Herod was not happy to hear that there was a newborn king of the Jews. It would seem that a baby would not be a threat to him, but if wealthy, wise men from the East are already seeking this king out, then others would too. Herod did not share power with anyone.
Herod met with the religious leaders and teachers and found out where the child was born based on prophecy. Now he needs to find out when the wise men saw the star. He has a private meeting with them and tells them to go to Bethlehem and find the child, then come back and tell him so he can go worship the child, too.
“After this interview, the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Matthew 2:9-11 (NLT)
In all the Christmas pageants, nativity scenes, and songs, the wise men show up and worship next to the shepherds as Jesus lay in the manger. But commentaries say that Jesus was probably anywhere from 6 to 18 months old when they arrived. They believe the star may have appeared on the night of Jesus’ birth, and it would have taken the wise men several months to travel to see Him. It’s interesting that the star they had originally seen in the East was now guiding them to Bethlehem and to the specific place where the child was. In The Passion Translation commentary on verse 2:10, it says, “The Greek is hard to translate since it contains so many redundant words for joy in this one verse. It is literally, ‘They rejoiced with a great joy exceedingly.’ They were ecstatic. This was no mere star to them.
It is also believed that there were several wise men and not just three, as we usually see depicted. It is probably because there were three gifts. Many have noted that the three gifts had special significance. The gold represented royalty, frankincense represented divinity, and myrrh represented His death, but most believe that while we can attribute these to Jesus now, the wise men were probably unaware of these things and were only bringing the lavish gifts to honor a king which was the custom, especially in the East. More than lavish gifts, they gave Him their worship. The picture of wealthy, learned men with gifts around them, bowing to worship this small child as king, is an amazing picture to imagine.
When the wise men departed, they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they went home another way. I wonder if they already suspected that Herod had other motives for wanting their information. Whether or not they did, they were obedient to the warning and not complicit in Herod’s plans.
Today’s truth is a quote from Charles Spurgeon: We see a wonderful pattern: “Those who look for Jesus will see Him: those who truly see Him will worship Him: those who worship Him will consecrate their substance to Him.”
Debbie's Perspective 
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