11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Matthew 2:11 (ESV)
Through the Bible: Matthew 2
Over the years, my wife and I have shopped for a lot of baby showers. I pastor a relatively young church, so there’s almost always at least one couple expecting a little one.
So we’ve seen our share of shower registries. The suggested gifts are predictable. Strollers. Diapers. Car seats. Diapers. Burp cloths, Outfits. Diapers. Toys. Diapers.
At least once at every shower, the parents-to-be will open something that was not on their registry. Maybe its a sheet set that doesn’t match their nursery decorations. Or an accessory they can’t imagine using. Often (and this happens more often with the father-to-be than the mom-to-be), you can tell by the look on their face when they open something that they have absolutely no idea what it is or what its for! And they hold it up and manage a polite, but perplexed, “Thanks! It’s so… thoughtful!”
I sometimes wonder what Mary and Joseph’s reaction was when the wise men came to their house bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Beautiful gifts to be sure. Precious and costly, without a doubt. But maybe not the most practical gifts for new parents. I can imagine Mary thinking to herself, “Thanks, but what we really need is a Diaper Genie.” For all their supposed wisdom, showing up to a baby shower with gold, frankincense, and myrrh doesn’t sound like something a Wise Man would do. It sounds like what happens when men shop without their wives.
But then you read the next three verses.
13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod.
Matthew 2:13-15
Suddenly, gold, frankincense, and myrrh take on a very practical purpose.
God Knew What They Would Need
Luke gives us good reason to believe that Mary and Joseph didn’t have much money. When they presented Jesus at the temple, they offered “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:24). According to Leviticus 12:8, that was the offering permitted for parents who could not afford a lamb.
And now this working-class family is told to leave everything behind and flee to another country.
Think about the practical side of that command. Joseph couldn’t give two weeks’ notice at work. They couldn’t put their house on the market. They couldn’t have a yard sale. There was no time to save up for the trip.
This was basically first-century witness protection.
Get up. Take the child. Take his mother. Leave tonight. Don’t tell anybody where you’re going. Stay there until I tell you it’s safe to come home.
And immediately before God tells them to go, strangers from the East show up at their house carrying treasure.
Matthew never tells us what Mary and Joseph did with the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, so we shouldn’t pretend to know. The gifts certainly had significance beyond their monetary value. They were gifts worthy of royalty, presented by Gentiles who had come to worship the newborn King.
But it’s hard not to notice the timing.
Gold was portable wealth. Frankincense and myrrh were expensive commodities. All three could have been carried with them or sold along the way. The gifts that may have seemed extravagant—or even impractical—when the wise men presented them could suddenly have become exactly what this young family needed to survive.
The wise men thought they were bringing gifts. God may have been funding an escape.
And here’s what I love most about that possibility:
God’s provision arrived before Mary and Joseph knew they needed it.
When Joseph went to bed on the night the wise men visited, he didn’t know he was about to become a refugee. He didn’t know Herod wanted his son dead. He didn’t know that before morning God would tell him to pack up his family and leave the country.
But God knew.
Before the warning came, the provision had already arrived.
I wonder how often God does the same thing for us.
Sometimes we recognize God’s provision immediately. We pray for something, God provides it, and the connection is obvious.
But other times God puts something in our hands and we don’t yet understand why. A relationship. An opportunity. An unexpected gift. A skill we didn’t think we’d need. A season that taught us something we couldn’t imagine needing later. Even a disappointment. A “gift” we don’t want, we didn’t ask for, and we wish we could return.
And only afterward do we look back and realize:
Oh. That’s what that was for.
The gift came before the need because the Giver already knew the need was coming.
Mary and Joseph couldn’t see Herod’s soldiers coming.
God could.
They couldn’t see the road to Egypt.
God could.
They didn’t know what tomorrow would require.
God did.
And perhaps that’s one reason why, on the night before everything changed, there was gold in the house.
Sometimes God’s provision arrives before we even know what it’s for.
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