The next part of the story goes along when the wisemen known as the Magi visit Jesus. Now Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea and He was born at the time of when King Herod was reigning. Now Magi or the wisemen came from the East and asked, where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? How did they know this? They knew because the star had appeared in the sky and led them to the place.

Now don’t take me wrong here, the star pointed them to Bethlehem and pointed them to the exact place where Jesus was but when they arrived in Jerusalem or in the country land of Judea they used their own minds and decided to go to Jerusalem because a new King would be born in the capital in the palace.

✅*Again, what can we takeaway from this? Like Joseph obeyed God when He told him and showed him the way, the wiseman did not but used their own minds.

In our school, in our work and our jobs and in everything that we do, we should depend upon God and trust in him to be our guide so we do not have to use our minds to do things which God has instructed us to do in His wisdom.

*Proverbs 3: 5-6 says, Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

When they arrived, they directly asked where is the king of the Jews? We have seen his star and come to worship him. Matthew 2:2 Now entire Jerusalem and the king himself were astonished at this and he asked the scribes and the chief priests of the people together, where is it written that Christ will be born and they told him it is in Bethlehem. Now, were they correct? Well, they were.

They for once used the Scriptures to figure out a question or a mystery which was unknown to them. Now Jesus was moved to Nazareth by this time and they were searching in Bethlehem so these wiseman when they visited did not really know the exact location of the place or the house, they only knew the place was Judea.

Now Herod was very sinful and sinister and he wanted that child to be dead and because of this he deceitfully told the Magi that he wanted to worship that newborn babe. Even though the Magi were so smart and talented they could not identify that Herod wanted to kill the child and they went on their way.

The star led them to Jesus. When they arrived they gave him symbolic gifts of many kinds, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Now Gold represents that He is the King, Frankincense is for the High Priest, Jesus as the Mediator between God and man and Myrrh is burial perfume, that indicates Jesus had to die for the salvation of the mankind.

In their dream, God told the Magi, not to go back to Herod but go to their own country in another route.

✅See as I said before, *we have one big thing to takeaway from here.
We always need to depend upon God and trust in Him no matter how talented we are and give Him the first opportunity to speak to us.

Prateek Emmanuel, Grade 5
Hyderabad, English Group# 7050
👨‍👩‍👦 👦 👦 👦 👦 👦 👨‍👩‍👦

Mathew chapters 1-3

God uses long range planning to prepare the World. Mathew provides an exhaustive list of ‘Jesus ‘ ancestors, beginning with Abraham. This genealogy demonstrates God’s long-range plan to save the human race. He made sure to cover every step and prepare every person to participate in the line of Christ. Effective leaders lay plans with the end in mind.

King Herod failed to empower anyone; in fact, he drained power from people in a continual grab for power. Check out the ugly symptoms we see in his leadership that every one of us should avoid.

He felt disturbed and threatened when he learned of a coming king. He leveraged his power against any possible competitor. He used people to serve his own purposes. He lied in order to project the right image. He reacted with fury when he didn’t get his way. He concerned himself only with his own benefit. He sought to destroy any potential threat to his leadership. (Math2:3–18). Herod abused power instead of sharing it.

John submits to Jesus leadership (math.3:11–14). Even though john the Baptizer possessed the strongest voice of his day, when Jesus stepped forward, he willingly submitted to His authority. He even predicted Christ’s coming. He knew his role was to prepare everyone for the Messiah. He laid his ego aside and humbly fulfilled his calling. He acknowledged the One who was greater than he and publicly said to Jesus: ” I need to be baptized by You”(math.3:14).

Healthy leaders remain in touch with their own influence and wield it without reservation. Yet they never allow ego to drive them. They yield to stronger leaders when they appear, because the cause is more important than personal popularity. (Math.3:11–14).

John the Baptizer, the cousin of Jesus, paved the way for Christ. John prepared the people for Jesus ministry with a unique ministry of his own, courageously calling people to repent and live out what they claimed to believe.

John confronted Pharisees, common people who lived hypocritically, and even king Herod himself. (Math.3: 1–10).

God bless,

Yours in Christ,
Mercy joy, Bangalore ✝️🛐.