Looking back through the years, one can see that
there are certain seasons in life when one grows significantly as a person.
There is a commonality between such seasons.
They are always times when one realizes the huge delta between knowing
what one believes and actually acting according to said belief. Times when we
restructure our habits and/or lifestyle and/or finances to match what we say we
stand for. Unfortunately, those times are rare, not normative. It is the human
condition to say one thing and do another, to believe one thing and act
different to said belief. It has been so since Adam fell, and it remains so
even today. Knowing this about oneself, it is hard to think too harshly about
the learned men of God’s Word in Herod’s day. For though they knew exactly
where Messiah was to be born, they were not looking for him, or for signs of
his coming.
“When he [Herod] had called together all the people’s chief priests and
teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In
Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the
rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of
my people Israel.’” [1]
The chief priests and
teachers of the law evidently have something that the Magi did not - they had
access to the book of Micah. Micah had prophesied that Bethlehem – and not the
Bethlehem in the north (Zebulun)[2]
but the Bethlehem of Judah, the city of David’s line - would be the birthplace
of Messiah. Just how common was that knowledge at the time is unknown, but by
the time Jesus’ was ministering it was common knowledge among the everyday
people, not just the teachers of the law.[3]
Yet the fact that the
spiritual authorities knew this and yet evidently had neither understood the
prophesy of the star as a sign of His appearing (Numbers 24:17), nor looked up
during the night sky (things that the Magi must have done, even though they
were Gentiles), tells us that they were not looking for Messiah at all, let
alone searching for His coming in Bethlehem! Truly, it is a sad state of
affairs when the spiritual leaders are not putting their faith into practice,
and when the undiscipled sacrifice more time and energy into searching out
Messiah than the people of God do!
· What gaps exist
in your life, between what you say you believe, and what your actions reveal
your priorities to really be?
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