Jewells of Thought

Wow so because of some Christmas excursions and appointments and life I am putting these together. Both are heavy topics. None of the Herod’s in the Bible were any good, but this particular one is despicable in so many ways. Although Herod Antipas beheading John the Baptist is in the same atrociousness.

Back to this Herod the Great, who is not so great was very astute though. When the Magi came to Bethlehem looking for this “King of the Jews”, he was worried. In his mind he knew full well he was not the rightful Jewish King they looked for. That must have punched him in the gut when he realized these kings were knowledgeable and knew more than he did about a King in his own land being born.

Angela mentioned earlier in this book that possibly these wise men could very well have been Jewish scholars that stayed behind in Persia. What if descendants from Queen Esther’s family from marriage or her Jewish family was a part of that caravan? Mordecai and Daniel among others stayed when others returned to their homeland. What a thought though to expound on!

The Magi have always been fascinating to me. They read the stars during Covid among the first times we finally made it back to the pews that year it was Mother’s Day. The next Sunday we had a speaker, a missionary, who had spent a little bit of time in Egypt he spoke to us about the stars. The Gospels were written within the star constellations; it was exciting to see it in the scriptures say that very thing and he showed us nearly every address it occurred. In college, I wish I could find this again I got to watch a video on the actual constellations. I saw the photos he was talking about in the stars and made of stars they were beautiful, but right now the cross is the only one I can remember.

It’s incredible how God guided those men in that caravan for two years. Then the timing of their gifts the gold, frankincense and myrrh. They had it just in time for their essential travel to Egypt. Again Egypt is still a country God is working in as He did in Bible Times. Just because God led His people out of that land doesn’t mean He was done with it this shows that because a Hellenistic remnant found themselves back in Egypt during Christ’s time.

This is why I love history; it is certainly not boring!

Secondly If Christmas Had Not Come… wow. That’s a poignant thought. A sad and somewhat distressing thought. Would life have meaning? God gives us a purpose this lesson is much shorter, but much more thought provoking.

Angela mentioned that charity organizations wouldn’t be named for saints. This lesson goes hand in hand with what is going on right now in America. Erasing our moral strongholds. Revolutionary War Era statues being either defaced or torn down altogether. That doesn’t alone change history, but the Liberal Left is working very hard and has dumbed down our younger populations and what history they have been force-fed is revisionist in nature.

America wouldn’t exist without God; it was because of religious persecution that many came to these shores. Our younger generation has lived the notion of a free nation with abundance for too long that we have Americans that are coddled and have no idea about the Great Depression or any of the World Wars what life was like for our grandparents or greats.

I could have been one of those kids not thinking about life until my Grandpa died. Sometimes a jolt is necessary, but when kids aren’t taught to think for themselves how do they learn to do so without that jolt.

After Chapter 20, with Herod and The Magi is a family activity. I actually really want to try this with my niece. We don’t have a Menorah, but I love this idea of lighting a candle for each person in the Nativity story and explaining the story and then having a child see if they can answer what person did what specifically. This sounds like a really good family time activity.

God is the middle candle and you use that candle to light all of the others. The first person is Judah Maccabee. 2. Zechariah and Elizabeth. 3. Mary. 4. Joseph. 5 The Family that let Mary and Joseph in at Bethlehem. 6. Shepherds. 7. Simeon and Anna. I hope I get a chance to do this somehow.