I am doing this in parts as it is lengthy as I wrote this for an article someone wanted me to write a few years ago and I would like to share it with all of you.
“Jesus is the reason for the season”. We see this saying so much around this time of year as we get ready to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th but we busy our selves so much with shopping and festive decorations, racking our brains what to buy everyone on our list and planning the Holiday meal, but do we truly take time out of our hectic schedules to understand the importance of the first gifts ever given to honor the birth of Christ. Do we put much thought in what we give others as a gift that is fit for a king? Let’s take a look at who the Magi were and the importance of the gifts they gave to honor the King of Kings.
Matthew 2:1-12 gives us the account of the Magi who were a priestly sect from Persia bringing their best gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to honor the Messiah’s birth as they symbolically acknowledged Jesus as being the prophesied King of the Jews.
Magi were renowned in their knowledge of astrology with regard to it being science and related their knowledge to the Star of Bethlehem. Even though the area of Persia was predominately Islam the Hebrew prophet Daniel was highly regarded by the Persian court. In Daniel 9 the Magi had been given the prophecy of Messiah being cut off in the midst of His 35th year. They knew this event would occur 483 Babylonian years of 360 days after the Persian King Artaxerxes issued a decree. With this piece of information they deducted the Messiah would be born 32B.C.
There was also a Mesopotamian prophet named Balaam who foretold the coming of the star that would signify the rise of Messiah for the tribes of Israel. It was foretold that the Hebrews would receive a King Messiah and that his coming would be noted by a sign in the heavens specifically in the constellation known to Magi as Virgo. One of Daniels pupils, Zoroaster, incorporated these prophecies in his bible called the Zend Avest. Zoroastrianism was the state religion of Persia at the time of Jesus’ birth.
In Matthew 2:9-11 indicates that something would be marking the very place of Messiah’s birth and it is possible that Magi witnessed the Shekinah Glory Cloud, the same cloud described in Genesis at the entrance to the garden of Eden, in Exodus 13:21, 22 as the Pillar of Cloud by day and Pillar of fire by night and in Job as he witnessed the Shekinah when God spoke to him from a whirlwind of a bright and shining cloud.
“Jesus is the reason for the season”. We see this saying so much around this time of year as we get ready to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th but we busy our selves so much with shopping and festive decorations, racking our brains what to buy everyone on our list and planning the Holiday meal, but do we truly take time out of our hectic schedules to understand the importance of the first gifts ever given to honor the birth of Christ. Do we put much thought in what we give others as a gift that is fit for a king? Let’s take a look at who the Magi were and the importance of the gifts they gave to honor the King of Kings.
Matthew 2:1-12 gives us the account of the Magi who were a priestly sect from Persia bringing their best gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to honor the Messiah’s birth as they symbolically acknowledged Jesus as being the prophesied King of the Jews.
Magi were renowned in their knowledge of astrology with regard to it being science and related their knowledge to the Star of Bethlehem. Even though the area of Persia was predominately Islam the Hebrew prophet Daniel was highly regarded by the Persian court. In Daniel 9 the Magi had been given the prophecy of Messiah being cut off in the midst of His 35th year. They knew this event would occur 483 Babylonian years of 360 days after the Persian King Artaxerxes issued a decree. With this piece of information they deducted the Messiah would be born 32B.C.
There was also a Mesopotamian prophet named Balaam who foretold the coming of the star that would signify the rise of Messiah for the tribes of Israel. It was foretold that the Hebrews would receive a King Messiah and that his coming would be noted by a sign in the heavens specifically in the constellation known to Magi as Virgo. One of Daniels pupils, Zoroaster, incorporated these prophecies in his bible called the Zend Avest. Zoroastrianism was the state religion of Persia at the time of Jesus’ birth.
In Matthew 2:9-11 indicates that something would be marking the very place of Messiah’s birth and it is possible that Magi witnessed the Shekinah Glory Cloud, the same cloud described in Genesis at the entrance to the garden of Eden, in Exodus 13:21, 22 as the Pillar of Cloud by day and Pillar of fire by night and in Job as he witnessed the Shekinah when God spoke to him from a whirlwind of a bright and shining cloud.