The Stars Have A Story

(In response to several readers' comments about his MEDITATION ON THE MESSIAH, Part 2: MESSIAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, published in THE VINEYARD, February 1985, the author, Ray Hawkins, has written further on this interesting subject with more Scripture and detail, and he has entitled his article: THE STARS HAVE A STORY TO TELL.)

THE STARS HAVE A STORY TO TELL

by Ray Hawkins

THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD;

THE SKIES PROCLAIM THE WORK OF HIS HANDS.

DAY AFTER DAY THEY POUR FORTH SPEECH;

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT THEY DISPLAY KNOWLEDGE.

THERE IS NO SPEECH OR LANGUAGE

WHERE THEIR VOICE IS NOT HEARD.

THEIR VOICE GOES OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH,

THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD. Psalm 19:1-4

When we look up into the heavens and feel the awe of their majesty, the beauty inherent in them makes us appreciate the Creator even though they don't tell us much about him.

The Creator: is He powerful but cruel; lovely but weak; creative but capricious? How can we tell simply by looking at the heavens? Further revelation surely is needed for us to gain understanding about the Eternal's true nature.

We may be intrigued, too, in the concept that the heavens have a voice. I've heard about the music of the spheres and that I readily understand, or should I say, appreciate. But the idea behind the word 'voice' implies something to say, to which I've been deaf for a long time.

The Psalmist (147:4) declares that God has determined the number of the stars and has bestowed on each a particular name, though we are not introduced to them in this particular psalm. But is it possible that He did share with someone at some time the names of the stars, or at least some of them?

With whom would He share the names of the stars if He did? Would there be any reasonable link across the nations concerning the names?

ADAM HIS CONFIDANT?

When we take Genesis as literal historical fact we can believe that God shared with Adam the message of the stars. In fact Bullinger declares: "Jewish tradition, preserved by Josephus, assures us that this Bible Astronomy was invented by Adam, Seth and Enoch." But we may ask ourselves: how could they see the respective stars, and how were they given such names?

In recent years a group of Bible believing scientists known as Creation Scientists have lent their support to the accuracy of the Scriptures relating to the world-wide Flood in the days of Noah by suggesting that a water mantle circled the globe and this reduced radiation and so increased longevity.

It was this water mantle that was shattered, along with other things, in the catastrophic event of the Flood. However, that water mantle could well have made it quite easy for man to have a clear view of the constellations.

The ancient names of the various stars or constellations, when interpreted, usually refer to the same thing in different languages. A look at the antiquity of the Zodiac is a case in point. Some would refer this to chance, others to the myths or mists of Babylon, but why could it not be granted that the common source is from the father of the human race, Adam?

SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS

We read in Psalm 50:6 and an echo in Psalm 97:6 that ". . . the heavens proclaim His righteousness . . . " How can this be? How can inanimate things declare the personal quality of the Creator? Surely not unless somewhere built into them was a sign, a code or a story.

In Genesis 1:14 we read: "And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." (NIV) The word 'signs' indicates that besides their other functions they were to give light on the earth.

The word for sign is the same word that is used to denote an intervention or message by God on behalf of His people to make them aware of His involvement in their affairs. We remember Moses and the plague signs; we remember the Passover, circumcision, the sun going backward for Hezekiah and the promise to Ahaz about a virgin conceiving Immanuel.

What message could there be in and from the stars that might have a message about the righteousness of God?

ASTRONOMY IN SCRIPTURE

In what may be the oldest book of Tenach, the writing called Job, are found a number of references concerning astronomy: to "the Bear and Orion, Pleiades and the constellations of the south" (9:9); to "the gliding serpent" (26:13); to the Mazzaroth, "the constellations in their seasons" (38:32).

The word Mazzaroth represents the twelve signs, or more correctly, the twelve constellations of the Zodiac. The constellations of the Zodiac are the actual groupings of the stars lying along the ecliptic (the path of the sun amongst the stars), and are quite irregular in form and length. The signs have no connection with the actual stars but are imaginary divisions of the ecliptic, all exactly equal in length, according to the INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPEDIA, page 313, volume 1.

A very interesting point to note in all this is that the stars have no connection with the zodiacal signs they represent. That is, we cannot look into the heavens and see the Virgin or the Lion or the Crab. We can only see the stars which denote the fact that someone has made a sign!

We may try various ways to join the stars together to make the signs – it just cannot be done. Some would give man the credit for thinking them up, but no reason is forthcoming as to why such names should be given.

Some give the credit to the Devil. He might be clever, but he can only counterfeit, not originate.

So we are brought back to the fact that God set the stars in the heavens to be signs to His glory and righteousness. And among these signs is the Mazzaroth which has a particular story to tell.

That story is about the Messiah.

MESSIAH IN THE STARS

The reason the Mazzaroth is in the heavens is to render mankind dumb before the Creator Redeemer God; to reveal the gross rebellion that followed Adam's fall. Men may not have had the written Scriptures, but they had the testimony of Adam for 930 years, they had the cherubim guarding the entrance to Eden (Genesis 3:24), and they had the star signs declaring God's intention.

When man turned his back on all this witness and fell to Satan's seductions God scourged the world with the Flood – and no wonder.

We can commence to unravel the mystery of the story of the Messiah in Genesis 3:15, where we read of the promise that through the seed of the woman, not the man, the Messiah would come. That promise is repeated in Isaiah 7:14 which the Jewish writer Matthew believes was fulfilled in Bethlehem under Herod's rule in about 4 B.C.E.

If we commence there, where do we finish? We finish with the Lion, again in keeping with the Scripture, for the scepter belongs to the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:8-12). Even Balaam, who tried to curse Israel, was forced to declare: "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel." (Numbers 24:17)

Therefore we can safely assume that in between these points the other star signs also have something to declare about the Messiah. Although many books have been written that go into great lengths of explanation and interpretation of the signs and stages of the Mazzaroth, here is a simple reference to each individual sign and its possible interpretation: -

Virgo – the seed of the woman;

Libra – the price is paid;

Scorpio – the conflict;

Sagittarius – the final triumph;

Capricornus – victory over death;

Aquarius – bestowing of the water of life;

Pisces – the Deliverer;

Aries – the Lamb, sacrificial and victorious;

Taurus – His strength in judgement;

Gemini – His coming rule;

Cancer – He is protector;

Leo – He claims His rightful kingdom.

ABRAHAM BLESSED IN MESSIAH

When Adam and Eve sinned and lost their inheritance and dominion it looked as though death would reign supreme. However, as the Scriptures show, God was not taken by surprise. Out of the catastrophe He would bring a redeemed people who would be equipped to be kings and priests for ever. He would achieve this through Messiah, the seed of the woman, the one promised to Abram and conceived by the miracles of God's intervention.

God could point out the sequence of events to Adam in the stars and thus declare that He is righteous; He could point Abram to these stars when He made the promise that in his seed the world would be blessed. Did not Messiah himself say: "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad" ? (John 8:56)

I consider that as God unfolded the Day of the Messiah to Abraham as recorded in the Mazzaroth, Abraham believed. It was this belief in the promise of God concerning the person and work of the Messiah that caused the Eternal Lord to declare Abraham righteous.

SATAN'S ACTS OF PERVERSION

Today, however, we have a problem concerning the Mazzaroth, or as we know it, the Zodiac, for it is now so completely bound up with the occult as to render it almost obscene to talk of it and the Messiah in the same breath. This is the work of a deliberate Satanic ploy – he cannot beat it so he perverts it!

The "accuser of the brethren" has used this tactic many times. We recall the bronze replica of the snakes that caused such havoc amongst the tribes in the wilderness wanderings. (Numbers 21:4-9) The promise was to look at the replica for healing and by this act of faith to receive God's promised cure. After the judgement had passed the Nation kept the bronze snake and it later became a snare to them when they began to worship it. King Hezekiah had to destroy it. (II Kings 18:4)

The same happened after the Flood and the rise of Nimrod and the great city of Babylon. In this place, called the Mother of Harlots, the whole message of the stars was perverted and applied initially to Nimrod and his wife and child. For centuries the Nation was plagued with the temptation to worship Marduk and other celestial 'deities'. The host of heaven was switched from being pointers to the Messiah to being worshipped in their own category. This of course was idolatry.

The northern kingdom fell prey to this evil so much more quickly and completely than the southern in Judah. The sins of Jeroboam in setting up the calves as the gods of Israel haunted that kingdom almost into extinction. "But they would not listen and were as stiffnecked as their fathers; who did not trust in the Lord their God. They rejected His decrees and the covenant He had made with their fathers and the warnings He had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, Do not do as they do, and they did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do.

"They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. THEY BOWED DOWN TO ALL THE STARRY HOSTS, and they worshipped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking Him to anger." (II Kings 17:14-17)

In Judah King Manasseh made worship of the starry hosts the national religion (II Kings 21:5). He was the most abominable king ever in Judah and God was so angry that the only reason the nation was not consumed was because of His covenant with Abraham and David.

Because of the obsession with the idolatry and occult practices associated with Babylon, it is rather fitting that the Lord God took His Nation to that 'far country'. The result was a real purging of and cure from the fascination of these evils.

Probably the interest of the twelve tribes in the stars was more than ignorant animistic fascination. They were susceptible to Babylon's approach, not merely because the human heart must worship something, but also because they were prone to worship the picture portrayed by the stars rather than the Person, Messiah.

They were aware of the message that the stars had to tell from the teachings of Adam, Seth, Enoch and through Shem, but just as men tend to make of a picture an icon, or to worship the water of Lourdes, for example, so they based salvation on sight rather than upon faith in the promises of God about His Messiah.

GOD IN THE WORD

The counter-strategy of the Lord is the printed page. Through Moses, the prophets and others He has set down His plan for the salvation of all mankind. He has given detailed clues as to the person, place and performance of His Messiah King. He then gave His people spirit-filled teachers, preachers and prophets to instruct, guide and guard in the things of the Holy Writings.

And that is still the basis for our understanding and appreciation of the Messiah King today. That is not to say that the Counterfeiter has not tried to destroy the Scriptures. Many have been his efforts to burn or bury the Book. He has even raised up other writings purporting to be God's latest and greatest Word and has led many into darkness.

MESSIAH THE LINK IN THE SCRIPTURES

There is a sure test of the Scriptures. God cannot lie, therefore He cannot contradict Himself. The Holy Scriptures, although written over many decades, are all linked by the consistent theme of the Messiah and the Holiness of God. On these two issues the counterfeits collapse.

If the Holy Revelations of God are now our basis for knowing about the Messiah, and if faith in Him comes because of the Word, then why waste time and space considering the Mazzaroth? One answer to that is that it helps us to understand God has not left Himself without a witness at any time since Creation. It helps us appreciate the time between Adam's rebellion and the world-wide Flood in the days of Noah.

It helps us to be aware and alert to the seductive and perverting power of the Deceiver who would seek to darken what God gave to be light to His people. We are able to understand why Israel was fascinated by the starry hosts without making them appear ignorant and superstitious. It also helps us to appreciate why Babylon is such a great threat to the people of God, even in these days when physically Babylon is rubble but spiritually and morally (or immorally) so very much alive.

The Mazzaroth has said its piece.

Its voice has been supplanted in our day by the Holy Scriptures and to them we must look. However, let us not miss an opportunity to be aware of the foreknowledge and creative power and majesty of our Saviour God.

The question that each of us must answer: have we found the One about whom they speak?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

God's voice in the Stars K.C. Fleming

Witness of the Stars E.W. Bullinger

The Hieroglyphics of the Heavens B. Carr-Harris

Many Infallible Proofs H.M. Morris

Mazzaroth or the Constellations F. Rolleston

The Gospel in the Stars J.A. Seiss

Mazzaroth D.E. Spencer