The Promise for All Peoples (Advent Week 4)

In Matthew's brief account of Jesus' birth, we learn of the visit of certain "wise men from the east"--Gentile scholars who sought to understand the future from the movements of the stars. Aware of the prophecies about the Messiah, they had followed His star, stopping in Jerusalem to ask King Herod where He was born. Herod summoned the Jewish leaders who recited the passage in Micah 5:2. Herod told the wise men to let him know where the Child was, but they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod but go home by another way.