WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:02.540 Hi, this is Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster. 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:07.060 You're about to hear the LifeSpring Advent Calendar, which was recorded in 2006. 00:00:07.640 --> 00:00:10.300 It's a daily show which will run right up to Christmas Day, 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:12.960 so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. 00:00:13.440 --> 00:00:17.520 Now, the story of Advent and Christmas is a timeless story, so it doesn't age. 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:22.440 However, the links and the phone numbers mentioned on the podcast have all changed but one. 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:25.240 WhyChristmas.com is still current and active, 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:28.300 and it's the best Christmas information website on the Internet. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:32.820 LifeSpringPodcast.com now forwards you to LifeSpringMedia.com. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.320 And the phone number you'll hear on the show is changed to plus 1-951-732-8511. 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:59.660 Hello and welcome back once again to the Lifespring Advent Calendar. 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:02.760 It's day number 23, and I'm Steve Webb, your host. 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:08.620 There's only a couple of more days left until Christmas, and there's three days left on the calendar. 00:01:08.730 --> 00:01:10.960 So let's see what's behind door number 23. 00:01:19.880 --> 00:01:26.120 We three kings of oriental, bearing gifts we traverse across. 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:30.100 Field and fountain, moor and mountain 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:32.120 Following yonder star 00:01:33.479 --> 00:01:36.720 Well today, Steve, we're finding out another part of the Christmas story. 00:01:37.260 --> 00:01:40.840 And it's the wise men, or magi, that followed the star to find Jesus. 00:01:41.740 --> 00:01:44.440 Let's find out more about them as we read about them in the Bible. 00:01:45.140 --> 00:01:48.560 Their story is told in the book of Matthew and chapter 2. 00:01:49.320 --> 00:01:53.480 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:56.440 Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, 00:01:56.820 --> 00:01:59.100 Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:02.240 We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. 00:02:03.340 --> 00:02:07.220 When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 00:02:08.100 --> 00:02:11.980 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:14.600 he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 00:02:15.380 --> 00:02:19.120 In Bethlehem and Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written. 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:24.480 But you, Bethlehem, and the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:28.760 For out of you will come a ruler, who will be the shepherd of my people Israel. 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:34.980 Then Herod called the Magi secretly, and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:39.940 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child. 00:02:40.460 --> 00:02:44.320 As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:53.000 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star that they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 00:02:53.580 --> 00:02:55.880 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 00:02:56.860 --> 00:03:01.920 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:08.140 Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 00:03:09.020 --> 00:03:14.500 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:19.360 When the wise men had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. 00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:23.860 Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. 00:03:24.660 --> 00:03:28.820 Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. 00:03:29.320 --> 00:03:33.820 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt, 00:03:34.260 --> 00:03:36.140 where he stayed until the death of Herod. 00:03:36.980 --> 00:03:39.720 And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:42.340 Out of Egypt I called my son. 00:03:43.420 --> 00:03:47.400 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, 00:03:47.970 --> 00:03:53.820 and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:56.980 in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:00.600 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled. 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:04.300 A voice is heard in Ramah weeping in great mourning, 00:04:04.820 --> 00:04:09.220 Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more. 00:04:10.220 --> 00:04:15.000 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 00:04:15.460 --> 00:04:18.959 Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:22.640 for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead. 00:04:23.900 --> 00:04:27.980 So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 00:04:28.840 --> 00:04:33.160 But when he heard that Archelius was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:34.680 he was afraid to go there. 00:04:35.420 --> 00:04:39.080 Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 00:04:39.260 --> 00:04:42.180 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. 00:04:42.820 --> 00:04:45.080 So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:47.840 he will be called a Nazarene. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:52.020 We normally see the wise men with the shepherds, Mary and Joseph, 00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:55.980 and of course Jesus, all crammed into a little shed in the Christmas story. 00:04:56.520 --> 00:04:58.880 But in fact the wise men and shepherds probably never met. 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:03.120 The wise men travelled to Jesus when he was actually aged about one or two. 00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:07.400 And by this time it seems that Mary, Joseph and Jesus had settled in Bethlehem 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:08.660 and lived in a normal house. 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:13.840 but who were these wise men and why did they travel such great distances to see a little baby 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:19.960 the wise men came from somewhere in the area which is now made up of iraq iran saudi arabia or yemen 00:05:20.440 --> 00:05:26.640 which was then known as persia arabia and sheba and they were indeed wise men and they're also 00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:32.259 sometimes called the magi the word magi comes from the greek word magos which is where we get magic 00:05:32.280 --> 00:05:38.820 from. And that actually also itself comes from an older Persian word, Maghupati, and this was the 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:45.420 title given to priests in a sect of Zoroastrianism. Today we call them astrologers or even scientists. 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:50.440 They were experts in astronomy and astrology, which for them was pretty much the same thing, 00:05:50.900 --> 00:05:55.600 and they followed the patterns of the stars religiously. They would have been very rich and 00:05:55.640 --> 00:06:00.799 thought of in very high esteem, even by people who weren't from their country. Although they're 00:06:00.820 --> 00:06:05.220 called the three kings, the bible doesn't say anything about how many wise men there were, 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:11.100 or in fact even if they were kings. At the time that Jesus was born, the kings of Yemen were Jews, 00:06:11.520 --> 00:06:16.040 so people might have thought that these were the kings. And the wise men became three in number 00:06:16.300 --> 00:06:20.300 because they bought three gifts with them. But we don't know how many there were that went, 00:06:20.820 --> 00:06:24.940 but with all their servants and entourage, there's probably more than three people sitting on camels. 00:06:25.860 --> 00:06:29.600 Studying the night sky, the wise men had seen a new and very unusual star, 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:32.600 and knew that it told about the birth of a very special king. 00:06:33.380 --> 00:06:36.740 No one really knows what the new star was, but there are several theories. 00:06:37.340 --> 00:06:41.960 These include supernovas, comets and conjunctions, the coming together of two or more planets. 00:06:43.200 --> 00:06:47.060 I think it was probably a series of conjunctions with a comet thrown in for good measure. 00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:53.780 During 7 BC, there were three separate conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces, 00:06:54.280 --> 00:06:56.240 looking both east and west from Arabia. 00:06:57.140 --> 00:07:02.560 The coming together of Pisces, Jupiter and Saturn had a very special meaning in ancient astronomy and astrology. 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:09.400 Pisces was the sign of Israel and of kings, and Jupiter was the planet of kings and Saturn the planet of new beginnings. 00:07:10.300 --> 00:07:16.540 So a star, or what looked like a new star, appearing in that constellation would have meant a great deal to the scientists of that time. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:25.300 Astrology wasn't widely practiced by the Jews during that time, but it was by a few Jews and many Arabs, such as those who lived around the area of Yemen. 00:07:26.260 --> 00:07:29.120 As well as the triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC, 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:32.680 there was also a conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in 6 BC, 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:34.840 and Jupiter and Venus in 3 BC. 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:38.380 And there were appearances of comet in 5 BC and 4 BC, 00:07:38.940 --> 00:07:42.560 and a supernova, an exploding star, also appeared in 5 BC. 00:07:43.460 --> 00:07:47.340 All or none of these might have been or contributed to the star of Bethlehem, 00:07:47.570 --> 00:07:48.560 we just don't know. 00:07:49.340 --> 00:07:53.940 But there certainly was a large amount of activity in the night sky over Israel at that time, 00:07:54.200 --> 00:08:00.280 and I'm sure that God could have arranged the night sky since the dawn of creation for just that time to announce the birth of his son. 00:08:01.340 --> 00:08:03.980 If you'd like to try finding out these conjunctions for yourself, 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:10.080 you can download an excellent free astronomy and planetarium bit of software at stellarium.org. 00:08:11.760 --> 00:08:17.020 Thinking that a new king was to be born, not unreasonably, the wise men went to the royal palace in Jerusalem. 00:08:17.720 --> 00:08:21.080 When King Herod asked the wise men to find Jesus and tell him where he was, 00:08:21.400 --> 00:08:24.540 He didn't really want to go and worship him, but he wanted to go and kill him. 00:08:25.200 --> 00:08:28.720 Herod thought that Jesus sounded like a new king that could come and take his power away. 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:33.659 When the wise men found Mary and Jesus, they gave him their special gifts. 00:08:34.740 --> 00:08:37.380 Today these gifts seem rather strange things to give to a baby, 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:40.640 but Christians believe that they have very special meanings. 00:08:41.800 --> 00:08:45.880 Gold is associated with kings, and Christians believe that Jesus is the king of kings. 00:08:47.280 --> 00:08:51.780 Frankincense is sometimes used in worship in churches and showed that people would worship Jesus. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:58.180 Myrrh is a perfume used to embalm dead bodies and it showed that Jesus would suffer and die. 00:08:59.579 --> 00:09:05.600 Frankincense and myrrh both have some antiseptic and healing properties and are still being investigated by medical researchers today. 00:09:06.340 --> 00:09:09.660 When the wise men were about to go back to Herod and tell him where Jesus was, 00:09:10.420 --> 00:09:15.160 God warned them in a dream what Herod really intended to do, so they travelled home by a different route. 00:09:16.460 --> 00:09:18.860 Because Herod didn't find out where this new king was, 00:09:19.400 --> 00:09:25.520 he decided that the only way to be rid of him was to kill every baby boy under two years old in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:30.080 He knew about Bethlehem for some very old prophecies in the Old Testament of the Bible. 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:35.640 And there's historical records that says that Herod had baby boys killed in 4 BC. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.560 So Jesus being born about 5 to 7 BC makes even more sense. 00:09:41.760 --> 00:09:44.000 Probably only about 20 babies would have been killed, 00:09:44.520 --> 00:09:48.620 but even to consider doing so shows how desperate and power-crazed Herod was. 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:53.960 This also fulfilled another prophecy in the Bible about children in Israel being killed. 00:09:55.140 --> 00:10:00.500 But Jesus was kept safe as Joseph, warned about Herod in a dream, took him and Mary to Egypt. 00:10:01.780 --> 00:10:06.700 So Jesus was also a refugee, something that not many people think of when they think about Jesus, 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:10.640 but his going to Egypt also fulfilled more biblical prophecies. 00:10:11.660 --> 00:10:14.020 The presents given to Jesus would have been very valuable, 00:10:14.180 --> 00:10:16.560 and it's thought that they could have paid for the escape into Egypt. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:22.060 Mary, Joseph and Jesus lived in Nazareth until Jesus started his teachings, 00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:24.440 and this fulfilled another prophecy in the Old Testament. 00:10:25.900 --> 00:10:27.900 Over the years, especially during the Middle Ages, 00:10:28.420 --> 00:10:31.060 many different stories and legends were told about the three kings, 00:10:31.420 --> 00:10:32.300 and they were given names. 00:10:32.760 --> 00:10:34.160 This is how they're often described. 00:10:35.620 --> 00:10:38.180 Gaspar, who's the king of Sheba, that's modern-day Yemen, 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:41.180 but back then it was populated by Ethiopian Jews, 00:10:41.460 --> 00:10:46.680 has brown hair and a brown beard or sometimes no beard and he wears a green cloak and a gold crown 00:10:46.730 --> 00:10:52.800 with green jewels on it. Gaspar represents the frankincense brought to Jesus. Melchior who's the 00:10:52.800 --> 00:10:58.620 king of Arabia has a long white beard and long white hair and he wears a gold cloak and Melchior 00:10:58.920 --> 00:11:04.400 represents the gold brought to Jesus. Balthazar who's the king of Tarshish in Egypt has black skin 00:11:04.680 --> 00:11:10.100 and a black beard or sometimes no beard and wears a purple cloak. Balthazar represents the gift of 00:11:10.120 --> 00:11:15.300 myrrh that was bought. So when you open your presents, and there's not long to go now, 00:11:16.040 --> 00:11:20.020 remember those first gifts that were given to Jesus, and that God gave us his very special 00:11:20.270 --> 00:11:22.000 present at Christmas time, Jesus. 00:11:22.400 --> 00:11:26.640 Start with royal beauty by 00:11:26.820 --> 00:11:29.400 Westward leading, still proceeding 00:11:30.340 --> 00:11:33.620 Guide us to the perfect light 00:11:36.300 --> 00:11:37.060 Hallelujah 00:11:37.760 --> 00:11:44.860 Oh, yeah. 00:12:07.760 --> 00:12:09.700 Well, James, thank you for all that great information. 00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:13.820 The music today was E-Type Jazz with We Three Kings. 00:12:13.860 --> 00:12:18.320 And of course, the background music, as always, has been Brian Duncan and the Neil Soul Band. 00:12:18.580 --> 00:12:23.500 Links for the music can be found at the show notes page at lifespringpodcast.com. 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:26.240 For James Cooper, I'm Steve Webb. 00:12:26.620 --> 00:12:27.260 God bless you. 00:12:27.260 --> 00:12:30.120 And remember, it's only two more days until Christmas. 00:12:30.920 --> 00:12:33.240 It's the love that I get from you. 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:34.860 It never gets old. 00:12:35.680 --> 00:12:36.640 It's Christmas. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:38.640 It's a love I need.