Читать книгу A Child's Life Of Christ - Stretton Hesba - Страница 8

CHAPTER IV. The Wise Men.

AMONG the many travelers who visited Jerusalem, which was the most magnificent city of the East, there came at this time a party of distinguished strangers, who had journeyed from the far East. They were soon known to be both wise and wealthy; men who had given up their lives to learned and scientific studies, especially that of astronomy. They said they had seen, in their close and ceaseless scrutiny of the sky, a new star, which, for some reason not known to us, they connected with the distant land of Judaea, and called it the star of the King of the Jews.

There was an idea spread throughout all countries at that time that a personage of vast wisdom and power, a Deliverer, was about to be born among the Jews. These wise men at once set off for the capital of Judaea; for where else could the King of the Jews be born? Possibly they may have expected to find all the city astir with rejoicings; but they could not even get an answer to their question, " Where is he? " Those who had heard of him had kept the secret faithfully. But before long Herod was told of these extraordinary strangers, and their search for a new-born King, who was no child of his. He was an old man, nearly seventy, and in a wretched state, both of body and mind; tormented by his conscience, yet not guided by it, and ready for any measure of cunning and cruelty. All Jerusalem was troubled with him, for not the shrewdest man in Jerusalem could guess what Herod would do in any moment of rage.

Herod immediately sent for all the chief priests and scribes, who came together in much fear and consternation, and demanded of them where the Messiah should be born. They did not attempt to hesitate, or conceal the birth-place. If any of them had heard of the child of Bethlehem, and Simeon's and Anna's statement concerning him, their dread of Herod was too powerful for them to risk their own lives in an attempt to shield him. "In Bethlehem," they answered promptly. Right glad would they be when Herod, satisfied with this information, dismissed them, and they went their way safe and sound to their houses. Thus at the outset the chief priests and scribes proved themselves unwilling to suffer anything for the Messiah, whose office it was to bring to them glory and dominion.

Privately, but courteously, Herod then sent for the wise men, and inquired of them diligently how long it was since the star appeared; and bade them seek the child in Bethlehem, and when they had found him to bring him word, that he might go and do homage to him also. There was nothing in the king's manner or words to arouse their suspicions of his real purpose, and no doubt they set out for Bethlehem with the intention of returning to Jerusalem.

Still it appeared likely that there would be some difficulty in discovering the child, of whom they knew nothing certainly, except that they were to search, and to search diligently, for him in Bethlehem. They rejoiced with exceeding great joy, therefore, when, as they left the walls of Jerusalem behind them in the evening dusk, they saw the star again hanging in the southern sky, and going before them on their way. No need now for guides, no need to wander up and down the streets, asking for the new-born King. The star, or meteor, stood over the humble house where the young child was, and, entering in, they saw him, with Mary, his mother, and fell down, doing him homage as the King whose star was even now shining above the lowly roof that sheltered him. There was no palace, no train of servants, no guard, save the poor carpenter, whose day's work was done, and who was watching over the young child; but they could not be mistaken. The future glorious King of the Jews was here.

They had not come from their distant country to seek a king emptyhanded. Royal presents they had prepared and brought with them; and now they opened their treasures, and offered costly gifts to him, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh, such as they would have presented, had they found the child in Herod's own palace in Jerusalem. Then, taking their leave, they were about to return to Herod, when a warning dream, which they could not mistake or misinterpret, directed them to depart into their country another way.

The hour was at hand when the costly gifts of the wise men would be necessary for the preservation of the poor little family, not yet settled and at home in its new quarters. Even as a babe the Son of man had not where to lay his head; and no spot on earth was a resting-place for him. After the wise men were gone, the angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him."

Mary's chilly fears then were being realized, and she felt the first prick of the sword that should pierce her soul. The visit of the wise men from the far East had been another hour of exultation and another testimony to the claims of her Son. Possibly they may have told her that the king himself wished to come down from Jerusalem, and worship him; and dreams of splendor, of kingly and priestly protection for the infant Messiah might well fill her mind. But now she learned that Herod was seeking the child's life, to destroy him. They could not escape too quickly; there was no time to be lost. The angel's words were urgent, "Arise, at once."

It was night; a winter's night, but there must be no delay. At daybreak the villagers would be astir, and they could not get away unseen. Before the gray streak of light was dawning in the east, they ought to be some miles on the road. Mary must carry the child, shielding him as best she could from the chilly dampness of the night; and Joseph must load himself with the wise men's gifts. Little had she thought, when those rich foreigners were falling down before her child in homage, that only a night or two later she would be stealing with him through the dark and silent streets, as if she was a criminal, not the happy mother of the glorious Messiah. And they were to flee out of the Holy Laud itself, into Egypt, the old land of bondage!

Unseen, unnoticed, the flight from Bethlehem was made. They were but strangers there; and very few, if any, of the inhabitants would miss the strangers from Nazareth, who had settled among them so lately, and who had now gone away again with as little observation as they came.

Herod very soon came to the conclusion that the wise men, for some reason or other unknown to him, did not intend to obey his orders. They would very well have made the journey to Bethlehem in a day, and when he found that they did not return to him, he was exceeding wroth; for kings do not often meet with those who disregard their invitations. He quickly made up his mind what to do. If the wise men had brought him word where the child was, he would have been content to slay only him; now he must destroy all the infants under two years of age, to make sure of crushing the life which threatened his crown. There was ample margin in the two years for any mistake on his own part, or that of the wise men. The child must perish if he put to death all the little ones of the unhappy village.

We wonder if the news reached Mary in her place of refuge and safety in Egypt. Whilst she went about the streets of Bethlehem she must have seen many of those little children in their mothers' arms; their laughter and their cries had rung in her ears; and with her newly-opened mother's eyes she had compared them with her own blessed child, and loved them dearly for his sake. Now she would know the dire meaning of these words, " In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." A mystery of grief began to mingle itself with the mystery of her Son's life. In her heart, which was forever pondering over the strange events that had already befallen him and herself, there must always have been a very sad memory of the children who had perished on his account; and it may be that one of the first stories her lips uttered to the little Son at her knee was the story of their winter's flight into Egypt, and the slaying of all the children under two years of age who lived in Bethlehem, the place where he was born.