December 22, 2025
It has been some years since my historical novel, Saving Jesus,” was published,but it was just this morning that the Lord pointed out to me its true central theme. It addresses the old question:
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psalm 2:1
Solomon pointed out the futility of our ancestor’s vain and arrogant behavior:
There is no wisdom,nor understanding, nor counsel against the LORD. The horse is prepared against the day of battle but safety is of the LORD.
Proverbs 21:30-31
That truth provides the reason that we are able to greet one another with the phrase, “Merry Christmas!” It’s because there is no counsel that can stand against the Lord. He will accomplish his purpose. He did so through the birth and death of Jesus Christ, and he is ready to accomplish it in you.
If you begin searching through the first two chapters of Luke and Matthew, and read the accounts of the birth of Jesus, you have to be struck by all the wondrous events and seeming coincidences that occurred prior to, during, and following our Lord’s arrival on earth as a helpless baby.
We certainly should be impressed by the angel’s visits to Elizabeth, Zechariah, Joseph, and Mary, as well as through dreams and outright appearances, and the countless amazing events that accompanied Christ’s birth. And in the Christmas story, we see the first of his escapes from his enemies, specifically certain death from the depraved King Herod. And this again demonstrates again that:
“There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.”
It’s this passage in Psalm 2 sets that the stage for man’s futile attempts to stymie God’s plan:
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in sore displeasure.
Psalm 2:1-3
As you meditate over these passages, you will discover many miraculous events surrounding the birth of our Lord. For example, King Herod took counsel with the chief priests and scribes, and privily called the wise men, and sent them to Bethlehem to find the child. But he did not hint of his own evil plans, nor that he had taken counsel against the Lord and against his anointed.
But, as the apostle Paul was to remark decades later, “The wisdom of man is foolishness with God,” for Paul too understood that, “There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.”
We look at things in the short term, the cause and effect, but God knows the end from the beginning, even before he formed the heavens and the earth by the word of his power. And centuries before Jesus’ birth, no, even further back, from the foundations of the earth, God was prepared for this event.
Do you believe that Daniel’s work in Babylon ended with his death? Do you not believe that Hebrew Magi lived on after that great prophet?
And while we tend to see Christmas as a single glorious night in which God intruded in the affairs of men to set things right, our Lord had been working everything out from the beginning of time, and has always had everything under control, and that includes the visit of the magi, a year or two after Jesus’ birth, all the way down to the matter of your salvation today. The Magi saw,
“…and, lo, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them, til it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, the rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child (no longer a babe in a manger) with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.
Matthew 2:9-11
These wealthy magi, almost certainly more than three, had traveled in a caravan from “the east.” People joined huge caravans because large groups of bandits lay in wait to prey upon small groups of travelers. One caravan is known to have had over 100,000 camels.
The Bible states that they came from the East, from far across the inhospitable desert that still separates Israel from the fertile crescent, that lush area comprising the basins of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, perhaps the site of the Garden of Eden. Those wise men were required to travel over a thousand miles because few dared the desert, and so their journey required at least two months, and, more than likely, close to a year, as they circled to the north around the fertile crescent.
They would have stopped over at a number of oases, where they’d stay in well-defended and often magnificent and elaborate caravansaries. You can find photos of these places on the web. Some of these were palatial, but they were first of all fortified hotels. There were hundreds of them along the trade routes of that age, from China in the far east, all the way to the Roman Empire and down into North Africa.
And somewhere north of Damascus, our Magi would have finally turned south, and traveled along the King’s Highway to Jericho, where they would turn west, and ascend to Jerusalem.
And there, because they began asking,
Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
Mat 2:3
Well, you probably know what happened next.
When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
Matthew 2:4-7
Of course, all Jerusalem was troubled. They had their king, though many despised him because he wasn’t really a Jew, and he was vicious and troublesome. But this new “king of the Jews,” could threaten political stability and perhaps damage commerce and their profits. Caesar himself was considered a God, and the people of the land would get in trouble with the Roman authorities if there was any civil or religious disorder. Apart from that, the people of Jerusalem were a fickle crowd which would one day soon sing Jesus’ praises, and the next week cry out, “Crucify him!”
But Herod was a brilliant politician. He wouldn’t dignify this young upstart by deigning to visit him, but wanted desperately to know how to find him.
Then Herod, when he had privily (secretly) called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
Matthew 2:7-8
These wise men, these Magi, were not merely magicians or sorcerers, but were literally “wise men,” and they were seeking their Messiah.
When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew 2:9-11
Now examine the next verse, for it’s the last mention of these Magi who had traveled over a thousand miles from the east to lay this wealth at the Christ child’s feet. We might assume that they spent the night of their visit in Bethlehem at the home of Mary and Joseph, but more than likely they stayed at the local, and relatively humble caravansary, the very “inn” which had no room available for Mary and Joseph on the night they arrived in that little town, and were therefore forced to shelter in a stable while the child was born. But that was certainly not the end of the story, and God wasn’t quite finished looking to their interests.
First the Bible addresses the challenge facing the wise men:
And being warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their country another way.”
Matthew 2:12
Their lives were at risk, and there were only two routes back East, one that passed around the desert to the north, and the other to the south. But whether their home was the ruins of ancient Babylon, or some other city far to the east, they knew that they couldn’t travel back through Jerusalem for fear of Herod’s wrath. So they would have traveled south along the King’s Highway, which had its origin in Heliopolis, Egypt, but they would have left that route to turn east toward the Red Sea, and finally turn north along a caravan route that offered water and shelter. And that’s all we know of those magi. They were warned, and they found another way home.
But Joseph, like the Magi, also received a divine warning:
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and 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. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:
Matthew 2:13-14
Mary had evidently already received her last visit from an angel, and while we are told that she kept these things, and pondered them in her heart, Joseph was very much at the epicenter of events. Clearly a loving husband and father, he had, like Mary, revealed himself as totally committed to the Lord. And like his beloved wife, he never hesitated to do what the angel told him.
This was not the last visitation he would have from an angel, and it’s no coincidence that this humble Jewish carpenter would be the strong and godly man who would not fail to hear and obey the word of God, just as Mary did not fail to hear and joyfully submit to the Lord’s will. They were fit surrogates to train up the baby Jesus.
The account of the toddler’s escape from the evil king, and the escape of his parents as well—from a monarch whose malice would result in the slaughter of every boy child “…from the age of two years old and younger…” living in the vicinity of Bethlehem—would go down in history as the massacre of the innocent, but Jesus escaped!
But even those events, which would make a great motion picture, represent only a brief glimpse into the preparations that the Father made to prepare the world for his son’s advent. For Paul tells us,
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent for his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Galatians 4:4-5
But in spite of all these events, on the night of his birth, the angel heralded,
“Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For
Luke 2:10-11
There it is in a nutshell: “..unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
But what did this “fullness of time” that Paul wrote of, really mean? Most Bible scholars teach that God prepared the world for Christ’s advent, not simply for the time of his birth, but also for the planting of his church, so that the gospel could be spread throughout the world. This preparation required a world in which the Lord’s disciples, evangelists, teachers, and church planters could more or less freely and safely travel. The Pax Romana, or “Roman Peace,” permitted reasonably safe travel on sea or land, and they had the Roman roads, which ran for thousands of miles around the Mediterranean basin, many of which—from the British Isles to the holy land—may still be hiked. The fullness of time even included a common language, one known to the people of every land, which made communications about politics, economics, and religion easy—the Koine Greek. God established common laws, common language, even common coinage for the advent of Christ.
But there was far more. The Roman Empire reached 1,500 miles, from the east end of the Mediterranean Sea, to Spain and even the British Isles in the west. Few, however, know that another world power, Parthia, lay to Rome’s east, or that seventy years before Christ’s birth, the Parthians actually occupied Israel, and their kingdom reached 1,500 miles in the opposite direction, from the holy land east, all the way to India. Nor do most people realize that the Parthians were so powerful that they destroyed two huge Roman armies, including one under the leadership of Mark Antony, a politician, general, and friend of Julius Caesar.
The birth of Jesus was directly impacted by the religious and political relations between these two world powers, but any plans and actions they might have taken came against him for naught.
Consider just one question: If the “wise men” hadn’t shown up at the home of Mary and Joseph the day that they did, and given the Christ child the precious “gold, and frankincense, and myrrh,” where would Joseph have gotten the substantial sum he needed to escape with his family, so that they could live as aliens in Egypt, whose borders lay hundreds of miles away. And that’s not to speak of the funds required to provide their food, housing, and clothes for the years they remained there, until the angel told Joseph they could safely return. And why didn’t those funds come from some believing Jew in Bethlehem, or Jerusalem, or somewhere else in the holy land? Why did God have to send wise men from the east?
It certainly is more than a coincidence in timing that the Magi arrived when their assistance would prove vital? It is a remarkable account of God’s timing as he worked in the hearts of people separated by vast distances, where a star in the sky, and angels moving hither and yon, while a Roman emperor, a Parthian queen, a Hebrew king, Jewish priests, a virgin mother, a carpenter father, the shepherds, and the Magi, all acting independently, proved that,
There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.”
Look again, because Psalm 2 sets the stage for man’s futile attempts to stymie God’s plans:
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in sore displeasure.
Psalm 2:1-5
Were those wise men, as I suggest in Saving Jesus, actually Jewish magi who were descended from the prophet Daniel? Were these figures, whom the world has secularized, men who worshiped the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who still lived in the region of ancient Babylon, in far off Parthia?
The Magi were feared and hated by the evil Parthian queen, a queen who murdered her benevolent husband to gain his throne, and married her own son to consolidate their power. Those wise men, however, were somehow able to escape Parthia and travel a thousand miles to the north, west, and again south, around the “Fertile Crescent,” not just to worship the Christ child, but to also unwittingly provide the means of the child’s escape from Herod?
Do you see how the angel’s intervention, and the heavenly dreams, and the long preparation of the world itself, set the stage for the trials and glorious deliverances that God used to send his only begotten son to earth for our salvation?
In spite of every scheme of every king or queen who rose up against God—and because of every undistinguished man and woman who remained faithful to him—and after all the centuries of waiting, during which prophets like Isaiah suffered persecution for declaring the coming of the Messiah, through all the plots and counter plots that saw kingdoms rise and fall, from the first Adam to the Second, we are able here to catch a glimpse of the enormity of God’s love, grace, and incredible foreknowledge and power, and it suddenly becomes eminently clear that there weren’t any coincidences at all.
For while the wisdom of God seems foolish to men,
There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the LORD.
Proverbs 21:30
Have you begun to see to what lengths God has gone to secure your salvation? Are you, as I am, beginning to understand the angel’s words:
Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy.”
Luke 2:10.
And that’s why we can sincerely shout,
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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Copyright 2025, Frank Becker
