Matthew 2:12

Matthew 2:12. Being warned of God. Probably they had asked guidance, because they suspected Herod's double dealing. They obtained guidance in a dream, or by dreams.

They departed, or ‘withdrew.'

By another way. Avoiding Jerusalem, to which they would naturally have returned, wherever their own country might have been.

Their own country. Still indefinite.

The brief story of this episode thus ends Superstition has founded legends upon it; faith finds many lessons in it. Heaven and earth move, as it were, about the holy child as their centre; He is so remote, so hidden, so disowned, yet near, discovered and acknowledged by those who seek Him; their search is helped not only by Scripture, but by nature and the most imperfect science; the awakening faith of the Gentiles and the slumbering unbelief of the Jews. The star of Bethlehem is a beautiful symbol of the nobler aspirations of heathenism and of every human soul toward the incarnate God to whom it points and over whom it abides. The Magi, like Melchizedek and Job, open to us a vista of hope respecting the salvation of many who live outside the visible church and removed from the ordinary means of grace.