The Orient Kings: Unusual Observations

The Orient Kings: Unusual Observations                  by Kelly Durant    1-4-15

Matthew 2:1-2 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,2 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.

2. Some of you may be wondering why I bring up the subject of the kings because for most people Christmas already came and went last year. Also the kings are associated with the manger scene, so why bring it up again now? The fact is in Puerto Rico, and in several Latin American countries, the people take a separate special day to celebrate the “Kings Day” on January 6. They even open up presents on that day! The subject of the kings requires investigation. Do you practice the “question everything” mentality? I recommend it! I mentioned that this year we will be reading the New Testament all the way through and if you started reading you read would have read already about these wise men in Matthew chapter 2. Who has read it in the past few days?

I think it is appropriate to point out how the kings, or wise men, actually came sometime after the birth of baby Jesus, and not many people take this into account or investigate very well the entire intrigue around these kings. According to tradition the names of the Magi were Bithisarea, Melichior and Gathaspa. Is this in the Bible? No, it’s not. This is an example of how tradition and writings in Latin centuries later have confused what the truth is.

There are so many elements to Jesus’ birth that it is hard to answer all the questions of what, who, how, where, and when questions with the standard investigative mindset but we can dig deeper. What happened? What we know already is that wise men, or translated more correctly ‘magistrates’ (magi), travelled from far away. Notice we don’t know from how far and they may have been from Europe, Asia, and Africa as tradition suggests, or from only the Iran/Iraq area. But they had a common goal, to worship a new king, baby Jesus, and to give Him gifts, how Interesting right? These men gave up anywhere from 3 months to possibly a year of their lives to travel to follow a light as a bright star that they knew had great significance in announcing the arrival of an important deity. Being from different cultures, where did they all get that collective idea from? That coincidence is very uncanny! It makes you wonder, do we not have modern day spiritual people in tune with one another on what God is doing in the world?

3. First of all notice that nowhere do we find that the wise men were only 3! It is a common idea that 3 represented the original sons of Noah which include the 3 major races on earth, black, brown, and white.  Patterns of 3, as in Orion’s belt, appear often in ancient architecture.   They could have been 5 or 7 or more, but the number of them is not as important as the act of what they all had in common, the interpretation of the celestial light signaling a supernatural event. Where did this premise arise that the stars could announce important events? It is evident all ancient cultures set timelines and even worship according to the stars as early as the great ancient Egyptian empire. Every culture after them followed similar patterns of monitoring the movement of the stars building great structures to mark spring and fall and certain constellations as important.

Notice that Jesus confirms that before his return that we should investigate what would be happening concerning signs in the stars? Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;  Maybe all Christians should be investigating further astrophysics and the signs in the stars as certain unusual patterns  and uncommon events have already occurred in our lifetime. Halley’s comet, the alignment of the planets, many uncommon things have happened in my lifetime. Also, “wandering stars” as in the Book of Jude, or black holes, are a recent discovery which we can learn from: A body either radiates light or darkly consumes it.

Most scholars agree that amongst these kings were one or more of the Zoroastrian kings, which were in power in Persia at the time of Jesus’ birth. King Vishtapa, Ciro's father, had been convinced of the existence of a 3rd and final savior that would come in the world who would battle in the end of the world and defeat evil. Zoroaster said that a great savior would arise in the world, and his name would be Soasyant, which means one who will fulfill righteousness. How amazing that this is the same description of Christ in the Bible! God evidently revealed to several pagan cultures the revelation of the coming Messiah. Here is a premise established, that the wise men were informed of prophecies and were sensitive to observing signs, and they are considered wise because they acted upon them. Now take this personally, how much prophecy of the Bible (of Jesus) do you know, recognize, and act upon? Are you preparing yourself? 

4. Until now we have learned what happened, that the wise men, without knowing anything about each other, being from vastly different lands, all met in Jerusalem in Israel after following a bright star to worship a new born king. These wealthy wise men probably did not speak the same language and they probably had different ideas of what they would find at the end of their journey. So how was their journey? Geographically it is observable that the journey from the Orient, or from anywhere, was through different plains and deserts. They all arrived to an unknown place in Israel where for sure they had never been. Apart from drought and hunger, cold and heat, what else did these men face?

How many of you have ever been robbed while travelling? I have several times in Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, etc. I can tell you some interesting stories sometime later. What is bad is there are people who travel on buses and trains just to see who has money and when they have a target, an innocent traveler, they then pay off the transportation staff to turn a blind eye while they rob a few suitcases of merchandise out the back cargo area! I think we all hate thieves, and disconcertingly some will even murder you if you resist while in the act of robbing!

It has always been common knowledge that the lone traveler may get robbed in the desolate places and he might even be killed. We learn about this evil behavior of people from Jesus’ teachings on the Good Samaritan. While crossing the deserts in those times, one would have required protection, so these are not just 3 kings, these were several dozens and possibly more than a hundred men collectively travelling with their entourages.  The wise men must have been wealthy to have had enough money to travel from so far away and back because that trip for sure cost them having many servants and many camels carrying water and supplies for their journey. In the deserts or wherever a traveler would need plenty of water and food for weeks on end. And has it ever crossed anyone’s mind that possibly a few of them might have spent most of their life’s savings just on just that journey?

This sacrificial example invokes the question, how much are you prepared to sacrifice for Jesus? Your mission in life may end up costing you a lot materially, your journey following Jesus may even be through a desert becoming a matter of life or death. But dangers and hardships are nothing compared with the eternal glory of having Jesus be a part of your life forever!

5. How these wise men arrived at Jerusalem at the same time to speak to Herod is a mystery of circumstance and timing in itself! Let’s also examine more about the when of the events. These kings did not arrive on the very night of Jesus birth (as most manger scenes portray) but they arrived some time afterwards.

Matt 2:1 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.  The fact here is Jesus had already been born and was several months old. Here is another fact, the wise men were able to see the star leading to Bethlehem yet Herod and his so called wise men could not see it because if they could have determined Jesus location, he and his men would have killed Jesus right away. In other words, God hides from evil people His special revelations but reveals them to the seekers.

The wise men escaped not informing Herod of Jesus’ exact location and that provoked the scandal of Herod killing all the babies of Bethlehem up to 2 years old over a jealous tirade. Was Jesus already close to 2 or did Herod wait 2 years? This is not clear. In the meantime Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and probably a few other family helpers traveled out of Israel to Egypt to escape Jesus getting killed. Where did they get travel money from? From the gifts of the wise men of frankincense, myrrh, and gold!  Jesus escaped from his birth place only with the clothes he was wearing as Cubans and multimillions of many immigrants have had to do due to evil oppressive governmental powers. The lesson here is God has a timing for everything in your life, and when events occur requiring your flight and safety, God will provide for you. Ask yourself, am I ready and willing to “go” somewhere today if I were prompted by God? Please be ready!

6. We know the wise men arrived to the very home of Jesus in Bethlehem and then left later. But what did they do while there? Matt 2:11 And when they were come into the house, (not a manger) they saw the young child (how young?) 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.

This act of honor and worship for sure provoked quite a lot of talk and gossip in the small town of Bethlehem.  I read once a book on the history of Bolivia and it described Sucre, the nation’s capital, as a hotbed of gossip and intrigue. As expressed by many, where there is a “small town, (you have a) big hell! (Pueblo chico, enfierno grande!), so for sure the wise men’s visit was fuel talk for quite some time afterwards!  The Jews there should have been convinced this was the awaited Messiah confirmed by the worship of those of royalty, but they were pagan royalty. 

These men who were accustomed to people bowing down to them in their countries, were bowing down worshipping Jesus! This proves that no matter how important a person is, no matter how rich, no matter how wise in understanding prophecies or secret knowledge, the pressing need in life of everyone is to recognize and worship Jesus! Do you worship Him?

7.  One more thought, what stories did these kings tell their people when they arrived back home?  That was the event of their life! That was the fulfillment of all their prophecies and messages and it was confirmed by baby Jesus under the star of Bethlehem! The irony is the wise men and kings were not of the Hebrew tribes, which should have been the first ones worshipping and celebrating, but rather these that honored Jesus are classified as from pagan tribes. This confirms what is in John 1: 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Possibly some people in these Orient lands accepted Jesus as the Messiah just from hearing the story of their returned wise men and kings! There have been many signs in the skies since that 2,000 plus years ago appearance, but none of such a magnitude to cause kings to be so obsessed that they travelled with the expectancy to discover a prophecy fulfilled. These magi were not disappointed: it was fulfilled in God’s son, Jesus Christ who reigns over all kingdoms, on earth and in heaven forever and ever!

Will you be wise like the wise men were? Will you observe the signs of the times and study the current prophecies, the ones of Jesus? Will you honor Jesus with your worship? Have you given Jesus a gift, which of is something material but it as well may be something in the way of service to others? If God put some burning mission in your heart like following a star, something like travelling and giving up a large amount of time and provisions for God, would you be willing to do it as dedicatedly as these pagan kings did? They sacrificed their luxurious and comfortable palaces. Those willing to follow where Jesus leads will be honored in heaven, but those who do not believe, will feel shame when they face God after death. They will know then when it is too late that were not as noble and sacrificial as these spiritual wise men. Worship Jesus today and do the mission God has for you! Follow that bright star God is shining in front of you for you to follow! If you don’t know what your mission is, come and pray, God will reveal it to you!