Friday, June 29, 2012

Friday, June 29th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 18.
Today's scripture focus is Matthew 2:1-12.


After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.


One more neat thing I learned from MacArthur about genealogies before moving on....
because Mark presents Him as servant Mark has no genealogy at all, because the lineage of a servant is irrelevant. So there is no genealogy at all in Mark. And Luke presents Him as the Son of man, and since Luke presents Him as the Son of man, Luke takes His genealogy all the way back and starts with Adam. Because Luke wants us to know that He is a man from the loins of the first man, Adam. And John, the fourth Gospel who presents Christ as the Son of God by-passes all human genealogy and simply says, "In the beginning was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And so he goes immediately back to eternity past and establishes the eternal es­sence of Christ. And you see that each of the Gospels in line with its emphasis matches its genealogy. And so we see in Matthew, He is the Messiah King, He is the anointed sovereign, and thus He has come to us through the line of David.

I had always kinda wondered why Mark and John didn't include genealogies - this definitely explains it!

Anyway, on to today's passage.

The fact that Jesus was a King was evident in the genealogy, specifically His lineage tracing back to King David.

If Jesus is a King, it also should be clear by people's response to Him. And so we find the story of how the wise men from the East came to find the King and worship Him.

The magi were, from the same MacArthur sermon...
very high ranking official priest type people among the Medes, much as the Levites were the priests among the Jews. They rose by virtue of their wisdom, by virtue of some occultic powers, by virtue of some astrological and astronomical ability that they had, they rose to places of being the advisors to the kings and the courts of Babylon, Persia and Media. So they were high ranking, they became so high ranking in fact, that no king ever took the throne of the Persian or Parthian Empire that wasn't trained in their laws, known as the laws of the Medes and the Persians, and no king ever took place that was not approved by them....It was their business to recognize and to coronate kings. They had been in the courts of kings for years and years and years, even centuries. And they were the official king makers of the east. And how significant it is that these official eastern king makers find their way to Bethlehem, indeed to honor the one who is born, the Lord Jesus Christ and to honor Him as King. 

The magi were king makers and they sought out the King of kings and worshiped Him, bringing Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Gold is a gift for a king, gold is associated with a king....

Frankincense speaks of deity. Incense was always offered to God, it was a fragrance that rose to God. In the Old Testament it was stored in the front of the temple, up in a special chamber and it was taken and added to the offerings, it was sprinkled so that the sweet savor would rise to God....


Myrrh is the gift for a mortal. It's a perfume, to make life a little less odorous, to make burial a little less repulsive. Myrrh was the gift for a mortal man, and He was a man. In fact myrrh was especially the gift for one who would die, He was a man and He would die, from the very beginning it was clear He would die...


 by the gold they say He's a King, and by the myrrh they say He's a man, and by the incense they say He's God. Now maybe they didn't know they said all that, but that's the beautiful symbolism of it.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 2:13-23
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Chronicles 19-23

1 comment:

Pamela said...

Interesting about the genealogies. Thanks for posting the details about the symbolism of the gifts....I had never thought of it meaning anything.