The Three Kings

For a long, long time the Jews had known from God that on the night of Christ’s birth a new star would rise in the sky. Now far in the East lived a people who knew little or nothing about the true God, but who studied the heavens very carefully and made maps of the sky as it looks at night and named the stars and marked those that change their places and those that seem to stand still.

These people had heard from the Jews about the new star that would shine on the night in which the Redeemer would be born. Year after year they had watched for it, and year after year they had been disappointed. But, lo! on the night of Christ’s dear birth, as the men of the East looked into the skies, there suddenly blazed forth a star that had never shone before. The wise men held their breath and gazed. They were afraid to turn away, for the star might leave as quickly as it had come. But steadily it threw its rays upon them. Could it mean that the Savior, the King, Who could answer all the questions that burned in their souls, was born this night? They called out one to the other, their hands trembled as they unrolled the maps, their eyes dimmed with tears as they searched for this star and found it not. “The King has come,” they cried. “Let us go and look for Him. O happy that we are to be alive tonight. He will tell us what we have longed to know. He will tell us about God, about Heaven, about our souls. Let us lose no time.”

They hurried to their homes, awoke their wives and children, showed them the new star in the heavens, and packed their things for the journey.

But when they met as they had agreed, to follow the star until they found the King, one said that his wife and children would not let him leave, and another said that his neighbors told him that he could do nothing more foolish than to follow a star. Only a few had the courage to start, and as they left with their train of camels and servants, the people watched them until they were lost in a cloud of dust, and then, shaking their heads, they went home.

Week after week the star led them across burning deserts, amid cool forests, and through running streams. One after the other, losing heart, turned back, until only three were left. Great men these three, who thought it nothing to spend the rest of their lives searching for the King if only they might find Him in the end.

At last the star brought them to Jerusalem and then disappeared. The wise men guided their camels through the busy streets, asking for the King of the Jews Who had just been born.

“What do you mean?” said the people. “Herod is our king, but he is old and no child has been born lately in his palace. Many are the persons he has killed, and we wish we could get rid of him. He is not even a Jew like us and does not believe in the one true God; but our enemies beat us in war and made him our king.”

Still the wise men insisted that the king, who had been so long expected, had just been born. “For,” they said, “we have seen His star in the East, and are come to adore Him.” (Matt. 2, 2.)

Then the people grew excited and asked one another whether it were possible that the Redeemer had come. Even Herod heard of the disturbance and sent for the wise men and questioned them about the Child and the exact night in which they had first seen the star. Then he called the Jewish priests and asked them where their Redeemer would be born, and they said, “In Bethlehem.” (Verse 5.) So the king told the wise men to go and find the Child and then bring back word so that he, too, might go and adore Him. The three kings left at night and as soon as they were away from the city, the star again shone to lead them on.

But Herod had no wish to adore the Child and only wanted to find Him that he might kill Him, for he did not want the Jews to have any king but himself.

Guided by the star, the kings at last found the little Christ in His mother’s arms. They fell down before Him and offered Him their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And Mary told them that the little Savior was not only the King of the Jews but the King of the whole world and the King of Heaven, for He was God.

And the wise men so loved the beautiful Child and His mother that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives near them. But when they decided to carry the good news back to their own people, God told them in their sleep not to go home through Jerusalem, for Herod wished to know where the Child was only that he might kill Him. So they took a different road.

Herod waited and waited, and when the wise men did not come, he grew very angry and made up his mind that he would kill the Child any way. So he ordered his soldiers to go through all the houses in the land and kill every little boy under two years of age. The poor mothers cried and screamed and clung to their babies with all their strength. But the soldiers jerked them from their arms and ran their swords through them.

During the night an angel came and awoke Joseph and told him that Herod wanted to kill the Child and that therefore he must hurry with Him and His mother to the land of Egypt and stay there until he told him to come back.

Mary and Joseph had no time to close up their house or to say good-bye to their friends, but as soon as God sent them word, they got right up and, with the help of their faithful donkey, started for Egypt. It was a lonely journey in the darkness of night and many a time the beast shied at the strange black shadows that fell across their path. But they had no fear, for the little Child, nestled in Mary’s arms, was their protector.

After three days they came into the land of Egypt. Here they settled down among a strange people so different from themselves, who adored many gods and whose language they could not understand. Here the Infant Jesus learned to say His first words and to take His first steps and later to run and to play.

Herod died in terrible suffering that no medicine could cure, and then the angel came to Joseph and told him to go back to his own country. At once the holy family left and went to Nazareth, where they lived among their friends once more.