Hey Bible Readers! I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. [Music] Yesterday we read Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, and today we get more information from Matthew's account. Jesus is born in a village called Bethlehem, in a kingdom called Judea. At the time He's born, all of Judea is under Roman rule and occupation. Imagine a large and powerful country takes over the country where you live, stations soldiers in every major city, is involved with every level of your government, and makes you pay taxes to support that occupying army. That's what's happening here. Rome is in charge of things, and they put a guy named King Herod the Great in charge of Judea. Herod is a great builder - making port cities and aqueducts and even renovating the second temple complex so that it's much bigger and more magnificent. For a while, he's even the president of the Olympics! But in his later years, he becomes jealous and paranoid. For instance, he spends six years building a massive fortress in the middle of the desert in case his enemies attack, and he never spends a single night there. He kills his sons so they won't take over his throne, and he even kills his favorite wife - then he mummifies her in honey when he later regrets it. He is driven by fear, which prompts him to try to control everything around him, which is where we find ourselves in today's reading. We're at Herod's palace and some foreign wise men show up on his doorstep one day and say, "Hey, we're here to see the new king! We saw a sign in the sky that let us know he's been born and we want to worship him. Can you type his address into Google Maps for us?" Herod puts them on ice while he tries to figure out a plan, then he calls them back in and says, "Now that you mention it, I'm just as curious as you are! So when you find him, drop a pin and send it to me, because I want to go worship him too!" But it turns out they don't need to use their GPS because God sends the star again to help them out and it leads them to Jesus! Hooray! Now let's stop and look at a few details more closely: First, what is a wise man? Are they kings, like the Christmas carol says? Do they wear crowns? We don't have any evidence of that. Most scholars think they were probably astrologers who worked in the court of a king. If you were with us on Days 256 and 257 in the Old Testament, these wise men might have been kind of like the guys in the book of Daniel who were on King Nebby's Dream Team. Second, are there three of them? Probably not. There were three gifts, but there were probably lots of wise men. And their names are never given in scripture. Third, where is the East? We don't know. The commentaries I read gave rational support for multiple options: Iran, Babylon, and even Turkey, despite the fact that it's north. Most estimates have the wise men traveling anywhere from 500 to 2,000 miles. But since it doesn't matter enough for scripture to specify, we'll leave this open-ended. What we do know is that whoever they are and wherever they're from, they have access to the Hebrew scriptures, because they know the prophecies, and they're roughly quoting Micah 5:2 when they show up and talk to King Herod. Fourth, what's the astronomical phenomenon they saw? They call it a star. I've heard people say it's a comet. If it's a comet, it's definitely not a normal one, because over the course of the passage, it appears, disappears, reappears and moves, then rests in one spot. There's a theory I find interesting but that I definitely hold with an open hand. Astronomers in the east recorded a major astronomical phenomenon in 6 BC - which was one of the most probable years that Jesus was born - and the phenomenon occurred on June 17th in the summer. Maybe that's the star they saw? So maybe that's Jesus' birthday? Who knows? By the way, if you want a detailed timeline of everything that happen surrounding the birth of Christ and the first few years of His life, check out the timeline overview we've linked to in today's description box. So the wise men set out from the east because they see a sign in the sky, and they began their 500 to 2,000-mile long journey to Judea from wherever. It probably takes several months, which means - I'm sorry to say - that unlike the shepherds, neither the wise men nor the star are at the cave on the night Jesus was born. In fact, verse 11 says they come to His house to see Him, and it calls Him a child, not a baby. So He's back at home by the time they arrive. Feel free to adjust your nativities accordingly, if you're so inclined. They worship Him and give Him gifts and Mary stands off to the side with her chin on the floor. Then before they leave, God warns them in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they take another route. Herod is furious when they don't come back, they don't even send a text, so he makes an order to kill all the children aged 2 and under in the whole region, because apparently the wise men had tipped him off that the new king would be about 2 years old by now. But God sends Joseph a message and a dream, warning him about all this, so they pack up and move to Egypt, which is outside of Herod's jurisdiction. Not long after this in 4 BC, Herod dies, and God gives Joseph another dream. They head home, but when they find out that Herod's son has replaced him, Joseph decides they should start over in a new town. They've had a lot happen in the past few years - the fear and shock of an unplanned pregnancy, the shame from the locals, marriage, a group of unexpected foreign house guests, death threats, moving countries twice, not to mention finding out that they're the parents of the Messiah. In all of this today, what was your GOD SHOT? I noticed God's protective nature and the lengths He goes to in order to provide for His people according to His plan. He sends dreams and angels and angels in dreams - and not just for Joseph and his family, but for the wise men as well. We're already seeing how Jesus is the King of people from among every nation. These wise men came from a foreign country to worship Him. These non-Jews followed a star and traveled for months to give expensive gifts to a toddler, because they believed what God's Word said. Jesus is already drawing people from among every nation, and He's still and diapers! Then God protected the wise men on their way back home, and God protected Joseph's family when Herod turned to murder. And He's protecting you and your heart - as evidenced by the fact that He's drawn you into His Word today. He's guiding and guarding you right now. Does God's protective nature mean bad things won't ever happen to His kids? No - in fact, He spared the life of His own Son at age 2, but 31 years later, things go quite differently. God's protective nature means that what whatever things do come our way, He can be trusted. He's attentive. He's at work on our behalf in all things. And He's where the joy is! Do you know about the RECAPtains? Let me fill you in! It's a platform that offers us a way to provide you with more content that benefits everyone. It helps content creators like us offer additional resources that benefit you, while you help us keep the lights on. So when you create a RECAPtains account, you get more of our content that goes along with our reading plan. And we want to provide you with that. We want to provide you with such great content for free that you might in turn consider supporting us financially, so that you get more of the content that you love. When you choose your support tier as a RECAPtain, you get to pick and choose what you get in return for that support. 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