THE STARS AND
CONSTELLATIONS SPEAK THE WORDS OF THE BIBLEThe human soul
yearns to know the truth.
I could hear
the hippos snorting in the river below as I looked to the great expanse of dark
sky at the horizon and could see the large constellations Scorpio and the
Southern Cross—brilliant, stunning like I’d never seen before! Pilanesberg,
South Africa.
I’ve always
been drawn to the sky ever since our family camping trips where we’d huddle
around the last embers of the campfire and look up to see the stars. Sometimes
we’d sleep out on the ground in our sleeping bags just to watch the sky until
we fell asleep.
When I became
a Christian I used to wonder how people before there was writing or people
living in isolated cultures would be able to hear about Jesus if there wasn’t
anyone around to teach them. Then one day someone taught me that the whole
history of the universe is written in the stars. All anyone needed to do was
look up!
The phenomenal thing is that the
same message of the stars was across all ancient cultures. As far away as China
is from Egypt, both cultures interpreted the constellations in the same way.
The names for the constellations, the numbering of the stars within them and
the names of the individual stars had the same meaning across all the ancient
cultures. The Chinese, Chaldean, and Egyptian recordings go back more than 2000
years B.C.
Over time, the stories got
corrupted, but the original meanings remained. God’s plans, purposes, and
promises were written in the sky before they were ever spoken or written down.
And remember that before all the big cities and indoor living, people were
either nomadic, or if they lived in cities, much activity took place outside or
on the roofs, so watching the heavens was a normal part of their lives.
Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in
Babylonia taught people how to read and interpret the stars the way God put
them there. Psalm 147:4 says: “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth
them all by their names.” There are references to the constellations and their
messages throughout the Bible. They tell the story of Jesus, from before his
birth to His life on earth, to His coming back in glory. That’s how the
Magi knew to go to Bethlehem to find Jesus. They were taught how to read the heavens
from their ancestors. The stars also tell about the devil and his ways, and his
end.
The Constellation Draco (the
Dragon) circles around the Polar Star which is at the tip of the tail of the
little dipper, Ursa Minor. One of the stars in the dragon’s head is named “Ethanin”,
which means “the long serpent, or dragon.” Another star in the head is called “Al
Waid” in Arabic, which means “who is to be destroyed.” The Hebrew names of
the other stars in the dragon’s head mean “the subtle, the punished enemy, the
reptile, the fraudulent.” Isaiah 21:1 says: “The Lord with his sore and great and
strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that
crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”
I learned the most about the true
meaning of the constellations from a wonderful book by E.W. Bullinger
called WITNESS OF THE STARS.
There are twelve zodiac
signs. Between each zodiac sign, there may be several smaller
constellations. Each constellation tells a part of the story of God's plan. For
example, Virgo (the virgin) is a woman holding a branch. The brightest star in
Virgo is Al Zimach, meaning “the branch.” The branch in the Bible
is Jesus the
Messiah. Zechariah
prophesied: “Behold I will bring forth my servant the branch” (Zech. 3:8). And,
“Behold the man whose name is the branch” (Zech. 6:12).
Another star in Virgo is
Zavijaveh, (I pronounce it java java). It means “the gloriously beautiful.”
It’s in Isaiah 4:2: “The Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious.”
In Virgo’s arm is a star whose name means “he shall come down and shall have
dominion.” When the ancient people looked up at the constellation Virgo, they
understood that there was going to be a promised branch of God who would be
born of a virgin and come down on earth to have dominion.
The Egyptians recorded the zodiac
in a circle on the ceiling of the Temple Esneh. You wouldn’t necessarily know
where to begin and where to end except that the figure of a sphinx connects the
two signs of Virgo and Leo. The word “sphinx” means to bind closely together.
The sphinx has the head of a woman and the body of a lion. The story of Jesus’
birth on earth begins with a virgin and ends with the King of Kings, the Lion
of God.
The constellations are rich with
meaning. And no man can change their placement or their true meanings.
Psalm 19:1-6 says: “The heavens
proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day
they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak
without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone
throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.”
In all the turmoil of the world
today, it’s great to have the assurance of heaven. When all else is dark, the
glorious stars show brightest and their message is everlasting: Jesus Christ is
the Messiah and the message of the ages.
Love, Carolyn
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