NLC Devotional 12/27/2023

Jesus our King, Prophet and High Priest

Well good morning everyone!

i have the honor of doing the Devotions this morning, lots of people are out on vacation, we are already on hump day in the middle of the week and we just finished Christmas, probably one of the most anticipated and celebrated holidays of the year.

So, I’m going to share some thoughts about a story that happens, probably a year or two after Christmas, we tend to lump it in with the Christmas story, you’ve seen these three fancy dressed guys in nativity scenes...

The wise men… or more accurately the Magi

And I don’t know if you’ve ever spent much time thinking about the gifts they brought, but I bet you can name all three of them?

it never actually says there were three wise men, in fact it was probably a whole caravan of people, but since there where 3 gifts, people started assuming 3 wise men.

Lets read: Matt 2:10-12

Matthew 2:10–12 GW

They were overwhelmed with joy to see the star. When they entered the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary. So they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. God warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod. So they left for their country by another road. 

There are lots of things you could study from this short passage in Matthew,

You could study the Magi, their origins and history, the fact that they probably study the prophecy of Daniel which lead them to seek the messiah

The fact that they were royalty, leaders or kings in their own country who had easy audience with the king of Jerusalem, and a big enough deal that all jerusalem was disturbed

Or you could study the Star, you could go back and look at star charts and see in 3 BC the alignment of planets that would have been brighter than anything seen in the night sky other than the moon

You could look into the prophecies like Herod asked the teachers of the law, and see all the ways the coming messiah was foretold...

You could even find Isaiah 60:6

Isaiah 60:6 GW

“Many camels will cover your ⸤land⸥,  young camels from Midian and Ephah.  Everyone from Sheba will come.  They will bring gold and incense.  They will sing the praises of the Lord. 

But I want to focus in on the 3 gifts the magi brought, and just share a few thoughts on the meanings behind the Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. and how they represent the 3 titles Christ holds on our behalf.

Gold: a gift for a king

When we think about the gift of Gold, for most of us it is just a symbol of wealth. gold is a representations of riches. but we wear it on our necks, ears, wrist… maybe our teeth, as a sign of our status. Well gold was a sign of status even 2000 years ago. Gold wasn’t your day to day currency, most coins would have been silver or lesser metals… Gold was a gift for royalty and it was something you would give to a King.

Frankincense: a gift for a priest

Frankincense was incense used in priestly duties of the old testament. Exo 30:34-36

Exodus 30:34–36 NIV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you.

This fragrance was to be placed in the holy of holies, the very place where God’s presence resided in the tabernacle.

This gift repressed Jesus’s priestly office.

Myrrh: a gift for a prophet

Myrrh speaks of death and suffering. an odd gift for a new born. Myrrh was used to wrap dead bodies with, and in fact this is what they did with Jesus after his death. John 19:39-40

John 19:39–40 GW

Nicodemus, the one who had first come to Jesus at night, went with Joseph and brought 75 pounds of a myrrh and aloe mixture.  These two men took the body of Jesus and bound it with strips of linen. They laced the strips with spices. This was the Jewish custom for burial. 

An interesting fact about Myrrh, is that it needs to be crushed to release its fragrance. that there must be some pressure before it blooms.

This gift speaks of Jesus’s Prophetic office. as all the Prophets before him testified, and as he himself testified of his death.

Christ as Prophet

So what is a prophet? we tend to think of the office of prophet just as someone who tells the future, and why predicting future events was validation of the prophets words, the real office of prophet was to be the voice of God to the people.

The prophets had two main rolls, to pronounce Gods judgment