Hey everybody, I'm Matt. This is the 10-Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and talking about the Bible. This week of the podcast is brought to you by Dwell. It's an audio Bible app that I love. I hope you'll check it out. It's available on your phones, iPhones, Androids, whatever. You can search it in the app store or follow the link below to check that out. Okay, I want to pick up right where we left off because we've been talking about the magi and the star, and we left it with the question last time around of does this mean astrology is good? Because let's be honest, astrology is not only not very credible for good reasons in modern society. I I don't think anybody actually believes there's science to suggest that those little things you read in the paper about your sign or whatever. I'm sorry, I don't even really know how astrology works, and I'm totally ripping it. But I don't think anybody thinks there's science behind that and that what the stars do affects like your love life or your luck and betting or something. I mean, it really, in a way, having astrologers vouch for Jesus, it it almost feels like it could discredit it in some circles. And I just talked about the modern thing. I mean, the Bible isn't really all that high on sorcery and astrology. In fact, it pretty much overtly discourages it. And the truth of the matter is the Old Testament seems more concerned with condemning fortune-telling and mediums and people who read omens and not so much specifically astrology. Now, I know that's maybe, you know, splitting hairs a little bit, but Deuteronomy 18 says, uh, when you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable, abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering. I mean, that seems like a really fair expectation. Anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead. Seriously, they had necromancers. Like level 15, those things are unstoppable. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. So again, it's not specifically astrology, I guess, but it feels like the gist is similar, that you're not supposed to, you know, engage in divination or seeking out answers from things that are fake. And in Isaiah, the prophet seems to be mocking astrologers. In Isaiah 47, he says, You are wearied with your many counsels, let them stand forth and save you. Those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. Behold, they're like stubble. The fire consumes them. They can't deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before. Oh, okay. And then Daniel chapter four has the astrologers unable to interpret the dream that Daniel, by the power of God, can interpret. So look, that wasn't a comprehensive list of everything the Bible says about anything related to that topic. All I'm saying is, I guess you could make a case that the Bible is more concerned with some other aspects of sorcery and divination than astrology. It doesn't seem to be first priority. Still, that's not a ringing endorsement. But the point of this episode is not really to figure out whether or not you should all go out and sign up for a junior astrology club. I I don't know. I guess I probably wouldn't, but it's the internet, it's a podcast. Everyone has their own opinions. Knock yourself out, be offended by what you want to or what you not want to. But what I really want to get at is what is God employing here? It looks like the astrology was right. We don't know much about the data they were operating off of or what the prediction was. We have those vague references from Suetonius and Tacitus that I mentioned last time around. But somehow, what you can't argue with is it worked, and Matthew seems to celebrate it as being something that was good. Now, already we've got God speaking in a dream, well, an angel of the Lord speaking in a dream. We've got this happening, we've got a little bit more in the same vein coming up in terms of the rest of the story of the Magi. And then we've got uh an angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph in a dream again during the escape to Egypt that's coming up. So, right now, in the early going, there's a whole lot of communication that we find strange, curious, off-putting, and don't really have categories for it. And you know what I'm gonna do with that? Nothing, because I don't know what to do with that, other than to say God would seem to have ordained something that would, to a segment of the original audience, have smacked of truth. Surely there were people, again, because the market says there were people and this was a viable business, who believed this is how you knew truth about spiritual things. Is it possible that what we're to understand from this is that God was endeavoring into things that would communicate truth to them? And if this message is supposed to go out to the whole world, I suppose that could be a strategy that he would employ. Is it also possible that what we're calling astrology really is better described as astronomy? We talked last time about an astronomical theory for what might have been going on here. I guess it could be that God just harnessed the laws of time and space and the movement of the heavenly bodies and somehow put it in the minds of people that when this particular crazy alignment of the stars became visible, that it meant something so compelling that they would be moved to go and track it down, you know, halfway across the known world. Well, whatever the case, they get exactly where they're going. And it is a subtle reminder and a subtle hearkening back to the initial covenant that made this people group in the first place with Abraham that said, and you will be a blessing to all the nations. I mean, specifically, that covenant says in Genesis 12, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you'll be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, ever curses you, I will curse, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Matthew does end with the great commission. You know, go and make disciples of all nations. This is directed at Jews, but it is meant to nurture them into understanding that there's a new family of faith being created in Jesus. And the fact that magi show up, foreigners, gentiles show up, and are a part of this birth narrative from the beginning would seem to point in that direction. Okay, amigos, I'm gonna hit pause right there because I want to leave myself plenty of time tomorrow to work through the actual narrative here. What's the tension between Herod and the Magi? How does it play out? What does it mean? So we'll tackle that then. Again, I want to thank our sponsor, Dwell. And for those of you who are trying this out, go and check out the playlist feature. This is really cool. They've collated a whole bunch of big chunks of Bible, little chunks of Bible that all address the same themes into playlists that you can just put on and consume over the course of a day or a week or a month or whatever to really saturate your brain with stuff in the Bible dealing with this specific topic, that specific aspect of God. I think you're really gonna dig it. Once again, I've got a link down in the show notes that'll get you to an offer where you get 33% off an annual membership, 20 bucks instead of 30. That is an awesome deal. I hope you'll check it out. Hey, I don't know where you're at with this whole thing, but my guess is if you're still here, you're having fun too. I've really enjoyed the Space Wizard discussion, and I'm excited to get on to see how the drama plays out next time around. I'm Matt, this is the 10 Minute Bible Hour. You're awesome. Can't wait to do this again tomorrow.