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Steve Webb: It's day 20 of the 2022 encore of the 2009 season

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of the Lifespring Why Christmas show hosted by James Cooper,

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creator of whychristmas.com. And me the OG Godcaster Steve Webb

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of Lifespringmedia.com. We're in the homestretch now Christmas is

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just five days away when we'll have the drawing to see which

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lucky winner will win an autographed copy of Bryan

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Duncan's A NehoSoul Christmas CD. If you'd like to enter the

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drawing, all you have to do is go to Lifespringmedia.com slash

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day nine to see how. That's Lifespringmedia.com slash d-a-y,

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numeral nine no spaces. And if you're enjoying these shows,

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James and I were wondering if you'd be willing to put

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something in our Christmas stockings, you could do that

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right here. Lifespringmedia.com slash support.

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James Cooper: Hello, and welcome to day number 20 of the 2009

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Lifespring by Christmas Show. Today you've got me James, and

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we're going to be finding out a bit more about one of the parts

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of the Christmas story, namely the wise men, their journey,

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some political intrigue, and not even a stable insight. Their

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story is told in the Bible in Matthew chapter two, verses one

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to 12, and says, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,

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during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to

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Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who's been born king of

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the Jews. We saw his star in the east and have come to worship

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him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all

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Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the peoples

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chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the

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Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they

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replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you

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Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the

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rulers of Judah, four out of you will come a ruler, who will be

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the shepherd of my people, Israel. Then Herod called the

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Magi secretly, and found out from them the exact time the

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star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go

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and make a careful search for the child, as soon as you find

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him, reported me to the iTune may go and worship him. After

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they'd heard the king, they went on their way. And star that they

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had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over

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the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they

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were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with

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his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. When

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they opened their treasures, and presented him with gifts of

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gold, and an incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in

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a dream not to go back to Herod, they're returned to their

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country by another route. I guess most people picture the

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wise men along with the shepherds, Mary Joseph, and of

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course, baby Jesus, all in the stable scene. But in fact, the

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wise men and shepherds probably never met, the wise men traveled

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to find Jesus when he was actually aged one or two. And by

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this time, it seems that Mary Joseph and Jesus had settled

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into Bethlehem and lived in a normal house. But who were these

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wise men? And why did they traveled such a great distance

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to see a baby? Well, the Weizmann probably came from an

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area which is now made up of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and

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the Yemen, which back then was known as Persia, Arabia and

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Sheba. And they were indeed very wise men, that also sometimes

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called the Magi. The word Magi comes from the Greek word mag

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modules, which is also where we get the English word magic from

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majestic self comes from an old Persian word, Maga pootie. And

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this was the title given to priests in the sector of ancient

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Persian religions, such as Zoroastrianism. Today, we'd call

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them astrologers, or even scientists. But back then

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astrology and astronomy were part of the same overall studies

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and went hand in hand with each other. The Magi would have

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followed the patterns of the stars religiously, they're

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probably also very rich and held in high esteem in their own

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society. Although they're called the Three Kings or the three

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wise men, the Bible doesn't actually say anything about how

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many of them there were. The number three probably came from

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the three presidents. But they came to present to Jesus.

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studying the stars, the wise men had seen a very new and unusual

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star in the sky, and knew that it told of us birth of a special

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King, even now, no one's really sure what it was. Many people

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have tried to come up with explanations to what the star

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was. And these include supernovas, that's when stars

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explode, comets and conjunctions of planets. If you'd like to

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know more about this, then head on over to whychristmas.com. And

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in the custom section, there's a page on the Star of Bethlehem,

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which lists some of the common explanations and how they work.

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So the wise men headed to the royal palace in Jerusalem to

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honor the new king and bring him gifts, but they didn't quite

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find what they were looking for. When King Herod asked the wise

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men to find Jesus and tell them where he was, it was for his own

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reasons. He didn't want to go and worship him. He really

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wanted to kill him, as Herod thought that Jesus sounded like

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the new king that could come and take his power away. And the

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gifts that the wise men gave to Jesus also might seem strange

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things to give a baby, but Christians believe they have the

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following meanings. Gold is associated with kings and

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Christians believe that Jesus is the King of kings. Frankincense

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is sometimes used in worship in churches and showed that people

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would worship Jesus. And Myrrh is a perfume that's put on dead

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bodies to make them smell nice and showed that Jesus would

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suffer and die. Frankincense and Myrrh are both resins from trees

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and have antiseptic and healing properties and are still being

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investigated by medical researchers today. When the wise

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men were about to go Herod and tell him where Jesus was, they

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were warned by God in a dream not to so they traveled home by

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a different room. If you'd like to find out more about the

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Wiseman and Harrods dastardly plot to come and kill the baby

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Jesus, then go to the story section of whychristmas.com.

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Come back tomorrow to hear a show where me and Steve will try

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and get our tonsils round Happy Christmas or Merry Christmas in

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lots of different languages. Well, thank you for listening to

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day number 20 of the Lifespring by Christmas Show. I'm James and

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I'll speak to you tomorrow.