I recently attended a presentation of astronomers and pastors that talked about the science behind the star that the magi followed to find the King of Israel. The scientists and pastors agreed that there is not a conflict in the account in Matthew 2; all agreed that God orchestrated events that led educated men to notice unusual events in the stars. The presenters offered possible planet convergences, all supported by old testament prophecies and documented by historians from China and elsewhere. To think that these magi would be as familiar of the stars in the night sky as we are of the lay out of our backyards. They would have immediately noticed anything different! And they probably had month after month of unusual planetary/astronomical events, each intriguing, and culminated in a possible nova.
The Lowell Observatory wrote recently of an upcoming nova event: “While the exploding star won’t dominate the night sky as one might imagine, it will still be a very novel thing to see. Of the recurrent novae, T CrB is the nearest and brightest, and doesn’t require a telescope to see in outburst. To the naked eye, the nova will appear as a new bright star in the sky, in a spot where a star wasn’t visible previously. “These sorts of cosmic events are striking because we’re not used to ‘new’ stars showing up in the sky,” says Dr. van Belle. “It will be about as bright as the North Star, the 50th brightest star in all the sky. These events are important for our life here on Earth, because the majority of the light metal lithium currently in the Milky Way is manufactured in the nuclear reactions at the heart of these nova explosions.” ”
It is not the star that is important, though. Prophecies indicated that the Messiah was coming. Men were searching for Him, noticing the details that heralded his birth, and made the decision to travel probably 900 miles in as little as 80 days! Let us come and worship, worship the King!