The Visitation By The Magi From The East
This lovely interlude in St. Matthew’s Gospel appears so unexpectedly and out of the ordinary in the infant narrative of Our Lord, that many of us have difficulty seeing its beginning and end. Who were these people? From where did they come? How long had they been travelling? And how did they know about ‘His star’?
As has been observed already in an earlier part of this book, when Sacred Scripture is silent on some major point at a particular place, as seems to be the case here, we can be confident that something has already been said in answer to our queries in a previous part of its writings.
Modern scholars in the study of Ancient History have made great strides in pulling into line the chronologies of various countries surrounding Israel with data obtained from the infallible Word of God, the Bible. From their writings we have learned that since the glorious reign of King Solomon, the Books of the Old Testament became well known and well read outside Israel because of the worldwide trade that followed the visits of nearly every king on earth to Solomon’s throne in Jerusalem. And so the Word of God became known amongst the pagan countries surrounding Israel. In many places large parts of the Bible became deteriorated and turned into folklore and legends used and handed down by the peoples of these countries as if they had originated in their own past. But not surprisingly, God used the occurrence of this broader spread of His Word amongst the nations for His own purposes, and made sure that in some places the biblical text remained uncorrupted within a generation or a family’s linear descent as a reward for its attempts to live up to the biblical teachings.
Now there can be no doubt that the defeat of the Egyptian army at the time of the recall of Israel from slavery, together with the conquest of the Promised Land, made a deep impression on all the nations in the immediate vicinity of these momentous happenings. So we may assume that, when the Five Books of Moses became more widespread amongst Israel’s neighbours at the time of King Solomon’s reign, these mighty deeds were avidly read and because they had been part of the history of bygone times, they had been handed down through the ages whereupon they had become gradually incorporated within the cultures of these peoples.
Now it is in this context of the mixing of the truth of the biblical Word of God with the legends that had been made of it by pagan nations, that we must look for the origin of the knowledge among the nations of ‘the rising star’ of a great leader in Israel. The prophesy of a rising star stands out as unique. Being in the heavens it is intangible and cannot be tampered with. It is not something that is as easily incorporated in a nations culture as, say, a battle, or a conquest or any other heroic feat. For that reason a prophesy associated with a rising star has the greater chance of being handed down in its original purity.
And in the Books of Moses there is one such prophesy. It occurs in the Book of Numbers, and can be found in chapter 24.
Balak, king of Moab saw the immense army of the Israelites marching from the desert onto his country on their way to the Jordan river opposite Jericho. And he was seized with fright. He sent for someone he knew was a prophet of Yahweh by the name of Balaam, for it was well known that whomever this man cursed would be cursed by God, and whomever this man blessed was blessed by God. So king Balak hired him to curse the Israelites. But Balaam, on the command of God, blessed the Israelites instead. And in the long poem of his blessing there occur the following words which are central to our story at this stage:-
“The oracle of Balaam, son of Beor,
the oracle of the man with far-seeing eyes ...
He sees what Shaddai makes him see,
he receives the divine answer and his eyes are opened.
I see Him - but not in the present.
I behold Him - but not close at hand.
A star shall come forth out of Jacob,
and a sceptre shall arise out of Israel.”
With all the deep mystery as to its meaning, the message itself nevertheless is expressed in clear language, and - as remarked before - hard to tamper with. But it was this prophesy that had been allowed to live forth and to be anticipated and subsequently to be accepted outside Israel, when the time of its fulfilment had arrived! That is the only explanation that can be attached to the consternation by which the fulfilment of this prophesy was greeted in Jerusalem by king Herod, the scribes and the whole population on the arrival of these mysterious men from the East.
“Where is the Infant King of the Jews?
We have seen His star rise in the East
and have come to do Him homage.”
[Matt 2:2].
So these men knew about the Messiah. They knew much more about Him than that one night His star would rise. They had read the Scriptures and in their own family line had preserved these writings as sacred. Wakeful at night, like the shepherds in Bethlehem, to accord to the glory of God in His firmament the study it deserves, they too were called and had received great understanding as Christians receive who keep nightly vigils.
From how far had they come? Going by Herod’s crafty reckoning as it is recorded in St. Matthew’s Gospel, it could have been as much as a year. And what makes this whole fascinating interlude even more remarkable is the fact that the Evangelist clearly conveys to us that this whole journey had been made in pure Faith. For in his Gospel the sacred author debunks the popular notion that this long year’s travelling had been made under the guidance of the star. For, when the Magi left Herod and Jerusalem, St. Matthew states:
“And there in front of them was the star they had seen in the East.
The sight of the star filled them with delight.”
This revelation would not have made any sense if they had been under the constant guidance of “the star they had seen rising in the East”. They would have seen that star the night before and on every other night they had travelled.
In the absence of the star and its guiding light, can we imagine how many reasons and opportunities these Holy Men could have had on their long trek West to turn around and give up their journey ‘in the dark night of the soul’? Especially when they came to Jerusalem and found out that no one knew anything about a new King in that capital city, that no one really cared, and even received their message with consternation. And still they wanted to push on, as by now their whole enterprise had been lifted by the Holy Spirit into the regions of supernatural Faith, in the Light of which their original idea of ‘paying homage’ was transformed into an act of pure adoration. And now here was their reward, the sight of the star “they had seen rising in the East”. And under the guidance of its wonderful light they not only found their way into the presence of their God and King, but also into their own spot in the calendar of the Saints of this New King’s Church.
As for Mary and Joseph, this magnificent display of Faith from these representatives of the pagan nations, the first fruits of their Child’s Universal Redemption, again confirmed, “through the mixture of Revelation and Ancient Promises”, what they already knew. Mary had pondered about Messianic texts such as these:-
“Thou didst deliver Me from strife with the peoples;
Thou didst keep Me as the Head of the nations;
people whom I had not known now serve Me.”
[2 Sam 22:44].
Which is substantially the same as Ps. 18:43, in which texts the joy of the Psalmist is expressed over the fact that the future Deliverer will be the Head of all the nations in the New Creation. And
“Ask, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance,
the ends of the earth for Your domain.”
[Ps 2: 8-9].
In time then, the great struggle foretold in Paradise between the forces of Good and the forces of evil would result in Her Child’s universal dominion over all the nations. And here, on this very day, both parents had witnessed the infallible proof of this, a revelation given so long ago under Balaam’s promise. But, as they would learn soon, strife with His very own people would not be far away ...