The Wise Man

The arrangement was simple. The group of astrologers had come to Judea seeking the King of the Jews. King Herod wanted to be spared the bother of hunting for him. Herod wanted us to save him some time.

I knew that the child-king of Israel was to be born in Bethlehem. I had been studying those prophecies and watching the night skies all my life. I was eager to find this royal one, to pay tribute to his authority. Jerusalem is quite a distance from my home in Babylon. But there was great interest in him even there, and not only among the Jews.

Herod summoned us under cover of night. "Tell me where the child is," he had said, "so I can go and worship him, too." His hands were clasped in front of him as though in prayer. He was eager, almost frantic to get to the child. Well, we were…