The Visit of the Magi
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 ” ‘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.’ ”
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. NIV
Yesterday [January 6th] was Epiphany. The free dictionary gives several definitions for epiphany one of which is a revelatory manifestation of a divine being. When the Magi from the east [astrologers] visited Jesus as a child their search was rewarded by receiving this revelatory manifestation of God's son. They were not Hebrews and probably did not have much knowledge of God from the bible, but by following what knowledge they did have, they sought God and found him.
God, the creator of the universe, still reveals himself to all who diligently seek him [Hebrews 11:6]. I went through a period of time where all I said was "your face oh, Lord, do I seek. [Psalm 27:8] and I really came to love verse 4 which says "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. " I prayed this because I had read how some Christians over the centuries had really come to experience God in deeper, more profound ways which produced a hunger for the same in me. God rewarded my earnest seeking so that over the years I have had some profound times of communion with God in which he revealed himself in such a way as to give me my own "Epiphany".
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