WWUTT 1840 Q&A Merry Christmas

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What was the star that led the Magi to the baby Jesus, and does it matter if we know what it was?

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What ethnicities were the Magi, and did the Magi find Jesus first, or was it the shepherds?

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The answers, when we understand the text. Merry Christmas from your friends at When We Understand The Text, a daily

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Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .wutt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Welcome back, Becky! Yay! It's good to be back.

00:41

How do you feel? Not dead. I feel better. You were coughing for weeks.

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Oh, it was awful. I had it too, but I mean, I kicked it in two days or something. Yeah, it hit me hard.

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And of course, it was the two days I didn't have to go to work, so I spent my days off.

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Sick! Yep. Yay! Yeah, the kids weren't too keen on that either. We want to play with Daddy!

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Daddy's sick. Yeah, it hit me hard. I was laid up for a while.

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Well, the cold weather is hitting everybody hard right now. Yes, it is. Have you seen that cold weather map?

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Uh -uh, no, I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I know it canceled a lot of flights. A lot.

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Yeah, well, 2500 was the last I saw. I'm sure it's been more than that since, but yeah.

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And there were, well, if you live down in Florida, it looks like everybody's doing okay down there.

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The way the map just kind of dips through, like the Midwest and down into the southern central part of the

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United States. But no, if you're out on the outskirts, southwest or southeast outskirts, it still looks pretty comfortable out there.

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Nice. Well, I know Florida got hit really hard with that hurricane, so maybe this is their break. You guys got the hurricane.

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We'll give you a nice December. Nice December to wrap it up.

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Well, this is the Christmas edition of When We Understand the Text. Yes. I would say you can email your questions, but it's too late.

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We got them all right here. We do for this one. I mean, you can still email.

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This week and the next week and the week after. We've got these episodes figured out. Yeah. But if you want to start getting questions to us now for when we come back into the

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Q and A season beginning January 13, oh, that's Friday the 13th. Oh, neat.

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I'm just now noticing that. Anyway, not that it matters, but we're superstitious enough about that day.

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It still makes you go, oh, look, Friday the 13th. Anytime you see it, pop up on the calendar.

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So you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. I've got some Christmas -related questions

02:52

I'm going to answer here. Next week is our year in review. Yes.

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Now, that episode, I think last year we stretched it out into two episodes. Yes, we did. If we ever try to do it in one, it takes us an hour and a half.

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Yeah, it takes a while. So here's my commitment. We're going to spend 60 seconds on each story.

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Oh, wow. And that's it. All right. Talk fast and don't breathe. Check. So 40 of the biggest events that happened in the year.

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I think I could talk that fast. Do you think I could talk that fast? Maybe I can. But I'm not sure I could think that fast. I don't know. We'll find out. I'll have my little stopwatch here.

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Because I figure with the time in and the time out, talking about each one, that'll round out to about an hour.

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So we're going to keep it down. Try to keep each item at about 60 seconds.

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So we go through 40 of the biggest events that have happened, affecting mostly Christianity. But there's other things that'll come in there as well.

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That's next week's episode. And then on January the 6th, we're counting down the 10 most popular what videos for 2022.

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And giving you commentary. You get to hear all the stories of things that went into those episodes and weird comments we got after those episodes.

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Speaking of which, the comments are online now on our YouTube videos. If you go to youtube .com

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slash WWUTT, subscribe to the channel, we've opened the comments up so you can now leave comments on our videos.

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And add some positive ones. Whoops. Accidentally started that video. Hang on. There we go. I brought that up because on the most recent video that I did, which was, does

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Isaiah 9 -6 really mean Jesus is the everlasting Father?

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Because the modalists will use Isaiah 9 -6 to say, see, Jesus can be father or he can be son.

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And that's not what that means. You have to go watch the video. But under the questions, this person said,

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I'm about 20 videos away from watching every single what video.

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Wow. I've been watching them all day and taking notes. Oh, wow. That's cool.

05:05

That's awesome. So at 20 videos left, he had, what would that be? About 35 more minutes.

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Yeah. Wow. Well, depending on how much time he's writing stuff down. You should mention the

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EXT. Yeah. And then you got to go to the other channel. Watch all of those.

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I think all of the videos on the main channel still would take you less time to watch 350 videos than it would take you to watch the 30 videos on the other channel.

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Yeah, that's true. Because those are all longer. Yeah. That's probably right. Some of the episodes of the podcast are posting there.

05:39

Oh, neat. It's just audio, but it's on YouTube as well. Really cool. Yeah. All right.

05:46

You can use that app. Let's get to some scripture here, and then we'll get to some

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Christmas -related questions. Yes, let's. Matthew 2, beginning in verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

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When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the

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Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

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But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,

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Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the one who has been conceived in her is of the

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Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins.

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Now all this took place in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying,

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Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name

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Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph got up from his sleep and did as the angel of the

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Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son.

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And he called his name Jesus. Now that's the passage

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I'm going to be teaching on this Sunday. Even though we don't have Sunday school, but I'm still going to have a lesson on Sunday that you can tune in and hear.

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So be sure to catch it. Kind of take the place of your Sunday school program. Yeah, it's an older sermon that I preached a few years back, but I figured

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I'll keep something in there, even though we don't have a Sunday school class this Sunday and the next week, there'll still be something there on Sunday.

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That's what I was saying. Yeah. We're trying to. But you were also kind of froggy there. Yeah, you know,

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I'm also kind of foggy too. Foggy and froggy. I'm getting there. I'm getting there.

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If people can't speak fog or frog, then I was translating on your behalf.

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Thank you. Tomorrow is the second part of my top 10 favorite praise and worship songs for the year.

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Oh, awesome. Remember I did part one back in November and I never got around to part two. Oh, yeah. Well, part two is tomorrow.

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All you got to do is subscribe to the podcast. Yeah. And as soon as those episodes drop, they'll update on your phone.

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Look for them in the morning, unless something that, you know, has happened and I delay getting an episode done, like I sometimes do, you know, it happens.

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Even this episode almost didn't happen. But our friend Sonia, yeah, was so pushy.

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Y 'all go record. We love Sonia. She's the best.

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And we want to say a special word about Sonia too, having just lost her dad. Yes. And his funeral is going to be this next coming week.

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Yes. We love our friend dearly. And thank you, Sonia, for all that you do for us.

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We are praying for you and for your family. All right. Before getting to these questions, how many times have

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I said that now? Have I put something in front of these questions several times already? Probably. A couple of poll questions.

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First poll question I put on my Twitter or the, when we understand the text

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Twitter. I'm still off Twitter. Yes, you are. You're still banned. Elon has not restored me yet.

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This was the question I asked, which candy is the worst, black licorice or candy corn?

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And I gave one other option, other. Other. Okay. In case you think there actually is a candy worse than those two.

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Black licorice, 68 .6%. Wow. Candy corn, 21 .7%.

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That leaves other 9 .7%. Your children like both.

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Is that total? Yeah, that total's right. That's right. I know. My kids like both. Is it Aria that likes the black licorice or Mariah?

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Both. Both. Okay. They both. But they appreciate the real licorice, not the more candy.

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Yeah. That's even more gross. I mean, the more authentic it is, the more disgusting it is. I can tolerate a little bit.

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I kept getting told, like, you gotta have the real black licorice. Oh, that was even worse. That was terrible.

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I thought it was better. I can't stand the taste of licorice, like in the tea. Like there's licorice tea and stuff like that.

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Oh, yeah. No. I can't do it. It tastes like NyQuil.

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That's it. Yeah, it's okay. I get it. But no, the real licorice was pretty good, actually.

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I liked it. Then you like NyQuil. No. I gag on that stuff.

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I remember my dad when I was a kid, I was like, I had never had NyQuil or DayQuil before, and I was like, what is that?

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I knew cough medicine that tasted really gross. Yeah. You know, when I was a kid, there wasn't like Kool -Aid -flavored cough syrup.

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Molasses that just, ugh. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yes. And it lasted forever.

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But everywhere it touched was numb for like a day. And I don't think it actually cured your cough.

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Nope. It just made you where, I do not want to bring that back up again. Yes. So I'm going to do everything possible, and it just willed in your mind,

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I am not going to cough. Not going to do it. Mind over matter. I especially don't want to make any kind of sound that's going to make my mom give me that again.

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That stuff was disgusting. That was so bad. I don't even know what it was. I can't even remember what it was anyway.

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I don't remember either. Yeah. But go ahead, NyQuil DayQuil. Well, okay, so I'm still on this story. So my dad had the

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NyQuil and the DayQuil in there, and I remembering my own children's cough syrup. So of course, the question

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I have is, what do they taste like? And you have DayQuil that's orange, and you have, well, kind of, no, it's red.

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I think it's orange now. It used to be red. Yeah. DayQuil used to be red. Right. So you had red and you had green.

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And I asked my dad, I said, so what do they taste like? And he goes, well, they taste like red and green.

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That sounds like your dad. It's like if colors could have flavors, that's what they are.

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They just liquefied some green and put it in a bottle. That's what it tastes like. There you go, folks.

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Anyway, there were 979 votes on that poll. Almost had 1 ,000 folks on that poll. That's awesome. Yep. Pastor Tom did one, though, that had 3 ,549 votes.

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Hey, do I need to give you some of that cough syrup? Nope. I'll get it. It's coming. You better hold that back.

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So here was Pastor Tom's question that he asked on his poll. 3 ,500 votes. Is your church open or closed on Christmas Day?

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Ah. I was about to post this same poll, and I noticed that he had already done it. Closed Christmas Day, 12%.

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12 % of churches out there. That's too many. Are not going to be having any services on Christmas Day.

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Because even Christmas Day is on Sunday. Yeah, it's Sunday. It's like you don't have any services. Go to church.

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Anyway. Cancel your Christmas Eve service if it means that you're not going to have church on Sunday. Right.

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I remember we had a service several years ago. What was the last time

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Christmas was on Sunday? Would that have been 2015? I don't remember. That would have been seven years ago.

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Maybe it would have been 16. 2016 was when it was. So we did the Christmas Eve service Saturday, and then we also had a

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Christmas morning service. But Christmas morning was, we just had one service at that time.

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Here at First Baptist Church in Lindale, we have two. Yeah. So we don't have a Christmas Eve service this year, but we have two morning services.

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And I'm playing piano for that one. Yay. So one out of every eight churches canceling services on Christmas Day.

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That's too many. Is what it looks like. Thank you for that poll, Tom. Yeah. All right. Now here we get into some questions.

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Dear Gabe and Babe, oh, by the way, before we get to these questions. I love it.

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Again? Again. Again. I did actually. You're going to have everybody on the edge of their seats.

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Do they answer questions on Friday anymore? I don't even know. Becky hadn't been here. Gabe's just doing whatever he wants.

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Everything went awry after I left, huh? You're the one that keeps me straight, and then you haven't been here.

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Anyway, I went into the archives, because I have every question that we've answered going back to 2018.

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Oh, wow. Of course, every episode is still there. You can go back and listen to all the episodes. But I have the documents that I have all the questions in them.

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I've saved all of that going all the way back to 2018. So I was just curious, what other Christmas questions have we answered?

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So I pulled three out of the archives. Okay. So if we got time here at the very end, I'll get to some of those archive questions, too.

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But you know what? We first should get to these. Yeah. How about that? So this is from Brian.

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Dear Gabe and Babe, I'm reading Dawn of Redeeming Grace by Sinclair Ferguson with my babe this

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Advent. Aww. And Sinclair seemed to have implied the Bethlehem Star could be a natural phenomenon that led the magi on their journey, and only through the scriptures they knew the child was to be born in Bethlehem, Matthew 2, 5, and 6.

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Which led me to watching the what video about the star. Let me go ahead and play that video, and then we'll get back to the rest of Brian's question here.

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All right. In Matthew 2, we read about wise men known as magi following a star from Persia to Judea in search of the

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Christ child. The magi were kingmakers who studied many ancient writings. 600 years earlier, the

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Jews had been exiled into Babylon and then Persia. So these magi had the Hebrew prophecies foretelling the birth of the king.

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Moses said, a star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. And Daniel, a prophet revered by the

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Persians, wrote about when this would happen. The magi came to Jerusalem and said, where is he who has been born king of the

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Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. Since the prophecies were

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Hebrew, they assumed any Jew would know where to go. But Israel was so far from God, King Herod had to consult his own wise men to know what the magi were talking about.

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The magi followed the star until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And they found

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Jesus in Bethlehem, just as the scripture said. The magi worshipped him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

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Much speculation has been made about the star of Bethlehem, searching history for some kind of astral phenomena.

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The most popular theory is that the star was a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. In August of 3

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BC and again in June a year later. But that's not a very bright idea. According to Matthew, the star was always ahead of them and it moved, stopping over the house where Jesus was.

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Clearly there's no natural explanation. The magi were led by something supernatural. And so are we to worship

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Christ the Lord when we understand the text. Becky popped a cough drop during that video.

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I did. You didn't want to try any of my cough syrup? Bill, no. So Brian referenced the verse in Matthew 2, where it says that the star stood over the place where the child was.

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And he says, that may not necessarily mean over the house, but in the direction of Bethlehem, which the magi would have had the confirmed knowledge from the scriptures that it was in Bethlehem, according to Micah 5 .2.

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The above was just me thinking out loud regarding the nature of the star. But my main question is raised by my wife is this.

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Why does it matter? Does knowing if the star was supernatural or natural affect our salvation?

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Or is there a purpose in learning about these small tertiary issues? I feel

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I'm biased because I like theology and reading on these things. Just wanted to see if there is value in knowing some of these trivia facts.

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Well, yeah, if you've got Trivial Pursuit Bible Edition, you need to know this stuff so you can win the game.

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That's a hard game. Becky won't play it with me. I won't. She won't play any trivia games with me.

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I won't. I told you that when we got married. I said, absolutely not. Matthew 2, verse 8.

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Herod sent the magi to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the child, and when you have found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him.

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Now after hearing the king, they went their way, and behold, the star which they had seen in the east was going on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was.

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And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And after coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and fell to the ground and worshipped him.

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How would they have known exactly where to go? Right. The star showed them exactly the place.

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Yep. Yeah, I don't think that that's saying that the star just stood over Bethlehem. I think it's saying the star was over the place where the child was.

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Right. They knew exactly which house to go into. And I do think you're right, Brian, that they knew

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Bethlehem. They knew to go to Bethlehem. Or they knew that the king would come out of Bethlehem. They didn't know to go to Bethlehem.

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Because Micah 5, 2 says that the king is going to come out of Bethlehem. That that's going to be the place.

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It doesn't necessarily mean that that's where he is. Right. Especially considering at the time that they arrived, the baby had already been born.

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Yeah. So it's logical, let's go to the palace in Jerusalem. Right.

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If a king has been born, where's he going to be? Right. He'll be in the palace in Jerusalem. Yeah. Bethlehem might have been the place of his origin, but that doesn't immediately mean that's where the child would have been.

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Mm -hmm. So when they went to Herod, and no one in Jerusalem had anything that they were— well, they went into Jerusalem first, but when no one there knew what they were talking about, that gets them an audience before King Herod, and Herod's wise men say, oh, yeah, hey, there is a prophecy about that.

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Right. Bethlehem is where— Kind of after the fact. Yeah, hey, I guess we should have been paying attention to that all this time.

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So then they went on to Bethlehem. They may have known that by the scriptures, but it's just logical.

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Hey, we're looking for a king. He would be in the palace. Yeah, he would be in the palace in Jerusalem. So then when they went on from that place, they followed the star, and oh, look, the star was actually leading us exactly to the house where the child was, hence why

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I believe it would have been something supernatural. If you're talking about something high up in the heavens, like some sort of astral event, then it's way up there, and how does it signify even the town where the wise men would be going?

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I mean, the star is way too high to know whether it's over Jerusalem or over Bethlehem, which were only four miles apart.

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True. So I don't see why an astral phenomenon would have guided them exactly to the place where the child was, whether you're talking about the town or you're talking about the house that he was in.

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Plus, when we go through the annals of history, you don't see multiple civilizations talking about this bright star in the sky that appeared at the time that Jesus was born.

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So this was a low astral event. It wasn't something way up in the heavens.

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It was something that probably would have been on the level of the clouds or something like that, guiding the wise men on their way.

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Okay. So, I don't know. I'm trying to think.

22:06

John MacArthur says it could have been an angel. No. That's possible. That's possible, yeah. Who knows? But I figure it would be something supernatural.

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This was a supernatural event. It wasn't a natural phenomenon. Definitely. I agree with that.

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Especially when you consider all those other proposals. They're just not bright, like comets and conjunctions.

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Yeah, planets appearing. Yeah, because everything's so far away that to light the way to that spot would be.

22:37

Right. And see, the thing about comets is a comet during that time was considered an omen.

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Yeah, that's true. Like it's a bad thing. Yeah, right? That's very true. It's like, oh, something bad's going to happen.

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There's a comet in the sky. So the wise men or the magi would not have assumed a comet was going to be leading them to the king.

22:59

Yeah, they probably would have headed the other direction. Let's go the other way. Well, it's not that way.

23:06

But good question, Brian. Okay, this next one's from Abby in Pineville. Sounds like a good

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Christmas town. I like it. Pineville, Louisiana. Dear Gabe and Becky, in keeping with the theme of your top 10 favorite

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Christmas what videos, because I did that compilation of all the Christmas what videos, or 10 of them anyway, in one video.

23:28

Yeah, okay. Yeah, which I just watched, she says. I have 10 favorite Christmas questions for you.

23:34

Number one, what is your favorite Christmas tree ornament? Do you want me to read through all these or should we just answer them as we go?

23:42

We can answer as we go. Okay. So number one, favorite Christmas tree ornament. I don't know.

23:48

I don't know either. I didn't even look at them this year. The kids decorated them. I like all the ones with my baby's pictures on them.

23:55

Yeah, I like those too. And then I have my own from when I was born. Which the kids were getting me to open.

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I didn't even know we had that. Do we put that on there every year? Sometimes I don't, just because I want to keep it good.

24:09

Has the year of your birth on there? Uh -huh. Yep, that was from when I was a baby. Yeah. And so,

24:16

I mean, just, I don't know, there's a lot of them. We don't have like the usual, every one of it matches and stuff like that.

24:25

We have like a compilation of everything. It's a hodgepodge. It is a hodgepodge. But they're also not.

24:31

And things that the kids made and things that people have gifted us. I mean, it's a good tasteful assortment.

24:38

It's not like, you know, gas station. Christmas ornaments. Oh, look, a

24:43

Darth Vader, you know, and you stick that on your Christmas tree. We have a few fun ones. If you want to do that, that's fine.

24:48

We just don't have, yeah, like a junk drawer on our Christmas tree. It's actually tasteful.

24:55

It looks like it all fits. Yeah. It's our own personality up on the tree. I can't think of a favorite one, though.

25:01

We've never had a good topper. No. I think every year we're trying to figure out what should I put on the top.

25:06

Well, that's because I don't want to spend 50 bucks to get one that I like. It's an issue.

25:12

Yeah. I could hang Bubba up there this year. There we go. Yeah. He's adorable. Sit him up there on the top.

25:19

Okay, number two. What is your favorite Christmas album to listen to? Oh, that one's tough.

25:28

For me, it's Michael W. Smith Christmas. That was 1989, I think was when that album came out.

25:34

Still my favorite. I like to listen to Bing. Bing Crosby. Yeah. Yeah, White Christmas.

25:41

Any of those from White Christmas. You listen to that a lot. Yeah, I do. Number three.

25:46

What is your favorite Christmas carol? And she has in parentheses, like Christmas or classic hymn.

25:53

Your favorite Christmas carol, classic hymn. Do I have to know the words to it, or can

25:59

I just like it a lot? Well, why is it your favorite if you don't know the words to it? I don't know.

26:05

I just really like it. Which one is that? I could listen to it all day. We Three Kings. That's a good one.

26:11

I like that one. Yeah, for me it would be, I like that one too.

26:16

Oh, come all ye faithful. Hark the herald angels sing. Yeah. Of course I love

26:22

Silent Night. Yeah, I'm going to stick either one of those two. Yeah. Oh, I really like,

26:28

I think that this one's underappreciated. While shepherds watch their flocks by night. Oh, yeah, that one's good.

26:34

It's basically the whole story of everything that happens with the shepherds and the angel. And it's to a very, very simple tune.

26:41

I think there's several versions of it, but the one that's, While shepherds watch their flocks by night.

26:48

All seated on the ground. That tune, that particular one. I like that one. Also, I Heard the

26:55

Bells on Christmas Day. I've heard some people say they really don't like that song. I like that one. I do. I like that one.

27:00

And even though there's some Scrooges out there that don't like it, I still like Oh, Holy Night as well.

27:06

Yeah. Number three, what is your favorite Christmas carol? Oh, that was, I just did that one. Number four, what is your favorite

27:13

Christmas food? Oh, are we talking goody or are we talking like food food?

27:21

Because there's a difference. Whatever you want to eat. Well, I'm just asking, is another one of those desserts in our question?

27:29

It just says, what's your favorite Christmas food? Okay. What do you want to eat at Christmas? Yes. No, I love sweet potatoes.

27:40

I love mashed potatoes and gravy. I love turkey, but you like to have ham. You're just talking about stuff you can eat all the time.

27:48

No, no, no, no. I'm going to eat whatever a person gifts me.

27:53

And we've had a lot of good snacks gifted to us. Oh, yeah. Here in the office over the last couple of weeks.

28:00

You've brought a few of them home. Yeah, I just said to some of the ladies a little bit ago, I'm more likely to develop a cavity at Christmas than at Halloween.

28:10

That's true. We bring a lot of good, and not just good sweet stuff, but it's like the sticky sweet stuff.

28:16

Yeah. It's got like the good gooeyness to it. I like the,

28:21

I can't think of it, the pecans. Bonbons? No, the pecans. Pecans.

28:26

Oh, like the little cookie with the chocolate and the pecan on the top? Is that what you're thinking of? No, I'm talking just pecans.

28:32

Just pecans. With the cinnamon and sugar. Oh, you mean pecans. No. Pecans. No. Pecans.

28:39

Yeah. The candied pecans. Yes. Yes. Yes. I like those.

28:45

Okay, those are good. I still think that's an anytime thing. I can get those at the mall. They've got the little pecan thing over there at the mall.

28:52

I'm only in the mood for that stuff around Christmas time. Christmas and Thanksgiving. All right. Yeah, any of the

28:58

Christmas goody bags. Yeah, pie is good. You have not done a pumpkin pie yet this year.

29:06

I've been sick. I haven't had my - For like a month. I want my pumpkin pie. All right.

29:15

I haven't had my Becky pumpkin pie yet. No, you haven't. Have I said what I like?

29:21

Let me pick from this stuff over here. You've been critiquing what I like. I've got some stuff in here already.

29:28

I like the shortbread cookies too. Those are good. Shortbread cookies are good. Gingerbread cookie.

29:34

I'm a big fan of gingerbread. I can only have so much gingerbread, but I love it. Now, I like ginger snaps.

29:41

I mean, if it's hard, I'll still eat it. I'll probably want to dip it in my eggnog or my milk or something like that.

29:47

Yeah. But nothing beats a good soft gingerbread cookie. Yeah. Oh, yes.

29:53

A soft, warm gingerbread cookie. I've only had one of those in my life. I'm digging into this bag here because I bet

29:59

I'll come up with some other ideas. Fudge. Oh, fudge. Yeah, you and fudge. Yeah. That is definitely a thing.

30:06

But that I get all year round because around here they make it. That's what I'm saying. All year round.

30:11

You can't pull that now because you've been listing all the other stuff that you can eat the rest of the year. But I don't eat the rest of the stuff the rest of the year.

30:18

You eat fudge the rest of the year. I do eat fudge. That's what I'm saying. That's the only thing that I've said, though.

30:27

All right. That's a hard question. I think that's the toughiest. Chex Mix. Toughiest.

30:33

Toughiest. Toughiest question. Toughiest question. I like the Chex Mix, you know, doing the holiday.

30:39

They add the spice to it usually in the holiday. It's not every other time in the year. Yeah. It's just salty the rest of the year.

30:45

But you got that Christmas flavor to it. Yeah. When they make it in December, whoever they are.

30:52

They, in quotes. What was the other thing I was just thinking of? Oh, the Muddy Buddies.

30:59

Oh, yeah. That we can't have right now. Why? Because Bubba has peanut butter. Oh, yeah, right.

31:05

Somehow our 15 -month -old developed an allergy to peanut butter. Yeah. Sad. You're the one that's allergic to foods.

31:12

I'm not allergic. I am allergic to foods. So he got it from you. It stinks. Bonus question, Abby says.

31:18

What is your least favorite Christmas food? Oh. Well, I can't say that I've ever tried the fruit.

31:28

What is that? Fruitcake? Yeah. You've never had a fruitcake? No. Hmm. There are fruitcakes that are really bad.

31:37

Mm -hmm. I have had a bad fruitcake. I've been too apprehensive about tasting it.

31:42

So I've never had it. Never ventured. Never ventured. When I was a kid, my mom made these fruitcake cookies.

31:48

Mm -hmm. And they were awesome. Hmm. And so I'd always hear these jokes. Everybody always makes the jokes about the fruitcake every year.

31:55

Your mom is an awesome cook anyway. Yeah, she is. She's amazing. I grew up with two good cooks.

32:01

You did. My mom and dad were both incredible cooks. And so it really spoiled me. I didn't make anything.

32:07

Yep. And I had to learn. I had to learn myself. Yeah, so she made these fruitcake cookies.

32:15

And so I'd always hear the jokes about how terrible fruitcake is. And I'm just going, what's wrong with fruitcake? Yeah. It's good stuff.

32:22

And then finally, yeah, I had a bad fruitcake. And I'm going, oh, yeah, gross. Okay, now

32:29

I get it. And it's either just like – you can either use it as a doorstop.

32:37

You know, it's that kind of fruitcake. Where it's just this brick of hard dough and weird candied things you would never eat by themselves.

32:52

So it's better to just have it as a doorstop. Is that a gag gift or a serious gift? No, it's a serious – it's just a terrible fruitcake.

32:57

Just checking. So it's either that or it's way too spongy. Like way too light and soft.

33:03

And then it still has like these imitation gummy bear things in them that's – Weird.

33:09

Yeah. There's a certain kind of fruit you buy for it that you put in the fruitcake. Okay. And it just, yeah, you wouldn't eat it by itself.

33:17

Yeah. But it works in my mom's fruitcake cookies. Those are good.

33:24

There's a fruitcake at the store right now. It's like from one of our local bakery, you know.

33:30

I won't say which one it is. But anyway, and it's 50 bucks. $50. That's because it's well -known.

33:37

Yeah. It's supposedly on a movie or something. I don't trust it enough.

33:44

I don't trust the reputation of fruitcake enough to want to spend 50 bucks and believe that that fruitcake is going to taste like a $50 fruitcake.

33:56

What is your – here's question number five. So that was a bonus question. That didn't even count. We're answering that one anyway.

34:03

You okay there? I'm pulling out the cough syrup. I'm going to do it. I'm going to pull out another cough syrup. What is your favorite part of the

34:11

Christmas story? What part of the story am

34:17

I not supposed to like? Yeah. I don't know. Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

34:23

Joy to the world. I think the angels is my favorite part just because –

34:28

Angels appearing to shepherds? Yeah. I think that'd be amazing. I mean, putting aside the obvious of our

34:36

Savior being born on earth is just – Well, that's the announcement right there. That's huge.

34:42

And I think I would be just super blessed to be anywhere close to that. But I think the angels would be my next favorite.

34:51

I would want to see that. That would be pretty phenomenal. I would like to know what that commotion was like when the

34:57

Magi came into Jerusalem. Interesting. What was the mood and the attitude of the people when they saw them?

35:03

Because it says that all of Jerusalem was troubled by them. Huh. So what was that like?

35:09

What did that look like? And it was more than just three dudes on camels. Right. Naturally. There was a whole caravan of them that came in.

35:16

So I'm curious about that. I would like to know what it was like when Zechariah is unable to speak because he doubted the

35:27

Lord. And John is born. And so he signs to the people that his name is going to be

35:34

John. And then once he says his name is John, then he can speak again. Like, what was everybody's attitude about that?

35:41

Right. You know, that whole thing? That would have been funny. That would have been a great family get -together moment.

35:47

I would have liked to have eavesdropped on that one. Number six. What is your favorite

35:53

Christmas movie? I don't like talking about movies. White Christmas.

35:59

Yeah, I knew yours. Yeah. I don't know mine. I know yours better than mine. Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn.

36:05

Those are my two I must watch. Muppet Christmas Carol. Yeah, you do love that one. I like that one. And I'm still a big fan of It's a

36:12

Wonderful Life. Yeah. I do like that movie. I just read an article for someone recently who said they went and saw it in a theater.

36:19

I saw there was a local theater around here that was playing it. Oh, really? I've never seen it in a theater. I'd like to go do that.

36:26

My wife took me to go see one of my favorite classic movies in the theater on my birthday.

36:34

I wish more theaters were doing that. That movie was over 40 years old. Yeah. And you could go see it in the theater.

36:40

I wish that there were theaters around here doing it because most of the new stuff that's coming out is just so bad.

36:46

There was that weekend where you were sick and I was like, okay, I'm going to take the kids out. We're going to go do something.

36:51

First thing that came to mind, I haven't taken them to a movie in a long time. Let's do a movie. Yeah. So I pulled the paper out.

36:58

Pulled the paper out. What am I saying? That's our children. Our children pull the paper out. What am

37:04

I, living in 2002? Come on. I pulled up the listings on my phone is what

37:10

I did. Anyway, and I looked to see what was playing. We have a ton of theaters around here, more theaters than I thought we had.

37:16

But nobody was playing anything that I would take the kids to. Even that new

37:22

Disney movie that's out has got some LGBTQ thing in it. I mean, anymore, if I see

37:27

Disney on it, I'm going, well, we're not going to go see that. Yeah, got to screen that first. That's the reputation they've developed.

37:36

So there you go. Yeah, I guess I answered that one. Number seven, what is your favorite Christmas tradition? Putting the

37:42

Christmas tree up three days before Christmas. Every year. Every year.

37:48

Yeah, but then we keep it up until your birthday. Because I put it up. So we still get a month out of it.

37:57

It's so bad. I always try to put it up after Thanksgiving.

38:03

Always, right after Thanksgiving. I think we've done it once. Yep, one time. One time out of 12 years of marriage.

38:10

I have been successful. It is always something. Always something.

38:16

We're usually pretty deep into December before we get it up. And by deep, you mean three days before. Yeah, but we keep it up until your birthday.

38:23

That's because we just put it up. That's what I'm saying. So we get a whole month out of it. We get a month out of it anyway if we put it up right after Thanksgiving.

38:31

We're on the back end of Christmas instead of the front end. Hey, the 12 days of Christmas go from December 25th to, what is that,

38:38

January 8th? I thought it was January 6th. Something like that. That's my favorite tradition. Have you picked one yet?

38:44

What's your favorite Christmas tradition? Tradition. I think that's our only Christmas tradition. Tradition, it might be.

38:50

Well, we do watch the old movies with the kids and have hot cocoa. So that's one that I love.

38:58

I drink sweet tea, which I just finished. Number eight, what is your favorite place to go?

39:04

What is your favorite place? Where is your favorite place to go at Christmas? Home.

39:11

Yeah. We just stay home at Christmas. Well, your job has a lot to do with that, too. Yeah, we had decided,

39:17

I mean, right when we got married, hey, I'm probably always going to be doing a Christmas Eve service. So we'll go somewhere the other holidays.

39:25

But Christmas, we'll just always have Christmas at home. Yeah. And when I was growing up, that's the way it always was. I had

39:30

Christmas at home for 29 years before I ever had a

39:39

Christmas anywhere else other than where my parents lived. Wow. And then

39:44

I didn't have a Christmas without my parents until our first Christmas together. Me and you and Annie.

39:51

I bet that was weird for your folks. Might have been. I was fine with it.

39:57

But yeah, Christmas has always been at home for me. We've always been home. We try to go around to the smaller towns around here.

40:05

They always dress up to the max, their stores and everything for Christmas.

40:11

And it just looks beautiful. It looks like Hallmark type of movies. And so we go to those towns occasionally.

40:19

And this year we didn't because I was very, very sick. Yeah, you've been sick all month. I have.

40:26

But I always try to take the kids to something like that or one of the craft fairs or stuff like that.

40:33

Just to kind of get into the Christmassy. Some of the towns that have that old classic look, the old town look.

40:40

I love it. They'll really dress up the downtown and kind of become like a Christmas town. Yes, I absolutely love it.

40:46

I think it's awesome. We like going out and looking at Christmas lights. Yes. Oh, that's a tradition we do every year.

40:53

We drive around and we look at all the Christmas lights. We're doing that tonight. We are. We're going to go look at some Christmas lights.

40:58

Sweet. Number eight, what is your favorite? Oh, that was that one. Except it should be where is your favorite place to go.

41:06

Number nine, what is your favorite thing to do on Christmas Day? Oh. Ah. Everybody likes my waffles.

41:14

We do, yes. Your bacon waffles. Pretty much expect me to do waffles. Oh, yeah, bacon.

41:20

I haven't gotten any bacon yet. It's a given. We do the stockings and then we do the presents.

41:31

Yeah, I think we're doing everything. Are we going to do it? We're going to open presents and everything the next day.

41:36

Aren't we? Yeah, we're doing it on the 26th. Yeah, we got some friends coming into town. Yeah, we got

41:41

Christmas Day service. We got friends coming into town. I just don't know when we're going to have like the

41:46

Christmas with the kids. Uh -huh. Getting to open their presents and everything. So we're going to wait till Monday.

41:52

I might not get them all wrapped until Monday anyway. That's probably true. Yeah, most of the month.

41:59

Oh, my goodness. And then lastly, what was your favorite Christmas ever? Well, last year, because that was our first Christmas with seven of us.

42:10

Yeah. So that was my favorite Christmas. I'm sure this year will replace last year. I loved last year.

42:19

Last year was great. I also loved whenever we got to rent that house in,

42:25

I think it was Kansas City maybe area. Yeah, it was outside of Kansas City. With my folks and my brother and his family.

42:30

Yeah, that was a good year. I remember that. That was so fun. I loved that. Anyway, we rented a house and they had it all dressed up for Christmas.

42:39

Yeah, we went right after Christmas. So it was between Christmas and New Year's. Yes.

42:45

So we still got to do everything with the church and then took a week off after that. Yeah, that was fun.

42:51

Well, Abby, thank you for those questions. Yeah, those are great questions. I think we had like 10 questions last year too.

42:56

It was a different list. Oh, yeah, I even remember who it was. It was Neil from South Carolina.

43:02

Oh, yeah. Had sent us 10 questions. That's awesome. 10 Christmas questions. So now let's get into the archives.

43:11

Because I got some questions that I yanked from the archives here. All right, let's do it. See if we remember. I wonder if our answers will match what it did.

43:18

Probably not. This one's from Celia in California.

43:23

Do you remember her? Yeah. Back in the day before we were

43:29

Gabe and Babe. Yep, it was Gobecki. We were Gobecki. My Christmas question is this.

43:35

Were the wise men different ethnicities? I know it wasn't three of them. The Bible doesn't state only three wise men, but when people think of three, they also think of one

43:45

African American, one Asian, and one of some other race, usually Caucasian. Very true. You have the

43:52

Angloid, the Mongoloid, and then what are white people called?

44:00

We've been called so many names since the woke movement now, I don't even remember what to. So it's kind of like they have one of the three, the three main ethnicities of people.

44:12

Asian, white, and black. So anyway, where did I stop here? I always see pictures of them like this, and I'm just wondering, where are people getting this from, or am

44:22

I missing something here? Thanks and hopefully, hope you and your family have a safe and Merry Christmas. Well, they would have been

44:28

Persian, most likely. Yeah. Do you think they all would have been the same, though? Probably. So the wise men only came from one area.

44:35

Now, given that they were traveling in a large caravan, I mean, there could have been some different ethnicities in there, especially when you consider that the wise men of Babylon got pulled into the

44:47

Persians, became the wise men of Persia, and some of those wise men among the

44:52

Babylonians were Jews. Because they had taken the most eligible boys from Judah and had castrated them and had made them wise men in the service of the king of Babylon.

45:06

So then those wise men became the Persian wise men. So there probably was a hodgepodge of some different ethnicities in there.

45:13

I don't think it would have been terribly vast. Yeah, but Persia, they all would have been whiter.

45:19

No, I think it would have been more Middle Eastern. Oh, really? I mean, you see

45:24

Middle Eastern folks that are pretty white, though. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I know. I'm not saying, like, white, white, like, me white.

45:31

I'm white. Well, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is described as being a very white man.

45:37

Hmm, interesting. Yeah, I think you can imagine that however you want. But they were traveling outside, so they were probably more tan.

45:47

Yes. At that point. I doubt any of them would have been Asian. Yeah. I really doubt they would have been Asian because we don't see

45:54

Christianity getting into Asia even until about the 4th or 5th century.

46:00

Oh, that's true. Now, it's part of church history that Thomas made it as far east as India.

46:09

Some people believe that Thomas, we're talking Thomas the Apostle. Right. Some people believe that's where he died.

46:17

It could be. It could be during that time there was some venturing of the Christian faith out to the east. But as far as evangelism is concerned in the history of the church, we don't see that chronicled in church history until you get to about the 4th century or so.

46:32

Hmm. 4th or 5th century. That's interesting. So, therefore, it's unlikely that any of the

46:38

Magi were probably Asian. Hmm. They don't really come from that far east. Yeah.

46:44

Men from the east, it wasn't that far east. Right. This next question from Beverly in Michigan. Is it okay for Christians to have

46:51

Christmas trees in their homes? Don't Christmas trees have pagan origins? I remember that question, too.

46:58

Well, let me just go ahead. I'll play the what video. Yeah. And that'll answer the question. Did you know

47:06

Christmas trees are forbidden in the Bible? Jeremiah 10, 3 to 4 says, for the customs of the people are vanity.

47:13

A tree is cut down and worked by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold.

47:19

What could that be but a Christmas tree? Well, verse 5 says it's describing an idol. And Christmas trees symbolize that we don't worship idols.

47:27

The story goes that in the 8th century, a man named Boniface went throughout Germania sharing the gospel, a very dangerous mission.

47:34

He came upon a group of heathens who sacrificed babies to Thor under the thunder oak. Grieved by such barbarism,

47:41

Boniface chopped down the tree and put an end to human sacrifice. The people were amazed Thor did not strike him down.

47:48

Upon the stump, Boniface declared that Jesus Christ is God and their pagan gods did not exist.

47:54

He pointed to a small fir tree that pointed up to heaven, its leaves evergreen like the everlasting life we have in Christ.

48:01

No longer worship the false gods in the wild wood, he said, that was the meaning of the first Christmas tree.

48:10

So again, a Christmas tree is not pagan, it's a reminder that we used to be pagan. Besides, there's no difference between having a

48:16

Christmas tree and any other kind of plant. Whether you have a Christmas tree or not, let your testimony be that of 1

48:23

Thessalonians 1, 9 -10 how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true

48:29

God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from death to life.

48:39

Now that's a Christmas song I'm not terribly fond of, Oh Christmas Tree. Oh yeah. Or Oh Tannenbaum.

48:46

Yeah. I like the tune of it though. The tune is catchy. Yeah, it's a really good tune.

48:52

I'll catch it, you know, when I'm in the mall or in a department store or something like that. If the Christmas, it's just like Christmas instrumental music.

49:02

Right. That's playing. Yes. And that one comes on. I really like that tune. But I'm not real crazy about the song.

49:07

Oh Christmas Tree. Oh Christmas Tree. Oh dear. How lovely are thy branches.

49:15

Yes. Isn't that what it is? It's weird. Yeah. And apparently you have to sound like Kermit the Frog when you're Oh Christmas Tree.

49:22

Oh Christmas Tree. I actually like that voice better.

49:29

Yeah. First one. Well, that first one was kind of morphing into that.

49:34

OK. Evolution or I devolved. Right. Went from man to frog. This one from Unami.

49:42

We keep seeing the nativity scene with baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the three wise men. Upon reading

49:48

Luke and Matthew, my family and I discovered that actually it was the shepherds that met baby

49:54

Jesus upon his birth. Luke 2. And the wise men appeared later. Matthew 2.

50:01

So perhaps for someone who hasn't read the scriptures, the question can be, was it the shepherds or the wise men that met baby

50:09

Jesus first? Hmm. Yeah, that'd be a good question. Well, Matthew comes first.

50:15

Matthew in the Gospels. And then you have the account in Luke. But if you're going in chronological order, the shepherds would have been the first to see the child because he was actually laying in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths.

50:30

By the time the Magi made it to Jesus, he was almost two years old. Because remember what said about how how old

50:40

Herod would have figured the child to have been. Right. So based. Yeah. Two and under.

50:46

So he based that off of what the Magi had said to him when the star had appeared.

50:53

And so this was, let's see, Matthew 2, 16. When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully determined from the

51:10

Magi. So that would have put Jesus a little over a year, probably by that point.

51:16

Yeah. How sad. The question earlier, what's your least favorite part of the

51:22

Christmas story? There you go. That's the least favorite part right there. But, yeah, that's how old Jesus would have been at the time the

51:28

Magi came. So chronologically, you put that event after. The the shepherds would have seen over a year after the shepherds would have seen him.

51:37

Yeah. But that's interesting to consider that, you know, Joseph and Mary came down from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered for the census, but then they stayed there.

51:47

Yeah. So they had been there for a couple of years. And Joseph would have made a living there that way.

51:52

But then from the gifts that they had received from the Magi, that would have paid for their stay in Alexandria.

52:00

So when they fled from Bethlehem to go down into Egypt, they stayed there until Herod died, which wasn't very long.

52:08

They were in Egypt for less time than they had been in Bethlehem. When they came back, the all for all intents and purposes here, it looks like Joseph intended to come back to Bethlehem.

52:20

So in verse 20, get up, take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead.

52:28

So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he had heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father,

52:37

Herod, he was afraid to go there. Ah. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he departed for the district of Galilee and came and lived in a city called

52:46

Nazareth. So that what was spoken through the prophets would be fulfilled. He shall be called a

52:52

Nazarene. So it looks like Joseph had probably intended to go back to Bethlehem. Yeah. But when

52:57

Archelaus was there reigning in Judea, then the Lord directed him to go into Galilee.

53:04

So they just went back to Nazareth at that point. Yeah. So there you go. We have these nativity scenes that have all these different characters that appear right there.

53:13

But they didn't all come simultaneously. No. Now, there was that movie called

53:18

The Nativity. When did that come out? I remember going with my friend Kyle to see it in the theater. I don't remember.

53:25

2005, 6, somewhere in there. Anyway, in that movie, they all came at the same time.

53:33

There were the shepherds and then the wise men. And I remember there being an interview about that movie on one of the shows that we aired on the

53:41

Christian radio station that I was on. 2006. 2006. That sounds right. Yeah. There was an interview with one of the creators of the show, and he said, well, we just decided to put them all together because everybody's nativity scene looks that way.

53:54

So we still haven't had an accurate nativity movie. Trying to put the magi.

54:00

2009, 2006? No, it was not 2009. Okay. Well, it's giving me a whole bunch of different ones. 2006 sounds about right.

54:07

Okay. It was mid -2000s range. Mid -aughts. That was this one?

54:13

Why don't we call that period the aughts? Yeah. Yeah. That's her. I recognize the gal that played

54:21

Mary. Why don't we call that period the aughts? The aughts? Yeah, aughts.

54:26

What do you mean aughts? Like aught one, aught two. Oh. But we have to say the whole year. 2001.

54:34

Not and. 2002. There's no and. But back in the early 1900s, they called it the aughts.

54:40

Aught one, aught two. True. I was looking forward to that tradition like in the 90s.

54:47

I was going, hey, next in the next decade, we get to call that year the aughts. Nobody did it. You should have said it a little bit more often.

54:55

With all of my power and influence. Yes. In that decade. I could have been a motivator.

55:02

Yes. All right. Well, that's it, folks. We have we've spent our hour. Well, Merry Christmas.

55:08

Merry Christmas to you all. Yes. Celebrating the reason for the season. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

55:14

And I hope you have somewhere to worship this weekend. Christmas Eve service, Christmas Day service.

55:20

Go and be with your church family and worship Christ, the Lord. Oh, come let us adore him.

55:26

Amen. All right. Let's pray. Yes. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for this season and we remember the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

55:36

He who came from heaven to earth, who put on flesh and dwelt among us, who lived a perfect life, who died on the cross as a perfect sacrifice for us, who rose again from the dead so that all who believe in him, our sins will be forgiven.

55:51

The wrath of God has been satisfied. We have fellowship with you now and the promise of eternal life with you forevermore.

55:59

All who believe in him will be saved. What a great time of year to remember that message and to use this time when people are probably more likely to listen to it or or look for a church to be able to worship in even on Christmas day.

56:15

May they hear the gospel message and come to faith in Jesus Christ and know him and live.

56:21

Lead us in this truth all year long that we may live as Christ, walking in holiness and looking forward to that day when we will join you forever in your eternal kingdom.

56:31

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen. Amen. Pokey. Okey dokey, pokey.

56:48

All right. You got your thing. I got my thing. All right. Go for it. Merry Christmas from your friends.

56:55

From weird friends. Merry Christmas from weird friends. From your friends. Weird friends.

57:00

I didn't say weird. I said mere. That's weird.

57:06

It is weird. Merry Christmas from your friends at when we understand the text.

57:15

A daily. A daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word. Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .t

57:22

.com. Merry Christmas from your friends at when we understand the text.

57:32

A daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word. I don't know why I. Your vowels.

57:38

I'm hung up on that. Is your face. Can you feel your face yet? My mouth isn't working.

57:48

That's what I'm saying. The cold. The cold is affecting everybody right now. Okay. Try again.