What is a Gift

The Webster’s Dictionary states a gift is “something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation.” A gift could be given as an expression of honor.

Matthew 2:11 reads, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him; and when they opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”

Not only were the gifts in honor, but they also personified the person’s attributes. Gold was the first gift mentioned. Gold was given to royalty as gifts. This child was Jesus Christ.
Revelation 19:16  calls him royalty, “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.”

The second gift is frankincense. Frankincense is a bitter and glittering resin from the bark of the incense tree. It was used as a fumigation or perfume at sacrifices. Exodus 30:7 reads, “And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.”

In the Bible, frankincense symbolizes worship and prayer as well as the holy presence of God and is associated with sacrifice, offering and consecration. This is a type of commune with God. Jesus was born to be our savior and our intercessor.

Let’s look at Hebrews 7:25. It reads, “Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession.”

The third gift is myrrh. Myrrh is a gum resin. It was used as an antiseptic and stimulant. One of the uses in biblical times was for embalming.

John 19:38 and 39 describes the procedure after the death of Jesus on the cross. “And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore , and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.”

All these gifts typify the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In John 4:7-10, we find Jesus himself being offered as a gift to mankind, “There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou would have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”