Men from Babylon Travel to Worship Me

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

July 24, 2019

Men from Babylon Travel to Worship Me

Page 27

Matthew 2:1b-12;

Luke 2:39

By combining the four Gospels, and putting them in the first person, we are able to encounter the Gospels in a new and refreshing way. However, this presentation is not without risks. Each of the four Gospels has a unique perspective on their presentation of Jesus the Messiah. Accordingly, the Gospels will not always easily lend themselves to being combined in a precise chronology. Today’s reading is an example of this difficulty. Beginning with Luke’s account of Jesus’ family journeying “home to Nazareth in Galilee” after the purification offering, the scene then shifts to the wise men in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Only Matthew’s Gospel tells of the visit of the wise men and the escape to Egypt. Because only redundant material is left out of this presentation, we will encounter some seemingly conflicting accounts in the chronology. However, as the Gospels have unique perspectives, it is neither essential, nor necessary that we try and reconcile their individual chronologies.

Whenever I read about the wise men following a star to Bethlehem, I remember a time when I was visiting friends in Cuba. On one occasion, we were traveling late at night and my friend stopped the car, and turned off the headlights. We stepped out of the car into total darkness. As I looked up, I immediately thought of Psalm 8: “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers — the moon and the stars you set in place — what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” I have no trouble believing the wise men could easily have followed a star to Bethlehem.

Jesus was born into a time of trouble, tension, violence and fear. From the time of his birth, Jesus comes to where people are over-wrought with pain and suffering. It is our human nature to think that when everything seems to be going wrong, we must be far from God. The account of the wise men visiting Jesus reminds me that when I am overwhelmed by circumstances and worry, my God is closest to me. This story also makes clear to me that God has unlimited resources to meet our needs. Here, Gentile astrologers provide Jesus’ family all the wealth they would need to seek refuge in Egypt.

My Takeaway: Today’s reading reminds me of one of my favorite benedictions in the Bible:

“And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

(Philippians 4:19-20 NRSV)

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.