Epiphany Of The Lord

Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem!  Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance. Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you: your sons come from afar, and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.

Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow, for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you, the wealth of nations shall be brought to you. Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the LORD. (Isaiah 60:1-6)

According to the New World Encyclopedia, (begin) Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled by the birth of King Hezekiah, according to Jewish belief. Hezekiah was the 13th king of independent Judah in the Bible. The son of King Ahaz, who is portrayed in the narrative as a notorious idolater, Hezekiah reversed his father's policy and became an ardent monotheist who repressed Canaanite religion and attempted to centralize worship of Yahweh in Jerusalem. 

He reigned 29 years and is praised by biblical writers as one of the very best of the kings of Judah. In Christian tradition, Hezekiah is specifically mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Hezekiah reigned from 715-687 B.C.E. He ruled the southern Kingdom of Judah during the conquest and forced resettlement of the northern Kingdom of Israel by Sargon of Assyria. (end)

The aforementioned historical information along with Isaiah’s description: “…Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance…the wealth of nations shall be brought to you. Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the LORD,” served for Matthew’s text that reads:

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”

When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.” After their audience with the king they set out. 

And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way. (Matthew 2:1-12)

According to Levine and Brettler in their 2020 book The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently: “The Bible was not meant to be a source of hidden predictions, with God as the trickster who tells us what is going to happen only after the fact. The Bible is torah, ‘instruction,’ Yet we must constantly reassess how we teach and live this instruction, for what is appropriate in one period or for one person may not be in another setting or for a different purpose.”

The Three Kings – the magi – provide for a wonderful story during the Christmas season and is a story-source of Christian pageants and lovely manger scenes depicting the infant Jesus. The star leading the magi to baby Jesus likely was derived from Isaiah’s: “See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory.”  

We are all led to Jesus through the light of Christ that shines upon us.  Even though none of us are riding camels and coming from afar, we are the ones who look for signs leading us to him.  Some of those signs are love, compassion, kindness, and the glory of creation of which we are a part.

Deacon David Pierce