The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

NOTE! This is also the index page for our star series. Choices are at the bottom after this main message (Click on the fiery bullet).

In Psalm 19, the Bible says, "The heavens declare the glory of God… day unto day uttereth speech … their words unto the end of the world." The Hebrew word for ‘declare’ means ‘record’ and ‘words’ mean a ‘discourse’ or even ‘topic’ . In other words, the stars are a record of a specific topic for man to understand. Psalm 147 states that God has the stars numbered and named. Thus, by virtue of their names, man can understand God’s record in the stars. The stars are another witness that proclaim the word of God.

Theologians are baffled as to why the subject of the heavens in Psalm 19 abruptly changes to the specific subject of the Law in verse 7. This indeed would be a mystery if one understood verses 1-6 to be only a passive revelation of God by their beauty and majesty alone. However, if we understood verses 1-6 to be a specific stellar revelation, then this makes more sense. The stars are God’s word in the heavens and the Law is God’s written word. There are two witnesses being discussed here. After all, Genesis 1:14 says, "Let them be for signs , seasons, days, and years." ‘Signs’ here mean signals or flags. Signs are not used for navigational purposes or for calendars. The "seasons, days, and years" part is for that purpose. Rather, a sign is something arbitrary. It is a symbol to represent an object or idea. Hence, the stars were created to be symbolic of something else.

The names of the stars and constellations have uncertain origin antedating even Babylonian times. The book of Job, which is considered one of the oldest books of the Bible, mention star and constellation names. That shows their antiquity. In addition, the objects represented by the constellations are fairly uniform amongst societies of all times. This suggests a common origin. Adam and the generations after Adam (e.g. Enoch) no doubt had a large role in naming these stars and constellations according to inspiration. This is dealt with more in the book of Enoch. The theme was the redemptive story of Christ and victory of Christ and his people over the Enemy. Since the heavens declare the glory of God, and the book of John says that Christ is the glory of God, the heavens therefore tell of Christ. That was the "Bible" back then to witness to fallen man who continually ventured farther from God and the knowledge of God.

The constellations are divided into twelve Zodiac signs and each has three associated constellations with them called decans. Thus there are 48 in all (people and astronomers named many more in recent times and thus added to these originals). Where do we start this Zodiac since it is a continuous circle? One clue is found in the ceiling portico of the temple of Esneh in ancient Egypt. On there is an ancient Zodiac shows a sphinx with the head of a woman and body of a lion. The translation is reference to the Zodiac between Virgo and Leo. Hence, the Zodiac was understood from ancient times (reflecting back on the memory when the men of God would have indicated this) to begin at Virgo and end at Leo. The word ‘sphinx’ by the way means ‘to bind closely together’. This message is meant to be an introduction to this vast topic, but two constellations (Virgo and Leo) are given as examples regarding the star names and constellation meanings.

In all societies, Virgo is a prostrate virgin holding ears of corn (the ‘seed’) in her left hand and a branch in the other. Jesus is the seed of Abraham, the coming Branch. As the Bible says, "Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son." Her prostrate position represents fallen mankind that the coming Branch would save. Even before there was a Bible, mankind could see that a coming Branch (Messiah) would come by a virgin. The brightest star "Spica" (a newer Latin name) means "an ear of corn". The Arabic name Al Zimach is derived from the older versions which indicated a branch.

In a similar manner, all societies see Leo as a fierce lion with his feet over the constellation Hydra the serpent. In the end, Jesus will come again as the "Lion of the tribe of Judah" (Revelation 5:5). He will be the victorious conqueror and judge who will judge the whole world and Satan. As a matter of fact, the primary star name "Regulus" in this constellation means "treading under foot". There are 46 other constellations with marvelous messages from God.

Some of our more conservative Christian friends (and they really are our friends, but we still like to pick on them) reply, "Ah, Come on! You don’t really believe all of this, do you? You have to watch out. It sounds like new age doctrine creeping in." The simple answer to this comment is the story of the wise men. The Bible makes it very clear that they saw his star in the east. They came to Herod and asked where this new King was. The prophetic allusion is to Numbers 24:17. Although we know that this star represented Christ, that is not to say that there would not be an actual star to signify the birth of Christ. The Old Testament is full of types and shadows of things to come. So this is no surprise. How did the wise men know about the birth of the Messiah and not the Jew? The answer is that the people of Israel were aware of stellar revelation, at least according to apocryphal references. Who were the wise men? The Greek word is "magos" where we get our word ‘magic’ from. They were astrologers [I can just sense my conservative friends squirming a little]. According to Abulfaragius the Persian historian (1226-1286 AD), the wise men were followers of Zoroaster. Where did Zoroaster learn what they knew? Zoroaster learned that secret of the Messiah’s star from none other than the prophet Daniel while he was captive in Babylon! Daniel taught Zoroaster about God’s message in the stars and foretold that a new star would appear in Coma, the constellation next to Virgo when Messiah was to be born. Legend (not Abulfaragius) added to the story that when the wise men inquired the location of the new King, and were sent to Bethlehem by Herod, they stopped by a well along the way. They could see the reflection of the star in the still water below. The well acted as a sextant to help them ascertain the exact location of the Zenith of the star and thus Christ’s location. Now we can all go to various sources that claim this, and talk about this all day long. One thing is for certain. If the constellation Coma is involved, and another legend says that the star was vertically above the location of Christ, we must ask if this was possible about 2 BC from the location of Israel. This is a little more up my alley since mathematics and astronomy is my bag. If something like this is bunk, I’d be the first to scream out. Well, let me assure you that in 2BC from Israel’s location the constellation Coma passed directly overhead with each rotation of the earth. Therefore, a supernova or something similar would and could pass directly overhead according to my figuring as well.

The listed references are good for reading, and the first two are available from any local Christian bookstore. My favorite book is authored by Bullinger although Capt’s book figures in the lost house of Israel with stellar revelation and prophecy. This does not significantly change the interpretations of the constellations. Rather, Capt’s book merely expands the definition of Israel (as any of us good ‘Lost Tribes’ folks do J ).

References:

The Witness of the Stars E.W. Bullinger

The Gospel in the Stars Joseph A. Seiss

The Glory of the Stars E. Raymond Capt

Go to this link to order Capt’s book à http://www.artisanpublishers.com

CLICK ON THE FIERY BULLETS BELOW FOR OUR STAR SERIES!

		July 31, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part I (Intro #1)					November 17, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part XI (Pisces)
		August 6, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part II (Intro #2)					December 15, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part XII (Pisces-cont.)
		August 16, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part III (Virgo)					January 2, 2004: THE SERIES--- Part XIII (Aries)
		August 25, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part IV (Virgo- cont)					January 11, 2004: THE SERIES--- Part XIV (Taurus)
		September 2, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part V (Libra)					January 22, 2004: THE SERIES--- Part XV (Gemini)
		September 8, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part VI (Scorpio)					February 7, 2004: THE SERIES--- Part XVI (Cancer)
		September 19, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part VII (Sagittarius)					February 11, 2004: THE SERIES--- Part XVII (Cancer-cont.)
		October 4, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part VIII (Sagittarius-cont.)					February 22, 2004: THE SERIES--- Part XVIII (Leo)
		October 15, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part IX (Capricorn)					Sundials (Part 1)
		November 1, 2003: THE SERIES--- Part X (Aquarius)					Sundials (Part 2)

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