Wonder of the Wise Men

You might think from the title of this post that it’s going to be about the awe the wise men felt as they came face to face with the Christ child. But, while I’m sure wonder was among the emotions they experienced, the wonder I’m writing of today is that which is there for us to feel as we dig deeper into the account of the wise men and understand the significance of their history and their gifts. If you’ve never read Matthew 2, which gives the account of the wise men’s journey, there’s no time better than the present to discover it, and if you have, it’s always good to read it again. In fact, I’ll give you a few moments to go do so now. . .

. . . Okay, you back? Let’s dive in.

We’ve taken a lot of artistic license with the wise men over the years. You might’ve noticed that the Bible never states that there were three of them; we likely arrived at this number from the three items listed as gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Nor was there a scene such as that depicted in countless nativity sets with the shepherds and the wise men bowing before Jesus together.** But all that aside, there are other facets of the wise men’s story that reflect the beauty and wisdom of God.

First, the gifts. It’s easy to skim over the specifics of what gifts the wise men presented to Jesus—gold, frankincense, and myrrh—but they are far more than answers in a Christmas trivia game.

You might be familiar with the Christmas carol “We Three Kings” by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., but do you know all the verses? While the aforementioned artistic license is taken in the title and first verse, verses two through four shed light on the significance of the gifts brought:

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain:

Gold I bring to crown Him again,

King forever, ceasing never,

Over us all to reign.

Frankincense to offer have I,

Incense owns a Deity nigh;

Prayer and praising, all men raising,

Worship Him, God on high.

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume

Breathes a life of gathering gloom—

Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,

Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

A more recent carol, “Joy Has Dawned” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, reveals the same meaning in the middle of verse 3:

Gifts of men from distant lands prophesy the story.

Gold—a King is born today, Incense—God is with us,

Myrrh—His death will make a way, and by His blood He’ll win us.

So the gifts weren’t just expensive products lavished upon a worthy recipient. They were emblematic of the very significance of Jesus’s identity and purpose. Gold was a gift for a king—and Jesus is the King of all. Incense was a substance offered to God—and Jesus is God, come to live among us, experiencing life and temptation as we do yet never sinning. Myrrh was used to prepare a body for burial—and Jesus would die as an innocent God-man in the place of us, His fallen creations, and be buried in a tomb before being raised from the dead.

Thus, the wise men’s visit did so much more than pay homage to Jesus. It declared to those living then and declares to us now that this Jesus isn’t just a man—He’s the King of kings, God with us, and Savior of the world, or as the final verse of “We Three Kings” says, “King and God and Sacrifice.”

But there’s another element of the wise men’s account to consider—one that isn’t so readily apparent. In fact, we have to go hundreds of years back in time to realize its significance. The clue is found in Matthew 2:1, which tells us that the wise men came from the east. Okay…so what’s the big deal, you might be thinking. They could just as easily have come from the south or the west.  . . . But could they have?

Here is where I must thank my college New Testament professor for opening my eyes to what I’m about to share. Ever since he put the pieces together in the second week of class that spring semester of my freshman year, I can’t help but get excited when I think about the wise men.

Curious now? Well, here we go. Hold on to your seats for a blitz through history . . .

After the Jewish nation was split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, each kingdom was exiled and came under the influence of a different world power. For Israel, it was the Assyrian Empire in the 700s B.C., while Judah was conquered in the 600s and 500s B.C. by the Babylonians, who rose to power after the Assyrians. The next empire to rise was that of the Medo-Persians, who were the power at large when the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland and begin rebuilding the temple. Following the Medo-Persians were the Greeks, and the Greek decline was succeeded by the rise of the Romans, who ruled when Jesus was born.

Perhaps you’ve heard someone explain before how Jesus’s birth came at a time when conditions were precisely favorable for it. The Pax Romana (or peace of Rome) was in effect, and the western world was united by Roman roads and the Greek legacy of a common language and culture. In other words, the practices of the world powers created an environment conducive for God’s plan to be put into action. But it wasn’t only the Greek and Roman practices that influenced the Jewish people and laid the foundation for the coming of Christ. Each of the other empires had their own way of dealing with captives, too.

The Assyrians’ modus operandi was to disperse captive people, mixing one group of captives with another to demoralize the people and prevent uprisings. Incidentally, this is how the Samaritans came to be—a mixed race of Jews and other peoples that was to play a prominent role in Jesus’ ministry (think the woman at the well, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the command in Acts 1:8).

The Babylonians took a different tactic, however. Instead of mixing up their captives wholesale, they left the poorest of the people to tend their homeland and took the richest, most intelligent, and most influential back to Babylon where they could indoctrinate this cream-of-the-crop in Babylonian ways and profit from their services. Daniel was one of these elite, and he went on to become an incredibly prominent person in the Babylonian empire and even into the reign of the Medo-Persians. But, as the book of Daniel shows us, Daniel wasn’t indoctrinated but rather was a bold spokesman for the Lord, even prophesying about a coming Messiah. 

Are you starting to connect the dots? Daniel lived among the wisest of the land and introduced the promises of God to those in his circles of influence. And where was this place of influence? Babylon—which is in the east.

Word of a coming king found its way to the east through the captivity of God’s people, and once planted  this news would continue to be passed down in the eastern culture for hundreds of years until a star shone one night and drew some wise men to Bethlehem. Through a painful season of judgment, God was still merciful and still in control, leading His people to a new land where they could spread His message to those who had yet to hear.

Immediately after the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians’ policy was to send captive people back to their lands, hence God’s using King Cyrus to send His chosen people back to the promised land—where they would later come under Greek and Roman rule, where Jesus would be born, and where one night a star would guide a group of eastern men to find Him.

To some, all this might just seem coincidental, but to those of us who know our God is sovereign and who see the times in Scripture when He explains His use of nations for His purposes, we see a greater Hand at work. For in addition to the wise men’s gifts revealing truths about Jesus’s identity and life, their journey reminds us of the beauty of God’s sovereign rule, for in their story, we see how He used the practices of multiple world powers over hundreds of years to orchestrate the circumstances which would bring about the birth of His Son and the message brought by men from the east, the message that Jesus is the promised one, who is the Hope of the world.

To read the Arabic translation of this post, click here.

لقراءة الترجمة العربية لهذا المنشور إضغط هنا.

** The shepherds, we know from Luke 2, came soon after Jesus was born and visited Him while He was still in the manger. The first clue that the wise men came later is found in Matthew 2:11. Mary and Jesus, who is referred to as “the child” instead of “the baby” as in Luke 2, are in a house now. But Matthew 2 also tells us that Herod’s decree to kill all the boys two years old and younger was based on the information he had obtained from the wise men about when the star appeared to them. Thus, Jesus would have been somewhere close to two years old rather than a newborn when the wise men arrived.