"The term magi is the precise Greek word used in Matthew’s gospel. His story demonstrates that the Magi were astrologers and interpreters of omens—following a star and dreaming dreams. When they arrived in Jerusalem, their curt bluntness... “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matt. 2:2).
*These visitors were like a blast from the Hebrews’ past.
The book of Daniel chronicles how he and his companions spent 70
years exiled among magi in the East.
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was in the habit of gathering the best and brightest from his vanquished foes into an advisory body of wise men, stargazers, and dreamers. When he captured Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, he added them to his menagerie of magi, “and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters (Greek magi) in his whole kingdom” (Dan. 1:20).
*Another famous Old Testament king had a penchant for keeping his court packed with wise men, astrologers, and magicians:
Pharaoh of Egypt.
Genesis tells of a young man named Joseph who was carted off to exile in Egypt. One night Pharaoh awoke from a terrifying dream. He found that none of his magicians could provide an interpretation. It was Joseph, the Hebrew exile in prison, who provided Pharaoh with God’s interpretation. In response, Pharaoh clothed Joseph like a king, “and they called out before him, ‘Bow the knee!’ Thus [Pharaoh] set him over all the land of Egypt” (Gen. 41:43, ESV). Long before Daniel, Joseph knew what it was like to have magi bow before him.
*When you call Matthew’s journeymen magi this Christmas,
--don’t be surprised to find them bowing before a Hebrew and heralding him as king.
At Jesus’s birth, recognize how the tables have turned.
--This time, a star led the Magi into exile, sojourning in search of the scepter rising out of Israel (Num. 24:17).
--This time, they do not find a man seated at the right hand of Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar, but a child seated on his mother’s lap. As they bow and worship, they become the first to recognize the end from the beginning.
--This child would surpass both Daniel and Joseph as chief of the magi: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Matt. 28:18)."
CT
