GENTILES

“ It is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. ”

A star is seen in the distant east and a pilgrimage sets out to find the newborn king of the world. Wondered at by His human parents, born of His mother, a virgin bride, proclaimed the Savior by angels of heaven to shepherds in the night. This little king was recognized by the aged prophet Simeon and prophetess Anna in the Temple. He grew and flourished for a time in Bethlehem as His parents wondered what might be next. The pilgrims pressed on around the Fertile Crescent, with that star ever before them and their sense of urgency making their journey one of hopeful expectancy.

How many people exalted Jesus as their king? He is a king, you know, the rightful heir of the throne of David, and God said He would reign forever. He was crucified as “the King of the Jews” in Jerusalem, the city of the kings. It is to this city of the kings that these pilgrims travel. They are sure that a newborn king will be found there, in the palace. They draw near.

It is unlikely that the Star of Bethlehem detached itself from the dome of the night sky and hovered over a stable where Jesus lay. Rather, the magi , our gentile pilgrims of Persia, were Zoroastrian priests and astronomers, and they had sighted the nova of a distant star, soon after several planetary convergences, making them sure that the prophecy of old Balaam had come true at long last. They thus came first to Jerusalem. So long ago…

Moses led the Jews, the escaped slaves of Egypt, across a wilderness in search of the Promised Land. A gentile king feared their numbers and God's grace upon them, and so he sought out a holy man who he might pay to curse them where they were camped near Moab. Balaam warned the king that he could only speak what God put in his mouth, and despite the king's ravings, he blessed Israel three times. On the third time, he pronounced: “ I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel… Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion.” Num 24:15-19 This gentile prophet then gave the Moabite king a plan to ensnare Israel with pretty gentile dancers and meat offered to idols.

It was 800 years later and such dancers and idolatry had again led Israel to the point of God's judgment through the destruction of their nation by Babylon. Those who were not killed were enslaved and brought to the shores of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and there labored for 70 years, captives of the hated gentiles. Their lust for idolatry had led them to the world's capital of idol worship, and they had their fill of it. Never again would Israel fall to the paganism of gentiles. Then another gentile conquered Babylon, and Cyrus the Persian issued a decree of toleration of every religion and he released the Jews to return and rebuild their homeland. Jerusalem was resurrected by the order and provision of a gentile emperor.

While in this Persian king's realm, the Jews had shared their history and sacred writings with the Zoroastrian priests who made a special study of the sky for signs of God's hand moving in the affairs of men. The Jews had little knowledge or interest in signs from the night sky, but these Persian mystics caught a glimmer of hope from old Balaam's prophecy. They took note and for another 500 years it was among those things they watched for.

It is the year 4 BC. Herod the Great is a puppet king in Jerusalem. For the last 500 years, Israel has held out hope to escape the successive empires of the gentiles and be restored to its former greatness as under David and Solomon. Messiah should come soon and lead the people to their independence from the gentiles. But independence was only a dream, as the empire of the Persians gave way to that of the Greeks, with Israel a pawn of either the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt or the Antiochus governors of Syria, and finally the Caesars of Rome. Gentiles ruled the Jews for 600 years. When was their kingdom to rise again?

Herod is roused from his brooding and malevolent genius with word that several travelers have arrived from far Persia, seeking an audience with him. Herod, a prolific builder, yet vassal of the Roman legions that were garrisoned at Fortress Antonia, is a jealous and dangerous king. His own sons he has killed if they looked as though they wouldn't wait for him to die in order to claim his throne. But he doesn't have his throne by divine right, as a son of David: it is the Romans who have set him up. The magi approach with honors given and received, with flourish and pomp, fine garments and servants; Herod wonders what they might do for him.

“We seek the new king,” they tell him. “We saw his star in the east whence we set out. It is certain that God is proclaiming the One who is foretold, a new king of Israel. We were sure that you, O King Herod, would know where he is that we might come to worship him.”

Herod is dumbstruck. This is a sign unbidden, unwanted by him. He summons the chief priests and scribes from his newly rebuilt Temple and consults about Messiah, and where he is to be born. They know of one reference, in Micah the prophet's writings, how Bethlehem is to be birthplace to the king of kings. Herod gives the magi directions to the nearby hamlet, birthplace of David, with a request that, when they have found him, to bring him back the location so he too might go give Messiah honor. All the while, Herod plans to kill this little rival and secure his own throne for a few years more. He doesn't know that he will die this year.

The magi rejoice to hear and go to Bethlehem. How exactly they locate Jesus in the home of Joseph and Mary we can't tell. I suspect the word of a handful of shepherds had made a local legend of this young family. A few questions would surely have led these gentiles to the crib of the infant king. There they bestow gifts, rich and rare: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gentiles have come to proclaim Jesus to be the king, not of Israel alone, but king over all the world.

Gentiles, by Jewish standards, had long been distained. Abraham, father of the Jews, had not sought a bride for his son Isaac from the Canaanites, but from his own people, Chaldeans from Haran. Jacob went there, and his wives were of that tribe also. A people set apart, the Jews continued to view their neighboring gentiles with suspicion. Centuries later they were to drive the gentiles out of the Promised Land to purify it from their paganism. Not entirely successful, the Jews fell time and again to idolatry and immorality at the enticement of gentiles. Gentile : in Hebrew, goy , it means people of a foreign nation, heathen , even a troop of animals, dogs , or a swarm of locusts . It's not a complimentary term.

But prophecies had been spoken over Israel that gentiles would some day seek their God and gladly be ruled by their king. Isaiah said, “In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious…” Isaiah 11:10 “Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.” 49:22 “And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” 62:2-3 “I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.” 65:1 “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined… For unto us a child is born… The Prince of Peace… upon the throne of David… to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.” 9:2-7

King David himself had written, “ I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Psalm 2:7-8 It was intended by God that the faith of the Jews be given to all mankind. But the Jews' evangelism turned to suspicion and fear whenever they had commerce with gentiles, because the immorality of pagan ritual was an occasion for sin, and the defilement of gentile food and society was repugnant to them.

But it was the Persian magi, gentiles , who found a way to the home of the new king. These gentiles worshipped one God, whose symbol was fire and who had no idolatrous image. In time, some of Jesus fellow Jews would acknowledge His title, even welcome Him up the dusty road to Jerusalem. Some would seek to force Him to become their king at the multiplication of bread and fish on a Galilean hillside. But only gentiles would actually crown Him, with a crudely fashioned crown of thorns. Eventually it would be gentiles, not the Jewish nation, that would proclaim this crucified king to be their own, King of kings and Lord of lords. His cross would be borne on the shields of Constantine's armies, three centuries after Paul had brought news of the Jewish Messiah to Europe, across the Bosporus.

If there is God, then He is the God of all people, not only of one tribe. We come to worship the newborn king as people of all nations, races and families of mankind. It must be so, because God is God for all people, for all creation. It is Epiphany , when a star is the symbol of God's shining forth from Israel, from little Bethlehem, to all people, to the gentiles. The magi first answered the call from the non-Jewish lands. Eventually every race and tribe has come to embrace Jesus. We gentiles are now God's new Israel, because of our Jewish King, whom we come to worship today.

O GOD, who by the leading of a star didst manifest thy only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; Mercifully grant that we, who know thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of thy glorious Godhead; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen .

PFH+