Psalm 19
“19 The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world.”
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I was shocked to learn just how much the heavens really DO declare the glory of God, but it’s more than I could ever have imagined. I used to think that the opening Psalm was simply referring to the obvious act of creation. As marvelous an act as that was, it doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. What The Holy Spirit, through David, was trying to tell us here is that in the stars serve as the written the Word of God telling mankind about His beloved Son! It’s basically the entire New Testament up there, from the Virgin birth (Virgo) to the Lion of the tribe of Judah of Revelation (Leo)! 😮
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Not Astrology!
Let me emphatically state, however, that this is most definitely NOT astrology. It is THE REAL STORY of redemption as written and orchestrated by our Heavenly Father Himself. The devil’s counterfeit is nothing more than another in a long line of pathetic attempts to pervert the Gospel, i.e., The One told by The One about THE ONE…..JESUS!
I hope you all know that we have NO business dabbling in horoscopes and astrology. The stars DO NOT rule our lives: The Bright and Morning Star, JESUS, does. AMEN!
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Before The Written Word.
Most of you are no doubt familiar with this Psalm and read it many times yet, perhaps, without grasping its full significance. Me, too. What most may not know is this: For 2,500 years there was no written word of God, yet the Gospel, the wonderful story of the Champion He would send one day, was passed down from father to son throughout history. Was it simply oral tradition, as some maintain? Not exactly. People of ancient times not only knew how to read this celestial story; they knew what it meant and passed that knowledge on to their children! ♥️
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Consider this: It says of Jesus that He was, “Slain from the foundation of the world.” (See Revelation 3:18) God is so proud of His beloved Son that He blasted the story of salvation all over the night sky. Remember His first recorded words in Genesis? “Light be,” (literally). There was light in the world before the sun was created. It was on the 4th day, BEFORE humans were created and the fall of man, that He created the sun, moon, and stars. He placed them in specific positions and set them in motion. It’s clear as day that Jesus always knew that He would one day die for all of us.
What will probably not come as a shock at all is that a very evil 👿 “someone” has always been trying to “control the narrative,” just like in our day. (He can pervert but cannot create, you see). Inventing astrology was his way of perverting the gospel.
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Anyone interested in reading the whole story about what the people of ancient times knew may follow the link below. I have to warn you, though; it’s a series in 44 parts! 😮:
The REAL Story In The Stars Part 1: The Heavens Declare The Glory Of God.
Wise Men From The East.
What do the stars have to do with Christmas? Well for one thing, reading that story in the heavens is how the wise men from the East knew of Jesus’ birth in the first place; but they only gave these kings part of the puzzle. They had the general location and knew it had something to do with the Hebrews. That’s why they came to Jerusalem to consult king Herod. The king had to call the Jewish rabbis who brought out the Hebrew Scriptures. God’s written word narrowed down their search for the child.
So you see, the stars alone were not enough; they needed both the celestial record AND the written word. Secondly, and most incredibly, the stars also give us a clue to Jesus’ actual birthday! (More on this later.)
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Let’s take a trip through biblical history and see how the constellations were used to spread the good news of our Savior! ✝️
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Jesus Preached The Gospel To Abram.
In Genesis 15, God spoke to Abram and told him, “I Am your shield and great reward.” Then He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. So shall your Seed be. 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
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Wait…..you mean, count the stars like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…..2 trillion, 3 trillion, 4 trillion,…..like that? No, of course not. Doesn’t make any sense to say that you can learn about the story of Jesus simply by counting all the stars in the sky, does it? So what did Jesus mean? 🤔
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Translator Issues.
The translation of this passage is, shall we say, a bit unfortunate. The Hebrew word here for “Count” is the word, “Saphar. “ It means, “To count, recount, or relate.” In other words, if you can recount…relate or re-tell…the story in the stars, so shall your “SEED (Descendant – Singular) be.”
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Notice I didn’t say, “Descendants,” plural? Here again in this verse, the translation of the original Hebrew is also a bit unfortunate. The word, “Zera,” translated as “descendants–plural” is actually not plural. Plural words in Hebrew end in “IM.” “ZERA” means “Seed,” referring to Abram’s offspring or Seed, Jesus. It is SINGULAR.
Jesus is The Seed Who would come from Abraham’s own body, referring back to Genesis 3 where God said that the “SEED of the woman” would crush the serpent’s head. Since women don’t carry the seed, being female, God was prophesying the Virgin birth!
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Abram Believed God.
“Galatians 3 says that Jesus “preached to Abram” the gospel story. How did He do that? By “Saphar–recounting” the story blasted all over the night sky, as the passage below tells us. Jesus recounted, or told, the story as written in the stars to Abraham. It is the story of the Champion, the Dragon Slayer, his own DESCENDANT: SINGULAR, Who would come forth in the fullness of time. That He did!
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He goes on to say:
Galatians 3:5. “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—6 just as ABRAHAM “BELIEVED GOD, and it was ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, PREACHED THE GOSPEL TO ABRAHAM beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with (along with) believing Abraham.”
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It says God (actually a pre-incarnate Jesus) “PREACHED THE GOSPEL” to him. He did so by showing him the story written in the night sky. What Abram “Saw” in the stars was irrefutable proof of the promised Messiah. He believed God (Jesus) and THAT BELIEF was credited to him as righteousness.” In other words, he was counted as righteous as you and I. He believed the very same gospel that you and I do, though we look back to the cross and he looked forward to that event.
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Psalm 19.
This same word, “Saphar,” used in Genesis 15 is the very same word translated, “Declare” in Psalm 19.
“The heavens “Declare: saphar” the glory of God…..”
There is a portion of scripture where Abram is told that his “Descendants” (plural) will be as numerous as the stars in Genesis 26. There it talks about the numbers of his “Descendants-plural,” referring to natural Israel.
Jesus came as a Jew. Yes, blessing that passed to the whole world came through the Jewish people, but Jesus is THE ONE through Whom all those blessings flow.
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The REAL Story In The Stars.
In order to learn the REAL story in the stars, we must begin at the very beginning, with the oldest book: Job.
The very first time the Lord spoke to him directly is in chapter 38, where He mentions that the morning stars sang together in vs. 7. He goes on, talking about the stars, and asks him in verses 31-32 of the same chapter, “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?”
He is obviously speaking of the story in the stars here: The seven stars of the Pleiades and constellations of Orion and the Bear.” The word for constellations in Hebrew is “Mazzaroth,” which means, “Zodiac.” Once again, this is not astrology. God created the stars and put them in place to tell the matchless story of His Beloved Son!
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Evil Invention.
Why did the devil invent astrology? Because he hates God, and therefore man because we are made in His image. He also knows that we are beloved of God and so valuable to Him as to be priceless. But he cannot strike at God directly so he does the next best thing: He strikes at us.
Perverting the gospel story so that man is deceived into not accepting the Lamb of God, Jesus, sends God’s beloved creation to hell. That hurts God more than we can comprehend, hence his desire to confuse the story. He doesn’t want mankind to learn the truth, get saved, spend eternity in heaven with God, and certainly not to spread the good news to the whole world. That is why he hates believers because we are the ones who spread the good news.
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Why does He hate Israel? Because The Dragon Slayer came into the world as a Jew. But…..he ERRONEOUSLY figured that if he could pervert the story, perhaps he could stop the birth of The Champion and, therefore, stop Him FROM CRUSHING HIS HEAD!
Well…..HE FAILED!!
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Reading The Story.
The astrology of today would have you begin with the constellation of Aries, the ram. But if you start there, you would be totally confused. That is where the Greeks and Romans got all their crazy stories of mythology. Because it is a circular story, God provided a map of sorts so we would know where it began and where it ended. You may read all about it by following the link below:
The REAL STORY begins with Virgo, the Virgin.
If you look back into the history of the constellations, you’ll find that ancient depictions of Virgo have her sitting down with a small male child on her lap, as pictured above. She held a stalk of both wheat and corn in one hand. Jesus is that small child on her lap. He is the bread of life, depicted by the grain of wheat which, when it falls into the earth, dies, that it might bring forth life. This typifies His death which would bring salvation to the whole world.
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Since the story begins with Virgo, then it must end with Leo, the Lion. The FIRST book of the New Testament, Matthew, is the FIRST to recount the VIRGIN BIRTH of our Savior, and in Revelation, the LAST book of the New Testament, is where Jesus is first called “THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH.” He is the triumphant King Who crushed the head of the great dragon; our enemy, satan.
Jesus is the FIRST and Jesus is the LAST! HALLELUJAH!!!
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Message To Natural Israel.
What does all that tell you? As I said before, the story in the stars is the entire New Testament up there in the heavens! It is one of many confirmations to natural Israel that the 27 books of the New Testament are the HOLY WORD OF THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB.
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Many other confirmations and clues have been left for the Jewish people to find, proving that the New Testament is Holy Writ. After Jesus has called His Church home in the rapture, their eyes will be opened and they will find these truths. Many will see and come to knowledge of Jesus as their Messiah.
Below is a link to another one of those clues, hidden in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. You may follow the link below for more on that topic:
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Jesus’ Real Birthday?
The constellation Virgo appears in the month of September, in case you were unaware. Do you know which Jewish feast is celebrated in September? The Feast of Tabernacles: Sukkoth!
Hmmm…..very interesting! 🤔
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(The Feast of Tabernacles.)
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling (TABERNACLED) among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The word, “Tabernacled” refers to the physical body. Ours, for example, are temples or “Tabernacles” of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was most likely born in September, during this feast. Since the constellation “Virgo” is most prominent at this time of the year, could that be mere coincidence? Not a chance!
Later on in this series, we’re going to learn some little known, but fascinating, history about THE Inn which had no room for Him. (Take note of the definite article, “THE. 😉)
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Of course, we no longer need the story in the stars to tell about Jesus because we have the written word. There are a whole lot of happenings in the Old Testament are directly linked to this story in the night sky, like why God had to confuse the languages of the people over the issue of the Tower of Babel. The link above about the entire story will answer most of those questions.
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Understandably, this whole topic is a little bit touchy for some because of the devil’s perversion. Many believers are understandably hesitant, as a result, to learn the truth. (I used to be one of them.) Nonetheless, the beautiful, awesome, incomprehensible story is still written there in the night sky for us to see and be blessed by it.
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What is the point of leaning about the story in the stars? Because many of you know people who believe in horoscopes and such nonsense. Learning the real story can lead you to an opportunity to tell the REAL story of the REAL JESUS.
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And that, Church, is THE REAL STORY IN THE STARS!
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You may follow the link below to Part 2 if you wish to continue this series about the story of Christmas. I hope you will be blessed and encouraged by what you read:
Emmaus Road Ministries 