Monday, December 13, 2021
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him. Matthew 2:1-2
What Are You Doing With What You Do Know?
Yesterday we continued our Christmas sermon series – The Journeys of Christmas – with a sermon on the Wisemen. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the wisemen. We don’t know a whole lot about them – who they were, where they came from, or exactly how many of them there were. We know there were three gifts given, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, so we have assumed there were three wisemen, but there could have been many more! We often see them gathered around the manger in a nativity, but they were not there that night. It took them a long time to reach Jesus, days, weeks, months, or maybe even years later. They were not at the stable, but a house when the wisemen finally found them, travelling a total of 800 to 900 miles.
We don’t have all the details about the wisemen, and we can see that they didn’t really have all the details about the baby they were seeking. They had some details because they were astronomers. They studied the stars and somehow (we don’t know how) they knew that this particular star was the star that would lead them to the King of the Jews. They didn’t know how long it would take them to find Him. They didn’t know where they were going, but they knew they were following this star.
All the details really don’t matter. We can get pretty hung up in the details and forget the main purpose or reason for the path we are on. The wisemen didn’t get hung up on what they didn’t know. They didn’t let what they didn’t know stop them or cause them fear. They focused on what they did know and stayed true to the path they were on.
From the sermon Sunday:
Their identity is unimportant.
Their origin is nonessential.
Nor should we waste our time trying to identify the nature of the star that they saw.
What matters is what they did with the knowledge that they had.
God in grace "spoke" to these ancient astronomers in a manner that they could understand – a star. He guided them to the place where Christ was born.
God gives us what we need to complete the vision and purpose He has for us. Just as He gave the wisemen what they needed - the knowledge they needed and the perseverance and faith to keep going - He gives us the knowledge we need. If you have knowledge, you see things that others don’t always see. When we are on the path to fulfilling a vision, we need to stay alert to what God wants us to see. No doubt along the way He will strategically place things in our path - things we can grow from and that will make us stronger, as well as people that will help us and enrich our lives.
What are you doing with what you do know? Are you frozen in place because of all the answers you don’t have? Because you don’t see the next step, or next 10 steps clearly? Stop letting what you don’t know hold you up. Trust God with all the details and keep moving forward in faith.
