Day 11

In Matthew 2, we see an evil and fearful leader named King Herod who desperately wanted to destroy any threat to his reign. He heard the news that Christ was born through wise men traveling from the east. The wise men wanted to worship this “King of the Jews” themselves, so they asked Herod where they could find Him.

As you read along in this chapter, you’ll see a masterful plan to use the wise men to locate Jesus in Bethlehem. But Herod had no such plans to worship this Jesus. He was deceptive, and his hunt began.

“When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

After the wise men met Christ, they could have caved under the pressure of King Herod to return with the information of Jesus’s whereabouts. But Matthew 2 says they were “divinely warned in a dream to not return to Herod,” and that’s what they did. They went their own ways back home, which began Joseph and Mary’s journey of fleeing Bethlehem to protect Jesus from Herod and his murderous pursuit.

Historically, we don’t know a ton about these wise men. There are a lot of theories concerning who they were and where they came from, but what we can gather from reading this text is they obviously feared the “divine warning” more than they feared this man, Herod.

When you think about it, many of the decisions we make daily are because we ultimately fear God or we fear man. We’d like to think we always fear God more and don’t care what anyone thinks, but we know that’s not true; sometimes, social pressures get the best of us. The criticism of man can be wounding, and the applause of man can be exhilarating. If we’re not careful, we can live and die by the words and affirmations of others.

Action Step: When you think about the pressures and stresses you feel in your daily life, do they come from man or from God? Who do you live to please and honor the most? If it seems that you fear man more than God, repent of that today. Ask God to remind you this Christmas season that He is Lord and ruler of your life and over all of creation. Meditate on the verse, “perfect love casts out fear,” (1 John 4:18) as you pray today.