Why Were the Wisemen Wise?

Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was dressed in purple robes, a gold chain was hung around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.  Daniel 5:29

If we consider the entire Christmas Story from beginning to end, we find that God is into preparation. He prepares people, places and circumstances for our ultimate good and His glory. If we would remember that, I think things would go better for us. But we live in a fast paced world where everything should have happened yesterday and unfortunately we get caught up in it. But we need to remember God calls us to be still a know that He is God (Psalm 46:10) so we can learn to wait on Him. So ends the mini sermon and back to today’s verse.

The wisemen probably came from Babylon where they were trained under the teachings of Daniel. Remember Daniel and his friends were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar and became part of the scholars and wisemen of his court. After his death Belshazzar became King and promoted Daniel to the third highest ruler in the kingdom. This meant he was the overseer of all the scholars and magi even though they were Gentiles. He taught them to study the prophecies in the Old Testament and to see the story of Redemption in the stars. These teachings continued to be taught, so when the prophecies began to be fulfilled, they would know them.

These men not only would see and know prophecy being fulfilled, but God would use these teachings to prepare them to be part of fulfilling prophecy. Over the next few days we will be looking at the lessons to be learned by these wisemen and know that God is preparing us too.