“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth.” – Numbers 24:17

This blessing was uttered by the prophet Balaam (the one with the talking donkey) about Israel when he was asked to curse Israel. Balaam was not an Israelite; he was a pagan sage who lived to the east, along the Euphrates river.

Babylon is also next to the Euphrates. When Daniel and the Israelites were captive in Babylon, we know there were “magicians” who served the Babylonian kings. The term used for the magicians has the same root as the term that refers to the “Magi from the East” who followed the star to Jesus.

According to Larry Jaffery of Middle East Ministries, Balaam, the Babylonian wise men, and the Christmas wise men, could have all been part of the same strain of philosophy, connected through a line of “eastern” intelligentsia and academics who would have had access to the same body of collected knowledge.

If it is true that this Babylonian thought was connected, even as it is true that “western thought” is built upon reference to a collection of ancient writings such as Aristotle, Rousseau, and Dickens, then what if the Magi knew about Balaam’s prophecy? Could it be that his prophecy was part of how they associated the coming of the Jewish King with the appearance of a star?

I’m not sure how that would affect the Magi and intriguing role in the Christmas story. In any case, the idea is fascinating and worth maintaining for further thought.

Migdal-eder, translated “tower of the flock”, was a shepherd’s watchtower near Bethlehem, between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. In the photo above, the town of Bethlehem can be seen in the background, Migdal Eder is to the left of the valley, in the center, on the high hill. Thanks Rabbi Michael Short for this source.

Jacob camped there briefly in Genesis 35:21, and the following was prophesied about it in Micah 4:8:

“As for you, tower of the flock, Hill of the daughter of Zion, To you it will come— Even the former dominion will come, The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”

Perhaps this could be a poetic metaphor for Jerusalem itself, but it could also be a reference to this more specific place. If this is true, it would be fascinating to note that the shepherds “in the same region, out in the fields” near Bethlehem (Luke 2:8) were likely in Migdal-eder. When the angels appeared to the shepherds, they were fulfilling prophecy.

Additionally, in Targum pseudo-Jonathan, an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew scriptures that served as a paraphrase or commentary to the Jews, there is a note about the verse in Micah: “It is the place where the Messiah will be manifested in the end times.”

Praise be to God for his prophecies, all fulfilled in Jesus Christ!

These scriptural observations were presented this morning by Larry Jaffery of Middle East Ministries at Centreville Baptist Church.