Those Wise Men

Ooh! I did want to share this really cool thing I learned when we went to church with Nate and Heth. It blew me away. Year after year, from early childhood, we hear the Christmas story. The Family, the shepherds, the angels, the manger, the hay, the animals, and the wise men. I learned something amazing about those wisemen. (I am probably making mistakes here in re-telling it, so please please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong so I can make it right in the post.)

They didn't just wear fancy robes and crowns and come riding on camels with expensive gifts for Jesus. They studied scripture!

After the Israelites were captured and taken to Babylon and Assyria, their scriptures went with them. And other people there, like the wise men, found them and studied them. They knew all about who Jesus was and what he was going to do!

Sooo...when they brought Jesus gold, they knew that he was the king, he was from a royal family (King David's family).

When they brought him frankincense they knew he was a priest, the GREAT high priest (frankincense was smelly stuff they burnt and let the smell waft up to the Lord, it's a thing only the priests did back in the day).

When they brought him myrrrrh (who knows how to spell that anyway? ha!) they knew he was going to die, because myrrh is an embalming thing.

That just blew me away!!! They understood it better than anyone else there! All from reading guys like Isaiah and Micah and all. Those Old Testament books. I find that amazing. I just thought I'd share that.