Lesson 007 The “Science” of the Stars

Lesson 007 - The “Science” of the Stars

Psalm 19

The “science” of the stars as it relates to the eternal message of God’s covenant to have sons of God is the subject of this lesson.  

This will not be a “science” study in the traditional sense - a methodical breakdown of the solar system.  Instead, this science of the stars is an explanation of the rotation of the earth, the ecliptic orbit or the sun’s path as the earth rotates around it and the planet’s daily rotation as it relates to God’s eternal covenant. 

God does the same thing, the same way over and over again with the sole intention of making Himself known.  God’s works have a pattern. 

Man lives in time; God dwells in eternity; eternity is without beginning or end.  All that is sourced in God is eternal, yet the eternal operates in time.  When established on earth, the eternal becomes everlasting.  

In eternity (past), before God created anything, He drew up plans, so to speak – and designed His blueprint.  In eternity (past), His plan is recognized as finished - fulfilled in eternity future.  At the end of time, all that is of God will be recognized as everlasting (the creation of space and time implies a beginning; God sets His plan in motion).  Therefore, eternity has a past; eternity past and a future; eternity future includes time in the middle. 

God’s plan for an everlasting earthly kingdom of sons of God will begin after the seven-year tribulation (Jacob’s time of trouble); this everlasting kingdom designed in eternity past, realized as finished in eternity future, has a beginning in time but no end.  The kingdom established is everlasting.  

Within the message of the luminaries, eternity, time, eternal and everlasting are interwoven and interrelated but not identical.  

Man thinks of the constellations as linear – one-dimensional.  Although the stars would appear as “flat” or “flush” in their presentation in the heavens, that’s not a correct view.  

We live in a dimensional world (Science of the Stars Handout No. 1).  The earth is skewered on its foundations of the north and south poles spinning on it axis and revolving around the sun.  The ecliptic orbit is the sun’s path as the earth’s rotates around it.  The earth moves in two ways.  It rotates on its foundation (the imaginary straight line through the earth from pole to pole) while it progresses steadily in its annual trip around the sun.  The planet’s daily rotation from man’s position on earth is west to east making the sun and stars appear to move in the opposite direction - from east to west in our sky. 

God designed, placed the stars in sequence, gave color and named the luminaries in the heavens to prophesy His covenant message to have sons of God (Genesis 1:14).  

Like a curved canvas, God stretched the writings of the heavens (Jeremiah 10:12) around the whole earth; no matter where man dwells, the panorama of His glory manifests itself continually because the nighttime sky is visible somewhere.  Because the stars are dimensional and circular, each luminary constellation is a separate revelation of events past, present and future.  Each revelation contributes to the one eternal message that God placed in the stars. 

Where is the beginning of the message recorded in the stars?  From the earth, God’s message of the Eternal Covenant worked out in time begins in the constellation Virgo and proceeds in order with Libra through the remainder of the signs ending with Leo.  The rotation of the earth establishes this order (Science of the Stars Handout No. 2).  Man sees up to three constellations at one time from his position on earth. 

However, when following the path of the Sun (the most prominent of the luminaires), only one constellation is seen at a time; the constellation the sun is positioned in or “tabernacling” in is the one seen. 

Viewing the eternal covenant in the stars from God’s perspective, God lays out the overview of the message in three constellations - Libra, Virgo and Leo.  The message of Libra occurs in eternity before the beginning, before time.  In the message of Virgo, the eternal covenant enters “time,” and Leo presents the end of time. 

Therefore starting from God’s perspective with the sign of Libra and following the path of the sun through the remaining signs, God fills in the details of His eternal covenant and His message ends in Scorpio.  This pattern parallels the scripture.  Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God” indicating it is from His vantage point.  God shares His plan as finished. 

God would have delegated the keeping of the record of the eternal covenant to Adam; from generation to generation, the record was handed down through the believing bloodline of Adam’s seed. 

The prophetic luminaries were first.  God discloses the enmity between the serpent and the Woman and his seed and her seed before the creation of man, before the formation of the woman (the nation Israel) and long before the Seed comes.  

The prophetic stellar sign of Virgo, the virgin identified as the woman and the prophecy of her Seed – a singular male member of the nation, who comes to bruise the serpent’s head, is in the first book of the law written by the prophet, Moses, in Genesis 3:15.  Israel’s whole history is wrapped up in the Son of God – her Messiah. 

This journey through the constellations tells the message of the eternal covenant in the pictorial of the heavenly luminaries and connects it to the written account of the Old Testament, which substantiates an earthly kingdom of sons of God with Israel serving as the “head” nation.  

In Old Testament times, the nation Israel sang the Messianic songs (Psalms) of praise to God.  The Psalms are Israel’s hymnbook.  Each Psalm or song is a prophetic revelation that conveys a message concerning the person and work of God, past, present and future. 

Psalm 19 is a kingdom Psalm referring to the establishment of the kingdom of sons of God when the king, the bridegroom, weds His people and God establishes His kingdom of God on earth.  It is a hymn sung by two groups of singers chanting alternating sections known in musical terms as antiphonal music - music sung in alternating parts. 

Psalm 19 is divided into two sections.  In the first section, the glory of God is seen in the realms of the heavens; in the second section, the unfailing words of the Law of the Lord are revealed.  This antiphony in Psalm 19 is summarized on the Science of the Stars Handout No. 3.  In Psalm 19, the pictorial of the stars follows the path of the sun.  The earth gives to heaven the antiphonal response - the responsive singing of the second choir to the first choir singing, “It is finished!”  

The first choir in the heavens declares the glory of God in the heavens and the second choir on earth answers – Yes and Amen!  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!  Each section is a perfect reflection of the other; each section is an illuminating witness of the ways of God by His works of creation and the words of His mouth. 

The divine layout of the Psalm is a summary of the scriptures.  From Genesis to Revelation, the scriptures speak continuously of the covenant-keeping God, the Creator, Redeemer, and Deliverer that the heavens declare.  God commanded the light to shine out of darkness; the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is in the heavens; the glory of God is “seen” in the face of Jesus Christ. 

The Hebrew word for glory means that which constitutes and establishes the glory or honor of God – His wisdom, power, skill, faithfulness and benevolence.  The Covenant Son is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15-17; John 14:8-9, 16:28). 

The Hebrew word for God, “El,” reflects God as the invisible Creator whose attributes, specifically, God’s eternal power and Godhead, are seen clearly and understood by the things which are made; the firmament shows His handiwork.  Two ideas are expressed:  The sun, moon and stars show not only the handiwork of God - the power of God as Creator - but also the wisdom of God in His glory as God. 

On the first day of creation, God called forth the light saying, “Let there be light:  and there was light.”  On the fourth day of creation, God created light holders.  Man tends to think that the sun, moon and stars make light.  However, God created the sun, moon and stars to radiate the light that He called forth.  God placed and named the light holders that are scattered like diamonds on the black velvet of the firmament.  “He tells the number of the stars; he calls them all by their names” (Psalm 147:4). 

The purpose of the sun, moon and twelve stellar signs with their decans is to proclaim the glory of God, to give light upon the earth and make visible God’s covenant and attributes; specifically, His eternal power and Godhead.  Each one of the covenant light holders in their order, their number, their rank, their position and color declares the ordinances, testimony, statutes, commandments and judgments of His law. 

Continually, whether it is sunrise to sunset or sunset to sunrise, God’s creation of humanity is never without light.  Day after day and night after night, God gives man continuous and endless insight into His faithfulness and benevolence.  This perpetual testimony to the wisdom and power of His covenant leaves man without excuse in understanding his life’s purpose, which is a holy calling in hope of everlasting life in Christ Jesus (2Timothy 1:9-10; 1Peter 1:17-25; Hebrews 13:20-21). 

In the line of the stars God set a tabernacle for the sun.  The word used for line in Psalm 19 means a cord, specifically a measuring line or a plumb line.  The plumb bob is what pulls the string taut to have a straight line.  Because of its accuracy, the plumb line with its plumb bob is an old-fashioned tool that still is in use today.  A simple brass or metal bulb with a point on the end uses gravity to help builders determine exact vertical alignment.  When framing a building, the line must be accurate; otherwise, the foundation of the house will be out of plumb. 

Spread out in the firmament of the heavens is God’s eternal covenant revealed in the message of the plumb line (ecliptic path of the sun), a blueprint for the framework of sons of God (Isaiah 42:5).  

The foundation line – is the level. 

In the gospel in the stars, the foundation line - the level - is the north and south poles that fix the earth on its axis.  The word used for line is in reference to a plumb line - a straight line. 

The ecliptic path through the stars is circular in the heavens; the earth is a sphere.  Yet the word used for plumb line is a straight line.  Yet both lines, the foundation line and the plumb line, square with the level, the foundation, because the plumb line is eternal.  The line is made straight by the weight and magnitude of the “words” declared in the stars. 

Two words summarize well what God declares in the heavens and in His written word:  righteousness and judgment (Isaiah 32:16 and 17a).  Men measure one another by their words.  The Word of God is the greater and true measurement. 

The earth’s journey around the sun, the closest star, brings several luminaries into view each month.  Because of its proximity to the earth, the sun is the brightest luminary. 

Each of the 12 stellar signs along the path of the ecliptic or the line of the stars is a temporary dwelling place for the sun and “speaks” of the eternal covenant.  Each individual sign is revelation of the covenant-keeping God, the Lord Jehovah.  The luminaries are a heavenly pictorial of an earthly kingdom of sons of God.  The Old Testament Books of the Law with its ordinances and the prophets are Israel’s.  The Law confirms the witness of whom the bridegroom is and why He is rejoicing as a strong man to run a race. 

The nation Israel looks for the kingdom of God on earth where she will reign with her bridegroom as the head of the nations.  Israel’s Messiah is the rejoicing strongman who has run His race.  The mention of a “rejoicing” strongman implies the victory of a contest (Psalm 19:5). 

The Hebrew word used for circuit means a coming about or a return.  The strong man’s going forth is from the end of heaven (His chamber).  Jesus as the birthed Son of the Father God ran the circuit – to the end of the race course.  “…for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2); it is finished! 

Psalm 19 is key in reading the stellar signs looking at the covenant from God’s viewpoint – in eternity as finished.  

The race course of the Son as He tabernacles in each of the stellar signs beginning with eternity where God dwells, then in time with the coming of the Seed, and finally the establishment of the eternal kingdom of the sons of God will be the journey we take through the 12 stellar signs or constellations. 

Glossary for Science of the Stars

Ecliptic Orbit – is the path of the sun as the earth rotates around it. 

Eternal – is all that is sourced in God, but it operates in time. 

Eternity – is where God dwells; it has no beginning or end. 

Eternity Future – includes time in the middle; it has no end. 

Eternity Past – is before God created anything. 

Everlasting – is the eternal that operates in time and exists forever.