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The Wise men present Jesus with gifts.
Last week I went to our Relief Society Christmas Dinner and we had a wonderful speaker who has a doctorate in Judaism. She talked of the significance of who the wise men were and what they brought. She said that they were from the east, which was probably Babylon and that they were most likely Jewish, (taken captive when Jerusalem had been overthrown) because who else would have been reading the Talmud to know that the "King of the Jews" had been born?
She said that the gifts that they brought of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were very significant for Mary and Joseph and Christ. When the wise men found Jesus he was two years old. King Herod being threatened by news that the "King of the Jews" had been born, sent out a decree that all baby boys two and under be killed. So Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt to save Jesus' life. Egypt was a center for learning for the Jews and what better place for the Jesus to taught then here. However education was expensive and so the Gold that they received from the wise men paid for his "tuition" (if you will) for higher learning.
Frankincense was used for temple worship, to be burned at the candle of shrew-bread and other places in the temple. Myrrh was like an oil that could be used to anoint Jesus with.
I never realized that these gifts actually had a significant use for Jesus and his family.
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