Faith Leads Us Another Way
“If everyone else is jumping off a cliff, are you going to do it too?” This is a familiar question that many of us heard from our parents and others in authority when we were children. The intent of the question was to make you understand that going along with the crowd can end in disaster for you. In Matthew 2:1-12, wise men were divinely led by a star to seek and find Jesus. In their quest to find and worship Jesus, they went to Jerusalem and encountered Herod the king. Herod perceived this newborn King to be a threat to his reign that had to be eliminated. In faith, the wise men continued on and were led to Jesus. And in faith they were led, not to follow Herod’s instructions, but to return home another way. God has not called us to follow the way of the world, but to go another way. May we ever go in faith, away from where and what we were, so that He may lead us back home to be with Him. Amen
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. (Matthew 2:1-3) It should be noted that God, from the very outset of Jesus’ birth, brought non Jewish people to worship Jesus and recognize Him as King. Jesus came not just for the Jews, but for the salvation of all. The wise men came to Jerusalem, the center of Jewish power, with a question about where the “King of the Jews” had been born. Their purpose was to worship Him. Despite all of the prophecies that the Jewish people had received over the centuries regarding the Messiah’s birth, the wise men’s arrival and question caused a disturbance among Herod and the priests/religious authorities in Jerusalem. The wise men had seen God’s sign that the King had been born, and that would have been seen by Herod as a threat to his power (and consequently, the religious power structures). Herod’s fear stemmed from the fact that he was not the rightful king from the line of David. So it was that the wise men’s arrival and question caused all of Jerusalem’s religious leaders and king Herod to be troubled!
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. (Matthew 2:4-8) The wise men’s arrival caused Herod to go into scramble mode. He gathered all of the chief priests (past and present) and scribes (scholars of the law and prophets) to answer the wise men’s question. The priests and scribes cited the prophecy regarding Jesus’ birthplace (Micah 5:2) and told Herod that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea. Armed with this information, Herod conferred privately with the wise men. He wanted to gather information from them about when the sign (star) had appeared. Herod then sent the wise men to Bethlehem to search for the Messiah, but he told them to come back and tell him where they found Jesus. This request by Herod was not because he wanted to worship the new born King, but because he had an ulterior motive… he wanted to kill the child in order to eliminate the threat of a rival king.
When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. (Matthew 2:9-12) The wise men continued on their way after their meeting with Herod, and followed the star to the place where Jesus was. Having found Him, they knelt in worship of Him as one would in the presence of the King. They presented Jesus with gifts of great value, that also symbolically acknowledged His royalty (gold), His divinity (frankincense) and foreshadowed His sacrificial death (myrrh for anointing). Having been divinely guided to Jesus, The wise men were then divinely warned by God (in a dream) not to return to Herod. This was because going back to Herod would have aided him in his plan to kill Jesus, whom he perceived as a threat to his reign as king. In obedience to God’s directive, the wise men returned to their own country via a different way than they had come.
The wise men followed a star, in the faith that it would lead them to Jesus, the newborn King. They were divinely guided to Him and they worshipped Him. Despite all of the prophecy and knowledge of scriptures about the Messiah, the Jewish religious leaders were never led to Jesus and this foreshadowed the opposition to Him that the religious leaders would have throughout His ministry unto His death. It is faith that leads us to Jesus, not power, position or knowledge. When we follow the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, in faith, He will lead us in a new direction so that we don’t return to the where we came from or what we used to be. Faith leads us to grow in Christ and conduct our lives differently than before we came to Him. Like the wise men, if we hold on to our faith and trust in God, we won’t return to where we once were… instead, we are compelled by Him to go another way.
Blessings,
Rev. Glenn
