thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. 7. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 8. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
It was a mark of humiliation put upon the Lord Jesus, that though he was the Desire of all nations, yet his coming into the world was little observed and taken notice of, his birth was obscure and unregarded: herein he emptied himself, and made himself of no reputation. If the son of God must be brought into the world, one might justly expect that he should be received with all the ceremony possible; that crowns and sceptres should immediately have been laid at his feet, and that the high and mighty princes of the world should have been his humble servants; such a Messiah as this the Jews expected, but we see none of all this; he came into the world, and the world knew him not; nay, he came to his own, and his own received him not; for having undertaken to make satisfaction to his Father for the wrong done him in his honour by the sin of man, he did it by denying himself in, and despoiling himself of, the honours undoubtedly due to an incarnate Deity; yet, as afterward, so in his birth, some rays of glory darted forth in the midst of the greatest instances of his abasement. Though there was the hiding of his power, yet he had beams coming out of his hand, (Hab. 3. 4.) enough to condemn the world, and the Jews especially, for their stupidity.
The first who took notice of Christ after his birth, were the shepherds, (Luke 2. 15, &c.) who saw and heard glorious things concerning him, and made them known abroad, to the amazement of all that heard them, v. 17, 18. After that, Simeon and Anna spake of him, by the Spirit, to all that were disposed to heed what they said, Luke 2, 38. Now, one would think, these hints should have been taken by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they should with both arms have embraced the long-looked-for Messiah; but, for aught that appears, he continued nearly two years after at Bethlehem, and no further notice was taken of him till these wise men came. Note, Nothing will awaken those that are resolved to be regardless. Oh the amazing stupidity of these Jews! And no less, that of many who are called christians! Observe,
I. When this enquiry was made concerning Christ; it was in the days of Herod the King. This Herod was an Edomite, made king of Judea by Augustus and Antonius, the then chief rulers of the Roman state, a man made up of falsehood and cruelty; yet he was complimented with the title of Herod the Great. Christ was born in the 35th year of his reign, and notice is taken of this, to shew that the sceptre was now departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet; and therefore now was the time for Shiloh to come, and to him shall the gathering of the people be, witness the wise men, Gen. 49. 10.
II. Who and what these wise men were; they are here called Μάγοι—Magicians. Some take it in a good sense; the Magi among the Persians were their philosophers, and their priests; nor would they admit any one for their king who had not first been enrolled among the Magi; others think they dealt in unlawful arts; the word is used of Simon, the sorcerer, (Acts 8. 9, 11.) and of Elymas, the sorcerer, (Acts 13. 6.) nor does the scripture use it in any other sense; and then it was an early instance and presage of Christ's victory over the Devil, when those who had been so much his devotees, became the early adorers even of the infant Jesus; so soon were trophies of his victory over the powers of darkness erected. Well, whatever sort of wise men they were before, now they began to be wise men indeed when they set themselves to to inquire after Christ.
This we are sure of, 1. That they were Gentiles, and not belonging to the commonwealth of Israel. The Jews regarded not Christ, but these Gentiles inquired him out. Note, Many times those who are nearest to the means, are furthest from the end. See ch. 8. 11, 12. The respect paid to Christ by these Gentiles was a happy presage and specimen of what would follow, when those who were afar off should be made nigh by Christ. 2. That they were scholars, they dealt in arts, curious arts; good scholars should be good christians, and then they complete their learning when they learn Christ. 3. That they were men of the east, who were noted for their soothsaying, Isa. 2. 6. Arabia is called the land of the east, (Gen. 25. 6.) and the Arabians are called, Men of the east, Judg. 6. 3. The presents they brought were the products of that country; the Arabians had done homage to David and Solomon as types of Christ. Jethro and Job were of that country. More than this we have not to say of them. The traditions of the Romish church are frivolous, that they were in number three, (though one of the ancients says that they were fourteen,) that they were kings, and that they lie buried in Colen, thence called the three kings of Colen; we covet not to be wise above what is written.
III. What induced them to make this inquiry. They, in their country, which was in the east, had seen an extraordinary star, such as they had not seen before; which they took to be an indication of an extraordinary person born in the land of Judea, over which land this star was seen to hover, in the nature of a comet, or a meteor rather, in the lower regions of the air; this differed so much from any thing that was common, that they concluded it to signify something uncommon. Note, Extraordinary appearances of God in the creatures, should put us upon inquiring after his mind and will therein; Christ foretold signs in the heavens. The birth of Christ was notified to the Jewish shepherds by an angel, to the Gentile philosophers by a star; to whom God spake in their own language, and in the way they were best acquainted with. Some think that that very light which the shepherds saw shining round about them the night after Christ was born, was the very same which, to the wise men who lived at such a distance, appeared as a star; which we cannot easily admit, because the star they had seen in the east, they saw a great while after, leading them to the house where Christ lay; it was a candle set up on purpose to guide them to Christ. The idolaters worshipped the stars as the host of heaven, especially the eastern nations, whence the planets have the names of their idol-gods; we read of a particular star they had in veneration, Amos 5. 26. Thus the stars that had been misused, came to be put to the right use, to lead men to Christ; the gods of the heathen became his servants. Some think this star put them in mind of Balaam's prophecy, that a star should come out of Jacob, pointing at a sceptre that shall rise out of Israel; see Numb. 24. 17. Balaam came from the mountains of the east, and was one of their wise men. Others impute their inquiry to the general expectation entertained at that time, in those eastern parts, of some great prince to appear; Tacitus, in his history, (Lib. v.) takes notice of it; Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret Oriens,
