Were the Wise Men lead by a UFO?

Ok, it sound really weird, like REALLY weird. But after all you have this unique situation where the wise men see a star in the East and follow it West. Nobody else sees it it seems. Cranky old Herod didn't have a clue and nobody else gets this messenger sent to them (the shepherds and Joseph get angels). Then there is this thing of the star shining over where the young child was (he wasn't in one of those cute mangers but could have been almost 2 years old and living in Nazareth).

Mt 2:9 ¶ When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

So without any further investigation, one conclusion would be that this was some sort of “Unidentified Flying Object”. But fortunately we have scripture to explain scripture. What we have to do is see what other references of phenomena like this there are. I will begin with the end of the story, or what will happen in the “Last Days”:

Mt 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Some sort of miracle is at work here, a wonder in the heavens will be seen and it is very much connected to the “Son of Man” or Christ. Notice too how the “sign” precedes the coming of Christ in glory. A sign also preceded his coming the first time and this is what the wise men from the East saw.
So what was it? More hints pop up as you look through scripture. There is this fiery pillar that led the Israelites through the wilderness. It is known as the “Shekinah Glory”:

Ex 13:21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:

We seem to be getting closer to some sort of idea what this was. There is also a curious reference to the Glory Chariot, or “Merkabah” in Ezekiel one. This thing is apparently mobile also and moves out of the temple which the Jews have polluted with the worship of idols and gone east, through the Eastern gate. Christ will return to reign through this gate and Ezekiel describes it as an approaching “glory”. It is very descriptive in terms of “light”:

Ez 44:1 Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east:
2 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.

The Shekinah Glory is a very good candidate for the identity of the “Bethlehem Star”. We can chase this farther if we want to and examine whether the Ezekiel vision was really about Flying Saucers or something else. It is almost a cliché to say that what Ezekiel saw was a flying saucer. But that is a subject for another post.