<TITLE>06. Par 34-39</TITLE>L-34   Let's read now, after John 3:16; let's read the visit of--of the Magi of Saint Matthew, the 2nd chapter.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the--from the east to Jerusalem,
Saying, Where is he that's born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
When Herod the king... heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered... the chief priests and the scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
And they said unto him, Of Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art thou not the least among the princes of Juda:... out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
... Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
When they... heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and... they had opened their treasures, they presented to him gifts; gold,... frankincense, and myrrh.
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not depart... they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

L-35   Very strange here how that God, in a lesser way,... God does speak to people through dreams. I believe it. But how that God in this case used a secondary.

L-36 Now, a dream is... a dream, if it's interpreted rightly, it is a same as a vision; if it's a dream and being interpreted. God's used it since way back in the Old Testament and down through the ages, and promised in the last days to use it again. Now, people can over eat and--and so forth and get nightmares, and it's not--it's not real, spiritual dreams, it don't ring up when you--when you read it. And some of it might seem right, but yet there's real, spiritual dreams. And we know here at the tabernacle that God gives people dreams and they are interpreted, and they come to pass, and they're real. But it's a secondary way of doing it. See?

L-37   Now, the reason it was done then, it was because there was no prophet in the land at that time, to interpret the dream. See? There was no prophet to interpret the dreams, like Joseph and--and Daniel and those prophets of old. They hadn't had a prophet for four hundred years, and God used a dream to... for the welfare of His Own Child. He did.

L-38 He told Joseph, when he was "a just man, not willingly to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily." No doubt she told him the visit of Gabriel and so forth, and what he had said; but when he saw her to be mother, it--it was too unusual. You know, it just... it was something very different. And you know, that's what's the matter today. God does things unusual, and it's so unusual till even just man can't see it.

L-39   Joseph couldn't understand it, it was too unusual. He was a good man, nothing wrong with him. He was a good man, a just man, but it was so unusual. See, Joseph probably forty years old or forty-five, something like that, they claim, when he and Mary was engaged. But here we find something that never had happened: a woman espoused to this man and yet be found to be mother! And it was so unusual Joseph was minded to put her away. But right at that crucial moment, God sent His Angel, and appeared to him in a dream and said, "Don't fear to take to thee Mary thy wife, for That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."


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