There is the need for someone to bring forth Christ, and there is also the need for someone to find Christ and to worship Him as the wise men did. In the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph brought forth Christ by coordination. However, there were also the wise men to confirm the birth of Jesus and to worship Him. Here we have another case, and this case establishes more principles for the New Testament service. The wise men were guided by the heavenly star to find the living Christ. We need to remember that the first mentioning of any matter in the Bible has tremendous significance. Therefore, we need to consider carefully the account in Matthew 2 of the wise men finding Christ, that we too in this present day may be numbered among those who truly find the living Christ.
Before we come to the case in point, let me mention a few pertinent things. When we were young, many of us attended Sunday schools and in that setting were presented with the Bible as a book of stories. Undoubtedly, no other book is such a good story book as the Bible. I can still remember listening to my mother recount the story of Joseph in our home. Many Christians make the Bible a story book, and some, especially the great teachers and speakers, make it a book of teachings. Whereas some make the Gospel of Matthew a book of stories, there are teachers who make it a book of teachings, dispensations, and doctrine concerning the kingdom. We need to consider ourselves and how we should take the Bible. The entire Bible is a book of life; on every page of this book there is life. Therefore, we should take it as life and as the life supply.
Let me illustrate. When the Sadducees attempted to debate with the Lord Jesus concerning resurrection, they took a portion of the Old Testament and said, “Teacher, Moses said, If anyone dies not having children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed to his brother” (Matt. 22:24). Then they proceeded to tell how seven brothers had the same wife and eventually all died. Those foolish Sadducees thought they were clever. They asked the Lord Jesus, “In the resurrection, therefore, of which of the seven will she be the wife?” (v. 28). The Lord Jesus also chose a portion of Scripture and answered, “Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (vv. 31-32). Therefore, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will all be resurrected. In the very title of God, the Lord Jesus pointed out the life—not the story, not the teaching, but the life.
Another example is found in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1. In that chapter we have a story of God’s creation— but actually that is not a story. Indeed, some great teachers have set forth doctrines from this chapter. For our part, we need to forget both the story and the teachings; we should concentrate on the life. In Genesis 1, what we need to see is life. The same applies to Matthew chapter one. In that chapter regarding the genealogy and conceiving of Christ we do have a story and a certain amount of teaching. Nevertheless, we should not care for the story or the teaching; we should care for the life. Some Christians may take the Gospel of John as a book of life, but we should also take the Gospel of Matthew and, in fact, every book in the Bible, as life and as the life supply.
Now we come to the case in Matthew chapter two, the matter of finding Christ. This is the second case in the New Testament service, and in this case the first point is the matter of the living guidance to find Christ and to serve Him. In the Lord’s service, we need guidance that is living, with nothing merely according to Bible knowledge. Please do not be offended by such a statement; as we consider this case of finding Christ, I believe you will see what I mean.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem. There is no doubt about this—it is a fact of history. The strange thing, however, is this: far away from the so-called holy land, far away from the genuine religion, far away from the temple, far away from the Jewish religious center, far away from the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, and all the religious people, was a star showing something of Christ in a heathen land. It did not appear to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, the heathen. Again and again people have been told that they must find Christ and know Christ by the Bible. However, the first case of finding Christ in the Scriptures was not by the Bible. The wise men did not have any Bible knowledge—they did not even have a Bible.
Merely to hold the Bible in our hand and read Micah 5:2, which indicates that Christ will be born in Bethlehem, does not work. We may say after we have read it that we have it, but we may not have seen it. We may have it, but nothing has happened to us. Those chief priests and scribes knew the Bible so well, but the Lord did not go to them. He went far away to a heathen land to reveal this matter to some pagans, not through the Scriptures, but through something which human hands cannot touch—a heavenly star.
We may have the Bible, yet we may miss the star. To hold the Book in our hand is easy, but to wait and look unto the star is rather difficult. We simply do not know when and where the star will appear. We may study the Scriptures and obtain a degree in those studies, and we may learn all that the Bible has to say about Christ, but we simply cannot determine when the star will come. The Book was with the Jewish people, the religious people, but the star appeared to the heathen. Have you seen this? We may think that the star should have appeared to those priests praying in the temple, but it appeared to some pagans far away from the temple.
Oh, we all need to see this star! It is not a matter of holding the Bible, but a matter of seeing the star. What is the star? The star is the living revelation, the living vision, not the dead knowledge of the Scriptures in the letter, not the dead knowledge of Micah 5:2. What we need today is not merely Bible knowledge, but the heavenly vision, the instant vision, the living vision, the vision that human concept cannot teach.
Let me check with you. What do you have? Do you have the Scripture verses, or do you have the star? Do you have the scriptural knowledge, or do you have the heavenly star? Do you have the teachings concerning an old way, or do you have the up-to-date, instant vision? Today many have the Bible in their hands, but they have not seen the star. Merely to have the Bible in our hand may be a deadening thing, but to see the star is a living experience. To find and serve Christ according to the principle shown us in Matthew chapter two was not according to the Old Testament Scriptures. To know Christ today is something living, not according to the knowledge of the Bible in dead letters, but according to the living, heavenly star.
In this case, the Lord went away from religion, even from the scriptural religion. Wherever and whenever we set up a religion, the Lord may simply go elsewhere. We cannot circumscribe, confine, or restrict the Lord with our religion. We need to learn in the church life never to set up a religion. We should not insist that this method or that way is right. If you do that, the Lord may say: “It may be right for you, but I do not care for it. If you were not so right, I would be with you; but because you are so right, I will go to those who are wrong.” When we insist that we are right and others are wrong, the Lord may leave us and go to the ones who are wrong. The Pharisees claimed to be so fundamental, so sound, and so scriptural; yet it was as if the Lord Jesus said, “All right, you are so sound, but I will have nothing to do with you; I will go to the publicans and sinners. I will not only go to see them, but I will feast with them.”
Numbers 24:17 says, “There shall come a Star out of Jacob,” but this star did not appear to any of the people of Jacob. The star of Jacob appeared to the pagans.