A Scepter, a Star, a Savior

Good morning. May each of you have a blessed Christmas as we take a look at the passage that Wayne wrote for us this morning. We're going to be giving a few preliminaries here. And so bear with us. We want to reiterate the announcement of the electives, three of them, Who We Are in Christ, The Gospel of John, and Biblical Anthropology and Counseling. Sign-ups are still open this Sunday and next. And then we're, two weeks from now, going to begin those. So just to remind you and thank you for all those who've already signed up.

We also, however, need to issue a couple of cautions about today's message. I hate to have to start off like that, but cautions are in order. The cautions are twofold. One is we're going to be chasing a rabbit trail today, just so you know. The other thing is we'll be going backwards a bit today. And so just have to bear with us as we go backwards.

What do I mean by that? I've been telling you, I even started over a month ago, you know, bring your Bibles and all that stuff. Well, I'm going to put some verses back up on the screen here because we're doing something a little different. OK? The rabbit trail thing. OK. So if you can handle that. Now, the passage that Wayne read for us here, Matthew 2, 1 and 2, It is really just a huge passage, very momentous, but it also has some real questions built into it.

And we want to try to address those questions here this morning. And some of the questions that could easily pop up here. As we look at this, and you have on your handout this number in the bottom corner of the screen if you're with us for the first time or only recently. That's the first page, and then the flip side will be the second page there, okay?

Now, the questions will be, who were these magi that are mentioned? We oftentimes hear the term wise men. Secondly, why did the star get their attention? I would say all kinds of stars. They, as we'll see, looked at stars all the time. Why did this particular star get their attention? And then thirdly, how did they know from this star that the King of the Jews had been born? How did that come to them?

Perhaps you've heard in the past, well, these were astrologers. So they studied astrology, and that told them. I would like to suggest to you that there's a better answer than that. Anyway, let's take a look at it. As we go through these passages, and we'll be going through several, keep a few things in mind here about a star and a scepter.

A star was a common symbol for a king. We find that both in scripture itself, a few different passages, and also other literature of the day during biblical times. A star was a picture of a king for centuries in the Middle East during Jewish time. And then a scepter was also a symbol or a picture for the rule of a king.

So likewise, both of those were in parallel. And that was true not only in scripture, and specifically a passage we'll be looking to at the end of Genesis, but also, again, other literature of the day also carried on that picture. It was widely known.

Oh, one more thing. I almost forgot. You need to keep this in mind about Jacob and Israel. Jacob, he's a particular guy at the end of the book of Genesis, Jacob also had the name Israel. And of course, you know people who've had nicknames, and maybe you even had one. Years ago, you could yell out for Vern, or even yell out for Pete, and you'd get my response. I was called some other things, but I won't repeat those on church on Sunday morning. Anyway, now the people descended from Jacob We're also called Israel and sometimes even called Jacob.

So just keep those associations in your mind. That'll help. One more thing. As in our own culture, a lion is oftentimes used as a picture or a symbol of power. And we'll find that true as we go through the passages here this morning. OK? You with me so far? OK. I haven't lost anybody. All right. Now, here's a chart you have on page 1.

This is going to be helpful to us all throughout. the study of the book of Genesis. But we're particularly going to focus here on this last one because this is where scripture talks about not just this person Judah but it has a connection to these Magi and why the Magi knew. Why the Magi knew that this was the star that indicated the king of the Jews.

So The story, the sequence that we'll be going through begins with a great famine in Egypt and in that whole area of the then known world. And it goes like this. This famine had brought Jacob and his sons at least most of them, and even the rest of the family into Egypt. We have the information they settled in an area of the Nile Delta that you see marked off there called Goshen. And so they traveled from the promised land down to Egypt to kind of get a retreat from this famine that was pretty severe.

In Genesis 49 we find the account, and we'll go through this in further detail when we get to that point, it's going to be a few weeks. But Genesis 49, Jacob, I put in quotes, blesses his 12 sons. Some of those things that he does in the name of blessing are more like reprimands. But anyway, he blesses his 12 sons in Genesis 49. And what we're going to do here is to kind of step our way into the middle of that. As he blesses the sons, each of whom is the head of a tribe. He gets together through each of them in sequence and he gets to Judah.

The portion of the blessing that's recorded in Genesis 49 verses 8 through 10 tells about Christ who will be king over Israel in that passage about 1,800 years before Christ is born and His kingship over Israel is still future to us, but it talks about him. And, believe it or not, it tells about him being over the Gentiles, as scripture calls him, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Here in verse 8 of Genesis 49, "...Judah your brother shall praise you, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies, and your father's son shall bow down to you." He will be aggressively against the enemies of Israel, and the rest of the tribes will all bow down to his. Verse 9, Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up? And then in verse 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples."

The peoples is a code word throughout the Bible. In most instances, you can see from the context, code word for Gentiles, non-Jews. Key points we want to make about this passage here. Genesis 49, 8-10, the first, about verse 8, Judah's brothers and their descendants will bow down to Judah and to Judah's descendants, since Judah's tribe will be the one in authority over them. He will have the authority given to him. Verse 9 makes this point pretty plain and simple. Judah is like a lion, powerful.

And then in verse 10, a lot of your Bibles, including the translation that I had in front of us here, It has Shiloh, and it's interesting, this is a place where they've transliterated the word, that is, they've spelled out in English what it sounds like rather than translating it. If you translate it rather than transliterate it, here's what you get.

It says, until Shiloh comes. It means that the kingly line of Judah will not end until he comes to whom it belongs. The NIV is one that has it that way and translates it out. The kingly line will continue on until the one promised that will hold the scepter and will be the one to whom even the Gentiles will bow down, will be the one to whom all of Israel will bow down.

They were in Egypt at this time. And I would make a point here that he mentions the scepter and the ruler's staff. And this was, and you see it in the pictures here, the pattern of the Egyptians. And that is to mention both the scepter and the ruler's staff and to hold them together. And that would have been understood as these symbolized the ruler in the Egyptian culture that Jacob was speaking in.

Now, after that, however, the Jews were all made into brick-making slaves. Become really, really good at making bricks. And even at the time of their departure from Egypt, this is one of the tomb drawings that we have showing them making bricks. And notice the different skin colors. The lighter skin colors would have been what they called the Asiatics, or the ones that were the Jews. They also had mixed in there others of African and other descent. Now, this would have been some of the bricks that they made, including Pharaoh's Mark. Every brick gets the Pharaoh's Mark in it, and they would make it with straw. We also have from that time even a brick mold that was made out of wood.

Well, at the time then, a few centuries later, when the Jews are going to leave what's called the Exodus, they leave from this land of Goshen here on the east side of the Nile Delta. And so here's a nice satellite photo. I don't think they got this perspective back then. So we're lucky. But here in Goshen, is where they left, they crossed, and we have the miraculous account of crossing the sea, and they traveled down the Sinai Peninsula and finally at the southern end there, this is where Moses received the law, traveled up the east side of the Sinai Peninsula and made their way ultimately to Moab, which is the account that we want to pay some attention to here. Now, you have on page 2, on the left hand column, is a series of timelines.

I lined them up specifically that way so that we could track it and you could stay with me on this. Here is Moses leading the 12 tribes, descended from Jacob's sons, the ones he blessed, there at the end of Genesis. toward the promised land. Balak, in cooperation with the chiefs of Midian, which was another group in that general area, hired a well-known prophet whose name was Balaam to curse the people of Israel, as we said before, also known as Jacob. So here is the king of Moab hiring Balaam to curse Israel.

Well, that's not exactly how it all turned out. The Lord had other things in mind. Now just kind of watch this as we step through it here. This is about 1400 BC or thereabouts. The Lord had something else in mind and actually intercedes to interfere and even change what Balaam would otherwise have said. He was hired to curse, instead prophesied in more than one instance and we'll look at one of those. Now, so here's Balaam, and of course a number of you may be familiar with the account in Numbers. This is chapters 22 through 24, where Balaam is spoken to by a donkey, and Balaam attempts to prophesy in the midst of this set of events that's described for us there in the book of Numbers.

Now, just as an aside, You may have had people say, oh, the Bible is just full of myths. It's just a bunch of mythology, made-up stories. You can't count upon that. It's just a bunch of rubbish. I don't know how you can even be so gullible, right? You ever heard that? Okay, well, and so folks will say, well, this is just a made-up story. Don't, you know, think anything of it.

Well, it turns out back in 1967, some Dutch, archaeologists, and any of you are Dutch ancestry, that might be of interest to you. Dutch archaeologists found in Jordan, about 60 miles north of where this event with Balaam took place, An inscription, you can't see it very well here, but here's some archaeologists kind of focused work on it where they brought it forward.

Well, it turns out that this inscription that they found just about 60 miles north of where this event with Balaam took place, this inscription has Balaam son of Baor, which is exactly what the Bible says. three times in the first four lines of the text. Specifically that guy, and he even describes Balaam just like the Bible says. So here's a completely independent confirmation of Balaam and his name and what he did right in the right area as well.

It is a very good support. There's a one-page handout on Balaam that's available on the cabin to the right. Feel free to take that. It's color, as you see here, and it has on the bottom more information on this archaeological discovery. So, an interesting aside.

Key part for us to take note of here in Balaam's words in Numbers 24 17 and we're going to be looking at the first two-thirds of that verse Balaam said this I see him, but not now I Behold him, but not near Okay, what's Balaam saying? He said that the man that he was prophesying about to him. Okay, and was not then present, but he could see him in the future. It's not right now, but in the future, he'll be here.

Part 1. Part 2 of what Balaam had to say, a star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel. The scepter connection goes back to our Genesis 49.10 verse, right? But now we've got this, a star shall come forth from Jacob. Remember, a star, as we said earlier, represents king. And we'll see shortly what that means even beyond that. The star and scepter both are symbols of this coming king. Remember, a scepter and the star both mean kingship. Who would come from the people of Israel, that is Jacob. Notice that Jacob and Israel are used as synonyms.

In the future. All right. Now, next part of your timeline, this again is on the second page on the left-hand column. So, here about 1000 BC. We have David. David, of course, we have numerous Bible accounts of David. Here David was a shepherd boy around Bethlehem. And the account of David with Goliath, of course. You can imagine, David is just indignant with this situation with Goliath. What's this uncircumcised giant doing coming walking in here and defying the armies of the living God? How dare you? That's what he says to this guy that's probably three times his height. So there's David, that guy, that one. David becomes king, the first in a line of kings, most certainly. And he becomes king and we see that he is given this position. He is of the line of Judah. He takes this position and holds the scepter, having that rulership.

And he is also 1 Chronicles chapter 17 verses 10 through 15. Got that? 1 Chronicles Chapter 17, verses 10 through 15, David is told, you will have a descendant who will be the house and throne and kingdom after you. And this is a promise of Christ's coming. And by the way, those three words are exactly the words used repeated to Mary. You're going to bear a son. He'll be of the house and throne and kingdom of David. So the promise fulfilled exactly.

Now, here by the time of David, who was of the line of Judah, the first of his line to be a king, David wrote Psalm 45 verses 6 and 7. So here's David writing this psalm. It's interesting, in the book of Hebrews, the first chapter, verses 8 and 9, that exact psalm was quoted and it said this passage refers to God appointing Christ to reign as the future king with a scepter.

The words, putting those connections together again, just like Genesis 49.10.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy above your fellows. Anointing was done for kings and prophets and priests. Certainly, a king with a scepter is going to qualify. Now, we're going to step forward a few more centuries here. You're still with me here? You're holding on? Okay. All right. Nobody's fallen out of the pews yet. That's good. All right.

Here we get to the time where the Jews are being taken off to Babylon in exile, okay? And as we have it on your time chart here, It's before 500 BC. It's between 6 and 500 BC. So here's the time of Daniel. By the time Daniel had been taken to Babylon, is pressed into service, we find that Daniel is ultimately ending up being made chief of the Magi. You got that? Chief of the Magi over in Babylon. Remember that word Magi. These are the wise men. So he's made chief of the Magi in Babylon.

This is Daniel chapter 5 verses 11 and 12. And this account that this comes from, this is the proverbial handwriting on the wall. Ever hear that, the handwriting on the wall phrase? That's where it comes from, Daniel chapter 5. In the midst of that, they're saying, who can interpret for us what this handwriting on the wall means?

And so, not to get into all the details of the passage, but what they do is they say, hey, you need to know, Mr. King, that somebody who was king before you put this guy Daniel there as head of the Magi. And this guy Daniel here, he can tell you what that handwriting on the wall means. He really knows.

And so when that's being told to this fellow who is now king of Babylon, who's going to lose it that night, When that's being told to him, this fellow Daniel is told about him that he is the chief of the magicians. And it gives magicians, conjurers, chaldeans, and diviners. That first word that we have there underlined on the slide, magicians, the Greek Old Testament has that magi. Chief of the magi. That's why we say that specifically. He's the head of them. He's put at the head.

You might think, okay, but that was centuries before Christ, and he was just one Jew, and later on when he dies, they're just going to forget everything about Daniel. Well, guess again. Here's why. We might think that Daniel would have been forgotten, but the truth is that the memory of Daniel stayed around for a long time, and in fact is still there, even among people that you would think would want to suppress his name.

He's still there. Look at these pictures here. This is a place known as Daniel's Tomb. And it's in, believe it or not, Iran. OK? Even today, there are a few places in the Middle East. There are a few. But this is one, and probably the most likely one, that marked the tomb of Daniel. And this one here is Shoshe Danial is the name. And it's right not too far from the border with Iraq. And just to give you some other views of it here. So this is a, he is a very well-remembered fellow, and believe it or not, both Jews and Muslims come to visit this place. That's really remarkable. And it's got, of course, that white tower that you see, but all sorts of places for them to stay, you know, kind of hotel and bed and breakfast kind of facilities for them to stay.

It's really a resort area to come around and visit the tomb of Daniel. So Daniel was not forgotten at all. And instead, what Daniel very likely, and I would say with this kind of memory of Daniel lasting this long, even in a place like this where they don't even like the Jews, right? This is Iran. Even in that kind of a place, Daniel and his message and the scriptures that he had were not forgotten.

Now we're at the timeline, here are the Magi coming to find out. Where is this King of the Jews that was born? The Magi, having likely received the prophecies of the Old Testament from Daniel, because Daniel was quite outspoken about who God was, and quite outspoken about his faith and trust in the Lord. Even at the risk of his own life, he was outspoken.

So likely having received those through Daniel, and there continued to be thousands and thousands of Jews living in that area, and I got to meet one of their descendants when I was going to engineering school, a Jew from Iran. But thousands of Jews continuing to live in that area, they would have an ongoing message and testimony about the Old Testament scriptures. And so the special star which had been brought forth about the King of the Jews would be something that they would be having an awareness of and an eye out for. As a matter of fact, astrology probably wouldn't tell them much, but the scriptures would.

So here we are at a time that we mentioned in our elective downstairs. Herod, who was the king, died in about the middle of March in 4 BC, so this would have been a time just prior to that. So here come these magi, as we commonly call them, wise men, and it strains the mythology that's developed. We say commonly three, and somehow that's probably concluded from the number of gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but we don't know. There may well have been a great many more. and one of them wasn't Gaspar, another wasn't Melchior, that was five centuries later that those names started getting cooked up.

But here come these wise men out of this area known as the Parthian Empire to the east of the Roman Empire visiting Jerusalem. So here come these men traveling They may have had a substantial caravan with them in order to be able to make a journey like this and to be able to support everything that needed to take place.

So they come and now the passage that Wayne read for us. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, Where is he who is born king of the Jews? For we saw a star in the east and have come to worship him. Notice here what this passage tells us about the star. We saw his star. Notice that they were able to identify it's his. It is the king of the Jews, his star. Able to identify that. Secondly, Herod gets to talking to them. He's just a friendly, jovial kind of guy. You can tell from the picture. Bad hair day, too. Anyway.

Here's this guy Herod, and Herod is wanting to know when's the exact time that the star appeared. Now do you think he's real interested in worshipping Jesus? I think not. But he wanted to know what age kids do I kill. And he was notorious in his day, notorious for doing nasty things. The emperor said, using a Greek play on words, it is better to be Herod's pig than Herod's son. Okay? Because he was a nasty man.

But he wanted to know the exact time of the star. So there was an appearance of the star, and it came at a specific time that these men noticed. and the men noticed that it was his star but here's the other part of it after hearing the king that is King Herod they went their way and the star now Jerusalem down to Bethlehem is headed south about half dozen miles the star which they had seen in the east which if you look at coming from the they would be going from the east to the west and they would have been looking west in order to be guided That way, but now look at the star.

Does this sound to you like a normal star? The star which they had seen in the east went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. Some have made connections with comets, planetary alignments, novas, things of that sort, and I suppose those things can be considered. As I read this, however, I get the impression that this is an extraordinary star, that even has the ability to point to a particular place, even to change apparent direction. This was very explicit and deliberate that these guys were able to use the star as the indicator of where is this child to be found.

They traveled from Jerusalem, just the short half dozen miles roughly, down to Bethlehem. And as they did, of course we have the rest of the account there, where they traveled, and by the way, a lot of our Christmas cards and pictures show the star at night. Who's to say that it was nighttime? Maybe it was so bright and so unique that nighttime wasn't necessary.

We don't know, but that's a possibility, particularly when we see how extraordinary the star is. They came and visited there, and we have, of course, a record that they gave gold, frankincense, and myrrh as gifts. which likely funded the escape of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus into Egypt. So we look at these things, we've made a connection. Certainly you have the prophecy coming right out of the book of Genesis, Genesis 49-10, that Christ would be of the Lion of Judah, and in fact, Revelation specifically identifies him as the Lion of Judah.

We also have the identification of this scepter, the scepter that starts in Genesis 49.10, continues on into our passage in Numbers 24, and continues on into the Psalms, and repeated reference then to this scepter as a symbol of his kingship. We have his star seen in the east initially and then being of such a character as to guide and lead them directly to Bethlehem. We have the Magi noticing that this extraordinary star shows up and it leads them initially to Jerusalem, and then from there, even seeming to point out directly, it's right here. It's right here at this place. Perhaps even the house. But you know what? All this is really good, but we're missing something. Because what this has done is told us we've got the King of the Jews. But is that all that Jesus came to be?

No. It doesn't mention something else that's very important. It doesn't mention in the passages we looked at, and even the prophecies we looked at, Christ's death on the cross for our sins. It doesn't mention Christ having been buried and resurrected. It doesn't mention that. So what do we do? Where do we take this? Come on, help me here.

Actually you look at this and it's just the passage right before this one Right in the prior chapter a few verses ahead Now the birth of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1 18 through 21 the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together She was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

I And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. In the original language, something closer to Yeshua, Savior. For He will save His people from their sins. He'll pay the price. He'll pay the price. And this is a wonderful thing as we look at this. What anticipation.

Nancy and I were talking just earlier this week about how many of these Christmas accounts And even the Christmas carols that we sing not only talk about Christ's first coming and the shepherds and the wise men and all, but also how much of it, even the song that was done as a special here, talks about his second coming and his reigning as king. There's a lot of that in there. But how good to find this in here too. That Christ is not just the king of the Jews. That's great for them. But he also, the Lion of Judah, He also is the one who would pay the price for sins for all of us. A price we could never pay. This is wonderful good news. Wonderful good news.

In Revelation 5.5, I'll give the account briefly.

John is in the heavenly scene. He's given a vision there during his lifetime and he's in the heavenly scene. And what does he do? He has heard an announcement about somebody opened these seven sealed scrolls. And John doesn't hear an answer within earthly time, it seems like the right time, and he starts crying. One of the 24 elders turns to him and says, Stop crying!

Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome. He can open this thing. But look at what it says. The lion that is from the tribe of Judah. Where'd that connection get made? Genesis 49.10. He can do it. Nobody else is qualified, but he can. He has the power and the authorization and the ability to open this scroll. Nobody else can. He is uniquely qualified. He's the one.

I'd suggest to you that if you think about it, you and I go through a circumstance. Matter of fact, you may have one on the horizon or something that's maybe right happening now that's really big, maybe even ominous, maybe has you anything from puzzled to on the edge of being disturbed. But you know what? The lion of the tribe of Judah, he can handle it. He's not afraid of it. He has everything that is necessary to address that thing that appears ominous on your horizon. Or perhaps the thing you're right in the middle of right now.

And he's also the one who was slain for us. He is the lamb. As those in the elective that's coming up here, the Gospel of John, we'll see in the very first chapter, the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world. He will take the sin upon Himself, take the penalty all of His own for everything that we're looking at, for everything we need through the rest of what's going on in this year and for the next and for any time after that that the Lord allows us to be here. He's adequate for it. He's the Lion of Judah. He's not afraid of it. And we can count on Him. He has dealt with everything that is ever going to happen to us or by us. When He was on the cross, He said, it's finished. And He wasn't kidding.

Revelation 5.5 also says one more thing.

Behold Him. Behold Him. The elder that told John to stop crying immediately says, behold, look, do you see who we're talking about? This is the Lion of Judah. This is the one who has every qualification that you'll ever need. Turn to him. Behold him. Look at him. In the midst of the circumstances that arise in our lives, in the midst of those difficulties that we encounter, Things where we don't have the answers readily available. He's thoroughly capable. He has every qualification. Beholding Him is just the right thing to do when nothing else is. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you. You are ever faithful. You're faithful over the centuries. You're faithful over the millennia. As a matter of fact, you're faithful forever.

And we count upon that even now. And Lord, in the circumstances where we're wanting wisdom, we're wanting strength, we're wanting insight and understanding, where the circumstances are beyond our capabilities, beyond our capacities, we're just ever so thankful that you are capable of everything that's needed. You have every qualification. in the entire universe. And we give you thanks for that. We glorify you for that. And Lord, what a wonderful comfort that is in the days ahead, in the year ahead. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.