Wise Men (and Women) Still Worship Him

In my previous post I looked at the identity of the wise men from the East in Matthew 2:1-2, who come to Jerusalem, following a star that was to lead them to the one who was born “King of the Jews”.  These men of exceedingly great wealth, wisdom, political power and influence, were not on a diplomatic mission or military crusade, nor pursuing this King out of curiosity, but were seeking His whereabouts for the express purpose of worshiping Him, which is what ultimately makes them truly wise men.  And they were doing so based on the witness of the Jewish exiles during their time in Babylon and Persia, and revelation found in the Jewish/Old Testament scriptures, primarily from Isaiah 9:6-7, Daniel 7:13-14, and Numbers 24:16-17. 

To have traveled over 600 miles by horseback into what would have been enemy territory, guided only by a star, bringing with them the most expensive and exquisite of gifts, would have required tremendous faith, inordinate faith, actually supernatural faith that believed this King was worthy of all this, faith that could only have come from God (John 6:44) (Romans 10:17).  This is the faith we are given when we are saved, and Jesus Christ becomes the object of our present and eternal worship (Ephesians 2:8-9).

As with all who come to worship King Jesus, the Holy Spirit would have used the scriptures to open their hearts and illuminate their minds with a revelation of this King’s greatness and worthiness of worship. They likely would have studied Psalm 145, as well Psalm 95:1-7, and Psalm 96, and thus it would not have been unreasonable for them to expect to find this King in a great palace or mansion filled with servants.

However, the mysterious star that led them to Jerusalem ultimately leads them to Bethlehem and the humble house where Joseph, Mary and Jesus have taken up residence sometime after his birth.  And yet we are told that when the wise men saw the star stand over the house where the young Child was, they were not disappointed, but rejoiced with exceeding great joy.  They would soon be in the presence of the One they, by faith, recognized to be of infinitely greater wisdom and wealth, power and influence than themselves and the rulers they served, the one who was the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation19:11-16), who would one day judge all the nations of the earth in righteousness and justice; who would rule and reign over a universal kingdom of peace, prosperity and unimagined joy for all who enter it through repentance and faith while yet in this world (Mark 1:14-15).

This would not only be a joyful experience for the wise men, but a marvelously confirming experience for Mary and Joseph in having this caravan of extraordinarily powerful and influential men from the East traveling a great distance to their humble home to acknowledge their young son as the promised Messiah King.

The wise men are welcomed into the house and in seeing the Child with Mary they immediately and spontaneously fall down with their faces to the ground in worship.

The term worship literally means to bow down, signifying homage, adoration, humble submission to and dependence upon the object of our worship.

Worship is motivated by our adoration and admiration, our heartfelt love and gratitude toward that which we find most excellent, most honorable, most virtuous, most lovely, most precious, most necessary to our happiness and wellbeing.

In worship, we declares publicly, as well as privately to the object of our worship, the love, desire, longing for and joy we have in our heart for that which is of greatest value to us.  Worship is expressed in giving our time, attention, energy and treasure in pursuit of pleasing, honoring, enjoying, possessing or being possessed by the object of our worship.

Worship leads to our passionate, our obsessive identification with and conformity of our being or lifestyle to the excellence of that which we worship.

Worship of Christ our King comes out of a heart that has been changed by God the Holy Spirit, wherein Jesus becomes or is becoming the desire of our heart and the delight of our soul – the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy.  We are told in 1 Peter 2:7 that to those who believe in Him, He is precious.

Know this for certain, we are all worshipers of something or someone, and the object of our worship in this life will determine our eternal destiny in the next.

(See my May 2020 post titled WORSHIP)

Grace and Peace × in 2021 to all who worship Jesus as Lord