Welcome and thank you again for testing your knowledge of God's word.

This week's question:

To Matthew chapter two we go to find the Christ child born in a manger in Bethlehem, the city of David, and His name is Immanuel, which translated means "God with Us" (Isaiah 7:14). Soon, men from the east come to Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, and ask the king Herod, a gentile appointed king by the Romans:

Matthew 2:2-3 "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw

His star in the east and have come to worship Him."

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him. And so he inquires of the chief priests where the Christ is to be born and he has come to the right people as they recognize the scripture in Micah 5:2 that points out Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah is to be born.

So he secretly calls those men to determine from them the exact time that the star did appear, which gives him a fix on the approximate age of the child. He then asks them to make a careful search and when they discover Him who is born King of the Jews, they are to return to let him know where He is, slyly, so he too can go and worship Him.

The star once again leads them onward and stands over where the Child is. They rejoice exceedingly with great joy! When they go in, they fell down before Him and His mother Mary, and worshipped Him. What a sight to behold! These grown men before this Child, and not only worshipping Him, but also presenting Him with gifts of gold and frankincense (an aromatic gum resin from Asiatic trees) and myrrh (gum resin from spiny trees in Arabia for incense and perfume).

Then, being warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod they traveled home another way. So too are Mary and Joseph warned in a dream about Herod wanting to destroy the Child, and they travel by night to Egypt. Soon Herod realizes he has been tricked by those crafty men, those wise men who study the stars, and so he has the children of Bethlehem two years and younger destroyed, so the prophecy was fulfilled:

Matthew 2:18 (Jeremiah 31:15) "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and

great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be comforted,

because they were no more."

And so for our answer today,these men form the east, these learned men who study the stars, recognizing the star to the east of them to be a sign from God that would lead them to the greatest One of all, the Messiah of the world, these wise men who are called the magi!

These men were wise in many ways as they listened to God rather than men when King Herod asked for them to reveal the place where the Child lay when they found Him, but went another way, similar to the apostles who were told not to teach Jesus, but they all answered in Acts 5:29 "We must obey God rather than men." So should we be ready to obey God rather than men when the order is contrary to the word of God.