Join us as we unravel the mysterious journey of the Magi, guided by a supernatural star and centuries-old prophecies. With insightful commentary, explore the role of the Jewish diaspora, the wise men’s origins, and the incredible spiritual truths that these stories present to us today. Sharon Knotts’ message offers hope and illumination, encouraging listeners to let their light shine in a world often shrouded in darkness.
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And today’s Word is rich with intrigue. Get ready to be blessed as we examine the nuances in the boomerang story of Balaam’s prophetic star. Finally, the baby is born. All the family come to the house because it was circumcision day and they would have named the child officially. And the family said, what are you going to name him, Elizabeth? She said, John. They said, John, nobody in your family’s named John. Aren’t you going to name him after his father? And before she could say anything, God unzipped Zachariah’s lips. And Zacharias said, oh no, his name is John. And then he took off prophesying. So for that we need to turn to Luke chapter 1. And we’re not going to read the whole prophecy because it’s quite lengthy. But I want to go to the middle of the prophecy in Luke 1. Looking at verse 76. This is Zachariah. He just got his lips unzipped now. He’s under the anointing here folks. And he said in verse 76. And you child. Shall be called the prophet of the highest. Capital H if you please. For you shall go before the face of the Lord. To prepare his ways. To give knowledge of salvation. Unto his people. By the remission of their sins. Through the tender mercy of our God. Whereby the day spring from on high. Has visited us. To give light to them that sit in darkness. And in the shadow of death. To guide our feet. In the way of peace. So Zacharias called. The one that John was going to proclaim. The Messiah. The son of the highest. He called him the day spring from on high. And the day spring. Refers to the first rising light of day. The dawn. Amen. And Peter took it up in 2 Peter 1.19. And he said. The day dawn. And the day star. Shall arise in your hearts. There’s just so many layers to this story. You know, you’ve got the Balaam story and then now you’ve got John father Zacharias saying, and then we’ve got Peter saying the day star shall rise in your hearts. Now, when Balaam was talking and Zacharias was talking, they were referring to the legitimate absolute person of the Messiah, Jesus. But Peter now is way past the coming resurrection and ascension of Jesus. And now he’s speaking to the saints of God, the born again ones, and says the day star is going to rise in your heart. How many got that? And I say to you, if the day star is inside of me, I better be shining. I’m going to be shining. If the day star has risen in my heart, I’m going to have a light. Amen. And I don’t want just that song, Jesus gave me a little light. I want a big light. We need big lights in this day we’re in. Amen. And Jesus said in Revelation 22, 16, now this is the risen Jesus, the Lord of glory, the Lamb of God that we preached about last week. Jesus said, I am the bright and morning star. Amen. Hallelujah. Because he arose on the darkness of the world in that day. In the time of the Old Testament when the world was dark and they had so many gods that people were serving. They’d already been through all the Greek time of civilization and all their gods. jupiter and all of them and now they had the romans and all their gods pretty much the same gods just different names and let me just go one further the same demons that they were worshiping but in all that darkness god sent the star of jacob The bright and the morning star. Hallelujah. And shone on the darkness of that world. And the world has never been the same since. And when you and some of you were in the world in darkness. In perverse sin. In great darkness. The bright and morning star. Shone on the horizon of your life. And brought you out of darkness. Into the marvelous light. Of Christ. Hallelujah. We’ve been translated out of the kingdom of darkness. Paul said in Colossians 1.13. Into the kingdom of God’s dear son. The bright and the morning star. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And that star shone on the darkness of the world. Amen. And God sent his son. You know, the Jewish people had not heard from God for 400 years. The last one was the prophet Malachi. And that was 400 years before that. Amen. And now the star of Jacob, the day spring from on high, the bright and morning star pierced the darkness. Over that lowly stable in Bethlehem. And just like Balaam prophesied 1400 years before. That star arose in the night skies. Over a little sleepy town of Bethlehem. If I could sing and we all know I can’t. I would sing oh little town of Bethlehem. But I can’t sing so I won’t. All right, let’s move on now. So I have a big question for you. Who saw the star and knew what it meant? All right. For once, you can give yourself a gold star. Okay. Now, if we were to ask this question and we’ll just be, we’re just going to make this rhetorical questions. Okay. So I would have thought if you would ask that question, that surely the ones who would have known what it meant, they would have seen the star and could have immediately without angels coming to tell you could have known what it meant. I would have said, well, the priest, surely the priest would, right? I mean, they’re the chosen ones. They’re of the tribe of Levi, the ones that God separated unto himself. And they became those who served in the temple and performed the holy tasks and offered up the holy sacrifices. But I tell you what. They didn’t see the star. Not one of them saw the star. Well, what about the rabbis? Because, you know, rabbi means great ones. Because rabbi means great. So surely they were called the great ones because they knew the word of God and the scriptures. They knew them so well and they knew the meaning and they were always very happy. give you a little sermonette and interpret a lot of times their own interpretation but nevertheless they were always eager to share no none of them saw the star I know okay this is the these are the ones surely would have seen it and knew what it meant the scribes The scribes, they are the ones who hand copied the scriptures. Every jot and tittle had to be perfect. If they messed up, they had to throw it out and start all over again. They knew the scriptures inside out. Every letter, every little mark, you know, The jot and tittle refers also to the yud. The yud was the letter Y. And you know what it looks like? It looks like our apostrophe. That’s a little letter, right? But there’s a whole lot of them in the scriptures. And they knew every one of them. Surely they would have been able to put two and two together. And say oh wait a minute. Remember what Balaam said. Remember his prophecy. The star of Jacob shall rise. A star is coming out of Jacob. And a scepter. Oh what does scepter mean? Scepter means a king. Because only kings have scepters. Amen. You would have thought they would have remembered Balaam’s prophecy. And they would have been able to figure it out. But they didn’t. No, it was the Magi. It was those what we call the three kings. And I’ll talk about that in a minute. But these were, let me tell you that they came from the east and they traveled a long way. They probably came from the area of Persia and Medes, which today would be the area of Iran and Iraq. They came from that area that they traveled a long way because they saw this unusual star. And they must have known enough about the scriptures and the prophecy of Balaam that they figured it out that this has got to be the star of Israel’s king. There’s got to be a baby that’s born that’s going to be the king over Israel. This fulfills the prophecy of Balaam. Now, I’ll talk about the kings more in a minute, but let’s talk about the star for a moment. What was the star? And you know, if you go look this up online, you’ll get so many different stories. And one will say this and somebody will come right behind and refute it. And then someone will say the other and someone will come behind and refute it. Why it can’t be. For instance, some say, well, perhaps it was the conjunction of two planets of Venus and Jupiter. When they came together, they created a very bright light. But you’ll have someone come right behind and say, no, it wasn’t that. It couldn’t be because. Others will say it was the tail of a comet. And others will come behind and refute why that could not be true. And then some will say that is the brightening of a nova. A nova is a brand new star that’s being created. And someone will come right behind them and say, no, it can’t be. And they’ll point out historical records and they’ll point out astronomical reasons. And they’ll keep saying, no, it can’t be that. It can’t be the other. It can’t be the other. And try to discredit the star. But you know what I say to all those things? I really don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t know about all of those things. But I can tell you this. That it was a supernatural occurrence. Create it for those magi. Create it for those wise men to find their way. You know, I look in the Bible and I see that when Moses was in the wilderness for 40 years after he fled Egypt, that one day he was taking the sheep like he always did up the same hills and the same places he always had. But today he saw a bush on fire. And that in and of itself is no big deal. Because in the wilderness, the sun can keep beaming down and focus a beam on a piece of wood until you have spontaneous combustion. And a bush can catch on fire. But that was not what made it unusual. It was because it was on fire, but it was not consumed. And Moses said, you know what? I’m going to turn aside and see what this is. And it’s a good thing he did because then the bush started talking to him. Amen. When something unusual comes your way, you need to turn aside and you need to go to the Lord and say, Lord, what is this all about? And so God created that burning bush just for Moses. And then when the children of Israel were out in the wilderness and he was leading them and guiding them, God gave them a pillar of fire that followed them every single night. Imagine a pillar of fire going straight up like a column. Followed them every night. That was supernatural. Amen. It went away in the daytime, came back at night. There were a lot of good reasons for it. Number one, it separated them from their enemy, from Pharaoh. And number two, it would have kept them warm. Amen. Because it gets pretty cold out there in the desert, in the wilderness. It can be blistering in the day and be very cold at night. Amen. So God sent them and it kept them. They were led by it. It was their guiding star, if you will. And then I think about. Paul, when he was still called Saul, and he was on his way to Damascus with letters to go there and round up Christians and bring them back so that they could be sentenced to death. But on the way, a bright light shone out of heaven. Amen. It was so bright, it blinded him. Amen. That was a supernatural light that God created just for Saul. So I say that if God did those things, then he could have created this star that maybe nobody saw it but the wise men. Amen. And when they saw it, they understood something that was out of the scriptures that the rabbis missed and the priests missed. Amen. And the scribes missed. For instance, Genesis 49, 10. I want you to know that this is when Jacob was ready to die and he prophesied over all of his sons. And this is what he prophesied over his son Judah. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and unto him shall be the gathering of the people. Alright, number one, we know what the scepter means. It’s the rod of authority that’s only for kings. Amen? And so, he was saying that a king is going to come out of Judah. Right? Right. Well, now, who was the first king? Saul. Was Saul out of the tribe of Judah? What tribe was he out of? Benjamin. If I were there, I’d say to myself, how come Saul is the king? Because he’s from the tribe of Benjamin. And Jacob said the king’s coming out of Judah. Of course, God had to put Saul in temporarily because the people whined and cried and begged and had a fit. They wanted a king. And God said, all right, I’m going to give you a king. I’m going to give you the desire of your heart, but I’m going to send leanness to your soul. And he let Saul be in there while he was preparing his David. A man after his own heart. Because David was the king from Judah. David was born in the city of Bethlehem. Amen? And so they understood. Okay, this is what the scripture says in Genesis 49.10. And a lawgiver from between his feet. A lawgiver? Well, I thought Moses was the lawgiver, right? Well, Moses wasn’t from Judah, was he? No, where was he from? What tribe? You people need to get in your Bibles. This is basic information. Basic. I just said a moment ago, what tribe did God choose to be his priests? Levi. Who was the first high priest? Who was the first high priest? No, the first high priest with Moses. Aaron. Who was Aaron? Aaron. What was his relationship to Moses? I’m back in Sunday school now. I’m teaching children, okay? Okay, how was Aaron related to Moses? His brother. So if Aaron was from the tribe of Levi, now this is hard, folks. Put on your thinking caps. What tribe was Moses from? God. Levi. So if this is referring the law givers coming out of the tribe of Judah and Moses came out of the tribe of Levi, then he’s not talking about Moses. He’s talking about Shiloh. Who’s Shiloh? Yeah, you’re quiet now. If you didn’t know who Moses and Aaron was, I know you don’t know who Shiloh is. Let me tell you the meaning in Hebrew. he who’s right it is he who’s right it is it is an idiom it’s a figure of speech that means messiah how many understand so far so the king shall not depart from judah the king so it can’t be Saul, it has to be in the line of David. Nor a lawgiver from between his feet can’t be Moses. Moses is from the tribe of Levi. Until Shiloh comes. Until the Messiah comes. Until the one whose right it is. Whose right it is to be king. Whose right it is to be lawgiver. How many got it now? How many are not, still don’t know, raise your hand. You wouldn’t raise your hand anyway, would you? I feel like I’m back in teaching Sunday school. It’s actually, I’m having a lot of fun. I don’t know if you are, but I am. I’m having fun at your expense. Is that okay? Okay. So. Here’s the thing. There were kings on the throne of Judah for centuries and centuries and centuries. There was a point where Israel had 10 tribes so wicked that God split the nation in two. 10 tribes became Israel and he kept Judah alive. Benjamin because Benjamin was located in the area of Judah he kept those two tribes and did not let them go into captivity the ten were taken to Babylon but he kept the two there and kept the kings of Judah on the throne he did it for the sake of David because he told David you shall never ever cease to have a king on the throne And it went that way for 150 years. But 150 years later, Judah had become so wicked that God had to let them go into captivity too. And that was the end. There were no more kings. But now, the prophecy is going to come to pass. And we’re not talking about to sit on the throne in Judah, in Jerusalem. We’re talking about the kingdom. The law giver of God. Whose right it is. The Messiah. Amen. You know what? After the last king was killed. Taken off the Babylon and killed. And that was the end. It was 400 years. They had not heard from God. And I read that during the time that Jesus was born and walked and living on the earth, during that time of Jesus’ life, the rabbis of that day used to walk around the city and they were lamenting and they were mourning. I don’t know if they were doing this out loud. I don’t know how they were doing it. But they would walk the streets of Jerusalem lamenting and they would say… Woe unto us. For the scepter has been taken from Judah. And Shiloh has not come. I’m going to say that again. They walked around saying woe unto us. For the scepter the king has been taken from Judah. And Messiah still has not come. But. But. He was right there in their midst and they didn’t even know it. John said, and he came unto his own, but his own received him not. Amen. You didn’t know that was so many nuggets in the Christmas story, did you? So let’s get back to our Magi. At the time of Jesus’ birth, it was only the Magi who recognized the significant star. Now we need to go to Matthew chapter 2 for that story. How many are following? Verse 1. Verse 1. The word here for wise men in the Greek is magos. M-A-G-O-S. And this referred to the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians. Modern day Iran and Iraq. It referred to wise men, astrologers, teachers, pagan priests, and those who interpreted dreams. It is very… probable that a lot of these were mixed in with the jews because remember the jews were sent in exile first the 10 tribes and then the other two tribes were sent in exile here to babylon in these areas and you know if they got sent to exile for being sinful disobedient and rebellious against god’s word we can pretty well figure when they got there they were going to marry pagans Amen. How many understand what I’m saying? So it’s very probable that now these hundreds of years later you have where the Jews mixed in with the Arabs, the Persians, the Medes, et cetera. They may not have all been Arabs, but anyway, mixed in with them. And so during the time, remember when Daniel and the three Hebrew boys had to go to Babylon, they went in that one exile and Daniel, You know, the king had the dreams and he couldn’t find anybody to interpret them. And finally they figured out that Daniel could tell him everything. And Daniel could tell the dreams, interpret the dreams and everything. And so the scripture says that Daniel and the three Hebrew boys were ten times wiser. Then all of Nebuchadnezzar’s and all the other Kings, their wise men, all those that were in their court that were in their cabinet, their advisors, Daniel and the three Hebrew boys were 10 times wiser than all of them. Amen? And so I would say that no doubt during that time, well, you know, it was so much so that the king made Daniel over all of them, over all of his wise men and all of his astrologers, etc. And I have to know that Daniel would have shared with them the scriptures. Amen? And I believe that they knew what we just read about Jacob telling his son Judah and knew what Balaam said about the star of Israel, the star of Jacob and the scepter of Israel. They would have had that information. And that’s who these wise men were. And so they came. They came to find this baby Jesus, this king. They said there’s a king, amen, king of the Jews, and we’ve come, we’ve followed a star in the east, and we have come to worship him. Amen. I trust you’re being inspired by the remarkable account of Balaam’s prophetic star. We have all heard about Balaam and his talking mule, but were you aware of the stunning messianic prophecy Balaam spoke over the Israelite camp in the wilderness? He was hired to curse them, but every time he opened his mouth, blessings came out. And the third time he pronounced a prophetic parable of a kingly star that would rise out of Jacob. and 1,500 years later, wise men from the East followed that very star to the infant King of Kings. Balaam’s prophetic star is available on CD and MP3s. To purchase the CD by mail, send a minimal love gift of $10. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK225. Or go online to soundoffaith.org to order on CD or MP3s. But to order by mail, send your love gift of $10 or more to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK-225. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
