The Wise Men and the Star

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight.” — Matthew 2:10

Some time after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, some visitors arrived in Jerusalem from far away in the east. They were wise men, called Magi, who studied the stars.

“Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?” they asked. “We saw His star in the east, and we have come to worship Him.”

When King Herod heard this, he was very worried. He was the king! He didn’t want any other king taking his place. And all Jerusalem was worried with him.

Herod called together the chief priests and the teachers of God’s law. “Where is the Christ going to be born?” he asked them.

“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they answered, “because that’s what the prophet wrote.” And they told him the words of the prophet Micah.

Then Herod secretly called the wise men to meet him. He found out exactly when the star had first appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem. “Go and search carefully for the child,” he said. “As soon as you find Him, come back and tell me, so that I can go and worship Him too.”

But Herod was lying. He didn’t want to worship Jesus at all. He wanted to get rid of Him.

So the wise men set off for Bethlehem. 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 filled with joy!

They came to the house, and they saw the child with His mother, Mary. And they bowed down and worshipped Him.

Then they opened their treasure chests and gave Him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Gold was a gift for a king. Frankincense was sweet-smelling incense, used in worshipping God. And myrrh was a perfume, used when people were buried. They were strange gifts for a little child. But they were just right for Jesus, who is the King, who is God, and who would one day die for us.

That night, God warned the wise men in a dream not to go back to Herod. So they went home to their own country by a different road.

The Bible doesn’t tell us how many wise men there were. We often say three, because there were three gifts. And they didn’t come to the manger on the night Jesus was born. They came later, to a house, when Jesus was a little older.

The wise men weren’t Israelites. They came from a faraway country. But they were the first foreigners to worship Jesus. Already, people from far-off nations were coming to the King.

The promise kept: The chief priests told Herod where the Christ would be born by reading Micah’s promise: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel” (Matthew 2:6).

Read it in your Bible: Matthew 2:1–12

Dear Jesus, the wise men travelled a long way to worship you. Help me to worship you too, and to give you my very best. You are my King. Amen.