Today's Scripture Reading (November 28, 2023): Matthew 2
What do we do with the Star of Bethlehem? I need to give
some disclaimers here. I believe in the Bible, all of it. The great theologian
Alice Cooper said, "If it is in the Bible, I believe it." I get that;
the belief describes me. And yet, in the same way, we have a history of treating
the poetic writing in the Bible as if it were literal, and we misunderstand
what the Bible says. It isn't ever that the Bible is wrong; it is that we don't
know how to read it.
And to be honest, that is how I feel when I approach
the Star of Bethlehem. I have periodically read articles exploring the
possibilities for the star and understand the popular opinion of the star as
recorded in our songs as something that hung literally in the sky in such a way
that it could be followed. But something doesn't quite make sense.
Let's start with the star itself. The closest star
that we know of is our sun. Have you ever tried to find the location on the
earth over which the sun is shining? And if you happen to find the spot, how
close can you pinpoint that location? Can we identify that place to something
as small as an inconsequential stable in a little town? The answer is that we
can't. If there were a star that we could follow to a stable, it would have to
be within our atmosphere, maybe hovering just a few meters off the ground. A
star, or even a wandering comet, is just too far away to help us pinpoint something
as small as the stable where Jesus was born.
Add to this the language with which the Bible
introduces this star. The New International Version calls it a rising star. The
King James calls it the Star of the East. We also believe the wise men or the
Magi were from the East. But, if you are in the East and you see a star shining
in the East, and you follow that star, it should carry you further east, not
west toward Israel. I know it is traditional to understand that the Magi
followed the star, but is it possible that they weren't following a literal
star in a particular direction but following a message they had inferred from the
stars? These instructions first took them to Jerusalem before taking them to
Bethlehem.
I think the solution to the problem is found in the
ones who followed the star: the wise men (maybe). The problem with the wise men,
or even the more traditional kings, is that it is the politically correct
translation. A more literal translation of this class of people is that they
were seers or astrologers. The problem with this translation is that
astrologers aren't well respected by the Bible. I love Isaiah's tongue-in-cheek
evaluation; "All
the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers
come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by
month, let them save you from what is coming upon you." (Isaiah 47:13)
The wise men weren't astronomers seeking out the
secrets of the origins of the distant lights; they were astrologers seeking the
secret messages that the motion of the stars holds for us. Today, these wise
men would have been writers of horoscopes. They believed the stars held secret
information for us and our futures. When they followed the star, they were actually
following a message that they had manufactured from the movement of the stars
in the sky, a statement that said that a King had been born in Israel.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 2
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