begin to excuse our behavior, taking God's forgiveness for granted. Once again, we are okay if Jesus is our Savior, but not our Lord. Some also say that all these rules and regulations are part of the old covenant. They say that Jesus brought us a new covenant, doing away with the old one. While that is true, that doesn't mean what they think it means. Jesus' new covenant didn't do away with the rules and standards found in the Old Testament; He did away with their power over us. Under the old covenant, you had to follow the rules for your salvation. Under the new covenant, salvation comes through the sacrifice of Jesus, but that salvation doesn't negate the need for us to live holy lives. There are plenty of verses in the New Testament that call us to holiness. Not just the immediate holiness that comes from being saved through Jesus, but the progressive holiness that is brought through the power of the Holy Spirit which helps us overcome the habits of our sinful behavior. We've used this before but it bears another glance. Look at Romans 12:1-2:
"1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." NIV
Need more? Look at 2 Corinthians 7:1, Ephesians 5:3, Philippians 2:5, 2 Timothy 1:9, Hebrews 12:14, and my personal favorite 1 Peter 1:15-16. God's call to holiness for His followers is evident in each of these verses, along with many others in the New Testament.
Look back at the Wisemen and their gifts. They knew that a king had been born, and they wanted to bring gifts worthy of His station. What about you? Do you bring gifts worthy of Christ's station. The Bible calls Him the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is sitting at the right hand of God the Father. God has exalted Him to the highest place. What gift do you bring the One who literally has everything? The only thing we have to bring is ourselves. He doesn't want our words, or our music, or our pageantry. He wants our love, and our devotion. He has saved our souls from an eternity of separation from Him, which is truly the worst thing imaginable. When we accepted His gift, we made Him Lord and Master. The contract we signed had our worthless lives as the trade in for salvation. Yet we have the tendency to take our lives back. Read through Malachi 1:6-14 again, but filter it through the idea of us being living sacrifices in Romans 12:1-2. Does it sting a little bit when read that way?
Let's take our Wisemen and place them in our nativity. May they remind us to bring gifts worthy of our Savior and Lord; He wants our love and devotion shown through a life offered as a living sacrifice. See you guys and gals tomorrow!
 |
| Day 11 - The Wisemen |
*All scripture taken from the New International Version
No comments:
Post a Comment