1 00:00:02,009 --> 00:00:05,759 Steve Webb: It's day 20 of the 2022 encore of the 2009 season 2 00:00:05,759 --> 00:00:08,849 of the Lifespring Why Christmas show hosted by James Cooper, 3 00:00:08,849 --> 00:00:13,649 creator of whychristmas.com. And me the OG Godcaster Steve Webb 4 00:00:13,679 --> 00:00:17,729 of Lifespringmedia.com. We're in the homestretch now Christmas is 5 00:00:17,729 --> 00:00:20,759 just five days away when we'll have the drawing to see which 6 00:00:20,759 --> 00:00:23,339 lucky winner will win an autographed copy of Bryan 7 00:00:23,339 --> 00:00:26,519 Duncan's A NehoSoul Christmas CD. If you'd like to enter the 8 00:00:26,519 --> 00:00:30,029 drawing, all you have to do is go to Lifespringmedia.com slash 9 00:00:30,059 --> 00:00:34,769 day nine to see how. That's Lifespringmedia.com slash d-a-y, 10 00:00:34,799 --> 00:00:38,249 numeral nine no spaces. And if you're enjoying these shows, 11 00:00:38,249 --> 00:00:40,349 James and I were wondering if you'd be willing to put 12 00:00:40,349 --> 00:00:42,809 something in our Christmas stockings, you could do that 13 00:00:42,809 --> 00:00:47,489 right here. Lifespringmedia.com slash support. 14 00:00:51,510 --> 00:00:55,230 James Cooper: Hello, and welcome to day number 20 of the 2009 15 00:00:55,260 --> 00:00:58,770 Lifespring by Christmas Show. Today you've got me James, and 16 00:00:58,770 --> 00:01:01,380 we're going to be finding out a bit more about one of the parts 17 00:01:01,380 --> 00:01:05,640 of the Christmas story, namely the wise men, their journey, 18 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,560 some political intrigue, and not even a stable insight. Their 19 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:14,250 story is told in the Bible in Matthew chapter two, verses one 20 00:01:14,250 --> 00:01:19,770 to 12, and says, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, 21 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:23,400 during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to 22 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:27,000 Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who's been born king of 23 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,420 the Jews. We saw his star in the east and have come to worship 24 00:01:30,420 --> 00:01:34,020 him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all 25 00:01:34,020 --> 00:01:37,080 Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the peoples 26 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:39,900 chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the 27 00:01:39,900 --> 00:01:42,840 Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they 28 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,020 replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you 29 00:01:46,020 --> 00:01:49,590 Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the 30 00:01:49,590 --> 00:01:52,980 rulers of Judah, four out of you will come a ruler, who will be 31 00:01:52,980 --> 00:01:56,280 the shepherd of my people, Israel. Then Herod called the 32 00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:59,490 Magi secretly, and found out from them the exact time the 33 00:01:59,490 --> 00:02:03,120 star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go 34 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,000 and make a careful search for the child, as soon as you find 35 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,140 him, reported me to the iTune may go and worship him. After 36 00:02:10,140 --> 00:02:12,990 they'd heard the king, they went on their way. And star that they 37 00:02:12,990 --> 00:02:15,660 had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over 38 00:02:15,660 --> 00:02:18,630 the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they 39 00:02:18,630 --> 00:02:22,470 were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with 40 00:02:22,470 --> 00:02:26,100 his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. When 41 00:02:26,100 --> 00:02:28,350 they opened their treasures, and presented him with gifts of 42 00:02:28,350 --> 00:02:32,130 gold, and an incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in 43 00:02:32,130 --> 00:02:34,860 a dream not to go back to Herod, they're returned to their 44 00:02:34,860 --> 00:02:40,170 country by another route. I guess most people picture the 45 00:02:40,170 --> 00:02:42,570 wise men along with the shepherds, Mary Joseph, and of 46 00:02:42,570 --> 00:02:46,110 course, baby Jesus, all in the stable scene. But in fact, the 47 00:02:46,110 --> 00:02:49,470 wise men and shepherds probably never met, the wise men traveled 48 00:02:49,470 --> 00:02:52,320 to find Jesus when he was actually aged one or two. And by 49 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,200 this time, it seems that Mary Joseph and Jesus had settled 50 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,770 into Bethlehem and lived in a normal house. But who were these 51 00:02:58,770 --> 00:03:01,500 wise men? And why did they traveled such a great distance 52 00:03:01,500 --> 00:03:05,070 to see a baby? Well, the Weizmann probably came from an 53 00:03:05,070 --> 00:03:08,640 area which is now made up of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and 54 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:12,210 the Yemen, which back then was known as Persia, Arabia and 55 00:03:12,210 --> 00:03:16,590 Sheba. And they were indeed very wise men, that also sometimes 56 00:03:16,590 --> 00:03:20,370 called the Magi. The word Magi comes from the Greek word mag 57 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,760 modules, which is also where we get the English word magic from 58 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:28,470 majestic self comes from an old Persian word, Maga pootie. And 59 00:03:28,470 --> 00:03:31,020 this was the title given to priests in the sector of ancient 60 00:03:31,020 --> 00:03:34,620 Persian religions, such as Zoroastrianism. Today, we'd call 61 00:03:34,620 --> 00:03:37,500 them astrologers, or even scientists. But back then 62 00:03:37,530 --> 00:03:40,800 astrology and astronomy were part of the same overall studies 63 00:03:40,950 --> 00:03:43,830 and went hand in hand with each other. The Magi would have 64 00:03:43,830 --> 00:03:46,380 followed the patterns of the stars religiously, they're 65 00:03:46,380 --> 00:03:49,230 probably also very rich and held in high esteem in their own 66 00:03:49,230 --> 00:03:52,170 society. Although they're called the Three Kings or the three 67 00:03:52,170 --> 00:03:54,960 wise men, the Bible doesn't actually say anything about how 68 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:57,810 many of them there were. The number three probably came from 69 00:03:57,810 --> 00:04:01,530 the three presidents. But they came to present to Jesus. 70 00:04:02,610 --> 00:04:06,270 studying the stars, the wise men had seen a very new and unusual 71 00:04:06,270 --> 00:04:09,540 star in the sky, and knew that it told of us birth of a special 72 00:04:09,540 --> 00:04:14,130 King, even now, no one's really sure what it was. Many people 73 00:04:14,130 --> 00:04:16,620 have tried to come up with explanations to what the star 74 00:04:16,620 --> 00:04:19,830 was. And these include supernovas, that's when stars 75 00:04:19,830 --> 00:04:23,610 explode, comets and conjunctions of planets. If you'd like to 76 00:04:23,610 --> 00:04:26,940 know more about this, then head on over to whychristmas.com. And 77 00:04:26,940 --> 00:04:29,610 in the custom section, there's a page on the Star of Bethlehem, 78 00:04:29,790 --> 00:04:33,420 which lists some of the common explanations and how they work. 79 00:04:35,790 --> 00:04:38,580 So the wise men headed to the royal palace in Jerusalem to 80 00:04:38,580 --> 00:04:41,460 honor the new king and bring him gifts, but they didn't quite 81 00:04:41,460 --> 00:04:44,610 find what they were looking for. When King Herod asked the wise 82 00:04:44,610 --> 00:04:47,460 men to find Jesus and tell them where he was, it was for his own 83 00:04:47,460 --> 00:04:50,130 reasons. He didn't want to go and worship him. He really 84 00:04:50,130 --> 00:04:52,980 wanted to kill him, as Herod thought that Jesus sounded like 85 00:04:52,980 --> 00:04:56,700 the new king that could come and take his power away. And the 86 00:04:56,700 --> 00:04:59,700 gifts that the wise men gave to Jesus also might seem strange 87 00:04:59,700 --> 00:05:02,400 things to give a baby, but Christians believe they have the 88 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:05,670 following meanings. Gold is associated with kings and 89 00:05:05,670 --> 00:05:09,840 Christians believe that Jesus is the King of kings. Frankincense 90 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:12,720 is sometimes used in worship in churches and showed that people 91 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:15,810 would worship Jesus. And Myrrh is a perfume that's put on dead 92 00:05:15,810 --> 00:05:18,420 bodies to make them smell nice and showed that Jesus would 93 00:05:18,420 --> 00:05:22,950 suffer and die. Frankincense and Myrrh are both resins from trees 94 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:25,710 and have antiseptic and healing properties and are still being 95 00:05:25,710 --> 00:05:30,840 investigated by medical researchers today. When the wise 96 00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:33,900 men were about to go Herod and tell him where Jesus was, they 97 00:05:33,900 --> 00:05:37,020 were warned by God in a dream not to so they traveled home by 98 00:05:37,020 --> 00:05:40,440 a different room. If you'd like to find out more about the 99 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:43,740 Wiseman and Harrods dastardly plot to come and kill the baby 100 00:05:43,740 --> 00:05:46,620 Jesus, then go to the story section of whychristmas.com. 101 00:05:48,180 --> 00:05:51,270 Come back tomorrow to hear a show where me and Steve will try 102 00:05:51,270 --> 00:05:54,570 and get our tonsils round Happy Christmas or Merry Christmas in 103 00:05:54,570 --> 00:05:58,560 lots of different languages. Well, thank you for listening to 104 00:05:58,590 --> 00:06:02,310 day number 20 of the Lifespring by Christmas Show. I'm James and 105 00:06:02,310 --> 00:06:03,510 I'll speak to you tomorrow.