7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

 

 

When we read this story of the mysterious Magi from the East (Babalon), most of us miss the connection.   These Wise Men who sought out the Messiah, the Christ, the King that was foretold, the one who would change the world forever.  We know that Nebuchadnezzar had taken the treasures from the first temple in Jerusalem, frankincense, gold, and myrrh among them.   The connection:  (Dan. 5:11) The men that Daniel was put in charge of were called Magi; Daniel was the chief of the Magi.   We also know that Daniel's visions of the coming Christ would have been told to these men.  These men were no accident; they were converts, they were more than likely descendants of these men that Daniel was made chief over.    So when we read this Christmas story, the coming of these wise men from the east we should not miss that they had brought back to honor God the things that had been taken from the temple.  

 

 

This is a reminder that we should all the days of our lives seek to honor the Lord, to pursue the things of God in Christ Jesus, and bring our sacrifice of praise and honor Him with our lives, serving Him with all that is within us.

 

 

 

I pray that you would be caught up in the ahh that is Christ this Christmas, that you would read the coming of Christ, and that God would reveal the depth of its power, that you hearts would burn within you, that your desire to serve Him in this new year would be greater than ever before.  In Jesus' name, amen!