Join us Sunday Mornings at 10am
On Sunday January 5th, we will be celebrating Epiphany, one of the church's oldest feast days along with Christmas and Easter. Epiphany celebrates the journey, arrival, and gifts of the Wise Men, also known as the Magi.
It is believed the Magi were astronomers or astrologers who studied the stars, and that they came from the area where Babylon used to exist - where the Jewish people had been exiled to hundreds of years earlier. When they saw a star in the sky that hadn't been there before, they may have used some of the Old Testament scrolls (like Numbers 24:17) to determine that a king was to be born in Israel.
So they made the 2700 km journey. They first stopped in Jerusalem to determine where the child was to be born.They found out from King Herod and the chief priests that God said the child was to be born in Bethlehem. But King Herod plotted to kill the child, and the priests and the people didn't believe the Magi. So they travelled alone.
In Bethlehem they found the child and offered their gifts. Gold, indicating the child was a king; frankincense, representing His deity; myrrh, representing His death as a burial spice.
Wondrously, God warned both the Magi not to go back to Herod, sparing their lives, and warned Joseph to leave Bethlehem with the baby Jesus. This spared His life when Herod had all the other boys around his age killed.
As we look upon this story, we need to follow the example of the Magi. As with them, we will also find Jesus if we seek Him with all our heart (Jeremiah 29:13).
