Mat. 2:1-2 ..."Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is He who was born king of the Jews? For we have seen His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.'"
In what are now western Iran and southern Russia there was in ancient times a country named Media, which at one time was powerful and expanded an empire across a part of the Middle East. One of the tribes that constituted Media was the Magi. Later, when Media was absorbed in the Persian Empire, the Magi led a revolt, which ended in failure. Thereafter the Magi ceased to have ambition for power and prestige and gradually became a tribe of priests. As the years passed, they became in Persia something like the Levites in Israel. No sacrifice could be offered unless one of the Magi officiated. They were the ministers of Zoroastrianism, the official religion of the Persians. They came to be honored, even revered, as the holiest of all men. It was believed that God (Ahura Mazda) manifested supernatural power through them. In fact, it is from this idea and their name that we derive our word "magic."
The Magi were looked up to as men of great learning and wisdom, for they were skilled in philo-sophy, medicine, and natural science. They were employed as the teachers and instructors of the Persian kings and upper class. It may seem strange that such men, who were evidently outside the circle of Israelite culture and the religion of Jehovah, should have set out from their country to a distant land to search for a king. Many ancient records tell us, however, that about 2000 years ago in the Middle East there was widespread belief that somewhere a king would be born by divine inter-vention and would establish a worldwide government of peace, prosperity, and happiness.
The point to be made here is simply this: These Magi, who were known as wise men, set out on
a long, distant and difficult journey to search for Jesus, whom they accepted to be King of all kings. There is a great lesson here for us, wise men sought for Jesus then, and those who are truly wise have sought for Him ever since. In fact, this can be taken as an excellent definition for "wise men."
As in many other things there is a great deal of difference between the meaning of "wise men" in God's revelation and its meaning on the human level. To us a wise man is someone with a Ph.D. from a renowned and highly prestigious university such as Oxford, Harvard or Princeton, who has written scholarly books on advanced topics. To us a wise man is someone who made a breakthrough in scientific discovery and has been awarded the Nobel Prize for his achievement. To us a wise man is someone who is recognized as an authority in a specialized field. He is someone who knows more about a given subject than almost anyone else in the world.
This is how we view wisdom on the human plane, but from the perspective of God's revelation this human identification is often far in error. A person may have achieved these remarkable distinctions and yet, in a very important sense of the word, not be wise at all. From God's view wisdom is not based on advanced university degrees, or on scientific or technical brilliance, or on the authorship of books that are studied as standard texts by other scholars. There is an entirely different definition of wisdom that prevails in God's revelation to us, and it proceeds along the line of what we read in Mat. 2:1-2. These wise men sought Jesus as a Visitor from heaven, and anyone who follows their example is at least pointing himself in the direction of being a "wise man."
