Our message for today is a reflection on the lowly and humble estate of our King of Kings. To begin this morning, turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 9, and we will look at verses 1-2, and 6-7. What I am about to read are the words of the prophet Isaiah concerning the entrance of our Savior into the world:
1 By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined . . . 6 For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever . . .
We learn from verse 1 that the Savior would be born in Galilee of the Gentiles, named such because it was long occupied by its original Gentile inhabitants before its Jewish occupation. It was originally called Cabul, which means “How little!” or “It is nothing.” The Savior of the world would be born into a place of low esteem and nothingness, which is what we are going to reflect upon this morning, as we go a little deeper into the account of the wise men and Herod.
The King of the Jews (vv. 1-2)
1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
Right here the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, but what is significant about the wise men? Well, in verse 11 of this passage, they presented Jesus with gold, myrrh, and frankincense. One of these gifts, frankincense, “was imported into Judah by camel caravan from Sheba (Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20), [which was] a trade connection that originated with the queen of Sheba’s visit to Jerusalem in the reign of Solomon (1 Kings 10:10; 2 Chronicles 9:9).”(1) Frankincense, and these other gifts of gold and myrrh, were extremely valuable and presented unto royalty.
The wise men were wealthy merchants and traders who were accustomed to dealing with kings. Notice how they approached King Herod first. They traded with upper class people who were able to afford such luxuries. When they asked Herod, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” they were expecting to bring these luxurious gifts to a king, and they figured that Herod, being a king himself, would be able to direct them to the child’s whereabouts. They were probably reasoning among themselves, “Shouldn’t a king know where another king lives?”
There was no way that the wise men, who were foreigners, could have known that the King of the Jews, the Savior of the world, was actually born to the underprivileged and downtrodden of society. Many of the Jewish people were actually expecting the Messiah to reign with judgment and force; to be a powerful and militant king who would punish all the enemies of God’s people. They were looking for a King – one that fit the stereotypical image of being large and in charge – but they did not understand His true nature; but His nature was portrayed in some Old Testament prophecies.
For example, in Genesis chapter 49 we read, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver . . . To Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding His donkey to the vine, and His donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He washed His garments in wine . . . Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea” (vv. 10-11, 13). Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
These prophecies were finally fulfilled in Matthew 21:6-9 in Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. What we need to take from them is that riding on a donkey revealed His lowly and humble nature. I did some research and discovered that “in the ancient Middle Eastern world, leaders rode horses if they rode to war, but donkeys if they came in peace.”(2) For example, “1 Kings 1:33 mentions Solomon riding a donkey on the day he was recognized as the new king of Israel.”(3) The Jews apparently forgot, or ignored, some of these prophecies about the Messiah’s lowly nature:
King Herod Was Troubled (vv. 3-8)
3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 6‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ” 7Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”
When Herod heard about the birth of the Messiah, he was troubled and afraid. Verse 6 says, “For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.” Herod did not want to loose his position as ruler over Judea, and he believed that the Messiah would come and take Judea away by force. I would like to shed a little more light on King Herod in order to further contrast the loftiness of Herod versus the humble nature of Jesus.
I wish to share some verses from Matthew 11:7-8, in which Jesus made a comment about one of His contemporaries, or co-laborers, John the Baptist, because their preaching and ministries were so similar (oh, and by the way, John was also Jesus’ cousin). Jesus made this particular comment about John in order to stimulate people into thinking about the Messiah’s true nature. Jesus was not a militant king, but meek and humble, and He wanted the people of His day to realize this fact. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 11:7-8. The Scripture says:
As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.”
The first question I have is what is a “reed shaken by the wind,” or should I say who is it? I want to read an excerpt about this phrase from a book entitled The Shadow of the Galilean:
The “reed in the wind” is a phrase people used of [King Herod] . . . that came about like this. [King Herod] had coins minted in his new capital. Normally coins have portraits of rulers on them, but it is forbidden under Jewish law to depict human beings or animals. So [King Herod] chose a harmless emblem, one perhaps meant to signify his new capital by the Sea of Galilee: reeds, a reed waving in the wind – and now that is on his first coins, where otherwise his portrait would have been. So he is mocked as being a reed “waving in the wind.”(4)
Jesus used this phrase mocking the character of Herod. We see that when He referred to Herod as the reed in the wind that He said, “But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.” Jesus was contrasting the nature of Herod with John the Baptist.
John the Baptist lived out in the wilderness eating locusts and honey. He was a poor man. Herod, on the other hand, was a wealthy king. By making this comparison between John the Baptist and Herod, Jesus was indirectly making a contrast between Himself and Herod.
When people came looking for the Messiah they expected to see “a reed shaken in the wind,” or a wealthy and mighty king. Instead of finding a wealthy king, they found the Jesus who was meek and lowly.
Herod feared Jesus taking away his throne, so he sent the wise men to bring back word of His location so he could kill Him. Herod shuttered like a frail reed in the wind, and that is all he was in comparison to “the riches of the glory of this mystery,” as Colossians 1:27 says; the mystery of how the King of the Jews, and the King of all Kings could be so poor and humble.
They Fell and Worshipped (vv. 9-12)
9 When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
“The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light.” The wise men saw the light that was predicted by Isaiah, and it led them to their King, but what did they see when they arrived? They found a young child, around two-years-old (cf. Matthew 2:16) living with an ordinary family, in the house of a simple carpenter. Many homes during that time were built into hillsides and hewn out of solid rock, having a dirt floor. In fact, the traditional site of Jesus’ house in Nazareth “is partly made of mortar-and-stone walls, and cut into a rocky hillside.”(5)
Can you imagine how the wise men would have felt arriving at a dusty cave-like house? They would have gone out in search of a king, and to their astonishment have found their king in a drab, dimly lit environment, playing on a dirt floor; and they could have turned right around and went the other way. But there was something special and majestic about this display of irony. We see in verse 11 that as soon as they saw Jesus and His mother, they “fell down and worshiped Him.” At that very moment, the wise men did not see with their eyes, but with their hearts.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:28-29, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Even the fine clothing and luxurious house of King Solomon could not compare to the glory of that simple structure that sheltered God’s one and only Son.
When Jesus Christ came into this world He contradicted and challenged what men perceive as truth. We read in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 that “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.”
Time of Reflection
Perhaps you are someone who has been skeptical of the Bible, especially the claim about a little baby with humble beginnings being God’s Son? 1 Corinthians 3:18-19 says, “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’.”
This morning, will you become a fool for the sake of Christ? Michael Card says, “The power of paradox [or what seems puzzling] opens your eyes, and blinds those who say they can see.” He also says that we follow Christ, “For only the foolish can tell [or know the truth]. Believe the unbelievable; come be a fool as well.”(6)
This morning, do not pride yourself in your own understanding and human reasoning. Do not let the foolishness of a King born in a manger and raised in a dusty home keep you from entering salvation and eternal life. If you do not accept Christ or believe in the virgin birth then you are as King Herod, a reed blowing in the wind, shuttering at everything that life throws at you. The reed eventually dries up, withers away, and is burned (John 15:6). I urge you to believe the unbelievable this morning.
NOTES
(1) Achtemier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985.
(2) “Would a King Ride a Donkey Instead of a Warhorse?” GotQuestions.org.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Gerd Theissen, The Shadow of the Galilean (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), 6.
(5) Owen Jarus, “Jesus’ House? 1st-Century Structure May Be Where He Grew Up,” LiveScience.com (March 1, 2015).
(6) Michael Card, “God’s Own Fool” taken from the songbook Joy in the Journey (Brentwood: Sparrow, 1994), 38-39.
