The Wise Men— the guys who brought gifts to Jesus have, over the years, grown to appear a bit different than the Biblical text actually records. About 500 years after the birth of Christ, a document declared their names to have been Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchior. A medieval cathedral in Cologne, Germany claims to house their three skulls. Still another source claims that there were 12 of them, not three. Even another tradition says they came from Persia, India, and Arabia. NO ONE REALLY KNOWS. There may have been two, twenty, or even more, and all we know is that they arrived from the direction of the East. The Bible is simply silent about other facts. Still, what we DO know from the Biblical record is very interesting, and very spiritually significant. Here’s what I have come to ascertain:
In Matthew’s gospel, where their story is told, they are identified as Magi (the Greek word is magoi, plural for magos). The word Magi doesn’t mean “wise guys,”, but it does refer to a class of religious scientists from the area of Persia and Mesopotamia. They were not “sorcerers,” although the word “magician” does come from the same Greek word. Neither were they three kings from the orient as the familiar Christmas carol states. They were called “wise men” because they were from a highly educated group. They were mainly involved in MATHEMATICS and ASTRONOMY, studying the stars and the constellations, but were learned in many other disciplines as well. The Magi, as they were known, had the entire sky marked off into a type of grid– identifying certain sections of the sky as belonging to specific people groups. Since the time of the Jews captivity in Babylon and Persia, the Magi had become familiar with the Jewish scriptures– including this prophecy in Numbers 24:
The prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
“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.”
They realized that when an unusual star appeared in the “Israel” sector of the grid, that a scepter belonging to a King was rising– hence, a new king had been born. They based it solely on a near literal reading of the Jewish scriptures.
It’s amazing that the King of the Jews had been born– right under the noses of the Jewish priests and people– and they were blind to their own scriptures. God had to send men from another land to announce what they should have been looking for the whole time!
Another interesting thing is that Matthew’s gospel records that the Magi came to Bethlehem, “to the house where the young child was.” The word “house” indicates that Mary and Joseph were no longer in the stable where Jesus had been born and laid in a manger. In fact, 
by the time the Magi arrived, Jesus was a “young child,” not an infant. They probably saw the star at the time of His birth, and a couple of years later, they traveled to Bethlehem to see him. It was there that they presented to Jesus their gifts– Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Those were very valuable gifts– worth more than enough to finance their emergency trip into Egypt, where they remained for several years. A financial miracle, just in time. God’s timing is always perfect!
Here are two lessons we can learn from the Wise Guys:
- Often God’s truth comes to us in ways, or through people that we least expect.
- God can be trusted to provide what we need, when we need it.
Merry Christmas to all !!!
