Christmas Star

Part I
Post 142
Required reading; Matthew chapters 1 and 2

In my previous post; “Christmas Prophecy” we addressed only a few of the prophecies found mostly in the Gospel according to Luke. As all complex stories, even Luke could not conveniently include everything, but only the elements necessary to get his point made.
We read additional details in the other gospels to get a more full understanding of the Nativity events, but with parts left out of each narration it is important to note; there is not a single conflict between the four gospels.

I find it curious that Luke chose to leave out everything related to the wise men and the star they followed. To Luke, those elements were not necessary to make the point he was making, which was to verify that Jesus truly was the Son of God in the flesh. *1
It is my belief that because Luke was not writing to a Jew, *2 there was simply far too much information the Gentile believers did not know that would have to be explained before that part of the story would have any meaningful impact. i.e. prophetic fulfillment. And so he just left it out.
What is found in Luke makes the intended point even without a deeper knowledge of all the prophecies, which the story of the wise men does not. This is evidenced by our confusion when in ignorance we try to include that event in the retelling of our traditional nativity story because it is interesting.

But as we examine the Gospel of Matthew, which was written for the Jewish mind, culture, and understanding, we find almost the opposite elements included from those in Luke.
It is startling to learn the familiar Nativity story we Gentiles know so well, is all but missing from Matthew:

After a long detailed rendition of the genealogy of Joseph (Jesus’ assumed father) running from 1:1 to 1:17, the Nativity story is found in 8 verses only. (1:18-25)
So what important things do we find in those 8 verses? *3
The entire eight-verse narrative covers only the virgin birth of Jesus.
No John The Baptist, no taxes, no manger, no shepherds, no declaring angels, no Simeon or Anna declaring this child to be the Messiah; nothing.

Verses 22-23 explain why the focus on the virgin birth;
“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophets, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
This was the important element Matthew (and God) wanted to make clear to the Jews regarding the nativity.

Why not all the other stuff?
Because the Jews are a people of skepticism.
The other elements would only cause doubts while they tried to figure out how the events were manipulated;
John the Baptist was just a whacko, the taxes were just a normal event, as was the manger (because they did not call ahead for reservations in the crowed tax time). Who knows what the shepherds really saw? Perhaps they were paid to say such things. Simeon and Anna only said things they believed. That does not make them true.

This is why these things were only included in the narrative written to those people who are Theophilus; Friends of God. *4 Those people who are already in love with God. Luke was written as confirming knowledge of what we already believe.
They mean little to the skeptic.

But a virgin birth?
Pretty hard to pull that one off among your contemporaries without the prophecies foretelling of its happening AT THAT TIME.
It has been said, (though I have not found the documentation) that at that time, every young virgin Jewess had the deep desire to be THAT virgin.
All the people were anticipating the arrival of the Messiah AT THAT TIME.

The Jews were not ignorant of the prophecies. They knew them well.
In fact when the non-Jew king Herod wanted to know what the wise men were talking about, he called the chief priests (Pharisees) and scribes of the people to demand of them where the prophecies said Christ should be born. (Matthew 2:1-4)
They didn’t have to run to their books, they already knew;
“And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.” Matthew 2:5-6
(yet curious, it was these same guys who would later seek to kill him for being the Messiah. Luke 20:14, 19, 20, 22:54-71)

So what other related prophecies were the Jews familiar with that might confirm that Jesus was indeed the promised messiah? After all, the claim of a virgin birth could be fabricated too. The fact he was born in Bethlehem, fulfilling another prophecy, now adds support, but there must be other fulfilled prophecies to convince a skeptic.

For this answer to us Gentiles, we need a deeper understanding of Jewish history and culture which will be impossible to proved here in a blog.
But for the Jews, Matthew found it sufficient to include in chapter 2:1, almost in passing, simply the facts; that like the phrase “Titanic” brings to our mind a volume of information and history, those facts to the Jews had deep and significant meaning;

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king,…” Matthew 2:1a
Jesus, was claimed to be virgin born, as prophesied,
Was born in the Bethlehem of Judaea, also as prophesied. Not the other Bethlehem. (It is further curious that the old prophet knew to distinguish one from the other, as if he knew there would be two Bethlehems in the days of the fulfillment).
And finally Jesus was born in the days of Herod. What prophecy do you suppose that refers to?
The Jews knew:

Genesis 49:10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
It is tragic that I cannot deviate too far from my intended goal of the Christmas Star to show the origin of this prophecy, or that the remaining fraction of the Jewish people would be called Judah long after this prophecy was given. I will only discuss here that the Jews had a very great anticipation of this prophecy because Rome was in the very process of completing the conquering of Judah. Rome had set a non-Jew as king of Judaea, while temporarily allowing the Sanhedrin to continue the administration of their laws, which was understood by the Jews to be the scepter, much as England’s Monarch has a symbolic scepter representing her authority and power.
Scepter 7626; shebet; from an unused root probably meaning to branch off, a scion, i.e. literally a stick (for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc.)

Judaea had already been stripped of all other authority, and this final straw was about to fall. The Messiah MUST come or scripture would be proven flawed.
God cannot be God if the scriptures are flawed. Flawed scriptures would show that their faith was a fabrication. The Messiah MUST come before the Romans took away the Sanhedrin’s authority to judge, convict, and punish!
All this and more was understood in the one phrase; “in the days of Herod.”

And so Matthew needed to tell them nothing more than the facts. Jesus was born in the days of Herod. Meaning; just before the scepter was in fact taken away.
One more prophecy fulfilled, and this one is very significant!
If Jesus was not the Messiah, the scriptures had failed!
But if he was the Messiah, what would Rome do to the child if found out?!
"When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." Matthew 2:3
Now we understand a bit more meaning behind this verse!
The secret hope the Messiah would rescue them from Rome was now public. Great Men from a land in the East had gone to the Roman ruler of Jerusalem and declared there was a child born a king of the Jews!
What would Rome do now?
All of Jerusalem was troubled, along with Herod!
Each was asking in their hearts and minds; What will happen next?

What other prophecy did the high priests and scribes know?
Daniel 9:25 combined with Leviticus 26:28 *6 Provides the exact day in history when the Messiah should present himself as king of the Jews. (Verse 26 foretells his rejection, his death, and God’s reason for it.)
But just as we try hard to interpret future prophecy today, they perhaps couldn’t then figure out all that the prophecy actually meant. Possibly afraid to identify the exact day for fear of being wrong, they only knew the prophecy sure seemed to indicate their messiah should be showing up very soon, via a virgin birth, in Bethlehem of Judea, before Rome took away the scepter.
And now we have a significant case showing that Jesus just might be that Messiah! *7

* * *
After the eight verses describing the fulfillment of the virgin birth prophecy, and the single verse of simple facts of other fulfilled prophecies, Matthew immediately turns to the narrative of the wise men.
Why?
Because like the virgin birth as it fulfilled prophecy, this bit of historical information is so fantastic it too deserves detail.
Jewish history documents their arrival, this was not a fabricated story by religious zealots.
All Jerusalem was abuzz at the arrival of these great Babylonian Magi. But what we as Gentiles don’t have, is the prophecy regarding this event.
Therefore until more knowledge is uncovered we can only surmise by deduction the details which brought the Magi. But we do have enough information to make a very considerable deduction, not to mention the unquestionable proof that Jesus was purposed to come and die as our Savior before the heavens were ever created!
Say what?
God purposed to send His Son to die as our sacrifice, on a very specific date, before he ever made a star, Before he ever formed the earth, Before he ever made Adam who would one day sin and therefore need a savior.
God has shown that he pre-planned all this before Creation.
THIS is what we learn from the Christmas Star.
and as the previous information, The key focus seems to be all about the EXACT TIMING.

At least for the Jew, it is vital to understand that the Messiah came AT THE EXACT TIME appointed.

We will cover all this in my post titled; Christmas Star part 2.

* * * * * * *
*1
“For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect (199) understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.” Luke 1:1-4
perfect 199; akribos, exactly. (a complete or full)

*2
Theophilus: 2321; Greek; from 2316 and 5384; friend of God;
Don’t you find it incredible that Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles to a man called the Friend of God?
Yet we do not know just who this Theophilus was?
Why?
Because while Luke was writing to a real man contemporary to him, named Theophilus, The Holy Spirit meant for him to write to all those who are Theophilus; Friends of God.
The Gospel of Luke is written to all Christians; gentile, Jew, converts of all races and nations. (Colossians 3:11) Thus what is found in Luke best applies to this large and general group.

*3
For those with a deeper understanding of the Bible Codes, I noticed the Nativity story should be contained in 7 verses not 8. So I went back and investigated, finding verse 23 is actually just an interpreted quote from the Isaiah 7:14 prophecy and not a part of the Nativity story, thus making narration of the virgin birth of Jesus confirmed by the bible code of 7.
For those unfamiliar with this DNA of God, it is not significant to your understanding but a type of forensic science of scripture.

*4
Cool how this guys name just "happens" to mean this, providing a deep meaning and application for us, right?
The more you seriously investigate the scriptures, the more you see the incredible number of “accidents” that always fit so perfectly, almost as if it was carefully crafted! (which of course it was)
It would be easy to figure that it was carefully crafted my a man if it was written by a single man at a single point in time, that’s what a good novel is.
But this story was written by 40 different authors over thousands of years, and yet, we see the complexities perfectly combined to tell one story with no flaws.
Now unless you believe in evolution, THIS is evidence of a Design outside of our time domain. *5 THIS is proof that God exists. This is evidence that our very existence is actually a novel already written by our Creator!
We are only characters now acting out the events of the last chapters in this amazing novel.

*5
“66 books by 40 authors, and yet we now discover it is an integrated message system from outside our time domain.” - A catch phrase of Chuck Missler’s program 66/40 found at: http://www.khouse.org/6640_cat/

*6
“The Coming Prince” by Sir Robert Anderson first published in 1894 provides all the necessary information and calculations to convert all that to our present calendar as April 6, 32 AD. A must have for every serious investigator.

*7 The lesson that God is willing to tell the Jews exact days of significant events will one day prove valuable to them. Prophecy yet to be fulfilled speaks of 3-1/2 years of some very horrible times; Daniel 12:7 and Revelation 12:14. Those times will be so horrible that God wants to make sure those living in that time will be able to count virtually every day until it is over. Revelation 11:2 and 13:5 speak of it as forty two months. 11:3 and 12:6 speaks of it as 1260 days. God apparently is not afraid to name dates when he wants to. Jesus expected the Jews to know the exact day of his arrival as king; "and when he (Jesus) was come near, (to Jerusalem) he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." Luke 19:41-42
"Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." Luke 19:44