Biblegems #116
Question:
Who were the Magi, and
how did they know to follow a specific star to Bethlehem?
When God
created the heavens and the earth He set the stars in specific orientation to
the earth for three specific purposes: 1) separating day and night, 2) for “sign and seasons,” and 3) for assisting
man in keeping track of days and years (Gen. 1:14-15).
It is God, not
man (Ps. 147:4), who gave the stars and their groupings in constellations their
names and meanings for “signs and
seasons.” Biblically, these “signs
and seasons” are predictive, prophetic, pointing humanity to Jesus as the
Savior of mankind. The word “sign” in
the Bible refers to prophetic events, such as the birth of Christ. The word “season” indicates the time related to
those events:
Luke 21:25 There
will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be
in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
God revealed
this knowledge in the stars to Adam and Eve, no doubt, and they were to pass
this knowledge—His timeline for major events in salvation history—on to their
children and following generations:
Ps. 19:1-3 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of
his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display
knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
This
knowledge did get passed on, but it also became twisted and deformed from God’s
original intent as different cultures used the names and God-given meanings of
the stars to develop mythologies and religions and horoscopes. As it says in
Amos:
Amos
5:26 You have lifted up the shrine of
your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god—which you made for yourselves.
In the Book
of Numbers God gave the pagan soothsayer Balaam a prophecy of the coming
Messiah:
Num. 24:17 I
see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will
crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.
Balaam saw
in his vision the appearance of a star in the distant future—a “sign” of the birth of a great Jewish
king who would defeat all His enemies. Much later, when the Jews were held
captive in Persia, their writings (including the book of Numbers) were added to
the libraries of the Persian scholars. Among those scholars were the Magi:
astrologers who studied the stars in order to understand their prophetic
message concerning “signs and seasons”
of history—especially future history.
Hundreds of
years later, the Magi in Persia saw the appearance of the star predicted long
ago by Balaam and understood its meaning.
Matt. 2:1-2 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.”
From the very beginning of
creation God has ordered the heavens to declare His glory by putting the plan
of salvation, beginning with the Virgin birth of Jesus (constellation Virgo),
in a glorious tapestry in the night sky. It was His intent that the Magi should
see the star at the appointed “season”
and recognize the savior of the world had been born, according to God’s
revealed Word (Rom. 1:18-20).
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