THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
Sunday, December 20, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then returned to Nazareth. Though the scripture gives us no account of this time, I know the Holy Spirit and the Angels of God were ministering to her and Joseph through the next months.
In due time, Jesus was born; but not at Nazareth. His birthplace was Bethlehem, a town about six miles from Jerusalem. Bethlehem is perched on the top of a rocky ridge, with flat roofs, white walls, and a valley or meadow below it.
It was among the cornfields of Bethlehem that Ruth, who became the wife of Boaz, gleaned among the reapers. Both are of the lineage of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Bethlehem was the same town where King David, as a boy, kept his father’s sheep, defending them from robbers and beasts of prey. In Bethlehem, David played his shepherd’s pipe made of the reeds gathered in the valley---the flock he had in his charge browsing on the hillsides of Bethlehem. There, too, was “the Well at the Gate,” where his heroes drew water, and from which he had often drank in his childhood.
From Bethlehem, there is one grand view looking across to the mountains of Moab. The Dead Sea is at their base. In the spring the meadows of Bethlehem are covered with a carpet of red, blue and white flowers. The pretty white one is called “The Star of Bethlehem”.
I researched the plant, “Star of Bethlehem”. It is a fragrant, white flower with a star shaped leaf. The Poinsettia also has a star shaped leaf and has become a Christian symbol of the Star of Bethlehem. The red color represents the blood sacrifice through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
I did try to find the white “Star of Bethlehem” as Christmas gifts for today’s service, but was unsuccessful. The Country Club is covered with the beautiful red Poinsettias. Today, we join with Christians around the world filling our sanctuary with the red “Star of Bethlehem”.
In fullness of time, and according to the Lord’s Divine plan, Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, ordered that a roll should be made up of all the people he ruled in his great kingdom. Mary and Joseph’s ancestors belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, and had lived in Bethlehem. They were required to go there to give in their names to the officers appointed to take a census.
We know this was Divinely appointed and fulfilled in the fullness of time.
Mic. 5:2: “But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall He come forth to Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
Their journey to Bethlehem would have been by a camel-track leading through the center of the country. Their approach to Jerusalem would be by the Damascus Gate, passing through the narrow streets, and out again by the great Hebron or South entrance.
On reaching the town of Bethlehem, they would naturally go to the large village Inn or Khan. As we know from the well known story, the inn was filled. Accordingly, they go to the stable of the inn, a place strewn with fodder, where livestock are housed for the night.
How strange for these descendants of Kings, who had been hailed by an Angel, to be treated as outcasts in the city of their fathers!
We spoke of the fields of Bethlehem in bright day-time. Let us now consider the night.
Only those who have been to Palestine know how bright the stars are in that Eastern sky. They look exactly, as the little child said, “like holes in the floor of heaven to let the glory shine through.” On one such beautiful night, a number of shepherds were gathered on the grassy slopes under the town, watching their flocks. The sun had gone down. The women and children of the village had, some hours before, returned from David’s Well with their pitchers of water. The air was so warm and balmy that the Shepherds did not require taking their sheep and goats inside the walls to fold them there. They remained out all night with them in the open meadows.
Everything was quiet---with a strange, peaceful stillness. Nothing was heard but the occasional bleating of the flocks. These Shepherds were surely Godly men. They loved the Great God who created the mountains, valleys, and the bright stars that glittered in the sky. They would have heard the prophets read in the synagogues and would know that one day the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
These would have been men of prayer and faith expecting the coming of the promised Messiah.
Though, perhaps in a very different way from what the godly Shepherds may have expected, their hopes and prayers were on the eve of being answered.
In the midst of these quiet solitudes, a glorious Light in a moment fills the sky and brightens the entire valley. The stars, which a moment before had sparkled so beautifully, are dimmed and hidden with the strange splendor.
What can it be?
It is an Angel sent down from heaven with a message to these keepers of sheep.
We understand they were at first struck with awe and terror. You will be too, when an Angel appears to you. But the Angel spoke kindly to them. He said, “Be not afraid; for I have good news for you; a very joyful message to you and to all mankind.” The angel told them the good news. They were the gladdest tidings the world ever heard; that “a Savior that day had been born in Bethlehem, who was ‘Christ the Lord.”
In answer to their inquiry where this Infant of Glory was to be seen and adored, they were informed that in a place built of rough stones, they would find a baby wrapped in swaddling-bands and lying in a manger, in a stable.
Just as the Shepherds were listening to the story of His birth, a still brighter light filled the heavens, and a vast army of Angels, all white and glorious, appear in the sky.
The heavenly host sang “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.”
An ancient Christmas carol written by an author, unknown to me, gives us this beautiful reflection of that Divinely appointed visitation:
“Shepherds lay afield that night to keep their fleecy sheep;
Hosts of angels in their sight came down from heaven’s steep.
Tiding! Tiding unto you! To you a child is born,
Purer than the drops of dew, and brighter than the morn.”
Then all again was hushed. The heavenly music ceased; and the stars looked down as before from their silent thrones in the sky.
Milton write in his “Hymn on the Nativity”---as the eyes of the blind poet gazed through their darkness on One “Brighter than the Sun”.
“The stars with deep amaze
Stand fix’d in steadfast gaze.
The Sun himself withheld his wonted speed;
And hid his face for shame,
As his inferior flame
The new enlighten’d world no more should need;
He saw a Greater Sun appear
Than his bright throne or burning axle-tree could bear.”
After this visitation, there can be no place for fear, doubt or unbelief. The Godly Shepherds spoke to one another, “Let us not be afraid. Do not let us doubt the word of Angels; or even wait for the morning light. Let us go at once up the slope to Bethlehem and see with our own eyes this wondrous sight which the Lord has made known to us.” (Lk. 2:15-paraphrased)
We are told, “They went with haste” (Lk. 2:16).
They found it all to be true what the Angel had told them. They saw a dim light, fed with olive-oil, burning in the Inn stable, and Joseph and Mary seated by a manger.
How many today would doubt such a visitation from Angels that the promised Messiah had been born in Bethlehem, not in a palace, but in a stable?
The faith-filled “shepherds made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child. All they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told to them.”
These shepherds tending their sheep were the earliest worshippers of the New-born King; that it was to them the Herald Angels first sang the story and the song of grace.
Why would the Lord of Glory choose to make known to shepherds that Christ was born, and at whose cradle they were the first to kneel? “He shall save the souls of the needy” (Ps. 72:13) Yes, this is true, but I choose to believe these were Godly men whose heart was seeking after the Lord. These men were worshippers. These were men of faith who believed, declared and worshipped.
There is an ancient story that one writer supposed that the Inn in which Jesus was born may have been the very house in which Boaz and Ruth lived, which had descended to Jesse the father of David, and in which the sweet singer of Israel and himself lived as a little boy.
We cannot be sure about it; but Bethlehem was still only a village at the time of Christ’s birth. It is not a stretch of my faith to believe that Jesus, the world’s Great Redeemer, was born in the same spot where the gentle Moabitess had dwelt with princely Boaz, and whose walls had listened to David’s prayers.
Eight days after His birth, the Christ child was circumcised according to the Jewish law, and called Jesus. It was in accordance with what the Angel told Joseph in a dream, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”
Luke 2:22: “When the days of Mary’s purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
The days of purification would be six weeks. They were living in Bethlehem until it was time to present Jesus to the Lord. The signs and wonders surrounding His birth are still to unfold.
Joseph, Mary and the baby appear at the temple bringing their offering of turtle doves. They approach the temple like most of the worshippers, by the Eastern Gate, called the Gate Shushan. Continuing they would pass through The Gate Beautiful and up fifteen steps to the Court of the Priests in the center of which was the Altar of burnt-offering.
One priest takes the two doves. He offers them both in sacrifice “before the Lord” on the Great Brazen Altar. Then another comes and receives the infant in his arms. He puts the question to Mary, Is this your first born son? The priest replies, the child being the first-born belongs to the Lord; you cannot receive him back unless you are willing to pay the redemption price. Accordingly Joseph takes five shekels and gives to the Priest. On payment of the stipulated sum, the Heavenly Babe is replaced in Mary’s hands.
Scripture does not indicate that the priests know that he is “the First-born and Prince of the Kings of the Earth” (Rev. 1:5).
There were others, however, then in the temple who had been long waiting for that blissful moment. One was an aged worshipper whose name was Simeon. This man was honored because the Holy Ghost had told him that before he died, he would see Jesus the Messiah, who was coming to “comfort Israel” (Lk. 2:25).
He was living in constant expectation of hailing Him who was “Brighter than the Sun.” he never gave up hope. That day, “He came by the Spirit into the temple” When he saw Joseph, Mary and the Baby coming up the marble staircase which led into the Great Court, he took the child in his arms and blessed God. “For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
“Joseph and Mary marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, Behold this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea a sword shall pierce through your own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
One of weak faith would have doubted, but Simeon never doubted God’s word, and God’s voice.
It was not old men alone, like Simeon, who were made happy by the revelation that Jesus had come. Another aged worshipper---a woman, came into the temple. Her name was Anna. Her husband had died when she was very young. She was a prophetess and served God-- day and night in the temple.
She coming in that instant gave thanks likewise to the Lord and spoke of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
To a devout man and woman of prayer was revealed what still was hidden from the knowledge of priests, rulers and learned Rabbis. God always rewards simple faith and patience.
Through Anna and Simeon’s faith and patience they came to inherit the greatest promise which the Great and Faithful Promiser had ever given to fallen man and a fallen world! “Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise.”
We hear no more about these two aged Saints. They appear like bright morning stars heralding the Day-dawn, and then they vanish from the firmament---lost in that better and brighter radiance.
There were other heralds already on their way from remote Gentile lands, to do homage to this mysterious Infant, whom aged, Simeon had recently sung of as “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” as well as “the glory of God’s people Israel.”
In the countries Far East of Palestine and the Jordan there lived a number of men called “Magi”. They were greatly esteemed at the courts of Oriental kings. Daniel, who was faithful to the true God, was named, Chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon” (Dan. 2:14).
During the 40 days, Joseph, Mary and the Babe were in Bethlehem would have been the time of the visit of the wise men.
On the night of the appearance of the star, the Magi observed the new star, brighter than the rest. They too expected at this period the coming of a Great King who was to rule over the whole world.
These “star-gazers” would have been familiar with the prophecy given by Balaam, a prophet and sorcerer in their own country. He had stood on top of one of the hills of Moab and prophesied “a star” would one day “come out of Jacob”. When they saw the new bright light in the heavens, they would consider it was Balaam’s star--- 1400 years after the prophecy.
This is not a stretch because when Herod called together all the chief priests and scribes together and demanded of them where Christ should be born, they said to him, Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet.
Matthew 2:6: “And you Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of you shall come a Governor, that shall rule My people Israel.”
“When they arrived in Jerusalem, they inquired of Herod the King, saying, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship him.”
Again, I must believe these kings of the east were men of God. They knew the God of heaven was speaking to them and guiding them by His own star.
They found the child in Bethlehem and fell down and worshipped Him. They poured their riches at his feet.
Both heaven and earth united to worship the Christ Child.
- Angels were sent to the plains of Bethlehem.
- A beautiful Star in the sky above told of the birth of Christ.
- Simeon and Anna, prophesied to the Infant of Days as the Lord and Savior.
- Wise Men of the East – were led by the Star and found Him in Bethlehem.
- Shepherds from the hills of Bethlehem were the first to worship Him.
Let us join our praises with Heaven and be found worshipping Him, who is the Star of Bethlehem, the Golden Lamp of the temple of Jerusalem, The Light of Israel, the Light of the World, and the Salvation of the World.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of John Ross MacDuff, “Brighter Than the Sun”. The story has been paraphrased. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Brother MacDuff.