The STAR

Epiphany Lessons .  Matthew 2:1-12 ; Epistle- Ephesians 3:1…

 

     “ To me the less than the least of all the saints was given this grace among the nations to announce the glad tidings the unsearchable riches of Christ…”  Ephesians 3:8

 

  No longer is God’s mystery of God’s love an unknown thing.  Now in Christ we have the fullness of God’s love revealed---in the birth of a baby where the magi , wise men , came to the house of the inn.  There they came and worshipped him and “when they had opened their treaures , they presented unto him gifts..”

 

   “ Unsearchable riches” the Apostle calls this glad tidings of the mystery of the gospel.  The word “unsearchable” I learned comes from a word that means a footprint or track.  His ways are untraceable or unsearchable.  Romans 11:33 has the same word , “ O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”

      We can say that in many times His ways are untraceable in our lives.  We cannot follow.  It is like the child’s toy,” Etch a Sketch”.  The image is created then erased.  It does not stay long enough for us to figure what it was.  We wonder why things happen and we do not see how they can be part of any plan, much less the plan of God.  There is a no rhyme or reason it seems yet the Apostle affirms all is well.  There is an “eternal purpose” which He has made known in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:11

 

      I know we ask this question and it is the main question we ask and all people ask it.  Why did this happen to us?  Why did this happen to my family?  Can this seeming tragedy or loss that I feel be part of God?  Yet in that very thing we protest God makes His way plain.  King Herod killed the young children two and younger but this Child was worshipped in a manger and an inn.  “ And being warned of God in a dream they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.” Matthew 2:12  

 

       Notice God warned them and He points out to us too in ways we do not always discern His plan for our lives.  No, a Star does not go before us as it did for the magi, but there is a Book we call the wisdom of God, the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7.  In this book called the Bible God directs our paths as we acknowledge His ways .  3:5-6.  Sometimes we ignore His plain teaching that will be “ health to our navel, and marrow to our bones.” 3:6  We try and “be wise in our own eyes”  That does not work. The age old formula is still the same, “ Fear the LORD and depart from evil.”

 

     Wise men come to us as well in advice and counsel.  “  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Proverbs 11:14  The grace of God was given to the Apostle and it is also is given to us when we think we are never going to find our way out of the difficulty or problem we find that God never leaves us alone but in the testing and difficulty He will “ make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” I Corinthians 10:13  The virgin was with Child and “ that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” Mt 1:20  Joseph almost divorced Mary but all of the sudden “ the angel of the Lord appeared unto him”.

 

    And if you and I were honest we could say that we have never been left alone.  In the most trying and difficult and forlorn situations of our lives a light or Star appeared and we were made whole and well.  Perhaps we did not receive all we asked for but we received all we needed and in God’s provision we had all we ever wanted.  No longer were His ways untraceable to us like that little child’s toy “Etch a Sketch”-----a friend came to us and shared with us how they got through the most difficult situation of their lives and in that light we saw light.  Someone came to us in our prison or physical emotional need and in that need we saw Christ come to us.  “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40

 

     Yes, you and I sometimes feel that God’s love is untraceable and not always so plain.  But then a star appears and it goes before us and stands “over the young child” and we are no longer in the dark of our unbelief and sadness.  We too when we “ saw the star,..rejoice and rejoiced with exceeding great joy!”