Life
of Christ 12
When
the Magi appeared in Jerusalem they were searching for a king (Matthew 2.1-2).
They were drawn on this search spiritually by their hunger to worship God,
intellectually by their knowledge of the Old Testament prophecies regarding
Christ, and visually by the star that shone so brightly over Palestine. In
spite of their knowledge of the Old Testament they were not sure of the
specific location so they came to Jerusalem to make enquiry. Of course, they
had no idea of the horror they would unleash by their innocent inquiries at
Herod the Great's court, and they bear no fault for the succeeding bloodshed.
Soon enough the chief priests and scribes return with the information which the
Magi sought for regarding where this prophesied king was to be born (Matthew 2.3-6
quoting Micah 5.2), namely Bethlehem.
Well,
apparently not, and there is only one reason that can explain this sequential
failure to even notice Christ's birth – they just didn't care. I can think of
no other rational explanation for the complete absence of Judaism's religious
leaders to even acknowledge the birth of Christ. As Paul would later say to
Festus, 'this thing was not done in a corner' (Acts 26.26). The shepherds would have spoken
of it. Simeon and Anna would have spoken of it. But beyond those human aspects,
there was an incredibly array of Old Testament prophecy that pointed toward it,
and there was a star the size of small New England state screaming about it for
months in the night sky over Palestine. No, it wasn't that they were ignorant;
it was that they were apathetic.
El
Elyon, the Most High God, sends His Son from the ivory palaces of Glory to
Earth entrusted to the custody of a people whose sole national purpose was to
be ready for His arrival – and they didn't care.
A King? Yawn...
Numbers 24:17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall
behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre
shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all
the children of Sheth.
Isaiah 53:2-3
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of
a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a
man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from
him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
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