LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: MATTHEW 2:7-15
Lesson 3 December 19, 2020
Key verse
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 2:11
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
When Jesus was born Angels came down from heaven to sing a beautiful song to welcome to Earth. Amazing light shone all around them and shepherds in the field saw this and came to worship Jesus. Then they went and spread the news that the Lord Jesus Christ the promised Messiah was finally born and would save the nation and the earth.
This light brought by the angels was very bright. But there was also another light that came to guide people to go and worship Jesus. When Jesus was born there was also a guiding star which was very bright and it marked out exactly where Jesus was when he was a little baby under two years old.
This guiding star was very important for those people at home looking for Jesus to worship Him and to bring Him valuable gifts.
The Lord God had put a light, or we can call it some information into their heads, so that they were very excited and curious about this new Child that was going to be born as a King . So they read the ancient Scriptures of the Old Testament like Micah 5 and Number 24 (the prophesy of the pagan Balaam) and the other information they found probably in the Book of Daniel and realized that there had been prophecies that eventually a King of the Jews was going to be born and that He should be worshiped.
They did not know exactly where He was going to be but they spent a lot of time and money and traveled over 1,000 miles to find the baby Jesus. God had put an idea into their heads and had turned on a light for them so they wanted to see what this light had revealed. So they pack up their bags and traveled a long distance through rain, snow, heat and dangerous territory. It was a dangerous journey but they were determined to find this Child that God sent to earth. The knowledge that God the Father had given them was very important to them for this Child would be Holy.
Maybe you had been given an idea about Jesus and you wanted to do some research and find out everything about Him. That is very good. When you get a idea and it brightened up your mind you should talk to God and get directions and follow the directions.
Some people might have laughed at these Wise Men or Magi who came we think from the country which we now call Iran or Persia. Many years before people called Wise Men had been advisers to the kings of that country and people respected them. But now some of them had been given a new mission and they had a new search to make their lives brighter and better.
God had sent a Star and they followed the Star and came to Jerusalem to us where they thought the King of the Jews would be born. Everybody was quite agitated for the King of that country did not like anybody that would be King’. He was very jealous. But in order to find out where the new King was so that he could probably kill the child who God had appointed and who was going to be King, this King called Herod the Great had a big discussion group including the Jews that knew a lot about the Bible called Pharisees and scribes. They told the King Herod that the Bible had predicted that Jesus the Son of God would be born in Bethlehem. So Herod told the Wise Men or Magi to go and find out everything about Jesus and to come back to him and tell him where he was. This bad man decided that he would kill Jesus because he didn’t want Jesus to be King.
When the Wise Men or Magi left Jerusalem the Star appeared and led them exactly to where Jesus and His mother was. They knew that God had sent the special Star to guide them to Jesus the Son of God and so they followed the Star.
When they came to the house where Jesus was they rejoiced with exceeding joy. Then knelt down by the baby to show respect to Him and worshipped Him and then they gave Him extremely expensive and valuable gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These gifts were the kind of gifts that one would give to a King. These Wise Men or Magi knew exactly who Jesus was and when they had been led by God the Father they found Jesus. After their long travel they were filled with joy and excitement.
They had followed the light inside them and that had brought them great joy. Then they followed the light, the Star that God provided and they found the baby Jesus after they went to Jerusalem.
It was a pity for all the people in Jerusalem knew that Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God was born and that He had come to help them. But they did not seem too concerned about that. They went about their own business and did not pay attention to what was happening.
So the Wise Men or Magi when they found out from the bible Scholars that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, they did not worry about the disobedient king Herod, the disobedient religious leaders of the nation, and the disobedient and indifferent ordinary people who just went about trying to make a living. None of them wanted to pay attention to the fact that God promised to send a Saviour to redeem them from their sins.
So the Wise Men followed the light of God and they found joy and great satisfaction. They would be able to go home and tell the people they had found the Messiah who God had sent to save the world and remove sin from the Earth.
But the disobedient king Herod who only thought about himself and was so wicked and mentally ill that anybody that he thought would be a rival to him would be killed, did not like the idea that the Wise Men did not come back to tell him where the baby Jesus was. An angel had warned them not to go back and tell the king Herod anything but to go home by another way.
Herod was so wicked and was very upset that he sent his soldiers to kill all the babies under two years old in Bethlehem and in the surrounding area.
But of course God knew what king Herod was planning to do and He sent an angel to warn Joseph and Mary to take the baby Jesus away from there and to go to Egypt where He would be safe with other friends and family.
This teaches us the importance of having parents who will protect you. They know the dangers in this world. They will tell you not to put certain things in your mouth, not to eat certain things for it to make you sick, not to go out on the road where fast moving cars and trucks might injure you, and not to make friends with some people who do not want to follow the ways of God and would want to do bad things.
Joseph and Mary were good parents and they would listen to God, obey God, and protect Jesus when they were told by the angel to leave their home. They would stay away from Bethlehem until Herod died and then they would return home.
So we learn a lesson of obedience to what God has told us. He would protect us from danger and harm. So listen to what the Scriptures say for it gives us wisdom which would keep us out of trouble.
It is important therefore to follow the light that God has given to us. God might not show us a star that is in the sky to guide us but God will talk to us in different ways. Sometimes God talks to us in a still, small voice and so we have to learn to listen to Him and be guided by what He says to us. When we do that we will be following the Holy Light of God and responding to God the King properly.
We will find joy just as the Wise Men or Magi found everlasting joy.
We will learn to be safe when we follow the directions of God.