Wise Men Worship the King!

Matthew 2:1-8

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."

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.'"

7 Then 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."

Jesus Christ had just been born and already the enemy sought Him out to stop His mission on earth to redeem His own children.  As a young child of about 2 years old He was sought by wise men from the East who had read and poured over the scriptures which pointed to the coming of the Messiah according to His star pointing the way as prophesied by Balaam long ago (Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 60:3).  His enemy Herod also sought Him for a more nefarious reason, to kill the child King under the ruse of wanting to have Him sought out so Herod could worship Him.  Such cunning was not effective against God’s Spirit to keep Him safe, however.  The plans of evil men to stop God never achieve their ends but only end up ending them.  Herod was troubled for the wrong reason because he felt his position as king threatened by this divine King who had been born and was being sought out by these wise men who had their dreams realized from scripture that played out in the sky by the appearance of the star over Bethlehem.  Herod double checked this prophetic claim with the chief priests and scribes who studied the scriptures and came to the same conclusion according to the passage in Numbers and also in Micah 5:2 that identified the Messiah as the King of all who was from eternity without beginning or end (עוֹלָֽם, olam), the days of eternity (John 1:1-2, 17:5).  He was a divine King who had always existed and always will, but Herod could only see the human side of a rival ruler to contend for his throne, not the divine nature of the God-man who had come among us.  Because of his fears Herod thought to use the wise men who sought out the child to worship as God to bring Him to him so he could kill the competition instead of worship also.  He asked them when the star appeared to ascertain the age of the child for an evil purpose and then tasked them to diligently seek Him out and tell him where the child was so that he could also come worship.  It was a lie and ruse as we see shortly in this account.  The men from the East, however, knew that truly wise men worship the King of kings and do not seek to destroy Him, His message, or His people.  This is wisdom sadly unheeded by this world under the evil influence (Galatians 1:4, 1 John 5:19) of the wicked one.