Jerusalem: after hundreds of years of silence from the prophets; and a couple of fiery revolutions trying to reclaim and purge their homeland, they're at a dubious stage: present in their homeland, but under a Roman occupation.
And suddenly a few elders or mystics of another culture turn up; looking for the birth of a king.
Magi - who are they? Some sort of star gazing prognosticators. Apparently early translations used 'magician', and some cross of that with 'wise men' is probably correct.
Reading signs in the heavens. Not exactly kosher - probably don’t even know of the Hebrew scriptures: yet they come from over the horizon, following signs in the heavens; their journey a strange foreboding of the universal impact this birth will have.
Herod, the King, is disturbed "as is all Jerusalem"
They don’t know these strange foreigners: but they know their own history, enough to know this is potentially big news indeed, disturbing news. And why has it come first through strange outsiders?
So, seemingly pious, Herod acts; he call priests and teachers: where is this Messiah to be born?
The experts refer to the prophet (Micah) who says:
Bethlehem
So Herod now has two prophetic sources
i) the Magi who have come; with all of the strange cultural baggage that their understanding is wrapped in.
ii) the prophecy of Micah, explained by current teachers
does Herod believe any of this? Enough to triangulate the sources: he informs the Magi (in secret) of the Bethlehem reference; and again feigns a noble desire to ‘worship this king’.
So he believes enough to act on it: enough to want to abuse the information and secretly kill this king, even as a child.
This location of the biblical prophecy is accurate; and lines up with the Magi’s current path: the star guides them again; and so they arrive and bow in worship and open their exotic gifts of gold and spices to the infant. No doubt Mary adds this to the treasures she is already holding in her heart about this strange journey they are on.
The Magi, however, are ‘warned in a dream’ – more dynamic revelation given to these outsiders - not to return to the seemingly devout king.
So Herod is outwitted in his devious plots, and is murderously enraged. Mass graves all round the world testify of various rulers' maniacal desires to purge their enemies and protect themselves; Herod adds himself to that infamous list by murdering the local children of his own people.
Another prophet had foreseen this day of lament - Jeremiah.
Joseph though,
If this is all of God then He seems willing to use very strange means and to risk plunging his servants into apparent scandal.
So warned by this new dream and angelic revelation, the family flees.
And again; after the massacre; while they’re sheltering in Egypt, the angel of Lord again appears in a dream to tell them to return.
But Joseph is afraid to return, and God has a hand in this fear; having been warned yet again in a dream – is he learning to trust this mode? - he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
And what is the summary: “So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets” - all of this flurry of activity and dreams and angels and star gazing foreigners – all this confirms what the scripture had predicted.
And so what of that experiential and revelatory dimension today: when we have the bible?
Well, the bible itself doesn’t teach this is all now ended; indeed the opposite. Eagerly pursue spiritual gifts, especially that of prophecy; exhorts Paul. Just as the accurate Old Testament prophecy in Joseph's day - which the scholars knew - didn’t rule out all that current activity and strange revelatory modes, giving guidance in dangerous times.
Might not be as neat and tidy as we’d like. But it is biblical by definition. So perhaps we shouldn't expect a neat and tidy path, God in rather predictable boundaries and locations, today?
As Lewis captured in the story of Aslan.
"Is he safe?" asks someone nervously.
"Goodness, no. He's not a tame lion you know. But he is good"
If a young couple claimed to be in touch with this mode of revelation, to any degree, they'd probably, in many places, be told to calm down; ground their experience more in the text of bible reading, let the experts in the law tell them why it can't be real, or how risky such things are. Certainly there is order and guidelines to be observed in such matters. But its also biblical for God's ways to be stranger than expected, and we might also find that dynamic still disturbs.
our exegesis depends at least partly on what we've seen, i think (a dubious sounding proposition but i think it is biblically demonstrable - will jot something on that too).
one chapter indeed
