The Wise Men at the manger

Every year around Christmas we see nativity scenes.  The details of the scenes differ but all of them show the baby Jesus in a manger with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the Wise Men either standing or kneeling around him.  These scenes serve a useful purpose by reminding everyone that Christmas is about Jesus, not Santa Claus.  Unfortunately every nativity scene I have ever seen promotes an error.  They show the Wise Men being present at the birth of Jesus.  In fact they were nowhere near Bethlehem then and didn’t arrive until much later.

Here is Matthew’s description of the birth of Jesus.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (Matthew 1:24-25)

He doesn’t give any details about the birth except to tell us that Mary was still a virgin.

Luke 2:1-20 gives a more detailed description of Jesus’s birth.  Joseph and Mary were forced to go to Bethlehem because of a decree by Caesar and Jesus was born there and placed in a manger.  An angel revealed to a group of shepherds that the Messiah had been born and they came to see him.

The lost ark

When God told Moses how to make the ark of the covenant he included this command.

You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it.
Exodus 25:13-15

The poles were needed during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.  Eventually Solomon built a temple to house the ark and it appeared that it would no longer need to be carried from place to place, but in obedience to God’s command the poles were left in it.

The cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Holy Place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.
2 Chronicles 5:8-9

Living stones

The stones used in Solomon’s temple were carved at the place from which they were taken, not at the place where the temple was being built.

When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
1 Kings 6:7

Imagine that these stones were alive.  How might they have felt about what was being done to them?

Tongues of fire

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:1-4

This was the first time anyone was baptized with the Holy Spirit and two things happened to them: tongues of fire appeared and rested on each of them and they spoke in other tongues.  There would be other occasions when people were baptized by the Spirit and spoke in tongues but this is the only time tongues of fire appeared.

Unfaithful priests

The last part of Ezekiel’s prophecy contains a description of the temple that will exist during Christ’s thousand year reign on earth.  The Levites who serve in the temple will be divided into two groups.