These wise men come with a tale, and a vision, and a miracle. They are not of Israel, though more ready of faith than Israel. They are not from Nazareth, or Bethlehem, or any part of Palestine. Their testimony is independent of Israel’s; it is a Gentile testimony; from the land of Israel’s enemies. They are recognised as “wise men,“—magi,—Chaldeans, perhaps; or men from the land of Balaam or Job. Men of the East, the seat of all human science; the wise and far-seeing East; the thoughtful and star-gazing East. They come, not with an uncertainty, or an opinion, or a fable, or a vision of the night, but with actual and personal eyesight,—“We have seen!” Yes, it is with “we have seen” that they come,—a word like that of John’s, “We beheld his glory,”—“That which our eyes have seen.” They come to Jerusalem! They come seeking Jerusalem’s King; as if Jerusalem were to them the centre of hope; as if there were nothing in their own land like what they expected to find in Jerusalem; no king worthy of the name, or to whom they could pay homage, but the King of Jerusalem! This is Gentile faith, fixing its eye upon the star of Jacob.
Horatius Bonar, Gospels