Monday, January 6: Matthew 2:1–12 (Epiphany)
When God called Abraham to go into the land of Canaan, He promised that He would make of him a great nation. This nation would be the Lord’s people and worship Him as their only God. This was further established after the nation of Israel, which had gone down into Egypt as a small band and was now a great nation, was led out of Egypt by God. He once again through His servant Moses established—with the presentation of the Law—that He would be their God, and they would be His people. He would lead them through forty years in the wilderness and bring them back into the land of promise as their only God.
The Lord also desired that the Gentiles would be His people, and that they would have Him be their only God. With the arrival of the wise men from the east, the Lord begins to call the Gentiles to be His people. They saw the star of the newborn baby Jesus and followed it to come and find Him, the One who would fulfill the Law for all mankind. By the star the Lord led these wise men to Him, their Redeemer from sin. Like the Jews who were chosen by God to be His faithful people by the Law, now the Gentiles are chosen to be His faithful people through faith in Christ who fulfilled the Law, so that He may make of us a great nation of saints, fit for His eternal kingdom.
Collect: O God, who by the leading of a star didst manifest Thine Only-begotten Son to the Gentiles: Mercifully grant that we, who know Thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of Thy glorious Godhead; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
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