Wise Men • Devotion 6

Worship and Gifts
Mitchell Holmes

The news of Jesus’ birth caused emotions all across the land. For some, the birth of this child meant hope. For others, it meant fear and political unrest. Both are represented in today’s passage of Scripture.
 
Please read Matthew 2:1-12.

King Herod, upon hearing about the birth of Jesus, King of the Jews, was troubled. Herod was paranoid and desperate to keep his seat on the throne. This child, despite being an infant, presented a challenger to his rule. He heard about wise men that were traveling from the East to worship this new King. Herod met with them and tried to trick them into revealing information about Jesus. Specifically, I want you to recognize that Herod’s intent here is to find and kill Jesus. He tells the wise men that he wants to worship Jesus, but when he talked to his advisors, he did not care about the details or the significance of Jesus’ birth, he only asks his advisors where Jesus will be born (Matthew 2:4). Herod had no intentions of worshiping, he had only the intention of finding out how best to locate, identify, and kill Jesus.

The wise men leave and travel to Bethlehem to see Jesus. Matthew 2:10-11 reads: “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 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.” A lot of significant things happen in these two verses.

I want us to first recognize that the “star” mentioned in the Scripture is far more significant than a ball of fire in space like we normally think of when considering stars. This was something sent specifically by God that led the wise men and then came to rest above the building that housed the Son of God. We often think of a bright star in a constellation when considering the nativity scene but this was something of far more than a mere star. The Greek word here “aster” is sometimes translated to star but other times, like in Revelation 12:4, it refers to angels. What this star was is not known to us but it was not an ordinary star like the stars we normally think of.

The next thing I want to discuss is the wise men and their worship of the Lord. These men, upon seeing Jesus, fell down and worshiped Him. Jesus is the reason that we are here, it is for His glory that we are given breath. When you are finished reading this devotional, I challenge you to follow the example of the wise men and spend some time in worship. It is too easy to get tied up in the busyness of life and lose sight of what really matters. The wise men, as part of their worship, also presented gifts to the Lord. These gifts were an element of their worship, given gratefully and out of adoration. I believe it is not an accident that these men first fell and worshiped and then gave gifts. John MacArthur on this passage writes, “Giving that is generous but done apart from a loving relationship with God is empty giving.”

I challenge you, as you reflect on this devotional and as you spend time with the Lord, to worship God the way these men did. Every blessing we have comes from God. Every relationship we have cultivated is a gift from God. Every breath we take is a gift from God. Take some time today, and every day, to worship God and thank Him. When we recognize that everything we have is a gift from God, it becomes that much easier to give back to Him with a cheerful and grateful heart.