Be Wise Men

 

                                                 


[Matthew 10:16]

Let’s take a different look at the Christmas Story and see how we ourselves can learn from the mistakes Herod made.  We find in Matthew 2 that Herod, acting in the form of the Antichrist wanted to stop God's plan for the Messiah's birth and salvation of the world.  Jesus himself said that there will be many Antichrists [1 John 2:18]; Herod was the Antichrist of the moment; however I wish to discuss here what all Antichrist have in common. 

We inherently know that [1] they are against Christ, hence the term Antichrist, but let's look at what that means. A believer puts God first, [2] the spirit of Antichrist loves the world; a believer fears God and keeps his commandments, which is wisdom at its fullest [3] while the spirit of Antichrist is full of pride.  

[1]-Herod displays all three of these traits in the 2nd chapter of Matthew.  Herod proves that he is against Christ, against God's plan, when he desires and attempts to have the child (baby Jesus) killed [Matthew 2:16].

[2]-Herod loved the world; he loved his power, his throne, and would not relinquish it to Christ.  In Psalms 10:4-8, David describes the wicked man as thus: "4The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.  5His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.  6He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.  7His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.  8He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor."  Here, in these four verses, we find a correlation between the Antichrist spirit and pride; there are many such correlations in the bible.  In Hosea 7:10 we find that the prideful are told to return to God, which shows that their pride puts them in opposition with God.  We also find again, in Psalms 10:4-8, a startling description of a wicked man’s actions, which match Herod’s actions.  Herod has not saught after God; he puffed at God; he has said in his heart that he will not be moved, will not give up his throne to Jesus; Herod could not see God’s judgment of him, he was totally caught off guard when the wise men did not return; his mouth was full of fraud, due to his lies; finally Herod has murdered innocent children and fulfilled all of the actions which David has attributed to the wicked. 

[3]-Herod has shown his pride in several ways; first he has denied God, he has said in his heart that there is no God; if Herod had believed in God he never would have tried to kill God’s anointed Savior.  If Herod did believe in God, he still showed his pride because he thought that he could stop God’s plan.  He basically asked the priests in[Matthew 2:4], “where will God’s anointed be born, so that I can kill him?”  That’s Pride!  Secondly we find that Herod is upset when he finds out that he could not deceive the “Wise Men” and has in fact been tricked by them [Matthew 2:16].  Now if that’s not pride I don’t know what is:)  Herod is upset because he could not trick the wise men; his pride led him to believe that he was wiser than the wise men.  I’m sorry but that’s just funny to me. 

Jesus says in:

[1 John 2:22] Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. 

We find that Herod lies in Matthew 2:7 even as he denies Christ, and tells the wise men that he only wants to come and worship the child, when in his heart he has already planned to have Jesus killed.  If Herod had accepted Christ, there would be no desire to have him killed.  

The wise men proved themselves wise, and men of God, because they [1] believed God by following the star to Jesus [Matthew 2:9]; [2] listened to God and abided by the warning they received by not returning to Herod [Matthew 2:12 ]; [3] they overcame the world, they saw through Herod's deceit and received Christ [1 Corinthians 2:14].

I can give all the scripture and examples in the world and that will not be enough to convince some people, but to those that do believe that Jesus is the all powerful, God’s Son, and Savior of the world; I charge you; I compel you to be “wise men”.  Believe God, accept Christ, and do not return the way you came.  

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