The Star

 This morning, for my Advent, I added the star to my poster. 

The verse accompanying today's entry is:  A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.  Numbers 24:17

But what really caught my attention was the subheading in the booklet, which said "an unusually bright star which appeared in the sky."  It got me thinking, and when you work in a no-brainer job like mine, you tend to have a lot of time to think.  But that's beside the point. 

It got me thinking.  That the star was unusually big or unusually bright is a commonly held cultural belief, but was it really?  You'd think an astronomical phenomenon like that, like an unusually big and bright star suddenly appearing, would command quite a bit of attention, yet none of the secular historians of the day mention it.  Luke doesn't even mention it in his gospel. 

He talks about an angel, and the heavenly host, but no star.  As detailed as Luke liked to be about things, you'd think he'd mention a big, bright star.  

Then there is King Herod.  Given the level of paranoia he suffered, to the point of having his own sons killed because he was afraid they'd try to take the throne, he'd be all over something like a giant star as an omen, or whatever, and would raise quite the ruckus.  

Yet, he didn't.  According to the Bible, Herod didn't raise a ruckus until the Magi arrived in Jerusalem claiming to have seen the new King's star.  (Matthew 2:3 -- When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.)  

So, what was the star of Bethlehem?  People have been trying to figure that out for the last two millennia, and there have been multiple theories.  The most commonly held beliefs are that it was a planetary conjunction or a comet.  We know that it couldn't have possibly been either of those, because the Maji had been following the star for two-ish years.  (Matthew 2:16 --   When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.)

I've seen both planetary conjunctions and comets, and they don't hang around that long.  A conjunction usually only lasts a few days -- with peak conjunction coming in a single night when it usually too cloudy to see it.  Or is that just me?  And a comet is only visible for a few weeks.  So, that rules out both of those. 

Some folks want to say the star was a supernova, which I suppose is possible, but highly unlikely.  For one thing, they don't really move.  I mean, they expand and all, but they generally stay in the same place in the sky.  Matthew 2:9 says, After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.   A supernova is a pretty amazing thing, but somehow I doubt it can lead men around like that.  

Which brings us back to the original question, what was the star of Bethlehem?  The answer I'm about to give you is my own personal thoughts and feelings.  I have no Biblical or theological evidence to support what I'm about to say, but it is what I firmly believe.  

I believe the star of Bethlehem was a miraculous phenomenon sent by God specifically to the Magi with the express purpose of leading them to the Christ child, and as such, only they could see it.  Furthermore, I believe that once it had shown them where Jesus was, it vanished, never to be seen again.  Say what you want.  That's what I believe.  

Which brings us to the next question.  Why?  

Why would God send a star to a bunch of Persian Zoroastrians to lead them to his only son?  By the way, we believe that they were from Persia because of the term Magi.  The conundrum there is in the translation of the word from the original text.  It's the commonly held that this is what Matthew meant when he was writing his gospel, but the oldest versions I can find simply say they were men who studied the stars.  Astronomer, if you will.  But, the standard belief is that they were Zoroastrians from Persia, because it is known that they studied the stars, so we'll roll with that.  That detail isn't really that important anyway. 

The point is, they weren't Jews.  The weren't men the Jews would consider faithful to God, so why did God even send for them?  

Folks, God sent for the Magi for us.  For you and me.  So that we would know that Jesus didn't come just for the pious.  He didn't just come for the righteous.  He didn't just come for the faithful.    He came for the unfaithful.  He came for everyone.  He came for us. 

So come, all you unfaithful.  Come.  

Christ was born for you.