The translation of “we have seen his star in the east” when translated fully means “we of the east have seen his star and have come to worship”. Meaning the magi travelled westward from the East.
That’s why you have a song line in “We three kings” that goes...”westward leading still proceeding following yonder star”
I don’t think they were following the star per se. The star was in a static position in a y axis position relative to the constant movements of other heavenly bodies as the Earth turned about its axis at night. The star stayed in that position though it’s apparent x axis position rose to overhead as the Magi came closer to israel.
Don’t forget what the Bible says..when the Magi left Herod...they rejoiced as the Star appeared before them and came to overhead as the found the home of Jesus.(who was two years old at the time...which tells you how long the magi had been watching this star and why Herod killed all the males in this region that were 2 years and under) This was no ordinary celestial object. It was the Magis burning bush! God even spoke to them in a dream not to go back to Herod. Not a regular star!
This was no ordinary celestial object. It was the Magis burning bush!
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Clearly the star was a supernatural manifestation and here is what I think can be deduced from reading Matthew 2 verses 1 to 12:
Verse 1 says that “the wise men came from the east to Jerusalem” and when they got to Jerusalem, they said “where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.” This says that they weren’t just on a casual fishing expedition…. they had detailed information in advance that meant that they knew exactly what they were doing and who they were looking for. I don’t believe there were any prophetical passages in scripture that can be pointed to as to giving guidance to the wise men as to what they were seeing and what they needed to do. Numbers 24:17 is sometimes mentioned, but this verse has no specificity at all…. And yet the wise men knew plenty of the details of what the mission was that they were on, and this indicates that there was something that went on here that is not recorded in scripture. Did all these wise men wake up one day having all dreamed the same vivid dream the night before? Later on in verse 12, we do find out that God did talk to them in a dream…… Whatever it was, they also knew that they were being given the star to guide them to Jesus…. Not just any star, they had enough details of what the mission was that then knew it was HIS star.
There is nothing in verses 1 to 10 that indicate that anyone else could even see this ‘star’. Yes, scripture calls it a star but there are plenty of reasons to believe the ‘celestial object’ was not a star as we understand a star to be…. there just probably wasn’t another word that existed to describe what it was. If the star was the vehicle to give them direction on where to go, it seems that this celestial object appeared to be essentially right over their heads at just about the height of treetops and could be seen both day and night by them and no one else. Notice that when they got to Jerusalem, it seems like the light switched off…. that means it was not a normal star, supernova etc. Note that there was no one else who joined in along the way on the trip of chasing this ‘moving star’ and there was no one in Jerusalem who was talking about the star….this again seems to indicate that no else had seen it. When the light switched off at Jerusalem, Phase 1 of their mission was over.
When the wise men got to Jerusalem, they had enough details about their mission to know to ask questions about where to find Jesus…. And this forced Herod, and the chief priests and scribes to dig into scriptures to find the prophecies that said the birthplace was in Bethlehem. Notice that the wise men weren’t the ones to figure out that Jesus was born in Bethlehem... that information came from Herod. This signaled that God’s objective of having them go first to Jerusalem was accomplished. With this first phase of their mission over, the light switched on again so that they could complete the second part of their mission… travelling to Bethlehem so that they could meet the Child. Verse 10 says that “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” Why was this? It was because it suddenly dawned on them that while God had brought them to Jerusalem, that was just the phase 1 detour on the way to the goal of meeting Jesus. As soon as the star lead them to and stopped directly over the home where Jesus was, they knew that the mission phase 2 was accomplished (verse 11 “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him....”).
After this, they were warned directly by God in a dream to not go back to see Herod but go directly to their own country. If a dream was collectively given to them to close out the mission, it certainly seems like it very likely was a dream that kicked off the mission. One can only wonder if the wise men were so far from home that they still needed the light to help them get back…. scripture doesn’t actually say when the light was switched off for good.