2+n Wisemen

Last night Kevin gave a large group talk entitled "2+n Wise Men", referring to the Magi from the East, of undetermined number, who arrived in Jerusalem seeking "the one born King of the Jews." Kevin's talk was very...Kevin. In answering the question of 'Who is Herod?' Kevin gave a ~40 minute history lesson beginning with Alexander the Great and his conquests all the way into India and his death in Babylon. After Alexander, we learned about Alexander's successors and their power struggles. We learned about the Abomination that Causes Desolation, when the Greek ruler set up a statue of himself (as Zeus) in the Holy of Holies and sacrificed a pig there.  We learned about the subsequent Maccabean revolt and coming to power of the Hasmonean dynasty. Finally we learned about Herod the Great's father, Antipater the Idumaean, whose ethnicity was most likely a mix of Edomite and Moabite, though he converted to Judaism when the Hasmoneans conquered Idumea, who was essentially the puppet-master of the last of the Hasmonean kings. During this time, Rome took over the world, and after Antipater died, his son Herod took over the family business and continued to petition Rome for their support of his rulership. Finally, the Roman senate made Herod "King of the Jew", and Herod went back brutally reconquering Judea.

Next we learned about the Magi, who most likely came from Parthia, who were the descendants of the Persians. The Magi were the group of Parthian nobles who had the ability to anoint, and depose, the king of Parthia. They were most likely the descendants (intellectually, if not biologically) of the Magi of whom Daniel was chief while he was in Babylon.

What is the point of knowing all of this? Why is it necessary to understand what Alexander the Great did in order to understand Advent? Well, to be honest, it probably isn't necessary. But at the same time I find it helpful. People like to make the contrast between Jesus' birth and Caesar Augusts, who ordered the Census at that time. Why stop with Caesar Augustus? Kevin is right when he says the action and intrigue from Alexander all the way up to Herod would make a great HBO miniseries. The way these men lived - the pride, the extravagance, the intrigue, the power struggles, set the stage for the single most important event in human history: the Incarnation of the Son of God.

And yet Jesus' birth is so counterintuitive. It's not even a blip on the radar of secular history. He was not born into power, but into poverty. As a man, he did not seek power, but avoided it; he did not lift his finger against other men, but rather healed those who were suffering, and pointed to the coming judgment of God. Alexander's death, whether drinking himself to death or having been poisoned, was due to excess - either excess of drink or excess of enemies. Jesus' death was unwarranted, but yet we know exactly what happened.

But at the same time Jesus' birth was noticed. The Magi came and asked "Where is the one born King of the Jews?" And Herod was disturbed, because while he called himself King of the Jews, he knew he was a pretender. And so also were the rest of those whose stories led up to Herod. A proper perspective is helpful, and I think that Isaiah says it well,

Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

The Magi came looking for the King, and they found Him. Though we never hear of them again, their legacy is forever etched in the Gospel, and I think it's reasonable to expect we can look forward to meeting them in Heaven. Herod was not looking for the King, and he did not find Him, though he tried to kill Him. Herod was brought to nothing and his kingdom and family destroyed, just like those of all the other kings and princes of the time. And yet in just a few hundred years, Christ's followers would rule the Roman Empire, then Europe, and His Name would spread all over the world.