The Gifts - Part 1: A Dramatic Story of the Magi's Gifts and their Dangerous Journey to Find the Christ Child (Volume 1)

Will you be an “Ish Habinayim” and a gift to others? “Ish Habinayim” is an ancient Hebrew term for one who stands in the gap for others. The term was literally manifested by one soldier representing an army in one-on-one combat with another single combatant representing an enemy army. David, the shepherd boy, was an “Ish Habinayim” while representing the Israelite army against the enemy champion, Goliath, in a mutual one-on-one combat. As God’s gift to mankind, Jesus is an “Ish Habinayim” standing in the gap between God and man’s sin. Just as our Savior is a gift and an “Ish Habinayim” to each of us, God challenges each of us to be a gift and an “Ish Habinayim” to others. This ancient Hebrew principle is one of the many themes heroically appearing in The Gifts as the three “Magi” or “Wisemen” make their perilous journey to find the Christ Child and to give him their important, valuable gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. The Gifts is a dramatic, edge of your seat account of Roman Bethlehem, of the Christ child’s birth, of the three Magis’ collection, transportation, and defense of their purposeful, significant gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh, and of the Magi’s perilous journey to Bethlehem and beyond. Each gift of each Magi has both a symbolic and a specific purpose for the Christ child. Each gift has the same symbolic meaning for each of us in “Provision,” “Purpose,” and “Preservation”. From the harsh Roman soldier’s sharp “Gladius” sword pressed against the chin of the pregnant Mary at a Roman census post in Bethlehem along a road lined with bloody crosses and crucifixions to the attempted assassination of the infant, Jesus, by King Herod’s double agent as Jesus arrives in Egypt after escaping the “massacre of the innocents,” the intense drama and rich historical detail in The Gifts is riveting and historically informative. “Ish Habinayim” appear throughout The Gifts: from Joseph who courageously stands in the gap with Mary who is pregnant with “another’s” child; to a heroic Roman Legionnaire who saves an important young Hebrew woman from Roman rape and death and who later saves the Christ child; and to the princely “Magi Legion” who stand in the gap for the Christ child at great peril and expense.