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.  

Here is a link to my books: 

The Thief

There is a song by the Canton Spirituals, The Thief  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI0Ok6yTg8g, in which a thief at the end of life rebukes another thief for not fearing God [Luke 23:39-42].  Today we see many people with a lack of character [Romans 3:11-18], people that make poor choices, people that live in the world, and I wonder how a thief 2000 years ago, a person most would consider to be of the worst sort, could have more character than those considered to be godly people.  Well, it would seem that this thief realized that there are some lines that shouldn't be crossed!  So let's examine this....

Well there are many great men in the bible, I could name many many great men found therein, many prosperous men, and all of them would have a common trait; they feared God.  Name a great man in the bible that didn't fear God and lived a long life...

Solomon, the wisest man in the bible, examined many things, and deeply searched out the meanings of many things and this is what he said at the end of Ecclesiastes.  (Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.) [Ecclesiastes 12:13]  What did Solomon mean by the conclusion of the whole matter?  He was referring to all the questions we have in life; questions about our future, questions about who we should marry, what job offer we should accept, what church to attend....  Solomon and the Thief came to that same conclusion(sometimes we are our wisest when facing death), when he faced the end of his life, the Thief had the same choice that day that he faced everyday.  He said, "Will I fear God today?"  And because he did Jesus said, "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." [Luke 23:43]  A man that wants to be with Jesus for eternity, has to fear God.

The fear of God, should be taught by parents; both David and Solomon (Father and Son) wrote that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom [Psalms 111:10, Proverbs 9:10].  This is no coincidence!  A Godly man will have Godly sons!  (The fear of God was also taught from Naomi to Ruth, David's ancestor)

I could go further, but I don't want you to miss the point here... Satan is a Thief and I tell you that you won't ever experience the joy of being acknowledged by the Father.  The joy of being welcomed into heaven if you fail to be approved by Jesus; don't allow Satan to steal that honor away from you.  The point of this article is this, at the end of the day did you fear God?  Read the last verse of Ecclesiastes....