DIG for Tuesday the 12th of December…..how many wise men…..Matthew 2 v 1

Well, I was hoping to write some DIGs about how ‘wrong’ the narrative about the birth of Jesus really is, but I’ve not got round to it yet (see DIG on December 1^st).

My big ‘new’ revelation this year is why we have such an emphasis on the 3 wise men coming to see Jesus at His birth.

Looking at the Word we can clearly see that the wise men actually came to see Jesus when he was about 18 or 24 months old, and they actually came when He was home in Nazareth.

The Bible does not tell us how many wise men there were, but tradition says three (Matthew 2 v 1).

The Bible says the wise men met Jesus as a young child (look at the Greek) and not a baby (Matthew 2 v 11).

The Bible tells us that Jesus was taken home to Nazareth after going to Jerusalem, and that was where the wise men met Him (Matthew 2 v 11 and Luke 2 v 22 and 39).

So why is tradition so strong in telling us that the 3 Wise Men were in the stable at the birth of Jesus.

I believe that the Lord told me the answer to this question; it is to take away from the significance of the shepherds.

If we look at the Word we can see that the only people to see Jesus at his birth, other than Mary and Joseph, were the shepherds.

And if we understand whom these shepherds were we could see why Jesus was born, we get an amazing piece of typology about the mission of Jesus.

If we understand about the shepherds we can see that Jesus was born to die!

More later!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that we can read the truth about the birth of Jesus in your Word”.

Matthew 2 v 1…..Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem

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DIG for Monday the 12th of December….. what, I have to remove the star from my Nativity scene as well…..Matthew 2 v 9

Once again in this DIG I am going to advise you to read the Word of God instead of listening to the traditions of men.

We have been looking in DIG at what did happen and what did not happen at the birth of Jesus.

Much of what we see in nativities and on Christmas cards did not actually happen; the star over the birthplace of Jesus is one other such myth.

We generally think that the wise men (3 of them) followed the star to the baby Jesus when He was born, that they visited Him at the same time as the shepherds.

We have seen that this was not the case for the wise men; they visited when He was a child (see my DIG for Friday 9^th December).

So the star was above His home when He was a young child not a baby.

There were no wise men at His birth and there was no star above the stable (and we will see later in DIGs from the 22^nd to 25^th December that there was no stable either).

These things are traditions of men that seem to have come through time as truths, but they are not Biblical truths (Colossians 2 v 8).

It is the Word of God that is important and it is the Word of God that we should go into in order to learn about Jesus.

The world is full of nonsense about Jesus and the traditions of men abound.

Forget about them and see what the Word says.

The Word of God is where you will find the truth, not only about His birth but also about all things regarding Jesus.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word and thank you for the truths held within”.

Matthew 2 v 9…..When they had heard the king, they departed: and, lo, the start, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was

DIG for Friday the 9th of December…..how many wise men were there…..Matthew 2 v 1

OK, so I started yesterday looking at what is ‘wrong’ with what we say about the birth of Jesus, in that He came to bring peace to man not peace on earth.

There are lots of others things that we believe about the birth of Jesus that is not actually in the Bible.

For example do you know that the wise men did not bring gifts to Jesus at His birth?

Now I know most of you will be thinking that they came at His birth, we see this every time we watch a Nativity play and we see it on our Christmas cards, however it is not Biblical to say they were there at His birth.

They came to Him when He was a child, the Greek is clear about this in Matthew 2 v 9.

They came to Him when He was in the family home, the Word is clear about this in Matthew 2 v 11.

So there were no wise men in the stable (or was it a stable; more on that later) when he was born.

And I have one other point about this.

Where in Scripture does it say there were three wise men?

Three wise men visiting Jesus at His birth is a tradition of men (read the DIG for the 1^st of December if you missed it) and is not borne out in the Word.

The Word says they came to Jerusalem when He was born (Matthew 2 v 1).

The Word says they met Him (and brought Him gifts) in His family home when He was a small child (Matthew 2 v 11).

Anything else is conjecture or theory, but not Biblical truth.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word and thank you that in His Word we can see the truth about Jesus, including His birth”.

Matthew 2 v 1…..Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem

DIG for Saturday the 19th of December…..3 wise men at His birth, No there was not…..Matthew 2 v 1

I’ve written a lot in DIG lately about what the Bible says about the birth of Jesus.

Now let’s look at some stuff that the Bible doesn’t write about!

We’ve already seen in the last four days that He was not born in a stable.

Do you also know that the wise men were not at His birth?

Do you also know that the Bible says nothing about the number of wise men that eventually visited Him?

In Matthew 2 v 1 we see the wise men coming from the east at the time of His birth, we do not see them visiting Him then.

Their visit came at a later time.

They came to see the Lord later, when he was no longer a baby but a small child.

When they saw Him the Word says He was a young child or an infant, according to the Greek word for “young child” (Matthew 2 v 11).

There are lots of wrong interpretations from the Bible and this is one of them; traditions of man tells us that the wise men were at the birth of Jesus and that there were three of them, yet the Word does not say this.

The temple shepherds came and saw the baby Jesus, the wise men did not!

This is a valuable lesson for us when trying to read and understand the Bible; we should actually take heed of the Word of God and not the traditions of man.

You may say well does this really matter?

I saw yes it does, as we are putting more faith in and believing traditions of man rather than the Word, and if we do this with the birth of Jesus we are capable of doing it with other important matters in the Bible.

Read the Word and forget about man’s traditions.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word and thank you for the truths held within”.

Matthew 2 v 1…..Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem

DIG for Tuesday the 2nd of December…..yes, no wise men at the birth of Jesus…..Matthew 2 v 11

It is the time of year for Nativity plays to take place, with the vast majority of them (if not all) not true to what actually happened according to the Bible.

Take the wise men for example that we read about in Matthew chapter 2.

We are told that they were “wise men from the east”; yet our tradition tells us that they were kings and that there were 3 of them.

Tradition tells us that they followed a star to the stable in Bethlehem where they met with the baby Jesus.

Every Nativity scene or play that I have seen shows the 3 kings in the stable at the same time as the shepherds, but this is not what the Bible says.

Rightly dividing the Word shows us that the wise men (however many of them that there was) met with Jesus when he was a small child in the family home in Nazareth.

The Greek word for young child in Matthew 2 v 11 tells us that Jesus was not a baby, but the Greek says he was a baby when the shepherds met Him in Luke 2 v 17.

In Luke 2 v 39 we are told that Joseph, Mary and Jesus returned to Nazareth after meeting all the obligations that they had to in the temple; this occurred when Jesus was 8 days old.

The Word says that Herod sent the wise men to Bethlehem, but it does not say they went to Bethlehem; after leaving Herod they followed the star to Jesus and this would have been to Nazareth.

We can all remove the 3 kings, or 3 wise men from our Nativity scenes!

So, am I writing this to spoil the Nativity for you?

No, I am pointing this out to show you that the traditions of man have spoiled and perverted the Biblical account of the birth of Jesus, and if they did it for His birth they can do it for other parts of Scripture.

Traditions of man have come in and twisted Scripture so that we do not get the full significance of His birth, the understanding that His birth was a picture of His mission and eventual death.

That significance has been lost in all the traditions.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word, help me rightly divide this without the influence of the traditions of man”.

Matthew 2 v 11…..And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and they fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh

DIG for Tuesday the 24th of December……hear the Lord and obey; the wise men did…..Matthew 2 v 12

DIG for Tuesday the 24th of December……hear the Lord and obey; the wise men did…..

The wise men, as well as listening to the Lord, knew the scriptures.

They told Herod that they came to worship the King of the Jews, who would be born in Bethlehem as described by the prophets (Matthew 2 v 5 and 6).

This to me shows that the wise men had read and understood the book of Micah (Micah 5 v 2 and John 7 v 42).

They knew where Jesus would be born from their understanding of the scriptures; our next lesson from the “Christmas story” is that we should also get our information about Jesus from the Word of God.

There is too much nonsense about Jesus being spread through religion and traditions of men; we need to be aware of this and focus on the Scriptures instead (Colossians 2 v 8).

The fact that we should listen, believe and obey (see DIG from yesterday) is once again emphasised.

They heard from God about returning home and not going back to Herod, so this is exactly what they did (Matthew 2 v 12).

They heard from God, but they had opposing instructions from a man (and a very powerful man at that); they made the correct decision and went with God’s way!

This is excellent advice for every single one of us; go with God’s way and not man’s way!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the example of the wise men, and thank you that we too have your Scriptures to read and understand”.

Matthew 2 v 12…..And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way

DIG for Sunday the 22nd of December…..read the Word to find out about Jesus, not Christmas cards or other things…….Matthew 2 v 1

Let me ask you a number of questions: how many wise men came to worship Jesus and when and where did they find Him?

Most will answer this by saying 3 and when he was a baby in the stable by the inn.

This is what tradition and Christmas cards tell us; however my understanding of scripture is that this is not the correct answer.

I’ve already written about Jesus being born at Migdal Eder in the building where the temple ewes were housed, and not in a stable by an inn.

From Scripture we cannot say how many wise men visited Jesus; the Word does not tell us.

History would suggest a camel train of about 30 or 40 people would be more likely the truth, however the Word does not tell us, so we cannot say with any certainty how many wise men came.

Scripture does point to the wise men visiting Jesus well after His birth and not as the baby that we see in nativity scenes.

We are told they found Him and worshipped him as a young child and not as a baby (Matthew 2 v 11).

We are told that Herod, trying to kill Jesus, ordered the murder of all children up to the age of 2, going by what the wise men told him (Matthew 2 v 16).

Why would he do this if Jesus was a new born infant?

We are told far too much about Jesus that is not Biblical!

My friends, pay more attention to the Word of God than to tradition, and dare I say to Christmas cards.

The Word of God is where we should look to see everything about Jesus; His birth, His life and His death.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word, and thank you that this is where I will go to find out about Jesus”.

Matthew 2 v 1…..Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem