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The Wise Men Found God

Matthew 2

When Jesus was born, there was not many people who knew and looked for Him. However, far away, in the lands to the East, there was a group of people who long wanted to find God. People usually called them the doctors, but they should be called as the wise men. These wise men were the intelligent and knowledgable men. These wise men studied the stars on the sky to find the answers for everything happened in the world. They believed there was a powerful God in the whole universe and believed that by studying the stars, created by that powerful God, they could know His will.

One night, the wise men were outside and looked at the stars, God showed them a special star. They saw this star was brighter than all other stars that they had studied ever since. Looking at that special star, the wise men knew there was a King born. Not only that, they also knew that this King was greater and more special than all the other kings in the world. The more they were studying the bright star, the more the wise men wanted to go and find the King just born to worship Him. After several days discussing together, they agreed to stop their work aside and go on the road to find the new King. Even though they didn't know where that King was and they knew that the journey would be far away and dangerous, they still decided to go on.

In the drawings, we usually see there are three wise men because the Bible said that they presented to the Savior three gifts. In fact, we don't know exactly there were how many people. The wise men's journey might be very noisy; there were the camels carring food and things, and there were servants followed to help them. This journey was farer and harder than Mary and Joseph's journey.

Finally, the wise men came to Jerusalem. They thought the city would be greeting the new King, but there was nothing going on. Not only so, when they asked about the King, no one knew anything about that new King. These wise men were very surprised. Later on they said to each other: "King should be born in a palace". Therefore, they came to King Herod's palace to ask about the new King.

When hearing the news about the new King of the Jews was just born, King Herod was scared and worry. He called the teachers of the laws, who had knowledge about history and Bible, and asked them: "Where was The King of the Jews must born?" The people's chief priests and the teachers of the law read in the Bible and let King Herod know that, a King of the Jews would be born at Bethlehem, in Judea. The people's chief priests only read in the book and let King Herod know, they didn't pay much attention and didn't need to go to Bethlehem to verify that information was correct or not.

Mean while King Herod was very worry. King Herod was one of the most wicked kings in the history of mankind. He had killed many people in his family. In those people, there were his sons and wife who he loved; the reason he killed them was because he's afraid that they might take his throne some day. The news about the new King was born made Herod alarmed and worry; but he hadn't had a plan to delude the wise men yet. He told them: "You all go and find, ask for sure about the new King; when you have found Him, come back and tell me so I can worship Him too."

After said good bye to Herod, the wise men continued on their way. The bright star that they saw from the East was still in front of them. Happily, they followed the star and went toward Bethlehem. The bright star still went in front of them until it came to Joseph and Mary's house, then it stopped. The wise men were very happy, they commanded their servants and camels to stop. They came into that house and met the King who they longed looking for. This King was not in a palace, didn't wear the king's cloths, didn't have soldiers on two sides of him. However, the wise men knew right away this was the great King who was just born. They bowed down before Him and praised Him. After that, they presented the valuable gifts to Him. The gifts they presented to God included gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

That night, while the wise men were sleeping, they dreamed and saw God. In the dream, God told them not to go back to King Herod's palace. Therefore, when they woke up, they went back home by another way. When the wise men left, an angel appeared to Joseph and said: "Wake up, take the Baby and His mother to the land of Egypt, and stay there because King Herod is finding a way to kill Him." And in that night, Joseph and Mary hurried up, took their things and went on the way to the land of Egypt.

King Herod long waited but he didn't see the wise men com back. Knew that he was cheated, he was furious, and commanded his soldiers to Bethlehem, and killed all the baby-boys who were two years old and under. It was a wicked order. That day, everywhere in and out Bethlehem, people could hear the mourning of the mothers who their babies was killed. A while after that, King Herod died. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in Egypt and told him to bring Jesus back to Isreal.

Today, we don't have to go far with the difficulty to find God as the wise men did, because God is beside us. In fact, all the time God is wating for us to come to Him. Do you want to come to God and worship Him? You only need to say a prayer to God. Praise God to forgive your sins, and ask Him to come to your heart and be the Leader of your life. God will be the King to reign your life and be the Savior, who saves you from the sins. The wise men a long time ago presented God the valuable gift to show their respect to Him. Today, the best gift you can present to God is your own life. Are you ready to present your own life to God?

QUESTIONS:

  1. Who were the people looking for God in this story?
  2. What did they based on and where did they go to find God?
  3. When King Herod didn't see the wise men come back, what did he do? And why?
  4. What did the wise men present to God?
  5. In order to respect God, what should you do for Him?

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Written by Minh Nguyen
Translated by Ngo Ngoc Di



© 2002 Vietnamese Christian Broadcast and its Audio Content Provider. Used With Permission.