Characters at the Cradle: The Wise Men, Guided to God’s Perfect Light

by David Chadwick

Matthew 2:19-23 is how we will wrap up our study of the Wise Men. Today also completes our eight-week series where we have looked at the many characters who found themselves connected to the cradle of Jesus.

Herod finally died in 4 A.D. While in Egypt, an angel of the Lord appeared once again to Joseph in a dream. He told Joseph that it was now safe to return to Israel. Joseph rose and went back to Nazareth in Israel.

As I have heard my daughter say to her children, obedience brings blessing, and disobedience brings discipline. Thankfully, once again, Joseph obeyed. Immediately. Fully. Completely. At this point in Joseph’s life, he was very skilled in hearing the Lord and responding with both obedience and faith.

Joseph heard that Archelaus, Herod’s son, was now ruling over Judea, and he was not a good guy either. So, Joseph was afraid to go back to Bethlehem. Then it appears in verse 22 that Joseph may have had another dream with a warning that caused him to go to the district of Galilee. Back they went, specifically to Nazareth, the town where Mary and Joseph lived before Jesus’s birth.

You know there must have been some hesitation with this decision. Mary and Joseph had to live among many whispers that this child had been conceived before marriage. Others may have wondered if Mary had committed adultery.

These rumors and shadows would always be there in Jesus’s life and upbringing. But at least they had familiarity there, a carpentry business, something they most assuredly did not have in Egypt. And in spite of knowing the whispers surrounding them, they still obeyed! Perhaps this return to Nazareth would, in part, fulfill the prophecy that said that the Messiah would be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3).

We also know that Nazareth was despised in the time of Jesus (John 1:46). But this part of the story shows, once again, that God can take the most despised, broken, insignificant people and places and use them for his glory. He does not need ability, but availability.

Mary and Joseph were available. The Wise Men were available. And most of all, Jesus was available. And through all of these characters’ availability, the world was forever and positively changed through a baby in a cradle. And from that moment on, the ministry of Jesus was ready to begin! Explore it further in your own study as you come face to face with the MAIN character at the cradle… Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior of the world.