THE STARS NEVER LIE, BUT MEN AND BEASTS DO!

THE STARS NEVER LIE, BUT MEN AND BEASTS DO!

by Reginald (Reggie) Lisemby

The stars are in essence suns, very similar to our own sun although so very far away they appear as tiny twinklers in the heaven. The star that is nearest to us is Alpha Centauri and is the size of our sun. By observing Alpha Centauri we can see how the sun would look if it were the same distance from us, and that distance is 4.3 light years. How far is that? The distance of stars from earth is easier measured in light years, that is, the distance that light travels in a year at the speed of light which is 186,000 miles per second. Think of the distance that light travels in just 5 minutes based on that speed. 

A light year is quite amazing. Alpha Centauri is 25 trillion miles from earth. The light you see tonight or any other night when you step outside and look up into the night sky (if you are able to see the heavens), that light you see now left on its journey 2 million years ago or longer, which suggests then, that "the beginning" where God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) was truly the very beginning, perhaps millions of years ago. The heavens and earth were created like only God can do, pristine and pure. However,  verse 2 of the first chapter of Genesis describes a horrific sight, chaos, confusion, distortion, and darkness. What we are given in Genesis by Moshe God's inspired author, is the recreation of the earth that had been completely destroyed by the Luciferian fall and flood. God brought out from the dark seas, the land -which remains a major motif of Holy Scripture until the New Jerusalem in Revelation. This recreation of Genesis 1 happened approximately six thousand years ago;  it has been six thousand years from creation/Adam until this present day.

Astronomers tell us that there are 10,000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 stars in the reach of our eyes in our own galaxy; that’s 10 with 27 zeros. More fascinating than that, is what the psalmist tells us, God knows those stars, every one, and He has numbered them (Psalm 147:4). "He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them." And, again, more mind-boggling is what the prophet Isaiah tells us, that God has each star, the gillion, trillion, billion, million of them, named (Isaiah 40:26). "Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the one who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name...." 

Stars are colored; the hotter ones are whiter or bluer, and the cooler ones are orange or red. There are also dark stars, those too cool to give off enough light to be detected by infrared photography. 

During our days in Chicago while attending the Moody Bible Institute completing our Jewish and Modern Israel Studies, Crystal and I and the children enjoyed many perks of the big city. During a Christmas season of one of our first years there in the windy city, we made a visit to the Adler planetarium. Founded by a Jewish astronomer of the same name, Adler planetarium has a computerized Zeiss projector that has the extraordinary ability to “rewind” and “fast forward” the map of the stars. In the planetarium’s domed theater astronomers can choose dates from the remote past and recreate historical night skies with astonishing accuracy. Adler has recreated in a special sky show known as ‘The Star of Wonder,’ the sky that the magi might have seen between 4 BC and 2 BC. It is interesting to say the least that in August of the year 3 B.C. Jupiter known in Hebrew as Tsedeq meaning “righteous,” the planet that supposedly represented kingship, coronation, and the birth of kings, passed very near Venus the brightest planet that signifies “new life.” Then, months later, three new conjunctions took place between Jupiter, Venus and the star Regulus, a planet in the constellation of Leo. Some cosmologists think that this threesome star convocation may be the same constellation that Yoseph saw in his dream and told his father Yacov and eleven brothers, that the sun, moon, and eleven other kokavim, that is star-clusters or constellations all bowed to his star.

In Genesis is recorded the interpretation of Yacov of the dream that his son, Yoseph told him, a dream of true and prophetic Star Worship. Father Yacov interpreted the celestial fire-ball called the sun as analogous of him. The lunar star orbiting the earth we call the moon that reflects the light of the sun to the earth, Yacov interpreted as the terrestrial display of his celestial wife, Leah, the matriarch of Israel. Yacov also interpreted the twelve stars or constellations, each one ruling the earth for approximately 30 days from the waxing to the waning of the moon, daddy interpreted as analogous of his twelve sons [and their tribes]. Was Yacov correct? 

In early Israelite history seven times it was told Israel “you shall be as the stars” (Genesis 15:5; Genesis 22:17; Genesis 26:4; Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 1:10; Deuteronomy 10:22; Deuteronomy 28:62). Then, came a battle and “the stars in their courses (or orbit) fought for Israel, the stars fought from heaven, from their courses they fought against Sisera [for Israel]" (Judges 5:20). The patriarch Yacov knew as the patriarchs before him that the heavens are like a scroll, they reveal God and His master plan. As C.S. Lewis wrote in his Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, “the stars never lie, but men and beasts do.” 

Paganism did not inaugurate star study or stargazing or astronomy. Let’s be clear and using the Bible as our main resource, that the heavens declare the glory of God. Glory is not a trite word. Glory is Elohim's manifestation, revelation, authentication, and presentation. Elohim is the tripartite essence of the triune Godhead, and His glory is His invisible Word.  Morning to morning and evening to evening the heavens speak, declaring His glory. 

If only we could read His [first] scroll.  What the patriarchs read as from God, paganism corrupted. Of course. That is what satan and demons do, counterfeit and/or corrupt. The stars in their courses were made for lights, signs, and seasons says Moshe in Genesis 1. They shine, they reveal, they instruct, until the time God would decide to disclose His special revelation on canvas, His Holy Writ.

The study of the heavens to discover God’s messianic plan, predates the study of God’s messianic plan written on papyrus and vellum. The written Word came later, and it came very special. I am not suggesting that astronomy is in anyway superior or a nexus or even comparable to the written Davar (Hebrew), Logos (Greek), or the Holy Scriptures. I am suggesting that the God was speaking clearly by the witness of the stars before 1445 BC, in fact, all the way back to Adam. Man has NEVER been without the Word of God!

The Holy Scriptures describe God presenting to Moshe the schematic or design of the tabernacle. Yet, there was already a tabernacle. The heavens, say the Holy Scriptures are the tabernacle. The sun is described as a bridegroom leaving "his" chamber to run "his" course or his orbit. Again, let's be clear. God never intended for His creation to build ziggarots or pyramids to worship the heavens, or to study them for personal gain. That is idolatry. The cosmological bodies were purposed by God, however, to tell us about Himself and His Messiah, His Spirit, and His rule. When Messiah came, the stars witnessed of Him! Ask the Magi! 

The magi from the east were Arab believers perhaps descendants of the Medes whom the prophet Daniel referenced as magoi (Daniel 1:20; 2:2; 4:7; 5:7). These were Arabs on quest for truth. The magi of the NT era studied the biblical/Jewish prophecies and they studied the scrolls of heaven alongside them. The magi calculated the fulfillment of biblical prophecies in accordance with the stars and astrological equations. These men were not rogues or charlatans. They were not mystics, but disciples of their divine study; they, then, having read of Him in the night sky set out for the holy city, Jerusalem. They came with gifts of gold, for a king. They brought incense the scriptures tell us, for the king’s death. And, they brought myrrh for the king’s resurrection. Because of the three gifts tradition has deduced there were three wise-men, and supposedly tradition has given them names. Yet, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, they came in great number. Isaiah prophesied, a multitude of camels will cover you (Isaiah 60:1-5). Read the text, its a good messianic prophecy!

For nearly two millennia the world which God made was without a written word from Him, yet, the patriarchs knew God and walked with Him, and they read Him. They read Him in His heavens. They sung His cantata. They knew some of what His glory was telling, some! The corruption of God’s first venue of the Gospel was by satan and his powers of darkness. God has rules, divine rules, that both He and the adversary must play. The enemy was allowed to magnify himself, and he did. He was allowed to boast against God, and he did. He was allowed to corrupt God's creation, to corrupt God's man and woman, to corrupt God's divine scroll in the heavens, to corrupt His prophets, priests, kings, and people, and God allowed the adversary to counterfeit His messianic glory with occult astrology, and he did and he has. However, God gets the final say which is given in Revelation 12. 

Yochanon sees the virgin, clothed with the sun, under her feet the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant, cried out in labor and pain to give birth, and another wonder appeared in heaven. The dragon/serpent from the beginning was present to destroy her child THE MOMENT He was born. Yes, the dragon was in Bethlehem.  Read the chapter to sense the rage and hate of the serpent. What Yochanon saw was a last day scenario of the beast, antichrist, the number 666, but also the Lamb standing on Mount Zion.