Trevor Laurence
The narratives of Jesus’ birth and infancy are full of references to promises, prophecies, and patterns from the Old Testament that help to deepen our understanding of who Jesus is, what he came to do, and how he fits into the story of God’s works in the world.
Some of these are quite familiar. “When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matt 1:18). In verse 23, Matthew explicitly tells us that this was to fulfill Isa 7:14’s promise:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel.
Later, Matthew informs us that Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem took place just as Micah 5:2 had written:
And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel. (Matt 2:6)
Anyone who was heard Matthew’s account even a handful of times will be aware of these Old Testament connections. But there are other—more subtle—echoes of Israel’s Scriptures that are not so readily recognized, not so widely appreciated, and these allusions to Old Testament expectation have the capacity to reshape how we conceive of and hope in the gentle infant lying in the manger.
“We Saw His Star When It Rose”
Magi—learned, priestly figures associated with astrology, dreams, and even magic—journey “from the east” (ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, Matt 2:1) to Jerusalem, searching after the one born king of the Jews because “we saw his star when it rose (ἀστέρα ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ) and have come to worship him” (Matt 2:2).
The star is a standard feature of nativity scenes, children’s plays, and Christmas tree tops, marveled at still as an example of God’s gracious, providential, even miraculous involvement in and orchestration of the events surrounding the birth and infancy of Christ. But this star is more than an astronomical anomaly. Drawing on the Old Testament, this star means something.
Many are familiar with the story of Balaam in Numbers 22–24—his unexpected conversation with a talking donkey has made Balaam’s account a Sunday School classic—but far fewer regard it as a Christmas story. The contours of Balaam’s narrative, however, overlap considerably with Matthew’s account of the magi.
Balaam comes “from the mountains of the east” (ἐξ ὀρέων ἀπʼ ἀνατολῶν, LXX Num 23:7), recruited by a malicious king to bring harm to God’s people and safeguard his fragile power. The Moabite king Balak calls Balaam to curse Israel (Num 22:1–7), but Balaam is prevented by God from participating in Balak’s wicked schemes (cf. Matt 2:12).
Though Balak has employed him for cursing, every time Balaam opens his mouth, he speaks the Lord’s word of blessing. Looking out over Israel, Balaam sees a people restored to Edenic fruitfulness, “like gardens beside a river” (Num 24:6),1 whose future king will be exalted over all his enemies. In his fourth and climactic oracle, Balaam declares what the Lord will do through this coming king “in the latter days” (בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, Num 24:14):
“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come [LXX: ἀνατελεῖ ἄστρον] out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
and break down2 all the sons of Sheth.
Edom shall be dispossessed;
Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed.
Israel is doing valiantly.
And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion [רדה]
and destroy the survivors of cities!” (Num 24:17–19)
Balaam’s prophecy of a future ruler itself draws upon and develops prior biblical promises. First, after Adam and Eve’s failure to exercise dominion (רדה, Gen 1:28) over the serpent and drive the deceiver from God’s garden sanctuary, the Lord declared in Gen 3:15 that a seed would arise from the line of the woman who would battle the serpent’s seed, deliver a crushing blow to the serpent’s head, and restore the temple-kingdom of God.
Second, in Jacob’s announcement of what will happen “in latter days” (בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, Gen 49:1), the patriarch blesses Judah and in so doing clarifies Gen 3:15’s primal redemptive promise.3 From Judah’s line shall arise a king who will administer head-oriented judgment, receive homage from the nations, and reign over an Edenic kingdom so bountiful that vines and wines seem almost mundane:
“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.” (Gen 49:8–11)
Balaam’s oracle interweaves the imagery of Gen 1:28, Gen 3:15, and Gen 49:8–11.4 The star-king that Balaam sees, but not now—beholds, but not near—is the scepter of Gen 49:10, the ruler from Judah, who will crush the forehead of Israel’s serpentine enemies in accord with Gen 3:15,5 delivering God’s people from their foes and exercising unmitigated dominion in fulfillment of the Adamic commission of Gen 1:28. Balaam’s star is Judah’s scepter is the head-crushing seed of the woman.
When the magi—who, like Balaam, come from the east—see, like Balaam, a star rising to signal the coming king of Israel, the significance is clear: the child whose birth this rising star declares is the king whom Balaam beheld.
The latter days have dawned, and this baby wrapped in swaddling clothes is the royal son come to shatter the skulls of the serpent and his seed, rescue from all oppression the people of God, reign with the scepter of Judah, and receive the obedience of the nations—of which the gifts and adoration of the magi are but the firstfruits.
“Opening Their Treasures, They Offered Him Gifts”
Matthew recounts that, upon seeing Jesus with Mary, the magi “fell down and worshiped [προσεκύνησαν] him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts [προσήνεγκαν αὐτῷ δῶρα], gold and frankincense and myrrh” (Matt 2:11). This homage is fitting for the star-king of Judah to whom belongs the reverence of the nations (Gen 49:10). The image of prostrated, gift-bearing foreigners, however, signals the initial fulfillment of other Old Testament anticipations as well—anticipations that resonate with the head-crushing hopes introduced by the magi’s guiding star.
Psalm 72 records Solomon’s prayer for the Lord to grant his appointed king—the royal son (v. 1)—justice, righteousness, and prosperity in his rule over Israel. Transforming God’s past promises into petitions, he asks that the king would be empowered to “crush the oppressor” (v. 4; cf. Gen 3:15), exercise “dominion from sea to sea” (v. 8; cf. Gen 1:28), make “his enemies lick the dust” (v. 9; cf. Gen 3:14–15), and bring blessing to all peoples (v. 17; cf. Gen 12:3; 22:18) as the whole earth—cleansed of unholiness and reigned over by the Lord’s anointed—is made a temple, filled with the glory of God (v. 19; cf. Num 14:21).
Reminiscent of Judah’s blessing and Solomon’s own reception of gold and spices from the Queen of Sheba (1 Kgs 10:10; 2 Chron 9:9), verses 10–11 petition regarding God’s king:
May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute [δῶρα προσοίσουσιν, LXX Ps 71:10];
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!
May all kings fall down before [προσκυνήσουσιν, LXX Ps 71:11] him,
all nations serve him!
As the magi from afar fall down before Jesus and render him tribute, they act out the answer to Solomon’s prayer in a manner that identifies Jesus as the long-awaited king of Ps 72. Before Jesus utters a word in Matthew’s Gospel—perhaps before he could utter a word at all—this child is dramatically presented as the enemy-crushing king who will bring judgment on the heads of the wicked, blessing to the nations, dominion to the ends of the earth, and cleansing to creation so that God and his people may dwell in his world together.
The worship of the magi also echoes similar themes from the vision of Isa 60, a text that bears no small resemblance to Solomon’s plea in Ps 72. Isaiah announces that the Lord will restore Zion and set his glory on Israel such that “nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (v.3). The “abundance of the sea” of the Gentiles and “the wealth of the nations” shall flow in to Israel (v. 5) as Sheba brings gold, frankincense, and Godward praise (v. 6).
As in the prayer of Ps 72:10, Tarshish and the coastlands will join Sheba in offering gifts (v. 9), and Israel—like a small child—shall “suck the milk of nations” and “nurse at the breast of kings” (v. 16). The glory of the nations will beautify the temple where the Lord abides with men (vv. 7, 13), as it did in Solomon’s day, and God’s people shall dwell securely in his presence, for the Lord will exercise judgment on every threat to his kingdom:
For the nation and kingdom
that will not serve you shall perish;
those nations shall be utterly laid waste. (Isa 60:12)
Even as Mary’s baby is the foe-shattering king of Ps 72, he is the embodiment of Israel—the true and faithful representative of the people of God—who will effect the glorious restoration of Isa 60.6 Israel’s renewal will happen in him. The nursing child upon his mother’s shoulder nurses upon the nations as Gentiles lay their treasures before him, and he will build around himself a new Israel, a covenant community upon whom God’s blessings will be outpoured.
The choreography of Isa 60 in Matt 2 declares that this child is the turning point of Israel’s history—the one who will rescue from exile, elicit the worship of the nations, channel blessing to the peoples of the earth, rebuild in glory God’s dwelling place, and destroy once and for all the enemies that threaten the life, prosperity, holiness, and joy of the kingdom where God reigns and resides.
A Declaration of War
The coming of Christ is an announcement from God of “peace among those with whom he is well pleased” (Luke 2:14), for the incarnation is the opening overture of God’s gracious fulfillment of all of his covenant promises. But for every rebellious power, kingdom, and creature, Christmas is a declaration of war.
From Genesis 3 forward, the story of the Old Testament nurtures the hope that a coming king will deliver the people of God and consummate God’s temple-kingdom upon the earth by crushing the head of the unholy serpent and the seed who follow after him. With a star that rises and magi that fall down in worship, Matthew shows us that the birth of Christ is the advent of that king. The definitive judgment of evil is wrapped up in the promise of Christmas.
The baby laid in a manger will most assuredly shatter “that ancient serpent” (Rev 20:2), administering justice and expelling Satan and his offspring from the world where God will temple with his people in eternal fullness of joy. In due course, Jesus will appear in righteousness to judge and make war upon his enemies, leading a priestly army of saints arrayed in white linen (Rev 19:11–16) under whose feet the God of peace will soon crush Satan (Rom 16:15).
But before he rides to battle, Jesus walks to the cross. The child born to be God’s head-striking king in answer to the promises of old is himself struck upon the head (Matt 27:30), smitten and crushed—like a serpent—under God’s judgment (Isa 53:4–5, 10) so that serpentine sinners could be made sons and daughters of God.
Indeed, in a twist worthy of a story that begins with a king in a cattle trough, it is precisely in the crushing of Christ that Christ delivers the crushing blow to the serpent, “cancelling the record of debt that stood against us” at the cross and triumphantly disarming the powers of darkness in his resurrection (Col 2:14–15). It is precisely in his obedient submission to the judgment of death (cf. Phil 2:8–9) that Jesus manifests his worthiness to “judge the world in righteousness”—and of this God “has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).7
Trevor Laurence is the Executive Director of the Cateclesia Institute
Image: Rembrandt van Rijn, Adoration of the Magi
- See John H. Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition, and Interpretation (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009), 331. Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 204 reads this as a “reminder of the Garden of Eden as described in Genesis 2:10.”[↩]
- Or “the skulls of,” as in the NIV; cf. Jer 48:45.[↩]
- Cf. Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible, NSBT 15 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 91.[↩]
- Cf. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty, 116–7 as well as the intriguing discussion of John Sailhamer, “Creation, Genesis 1–11, and the Canon,” BBR 10, no. 1 (2000): 97–99.[↩]
- There is good reason for identifying the Moabite king Balak as a serpentine figure within the Numbers narrative. Balak seeks to bring curses upon Israel, a nation described in Num 24:5–6 in Edenic terms. As the serpent worked for the cursing of God’s people in Eden, so Balak works for the cursing of God’s Edenic people, and the head-crushing judgment to come upon Moab is fitting for one who exhibits all the characteristics of the serpent’s seed.[↩]
- Indeed, throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus recapitulates Israel’s history, bringing her story to its culmination. See, e.g., Peter J. Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew Through New Eyes, Volume One: Jesus as Israel (Monroe, LA: Athanasius Press, 2017), 14–41.[↩]
- Note the similarity between Paul’s characterization of Jesus in Acts 17:31 as the appointed man through whom God will judge in righteousness and Solomon’s prayer for a king in Ps 72:2 who will “judge your people in righteousness.” Christ’s resurrection confirms the message proclaimed at his birth: he is the royal son of Ps 72.[↩]