A Question to Consider Before Viewing The King and His Star

Tonight, on the first day of Sukkot, the season when  Messiah was born, I will be presenting The King and His Star. Before you see it, I want to address a question that may occur to some viewers. The story gives considerable attention to the Magi - men from the East whose culture was associated with the study of the heavens and, in many cases, with astrology and other practices Scripture plainly condemns. That may raise an understandable question:

Why would YHWH use men coming out of such a background to bear witness to the birth of Messiah?

YHWH opposes divination, sorcery, omens, and attempts to obtain spiritual knowledge apart from Him. Israel was specifically commanded not to imitate the occult practices of the surrounding nations. So the presence of the Magi in the birth account cannot mean that YHWH was endorsing pagan religion.

Something very different was happening. The key is the sovereignty of YHWH.

YHWH is not merely the God of people who acknowledge Him. He is God over everyone. Nations that do not know Him remain under His authority. Kings who do not worship Him cannot move themselves outside His jurisdiction. Even those who oppose Him can ultimately do no more than He permits. Throughout Scripture YHWH repeatedly demonstrates that He can use pagan people to accomplish His purposes without approving their beliefs or their conduct.

That distinction is essential:

Being used by YHWH does not mean being approved by YHWH. A hammer does not have to understand the plan of the carpenter in order for the carpenter to use it. Neither does an emperor. Neither does a nation. Neither does a man who does not yet understand the God who is directing events around him.

One of the clearest examples is Cyrus of Persia. Long before Cyrus was born, Isaiah named him in prophecy. YHWH called Cyrus His "shepherd" and even His "anointed," because Cyrus would accomplish a purpose YHWH had determined: empowering the restoration of the Temple. Later the full restoration of Jerusalem would follow.

Yet YHWH also said concerning Cyrus:

I have named you, though you have not known Me. - Isaiah 45:4

Cyrus did not have to begin as a covenant Israelite in order for YHWH to use him. YHWH was sovereign over Cyrus before Cyrus knew it - before Cyrus was even born.

Cyrus was not an isolated case. Years before Persia conquered Babylon, YHWH had already used Babylon itself. Nebuchadnezzar was no worshipper of YHWH when the Babylonian armies came against Judah. Babylon was an idolatrous empire, and its conduct was often brutal. Yet Jeremiah records YHWH referring to Nebuchadnezzar as "my servant" when describing the judgment that was coming upon Judah.

That did not make Babylon righteous. In fact, Babylon itself would later be judged. Nevertheless, YHWH could use Babylon for one purpose and afterward hold Babylon accountable for its own wickedness. This is sovereignty on a scale larger than any human ruler. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was building an empire. YHWH knew the larger story.

The same principle appears in Egypt. Pharaoh resisted YHWH during the Exodus, yet even the resistance of Pharaoh became the setting in which YHWH displayed His power before Egypt and Israel. Generations earlier, another Pharaoh had elevated Joseph to authority in Egypt. Through circumstances no one could have planned, Joseph was placed where he could preserve Jacob and his family during famine.

Human rulers acted according to their own intentions. Yet above all of those intentions stood the purpose of YHWH. That principle runs throughout Scripture. Men make decisions. Kings make decrees. Armies march. Empires rise and fall. Yet none of them operate outside the sovereignty of the Creator.

That is important when we approach the story of the Magi. We should not reason that because YHWH used them, He therefore approved of everything their culture believed. He did not. Nor should we imagine that something associated with pagan culture becomes the property of paganism. The heavens certainly did not. Babylonian astrologers may have studied the stars, but they did not create them. YHWH did. The sun is His. The moon is His. The planets are His. The stars are His. Even the earth is His.

The heavens belonged to YHWH before Babylon existed, and they still belong to Him, long after Babylon was gone.

As David wrote:

The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork - Psalm 19:1

Men may corrupt knowledge of creation. They cannot take creation away from its Creator.