Don’t Act a Fool Use Wisdom

Matthew 2:1-12 (ESV)  The Visit of the Wise Men

2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose[b] and have come to worship him.”

They are here called Magoi—Magicians. The Magi were their philosophers and priests among the Persians. They were astrologers, scholars who studied the stars. They dealt in arts, curious arts some even think they were sorcerers.  They were Gentiles, and not belonging to the nation of Israel.

Interesting how you don’t hear of multitudes of Jews that have visited Jesus, He was the messiah they had all been waiting for, rather it was the Gentiles who searched him out. It was wise men from a distant land.  Whatever sort of wise men they were before, now they began to be wise men indeed when they set themselves to enquire after Christ.

A person that has wisdom is a person who is:  Wisdom Pursues Christ
Most scholars assume that they were from Persia. They might well have travelled close to 1,000 miles. If they managed a respectable 40mi per day, they would have had to travel for 25-30 days to get to Bethlehem depending on the stops.  That is quite a ways to travel to see another country’s king.  What prompted them to make this journey? They had seen an unusual star, such as they had not seen before. Which they took to be an indication of an amazing person born in the land of Judea, over which land this star was seen to hover.

Over 500 years prior (539 BC) There lived a man named Daniel. Daniel was captured and taken to Babylon (which would later became Persia)  Because of his great wisdom and because he had successfully pleaded for the lives of the wise men who had failed to interpret the king’s dream (Dan. 2:24), Daniel came to be highly regarded among the magi.  Through Daniel the magi learned much about the one true God, the God of Israel, and about His will and plans for His people through the coming glorious King. (Daniel 9 encounter with an angel)

Because many Jews remained in Babylon after the Exile and intermarried with the people of the east, it is likely that Jewish messianic influence remained strong in that region even until New Testament times.  Through the angel God had told Daniel the precise point in history when the 7 + 62 Weeks of Years occurred, Israel could expect Messiah to announce Himself as Messiah. What great news! This means that Israel could not miss Messiah. All they had to do was to be aware of this prophecy, to count the weeks of years and be cognizant of current events in Israel as they unfolded.

This prophecy stipulated that Messiah would be presented to Israel and would be killed after 69 weeks of years had elapsed from its starting point. When we multiply 69 times 7, we understand that the time involved here equals 483 Jewish years. Since the Jewish calendar contains 360 days, we can easily see that this prophecy is precisely 173,880 days long. Therefore, we can expect that exactly 173,880 days after the prophecy started, Messiah would present Himself to Israel as their long-awaited Messiah-King.

Therefore, there are exactly 69 Weeks of Years (173,880 days) between the decree of King Artaxerxes in 445 B.C to rebuild Jerusalem to Palm Sunday, April 6, 32 A.D.!! God foretold to the day when Messiah would present Himself to Israel as their Messiah-King. We see this event recorded in Matthew 21:1-11.

Because they, as foreigners, knew of the monumental birth, they apparently assumed that anyone in Judea, and certainly in Jerusalem, would know of this special baby’s whereabouts. They must have been more than a little shocked to discover that no one seemed to know what they were talking about.

There was a growing feeling that a great and unprecedented world leader was about to arise.
God spoke to these Gentile philosophers by a star God spoke in their own language. They believed the prophecy given by Daniel and they set out.

3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way.

Wisdom is Influenced by Godly Friendships
The Magi were determined to find Him.  Herod pretends to have interest in finding him so that he can go worship Him.  It never fails, when you are in pursuit of Christ, when all of a sudden there is a gleam of hope in your eyes, when there is anticipation in your heart, when you are believing for the promises of God to come to fulfillment in your own life, there is always a Herod that is troubled by the goodness that is happening in your life and wants to stifle or destroy the hope that you have been holding on to.

Herod had no clue nor did any of Jerusalem about the coming of this king. He has to call for the scribes.  Consequently we often let people who have no idea about God or what He is up to, influence our decisions, our convictions and our passion.  Because they think God does not exist, they feel as though you should believe the same way. Because they are angry with God for not answering a prayer the way they thought He should, they want you to be mad at God and to believe that He is a God who does not answers prayers.  Wisdom says something different.

At the end of verse 9 it states that they went on their way. They were not influenced by the lethargic leaders of Jerusalem who failed to realize the time was at hand for their messiah to come to this earth nor were they influenced by a troubled king who felt threatened by the news of this coming king.  They simply went on their way.

As Christians, it is important that we continue on our way. That we don’t allow the Herods in our life to influence the direction of our lives. Nor do we allow apathetic Christians who are not in tuned to the voice of the lord to speak into our lives.  We must continue on the way!

And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The last thing we see is that:  Wisdom Listens to Godly Counsel

They were told by Herod to search out the child and to bring back the news of His whereabouts. However, an angel of the Lord had something much different in mind.  Foolishness of this world would have you to ignore the Wisdom of Our God.  Following Herod’s command would have seemed like the right thing to do in their own eyes, however God’s plan is much different.
In our Christian walk we make decisions that would seem to be right in our own eyes, but what does God say about it.

Wisdom the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise
• knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life
• the natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand
• knowledge of what is proper or reasonable : good sense or judgment

The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom
James 1:5  If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

Luke 7:35 But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it.”

Colossians 4:5  Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Proverbs 9:10  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

When we choose to listen to Godly counsel, then we are indeed walking in wisdom.

Today we encouarge you, don't act a fool use wisdom.