FINDING THE TRUE KING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

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, frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Matthew 2:9-12

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It had been a quite a journey for the wise men.

They started in a land somewhere to the east of the holy city of Jerusalem. The scriptures really don’t tell us where and perhaps that’s not what’s really important when we look at their story. For the focal point need not be on where they came from but rather where they were trying to go, something God’s word does spend a lot of time on, and rightfully so since the Magi were trying to find Jesus, the newborn King.

We know the first stop in their quest was Jerusalem. After all, if one was going to look for a Jewish king, there would be no better place to begin looking because Israel’s throne was always seen as being in the divine city. But when the wise men arrived, they discovered that the only king in Jerusalem was the appointed Roman ruler, King Herod, who had his own interest in the news that a child had been born who was considered the King of the Jews. Unfortunately, this interest wasn’t out of any devotion or desire to worship Jesus as he tried to get the Magi to believe, but rather to eliminate him. And as we learned in yesterday’s devotion, Herod had a murderous reputation, having even killed his own family members so murdering a young child who he saw as a threat would not trouble him at all.

And so Herod summoned his chief priests and teachers of the law, consulting them as to what the prophecies of old had to say about the Messiah, specifically where he would be born. Sharing the words of the prophet Micah, the scriptures tell us that Herod’s advisors told Herod that the Messiah was to be born in the small town of Bethlehem, about six miles to the south of Jerusalem. And with that news in hand, the wise men set out to finally find the child they had traveled so far to worship and they were overjoyed when they looked into the night sky and saw the same star that they had followed to Jerusalem before.

We read where this divine star moved ahead of the Magi until it was directly over the place where Jesus was. From there, it was easy for them to find the child who wasn’t in a manger as so many nativity scenes get wrong, but in a house for Jesus was no longer a baby and He and His parents, Joseph and Mary, were no longer without a place to stay.

The scriptures tell us that when the wise men entered the house and saw Jesus with His mother Mary, they “bowed down and worshiped Him” before presenting treasures, “gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” We should note that they brought nothing but their best for Jesus because this Messiah, the Son of God and Savior of the world, deserved nothing less than that.

Friends, as we get set to enter into a new year, I pray that we take forward three main attitudes found in the wise men:

First, I pray we will never rest in our efforts to seek and find Jesus, our Savior, the One we are to model our lives after as Christians.

Second, I pray that we as we seek and find Jesus, we may do so with the primary ambition to bow down, adore, and worship Him.

And finally, I pray that as we bow down, adore, and worship Jesus, we’ll vow to bring Him our best, the first fruits of our time and talent and treasure, willing to give everything up for Him just as He was willing to give up everything for us.

If we do this, 2026 has the potential to be our best year ever.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.