Star and Scepter: a vision of the Light King

The Word for today:
Numbers 25, 26

mark this:
I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob;
a scepter will rise out of Israel. (Numbers 24:17)

We all love the Christmas story—the little town of Bethlehem, the angels we have heard on high, the shepherds who were sore afraid, the stable and the swaddling clothes, the Wise Men and the Christmas Star!

The part I like best is when the Star shines down upon the baby in the manger, putting the spotlight right where it should be:

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.

But did you know that the Wise Men were not the first to see the Star of Bethlehem? They weren’t even close to being the first, because about 1500 years earlier God had shown the Star to Balaam, the hard-to-classify eastern prophet/profiteer. In those ancient days (that were almost as far removed from the Wise Men as the Wise Men are from us) this is what Balaam had seen:

The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,
the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly, the oracle of one who hears the words of God,
who has knowledge from the Most High,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
"I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob;
a scepter will rise out of Israel." (Numbers 24:14-17)

Balaam, the Gentile diviner who saw the Star and the Scepter (the Light of the World/King of Kings) out of one eye while he saw $$$$$ out of the other eye, would continue to fascinate both Hebrew and pagan scholars for centuries. Throughout the “east,” his vision would be ceaselessly pondered and studied.

But his prophecy only told the Wise Men the place where the great Light King would be born. How, then, did the wise men know the right time to saddle up the camels and gift-wrap the gold, frankincense, and myrrh?

We’ll find out tomorrow. See you then.

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