CONSTELLATIONS: The Word of God Written in the Stars INTRODUCTION

CONSTELLATIONS:

The Word of God Written in the Stars

INTRODUCTION

¡°God said, ¡®Let there be luminaries in the firmament of the Heaven to separate between

the day and the night; and they shall serve as signs, and for festivals, and for days and

years; and they shall serve as luminaries in the firmament of the Heaven to shine upon

the earth.¡¯¡± Genesis 1:14-15 TANACH

¡°For the conductor, a psalm by David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the

firmament tells of His handiwork. Day following day utters speech, and night following

night declares knowledge. There is no speech and there are no words; their sound is not

heard. But their precision goes forth throughout the earth, and their words reach the end

of the inhabited world. In the midst He has set up a tent for the sun, which is like a

groom emerging from his bridal chamber, it rejoices like a powerful warrior to run the

course. Its source is the end of the heavens and its circuit is to their end; nothing is

hidden from its heat.¡± Psalm 19:1-7 TANACH

No one pays much attention to the heavens anymore. We are so connected to the

things of the world that we do not see the magnificence of the LORD all around us and

above us. Example: Our children are given an assignment to study the stars for an

astronomy session. Instead of going outside and looking at the night sky, we sit them

in front of a computer or other technical devices, letting them search on-line for what is

right outside their window. It would be so much easier to open the door and say,

¡°Here is your study guide, search the heavens for what you need.¡± As a matter of fact,

as parents we should be out there enjoying the search with them, showing our own

enthusiasm for God¡¯s handiwork. As always the LORD is all-knowing! Knowledge

beyond what mankind cannot fathom because we are beneath Him ¨C the Almighty One

Who is in control of life and eternity. Before we began to write, to carve His Words on

stone, cut them into skin, and write them on papyrus and paper, He had already

written them down permanently in the heavens. It was just a matter of reading the signs

that He put in place. In ancient times men looked up and saw the patterns in the skies

and read their message. The stars spoke the Word of God without us hearing a sound!

The patterns, every star in the patterns are designed to speak of our LORD and Savior,

Jesus Christ, from Creation to Revelation.

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Astronomy is a beautiful science; people whose life work is to keep their gaze in

the heavens, trying to discover the meaning of the universe. How did it start? What

can we learn from it? Their curiosity and research have found planets, nebulae, galaxies

beyond our own that are astounding. Even our own, the Milky Way, is a wonder to

behold. Yet and still, many of them do not see the glory of God in the sky. They

worship or come very close to worshiping what they see and are awestruck by the

formations and patterns, even though it does not make sense to the scientific mind

claiming that they do not believe in a higher authority than what science makes evident.

And after they have exhausted everything they ¡°know,¡± they come to the conclusion

that there is someone much greater than man who placed all of this in the heavens¡ª

maybe there is a GOD after all!

¡°Raise your eyes on high and see Who created these things! He brings forth their legions

by number; He calls to each of them by name; by the abundance of His power and by

vigor of His strength, not one is missing!¡± Isaiah 40:26 TANACH

What are we talking about when we say the universe? This massive area called

the universe is made up of many fascinating things. There are Galaxies, which are

¡°massive gravitationally bound systems consisting of stars, stellar remnants or

interstellar mediums of gas, dust, and dark matter.¡± They have black holes either

visible or not visible that are ¡°regions of space time from which gravity prevents

anything, including light, from escaping (NASA Science).¡± There are many galaxies,

mostly spiral in their shape (not round but elliptical) and range from dwarfs, having

about ten million stars to giants with about 100 trillion stars. The word, galaxy is

derived from the Greek language, meaning, milky, hence our ¡°Milky Way.¡±

Nebulae are ¡°interstellar clouds of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized

gases forming magnificent patterns in the heavens.¡± In other words, a Nebula is a

bunch of atoms and molecules floating around in outer space, and looks like a dust

cloud. Because of the Hubble telescope we can see many of them clearly and also

because of special kinds of lenses on the telescope we can see them in color. Nebulae

form patterns that resemble things on earth and the gases that caused the colors in the

Nebulae will eventually give way to a gravitational pull that will cause the gases to

explode.¡± These explosions can cause minor changes in the universe, but some are

called, ¡°Supernovas.¡±

Supernovas are exploding stars. The Nebulae become what is known as a Red

Giant, exploding when they have exhausted their supply of hydrogen and helium fuel,

and converted most of their atoms to iron atoms. We live in a complex system that was

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designed by only One Being Who thought of how to put all of this greatness into

motion. Scientists believe that before there were stars there was one giant Nebula that

exploded in the heavens causing stars to jet out and fill the universe. But, it was at the

command of God¡¯s voice that these things happened. Scientists call it the ¡°Big Bang

Theory,¡± but the bang that they heard was the voice of God saying, ¡°Let there be¡­and

it was.¡±

¡°When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You

have set in place, [I think,] ¡®What is frail man that You should remember him, and the

son of mortal man that You should be mindful of him?¡¯¡± Psalm 8:4-5 TANACH

This is a study on the signs in the Heavens, the ¡°Zodiac,¡± the twelve images that

appear in the night sky yearly. As the earth turns, you will see them carved out in the

stars telling you many wonderful things, leaving you awestruck about the God we

serve. It is a very old source dating back to at least 4000 B.C., according to

archaeologists, when it was finally translated and written on stone.

The word ¡°Zodiac¡± has long been thought to have come from the Greek root

word, ¡°Zoe¡± meaning, Life; and it does not refer to the word ¡°zoo¡± because of the

animal-shaped constellations. There are inanimate objects in the constellations as well

such as, scales, a lyre, ship, the cross, an altar, and a crown to mention a few.

The term ¡°Zodiac¡± (the Greek word, Zodiakos) is rooted in the Hebrew and

Sanskrit word, ¡°Sodi¡± ? ?????which means ¡°the Way.¡± It also means to ¡°live¡± and the

¡°path.¡± Because of our believing in God and His Mighty Word, we are called, ¡°People

of the Way.¡± The ancient ones followed the stars using them as a guide and a pathway

to everything; from planting and harvesting the crops, to navigation for traveling on

land and sea; from naming their children according to what the stars directed, to

celebrating the feasts of the LORD; the stars gave direction. There are those who say

that the Zodiac cannot be accurate because we do not plant and harvest at the same

time all over the world. They forget that the earth is turning and they receive the same

planting and harvesting times as we do even as they are on the other end of the earth¡ª

the earth turns. When it is our winter, it is their Summer, but the planting and

harvesting is the same.

Mazzaroth

Many Christian scholars (and some Jewish) have separated the Zodiac into two

distinct interpretations. One group says the Zodiac or signs speak only of the ¡°Old

Testament.¡± While others claim that the signs are all ¡°New Testament.¡± The truth is

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you cannot have one without the other. Those things that are spoken of or prophesied

in the Old Testament are revealed in the New Testament. When the LORD wrote His

message in the stars, it was for the benefit of all mankind.

The Zodiac is also called in Hebrew ¡°Mazzaroth ? ??????meaning that it is

connected to the twelve Tribes of Israel, to give direction or to transmit; Mazzaroth is

also another name for the Scriptures. One of the sources of the Zodiac connection to

the twelve tribes comes from Joseph¡¯s dream of the sun and moon and eleven stars

bowing down to him, he himself was the twelfth. (See Genesis 37:9) According to

ancient Jewish traditions authorities believed that each tribe bore one of the signs on the

Zodiac on their standard or banner called an ¡°Ensign.¡±

The signs according to each tribe and their arrangement around the Tabernacle in the

Wilderness:

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Popular Name

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Virgo

Libra

Scorpion

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Pisces

Aries

Taurus

10. Gemini

11. Cancer

12. Leo

Hebrew Name

Tribe

Bethulah & Tsemech

Mozanaim

Akrab

Kesith, Naim & Nehushta

Gedi

Deli

Dagim

Taled

Tor, Shur, Re¡¯em, Ramah

Zebulon

Levi

Dan

Asher

Nephtali

Reuben

Simeon

Gad

Ephraim and

Manasseh

Benjamin

Issachar

Judah

Thaumim

Sartan

Arieh

(Resources for Hebrew names come from four different sources, mainly, Rolleston, ¡°Mazzaroth:

Or, the Constellations;¡±camping chart from E.W. Bullinger, ¡°The Witness of the Stars,¡± p. 18)

Before man had an alphabet, he had word pictures that described what he was

trying to say. If we were to look at the ancient alphabet, we would see symbols that are

found in the constellations used as word pictures because they were the only source of

what early man could see, interpret, and understand. To this day, their way of seeing

life¡¯s pathway is far better than ours. Even with our knowledge of Jesus Christ we have

ignored many sources and signs of Him and His coming in favor of the written word

according to our classical alphabet, not realizing that it is not always the written word

that tells of His greatness. He is all around us! And we ignore the word pictures in

front of us. It we were to stop and think about the simple words in our vocabulary we,

too, could see word pictures. For instance: if we say cat, we picture a cute fur ball either

purring or meowing, who wants to cuddle up as long as you are feeding and taking

care of them. If we say, Lion, we hear him roar and see the beautiful mane on his head;

we see the very powerful sharp teeth and big paws with claws that can rip a man to

pieces. If we say tree, we picture our favorite kind of tree; if we say flower, we can

smell the fragrance as well as see the beautiful colors in the blossoms. The patterns

found in the stars gave us pictures to see and interpret. ¡°These pictures were designed

to preserve, expound, and perpetuate the one first great promise and prophecy of

Genesis 3:15, that all hope for Man, all hope for Creation, was bound up in a coming

Redeemer; One who should be born of a woman; who should first suffer, and

afterwards gloriously triumph; One who should first be wounded by that great enemy

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