Three kings feature in the traditional Christmas story as told in legend and carol. The Bible itself does not specify either the rank or number of these visitors to the newborn Jesus; it describes them as "wise men from the east"Matt. 2:1; and records that they brought gifts of high worth and significance. All we really know is that these most enlightened representatives of the wisdom of their day came to do homage to a greater wisdom and enlightenment than their own.
One king there was who certainly participated in that first Christmas, was central to it—the babe Christ Jesus, whom the Bible designates as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords."I Tim. 6:15; Jesus fully merited this description; in his short earthly life he exercised spiritual power and authority beyond anything seen on earth before, and he identified the source of this power as the divine All-power that creates and governs the universe.
In addition to the three kings of tradition and in addition to Christ Jesus, "King of kings, and Lord of lords," around whom the whole Christmas story revolved, a fifth king stood in the shadows, desperately attempting in fear and jealousy to negate the whole event. This was Herod of Judea, antithesis of all true kingship, a cruel and selfish tyrant.
