Thursday, January 26, 2012

Starlight, Starbright...

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea…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’…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. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.” Matthew 2:1-2, 9-10.

An interesting fact about the wise men in our story of the beautiful young life of Jesus is that they didn’t find Jesus until He was between one and two years of age. The star first appeared in their skies two years previously, and traditions echo that these wise men were men of high position, near the site of ancient Babylon. ‘They could have been Jews who remained in Babylon after the Exile and knew the Old Testament predictions of the Messiah’s coming…or may have had a special message from God directing them to the Messiah.’ Life Application Commentary, p. 13. Numbers 24:17 referred to ‘a star rising from Jacob …a ruler will come out.’ Either way, these men were persistent in finding Jesus, Lord and Savior. Through their study of Scripture, they both knew and trusted in God’s promise and prophesy and looked for His signs.

We can have these assurances that we will find Jesus when we search for Him. God has sent us our own star, the Holy Spirit who will light up our path, and guide us to the answer. What if the Magi wouldn’t have been knowledgeable in the Word of God? They wouldn’t have known how God would reveal…in what way God would lead... and might have missed out on cuddling Christ. When God promises something in each of our lives it doesn’t mean it will happen within the next few days, weeks or months. He simply gives us a promise for our lives and lights up our paths and eventually unites us with our purposes in Him. We should move as our 'Star’ moves and we should retreat when He tells us to ‘Be still.’ We will find and worship Jesus whenever we are following the Word of God.

…and when we see the Star, we are overjoyed!

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