Magi: the Kingmakers

In the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar referred to Daniel by an interesting title: the chief of the magicians (Dan 4.9). You may be familiar with the story: around 600 BC Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judea as part of his campaign to stake claim to the former Assyrian empire. His objective was to impose Babylonian dominion over what remained of Israel a vassal state. In doing so, the Babylonian army pillaged Jerusalem and its temple, and took Jehoiakim, the last king of Judah, along with 10,000 of the best and brightest Jews into Babylon, in which Daniel was among them.

Nebuchadnezzar ordered some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility into his court’s service. He found Daniel to be among the best of the bests, the brightest of the brightests—having possessed extraordinary insight and intelligence, and wisdom and a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems—thus, he appointed Daniel the chief over all his magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners (Dan 1.6; 5.11-12). In essence, Daniel was in charge of all the wisest of men of Babylon, i.e., the magi (see Mat 2.1).

Even when Darius the Mede (Dan 5.32) and Cyrus II the Persian (Dan 1.21; 6.28; 10.1; Ezr 1.1) succeeded Babylon as the dominant powers, Daniel continued to serve in their courts. It was during this time Daniel received the vison of the coming “beasts,” those nations that would rise up following Babylon (Dan 7-8), studied the writings of Jeremiah (Dan 9.2; Jer 29.10) which foretold the return from exile after 70 years, and the vision of the forthcoming of the Son of Man—the divine-human judge, the Messiah—487 years after the return from exile to vindicate and liberate God’s people, and to punish the wicked (Dan 7; 9-12). So, for the greater part of his time in exile, Daniel educated and trained all the wisest men of Babylon. Throughout the centuries these wise men coronated and counseled their kings—they were in fact the kingmakers.

In 538 BC when Cyrus II gave the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem, only approximately 42,000 of the Jews returned to their homeland, whereas millions of the Jews, including Daniel, who was too old to make the journey, chose to remain in Persia (2Ch 36.22-23; Ezr 1.1-8). During this time, this Persian diaspora was the largest Jewish community outside of Judah. This contingency of Jews maintained their cultural and religious identity into the first century. And just as the Jews in Palestine were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah (see Luk 2.25), there were no doubt some Persian Jews who did likewise.

It is, therefore, my hypothesis that the magi who followed the star and came to celebrate the birth of Jesus were indeed Jewish descendants of those who remained in exile. They weren’t just some random pagan astrologers from the East who saw the star and followed it out of curiosity. Rather, they continued the tradition that Daniel had instituted through studying the Scriptures for signs and calculating the timing for the coming of the Messiah (Dan 9.25-26). It was during the course of their studying and seeking that they observed the Christmas star as it was foretold in Numbers 24.17. They journeyed to Palestine and found the Christ-Child (now around age 2) precisely because they were looking for him. And they came prepared to coronate him as the King of the Jews, and more importantly, the King of their hearts (Mat 2.2).

So, on this Christmas Day as you read the familiar Christmas story, when you come to these mysterious magi, take a moment to reflect who they were, and may you also find Christ the King and crown him to be the King of your heart.

He Is Not Here…

I came across an article from the Christian Post that 5,000 Christians attended a rally to support a Nativity display at a Texas courthouse. It prompted me to blog about my thoughts on Christmas 2011.

First, from my observation we are all so high-strung and easily offended these days. This applies to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Why does the Nativity display at the local courthouse offend the atheists so much? It can’t be their desire to uphold the separation of church and state clause in the Constitution because it contains no such wording. Now there are words on prohibition of government to establish religion, but how we interpret “establishment” today is quite different than how our Founding Fathers defined it. After all, when the first continental congress opened, it begun with a prayer to God. And this prayer was not directed at just any generic multi-cultural “god” but rather the God of the Bible. You won’t mistaken the identity of God when you read the opening sentence of the prayer offered by Rev. Jacob Duché on the morning of September 9, 1774, “O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee.” This rich, not to mention humble, tradition continues even today. Obviously those who penned the very words of the “anti establishment” clause in the Constitution didn’t see any contradiction with open display of faith on public property.

Why does removing baby Jesus from the town square offend Christians so much? It was this question that led me to ask another (to me a more pertinent) question, “Why do some Christians insist on keeping Christ in the manger?”

Without going into all the amazing and incomprehensible things it took for God to dwell with men cloaked in human frailty, the Christ Child born in that manger was fully divine and yet totally helpless. The Creator of the universe is now wholly depending on Mary, Joseph, and others to feed, change, nurture, love, and protect Him.

Perhaps as a Christian we want to keep Christ as a babe in the manger because He is so small, frail, and nonthreatening. The baby Jesus is someone we can come, greet, and worship on our own terms. The newborn Jesus can’t tell us how to act godly through the Beatitudes. He couldn’t tell us, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” He couldn’t remind us if we choose to follow Him then the world “will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.” The Babe is quite different from the Man.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a great tradition to commemorate the birth of Christ by displaying the Nativity scene. We have several around the house. God’s lavish generosity was displayed in the manger. However, I am thankful that Jesus didn’t remain a helpless baby just like He didn’t remain dead inside the tomb. Instead as the angel proclaimed to the women on Resurrection day, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.” God’s extravagant generosity was displayed on the Cross and in the Resurrection.

Where is your Jesus this Christmas?

For me, this Christmas, I will be looking (with my heart) at an empty manger and hearing the whispered words, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was born in the manger. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.”