A Star Out of Jacob

One of the most familiar elements of the Christmas story is the star of Bethlehem. But at the same time, it remains one of the most unknown features of the story because unlike the magi (the wise men), we don’t really understand what they saw nor how they knew what the star represented.

Numbers 24:17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth.

The prophet Balaam was a covetous and sinful man (Jude 11; 2^nd Peter 2:15). But at the same time, even though he was not of the nation of Israel, he was a true prophet when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him (Numbers 24:2). Balak, king of Moab, had Balaam summoned in order to put a curse on Israel. In spite of everything, the Spirit of the Lord refused to let Balaam prophesy disaster for Israel; Balaam’s words kept coming out as blessing (Micah 6:5). Balak was understandably upset with Balaam (Numbers 24:10), but Balaam calmed him down by giving him some very practical, yet natural advice… for a fee (Revelation 2:14). The women of Moab enticed the Israelite men into idolatry and fornication, and God dealt with them severely (Numbers 25:1-3). Balaam was eventually killed by the Israelites when they invaded the land (Joshua 13:22). Judging from the number of times it is referred to explicitly, both in the Old Testament and the New, this is a very important story. And in the Christmas story, we have an implied reference to it.

At the end of his exchanges with Balak, Balaam gave the words of our text above, and as a prophecy of blessing for Israel, we should be careful to ask what it means. The first fulfillment of these words came with the reign of King David four hundred years later. He was the one who struck Moab (verse 17), not to mention Edom (verse 18). David was the king who was a type of the King of Kings, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the antitype, the complete fulfillment of this prophetic word. A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter out of Israel and He will establish his reign. The scepter would stay with Judah until Shiloh came and He would be the one who would gather all the people to Himself (Genesis 49:10).

The Wise Men

Balaam was a prophet, but he was not a prophet of Israel. He was from the east probably from Persia and had the learning and of the Chaldeans who were known for their wisdom. The wise men who came to search for Jesus, because of the star, were also from the east. It is likely that Balaam’s prophecy was known unto Daniel for he was instructed in all wisdom of the Chaldeans and spoke their language (Daniel 1:4) who had preserved outside of the Hebrew Scriptures, Balaam’s in and note how the wise men speak of this (Matthew 2:2). They appear to have much more information than could be gleaned from looking at a star in the sky, even if they were serious astrologers. Balaam had prophesied of a king, one with a scepter. Daniel had prophesied the time and purpose of His coming in Daniel 9:24-27. The wise men asked Herod about a king. Balaam had specified that this king would be from Jacob, and the wise men asked about a king of the Jews (Judea) one of Jacob’s sons. Herod, the man they asked about it, was an Edomite, one of the peoples that this prophecy described as being conquered by the coming king. And, most noticeably, Balaam spoke of a star, and the wise men came in response to a star. Incidentally, we don’t know for certain that there were three wise men. That is simply an inference from the three types of gifts they brought (Matthew 2:11).

Led by the Star

One of the reasons we don’t look too closely at what the text says about our star is that it might mess with our modernist cosmology too much. The text says that the star, the same one which they had seen in the east, led them from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, a distance of about eight miles, and that the star then stood still over the house where Mary and Jesus were (Matthew 2:9, 11). Picture a star leading you to a town 6 or 7 miles away, and then pointing to a particular house.

Either the wise men were being led by the star in some astrological sense, meaning that they were doing some serious math on the back of their camels, or a star actually came down into our atmosphere and did some very un-star like things.

Not what we were expecting

Now if we don’t accept the astrological math option, then that means the star came down into our sky, and stood over a particular house, fifty feet up, say. Does faithfulness to Scripture require us to accept absurdities? That a flaming ball of gas, many times larger than our entire earth, came down into Palestine in order to provide first century map quest services? And that it did so without incinerating the globe? We need to take a lesson here from our medieval fathers in the faith, brought to us via Narnia. “In our world,” said Eustace, a star is a huge ball of flaming gas. Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.” If we can leave our bodies behind when we go to heaven, why cannot a star leave its body behind to come to earth?” But any way you take it, the faith of Christ flat contradicts the shortened cosmology of modern science. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.

Remember what the Star meant

Balaam is talking about what will happen to all the monarchies when the real kingdom arrives, when the true scepter is established. Daniel spoke of this also in his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the stone cut out of mountain destroying the great image that represented the kingdoms of this world  (Daniel 2:42-45):

⁴²And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. ⁴³And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. ⁴⁴And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. ⁴⁵Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus identifies Himself with His ancestor and subject, King David. He is the root and offspring of David, and He is the bright and morning star (Revelation 22:16). Balaam was talking about what was going to happen in the latter days (Numbers 24:14), and he is very clear about the rise and fall of nations before the Messiah would come. First, the Amalekites would perish forever (verse 20). After them, the Kenites would go down (verse 22). They would be followed by invaders from Kittim (the Greeks, under Alexander), which is what verse 24 is talking about. But then the Greeks faded away, which is what happened with Rome in the ascendancy. And thus it was that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed (Luke 2:1).

So Caesar gave the command in order to tax the whole world (Luke 2:1). The star gave the command that the magi obeyed from the east, bearing gifts (Matthew 2:11). Augustus had won his throne through a great deal of killing at the battle of Actium. The Lord Jesus won His throne at the battle of Golgotha, where He conquered and crushed the seed of the serpent by dying. The star in the east, the one the wise men followed, was a star that declared a kingdom that was established within every many woman and child when Christ ascended and led captivity captive, a kingdom that will never end. This is the kingdom of the true king, before whom the most magnificent kings in the history of the world were but flickering types and shadows.

The star of Bethlehem (Star out of Jacob – Star of David – Seal of Solomon) is therefore the regal emblem of a scepter, a scepter of never-ending glory which directed the magi, whose forefathers had been taught by Daniel of David’s son. They came from Persia to Bethlehem by faith to worship the son of God!