Today’s reading of my NIV Life Application Study Bible was
Matthew, chapter 2, which begins with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. It goes
on to describe the Magi (the wise men) who travel thousands of miles to visit
Jesus, and then it describes King Herod’s attempts to find and kill Jesus.
Something new that I learned in this reading was that Jesus
was about two years old by the time the Magi found him. This is quite different
from my childhood recollections of stories about the Magi finding him in a
manger right after his birth. However, it makes sense. They were walking, and
they were traveling from very far away.
King Herod was not a kind ruler, and he was fearful of
losing his throne to the child that people were saying was the prophesied king
of the Jews. When the Magi told him they had come to find Jesus, he told them
to report back to him after they found him so that he could worship Jesus too.
They agreed to do that, but once they found Jesus, God told them not to tell
Herod, so they left Bethlehem without delivering the message to the king, who
didn’t want to worship Jesus—he wanted to kill him.
Joseph then received his second message from God, who told
him to take Mary and Jesus out of Bethlehem and go to Egypt. Once again, Joseph
followed God’s command, and he moved his family to Egypt. Frustrated that the
Magi hadn’t done as they’d promised, King Herod ordered all the boys in
Bethlehem and the surrounding areas who were two years old and younger to be
killed in the hopes that one of them would be Jesus and he would secure his
throne through these murders. His evil plan failed; Jesus escaped with his
earthly family. When Herod died, God spoke to Joseph in another dream and told
him to return to Israel. Joseph obeyed and moved his family to Nazareth.
Two lessons stuck with me from this chapter. The first is
that the Magi made a long and likely difficult journey to find Jesus, the Son
of God, and they brought valuable gifts to give to him.
They sought him.
They brought him gifts.
They didn’t sit around and wait for Jesus to find them. They
didn’t sit around and wait to see what gifts or blessings he would bestow on
them. They searched for—and found—him. And because he is the Son of God, he is
worthy of their gifts. This served to remind me that God wants us to seek him.
He wants to know that we actively want him in our lives, and he wants us to be
willing to offer our valuables to him (and I don’t think valuables have to be
tangible treasures, although I do think giving to worthwhile causes, incredibly
small ones and bigger ones, is good and pleases God).
The second lesson I took from this chapter is that in order
to follow God, sometimes we have to change directions in our lives, just as the
Magi did when they chose not to return to Herod to tell him where Jesus was. We
have to trust him.
After Jesus was born
in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came
to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him” (Matt. 2:1-2).
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