FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 8, number 23, June 4, 2009

Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, let them be for signs . . . Genesis 1:14.

Christ in the Heavens

The Hubble telescope has given us remarkable pictures of the distant planet scientists call Beetlejuice. It is four hundred and twenty-seven light years from earth and is twice the size of the earth’s orbit around the sun. Since the sun is one million times the size of the earth (nine hundred and sixty thousand earths could fit inside the sun) we are talking about a planet almost incomprehensible in size. If the earth was the size of a golf ball, then Beetlejuice would be the height of six Empire State buildings stacked on top of one another. Two hundred and thirty trillion earths could be placed within Beetlejuice.[1] When you read of such vastness does this evoke awe and worship of God or some vague worship of the Cosmos? And what do the planets tell us about Jesus? Psalm 19 says that the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. God is taking Job to task for his cynicism in Job 38, asking him, “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth Mazzaroth (literally the Constellations of the Zodiac) it its season?”

When Elohim made the lights in the expanse of the heavens He gave us the greater light (the sun) to govern the day, and the lesser light (the moon) to govern the night. Moses tells us straightforwardly that He also made the stars. We are told that God made these for three reasons—to separate the day from the night, to divide the days, months, and years, and to illuminate the earth. Moses says further that God did so “for signs.” We readily understand how seasons, days, and years measure time, but what about signs? What does this mean? Well, what do signs do? They point you to some specific destination. Recently I was leaving Westchester County , New York and was looking for the sign to Brewster so that I could take Interstate 84 back to West Hartford . I missed the sign and thus had to make a correction.

Why does God add signs to His list of why He created the sun, moon, and stars? It is clear from Scripture that these are to do three things. First, they are to evoke worship and awe. David in Psalm 8 makes this clear when he writes, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth . . . when I consider Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou dost take thought of him, or the son of man that Thou dost care for him?” The beauty and vastness of space, in light of the suitableness of earth for life, ought to cause you to bow down and worship the great and mighty God of creation.

Second, the stars also portend judgment. In Joel 2:30-31 the prophet says that God will display His wonders in the sky and on the earth . . . the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. The same language is used in Matthew 24:29 by the Lord Jesus as He prophesies judgment on Jerusalem . We know from Josephus and Tacitus that many earthquakes and strange things in the skies were happening at the time. Peter speaks of the same thing in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, also citing Joel. These signs were meant to warn people to flee from the wrath of God that was to come.

And third, signs portend redemption. In Matthew 2:1-2 we read that the magi followed the star to Bethlehem in order to worship the King of the Jews. The magi were a combination of astrologers and astronomers from Medo-Persia (modern day Iran ), and Jews had been living there since the exile five hundred years earlier. They taught the magi much. The Jews believed that Messiah would come when Saturn (the defender of Israel) and Jupiter (the King’s planet) came together, basing their belief on Numbers 24:17, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel, and shall crush through the forehead of Moab.” The magi observed in 7 B.C. that Saturn and Jupiter came together and then separated three times that year. Then they saw Mars (the Warrior of Israel) joining Saturn and Jupiter in the sky. Could it be, they wondered, that the King, the defender of Israel , was coming to wage war against His enemies! Then in 4 B.C. they saw a super nova (a brightly burning star, perhaps one hundred thousand times brighter than normal) hang in the night sky for ten weeks. They followed this star to Jerusalem and were told that the King of the Jews was to be born in Jerusalem (they could not see it for a day or two because the moon blocked its sight). They then saw the star hanging directly above Bethlehem , and worshipped baby Jesus with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

D. James Kennedy is his remarkable book, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac, makes the case that the sun, moon, and stars are signs to point us to Jesus. He says that the meaning of the Zodiac has been corrupted through the years and that is why Isaiah warns us to not play around with it (Isaiah 47:13-14). However the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and their corresponding decans (three of these divisions are within each sign) all point to the Lord Jesus Christ. Take Virgo as an example. Virgo is the Latin word for Virgin, and the sign of the Virgin, according to the Arabian astronomer Albumazar, is a woman with a male child sitting on her lap named Ihesu, the Christ. The first decan in Virgo is Coma which means “the Desired One”, the desire of all the nations. The second decan is Centaurus, the creature which is half horse and half man. This reminds us of Jesus, One who is both God and man at the same time. If you are not convinced that this is referring to Jesus, then it may be helpful to know that the Hebrew word for Centaurus is Bezeh which means Despised One. Twice in Isaiah 53 we find Jesus referred to as “One who was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like One from whom men hide their face. He was despised and we did not esteem Him.” God has made His glory known, not only in the vastness His creation, but also in showing us Jesus in the signs of the Zodiac and the star over Bethlehem.

Will you not marvel at a God who goes to such lengths to make His glory known, to move you to come to His Son for grace and mercy! Will you not tremble at His word, knowing that judgment comes to the utter most on all who refuse to repent and believe in His Son! Will you not then obey, follow, and give yourself totally to such a God of unmitigated transcendence, to One of such inexhaustible love! Indeed the heavens proclaim the glory of God.

[1] I am indebted to Louie Giglio and his DVD entitled “How Great Is Our God “ for this data.

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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