The Signs of the Heavens
RO136-02

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1988)

Today, we begin a new section in Romans 10:18-21. Our subject is "Revelation Rejected." This is the first segment.

The Jewish People

Romans 10 deals with the present condition of the Jewish people all over the world today. Romans 9 told us about their past condition. Romans 11 will tell us what their future holds. But Romans 10 gives us an insight about their present condition. They are, as a matter of fact, cut off from God's blessings because of their rejection of their Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Jews, therefore, are under God's judgment, and are doomed to spend eternity in the lake of fire, just as any gentile is who rejects Christ as Savior. God has repeatedly given the Jewish people the message of salvation through the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah predicted, however, 800 years before the birth of Christ, that the Jews would not believe God's message when the Messiah arrived. We have looked at Isaiah 53, which is a classic example of that message, describing the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and foretelling the Jewish rejection of Him, which resulted in His death, and in the process, provided the basis through the plan of God for the payment of the price of the sins of the world.

The message of God to the Jews is recorded in the Bible for their information today. Therefore, the point that the apostle Paul has been making in Romans 10 is that the Jews are not without information. They cannot say, "We didn't have a clear communication from God." Any honest Jew who read Isaiah 53, and observed what was happening to Jesus Christ, who looks back today upon what was done to Him, will easily make the connection that Isaiah was talking about Jesus of Nazareth, and that He fulfilled the details of that prediction precisely, including the foretelling of the rejection by the Jews.

The Gospel

Faith in Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior, however, is indeed dependent upon possessing the information of the gospel. Nobody goes to heaven until somebody gives you the gospel. Until somebody tells you how to go, you can't go. The good news of absolute righteousness through God's sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world is the key to going to heaven.

The question is raised here in Romans 10 as to whether the Jews had the gospel message in an understandable way so that they could have trusted in Jesus Christ. So, we continue in Romans 10:18, where Paul concludes this chapter with a strong emphasis once more about the fact that they did know, and they deliberately rejected the revelation they had.

Have they not Heard?

So, he begins with a question: "But I say." The Greek word for "but" is "alla." This is a stronger negative than you usually have in the Greek Bible. Therefore, it is, in effect, saying, "But wait a minute." Paul is calling the attention to: "Hold your horses," because the question has been raised: how could we have known this? Paul is saying, "Wait a minute:" He says, "But I say." The word "say" is the Greek word "lego." This word is a declaration from the apostle Paul, Paul is raising an issue. Paul says, "But wait a minute: may I ask?" And what he asks is: "Have they not heard?" The word "not" is the Greek word "ou." And he says, "Have they not heard?" That's the word "akouo." The word "akouo" means to get information through a message. The apostle Paul is asking here whether the Jews were under a condition where, as a whole, they did not hear the gospel – where they did not personally get this information.

Yes, they have Heard

The Greek sentence has another negative – this negative "me." We don't really translated. You can't see this in English. But in the Greek Bible, it is put in there in order to indicate what the answer is to the question. And when this "me" is put in there, the answer to the question is "No." The idea is: "It is not the case that they had not heard, is it?" That's what Paul is saying. And the answer is "No, that's not the case." The sentence in the Greek expects you to understand that the answer is "No." It is not true that the Jews have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and for that reason, were not saved. That is not true. Paul is speaking here about unbelieving Jews who reject Jesus Christ as their Savior.

So, the Jews, Paul points out, cannot use the excuse that they're lost because they didn't get the word about the Savior, Jesus Christ. This gospel has been proclaimed in all the ancient world, as a matter of fact, wherever Jews resided. Very quickly, we're told from ancient records, that the Jewish populations around the known world all heard about this Man who claimed to be their Messiah. They heard all about what was happening to Him. They heard all about the decision of the rabbis to reject Him. They heard all about what was done to Him in Jerusalem. Very quickly, the information went out. And hearing the gospel, of course, does not mean that it will produce faith in Jesus Christ automatically. There are many people who know the gospel. Our country is filled with millions of Americans who have heard the gospel, but who have shaken their heads like the Jews, and said, "No, I don't believe that." Many hear the gospel today who do not take it seriously.

So, the translation of the first part of verse 18 is simply this: "But I say surely they have never heard, have they?" And the Greek sentence says that the answer is "No." That's not true. They have heard. It is not true that they have never heard.

Then he gives the answer to his question: "Yes, verily." This is an interesting word in the Greek, because it's three little particles. The Greek has small little words, and the apostle Paul has strung three of them together: "men oun ge." When you put those three together, it comes out like a fist pounding the table, saying, "Indeed, on the contrary." The idea is: "Yes, indeed, they did hear the gospel. Make no mistake about that."

Into all the Earth

Paul says, "On the contrary, their sound." The word "sound" is the Greek word "phthoggos." This word means "voice" or "utterance." He is speaking about something that has communicated an understandable message. And the apostle Paul says, "No, on the contrary, the message went forth." The word in the Greek is "exerchomai." This word means "to spread out." This word has been spread out: "Into all the earth." The word "earth" is referring to the planet earth, indicating that the extent of the gospel was to every country, particularly where Jews were to be found.

A Proposition of Truth

He said, "On the contrary, their message spread out into all parts of the earth, and their words." Now, usually in the Greek Bible, you're acquainted with this word "logos." That simply means "a thought" which is conveyed into a symbol. That's not the word here. Again, the Greek Bible comes and gives us enormously important information here, because it's the word "hrema." "Hrema" declares a proposition of truth which is recorded. It refers to individual propositions of truth, which we have now recorded for us in the Bible.

In Ephesians 6:17, we have this illustrated. The last part of that verse says, "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." "The sword of the Spirit" here is the "hrema" – the same word we have back here in Romans. "The sword of the Spirit" is the propositions of divine truth that you have in the Bible. It's not speaking of the Bible as a whole here being the Word of God, but of individual points of doctrine that the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance for our use. Why do we come to church? If you have a church that's worth its salt, you come so that you can be instructed in the propositions of truth– in the "hrema" of God. These are the propositions of divine viewpoint truth that are in the Scriptures. So, when you read them: you understand them: you believe them; and, when you believe them, they are stored in your human spirit. Now they are there available for God the Holy Spirit to reach in when you need to have this guidance in your life – to bring these to your remembrance. "The sword of the Spirit" is more than just the Bible. It is the particular statements of truth that are in the Scriptures.

Now I emphasize that because the liberal theological world, and the unbelievers, say, "The Bible is a good book. The Bible is OK. But don't tell us that the Bible has absolute statements of fact that we have to subject ourselves to, and that we have to believe." They don't like to look at the Bible as the propositions of absolute truth. That is because, if that's the case, when is Phil Donahue going to be able to have another program? His programs are built on the fact that the Bible does not declare absolute truths that you must be obedient to. As long as you don't have God telling you what to do, and as long as you don't have information, then, boy, you can do anything you want in life. Then you can take the attitude that our society takes toward homosexuals and lesbians, and the consequence of the AIDS judgment. Because there are no absolutes of truth, we don't have to bring this evil under control by bringing these people under control.

What's the idea? The idea is that there is no authority above man that requires us to do this. But the Bible says, "The sword of the Spirit," whereby God brings blessings, or whereby He cuts you down, is the propositions of truth. So, this is a very significant word here that the apostle Paul says – "That throughout all the earth went the words;" the propositions of specific, biblical principles of truth. And here it's relative to the gospel. And he says, "This truth about how to go to heaven has gone: "unto the ends." The Greek word is "peras." And this is a word to indicate "the limits," or "the extremities." The idea is that it went to the limits of what he calls here, in our translation: "the world." But again, usually the Greek word that you know for world is "kosmos," which means the system of the universe and the earth. In fact, the Bible uses this word "kosmos" to describe what Satan has put together in the institutions of society, all of which are very evil.

When the Lord says, "Love not this world or the things of this world, he's talking about this world system of Satan. But here we have a different word. This is the Greek word "oikoumena." "Oikoumena" is properly translated as "world," but it means specifically the inhabited portions of the world. It's talking about the world in terms of civilizations, and in terms where people are to be found.

This is an amazing statement. Paul says, "Wherever there are human beings living on earth, the gospel message was proclaimed in some way." Wherever there are human being in ('oikoumena' – portions of the earth, that human beings inhabiting (living)), the message of the gospel, in some way, has gone out.

Psalm 19

Now actually, verse 18 is another one of those Old Testament quotations that the apostle Paul is slipping in throughout Romans 10. We've been going back and forth to the Old Testament to look up these quotations. This one comes from Psalm 19:4. Let's take a look at it: "Their line (or their voice) is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." This is what the apostle Paul is quoting.

Now let's look at Psalm 19 for a minute, because we're going to need this as a background. Psalm 19 is divided into verse 1-6, and then in verses 7-14. And both sections talk about information from God. But verses 1-6 talk about information from the sun; the moon; and, the stars. It talks about a communication from God via the luminaries in the sky. Notice verse1-6: "The heavens declare the glory of God. And the firmament shows His handiwork." First one is a summary statement about the majesty of God's heavenly creation, and that this reflects the glory of God; that is, God's perfection in His essence. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament, the open expanse above the earth, shows the handwork of God the Creator.

What's he talking about? What's up there that's so impressive? When it says, "The heavens up there have things in them that are reflecting the glory of God, it's talking about the luminaries: the sun; the moon; and, the stars. That proclaims something about the Creator who made it all.

Verse 2: "Day unto day utters speech; and, night unto night shows knowledge." This is the message of the luminaries. The sun; the moon; and, the stars proclaim a message to mankind day after day and night after night. Now what declares a message to man out in the sky night after night? What could be declaring a message day after day?

Verse 3: "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." The luminaries do not send a message – an audible sound. "There is no speech" means "there is no sound." There is no language where their voice is heard. That is, there are not sounds coming. There's no message that you can hear with your ear, or that you can pick up on an instrument.

The 12 Constellations of the Zodiac

Verse 4: "Their line (or their message) is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." That's what Paul has just quoted: "The message of the heavenly bodies has gone to all the earth, and to all the civilized portions of that earth. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun." Here we're told that there's a tent in the sky set up for the sun by God. "In them" refers to what he has just been talking about – these luminaries in the sky that give us a message about God. The tent that he is referring to, that has been set up by God for the sun, are the 12 basic constellations of the zodiac. . . .

We will look at this in more detail. I just mention it now in passing. The sun is up in the sky. It depicts the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of Righteousness, who gives spiritual illumination to the world through the Word of God, as the sun gives illumination in the day.

A Bridegroom

Verse 5 says that the sun is like a bridegroom who comes out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run a race. Verse 5 says that the sun in the sky is compared to strong men. He is actually compared to a bridegroom who comes out of His chamber. And He comes out all invigorated – ready to run a race. The Lord Jesus Christ, as you know, is described in the Bible as the Son of Righteousness. He is also portrayed as the bridegroom to the church. In John 3:25-31, John the Baptizer specifically identified Jesus Christ as the bridegroom. We have that also in the Ephesians 5.

The Signs of the Zodiac

So, the sky here is compared to a chamber that God has prepared, and the sun comes out like a man ready to run a race. The ancients viewed the sun, of course, as a deity, and that's why they worshiped it. But as Jesus Christ comes out of the chamber of His heaven, so the sun comes out of his chamber up in the heavens, around which circle 12 major constellations which are called "the signs of the Zodiac."

In verse 6, we read, "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and His circuit unto the ends of it. There is nothing hidden from the heat thereof." The sun in the sky traverses a path from one end of the sky to the other. The circuit of the sun includes the apparent path around the signs of the zodiac.

What happens is that the sun is out there, and it is surrounded by the star clusters of the 12 signs of the zodiac. And as the earth turns, and as it moves in its orbit of the year, it seems to keep moving the sun around. And each month, the sun is in a sign of the zodiac. And each month it keeps moving. It is we who are moving in our orbit, but it looks like the sun is moving around. And this is the picture that you have here in the Psalm. Here a strong man, the sun, comes charging out into his tent that has been prepared in heaven. And he is like on a race, and his race is around the circuit of the signs that God has placed in these constellations in the heaven.

The strong man, Jesus Christ exposes all mankind to the light of the gospel as the sun in the sky exposes all to its heat, and to a message which it conveys as it moves from constellation to constellation.

Psalm 19:7-14 suddenly switch gears. It's still talking about revelation from God. The first 6 verses talked about a revelation from God, but verses 7-14 switch to the written revelation of Scripture. So, the whole is talking about revelation (information) from God. And that's why Paul refers to this chapter. Do the Jews really have a basis of complaining that they didn't get information from God? Paul says, "Oh, you bet they had it, and I'm going to tell you how they had it. They not only had it in their Old Testament Scripture, but they had it every time they looked up in the sky, and every time they watched the sun in its annual circuit, within its tent in the sky, as it went through the constellations of the Zodiac.

Notice verses 7-14: "The law the Lord is perfect." That's the Bible: "Converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." That's all Bible doctrine: "hrema" – principles of truth. "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold: yea, that much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb."

The Bible says that when you have your head screwed on straight, you understand that the Word of God is the most supreme commodity of value that you possess. And it is like honey in the honeycomb. It is the sweetest thing that you'll ever have in this life.

Verse 11: "Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping of them, there is great reward." The people who prosper in life are those who believe that the Bible is propositions of absolute truth. They conform themselves, and they are blessed.

Verse 12: "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults." Aha, those are the mental attitude sins. Who of us can really get that in perspective unless we match it up against the Scriptures: "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." The psalmist says, "Oh God, keep me from being an arrogant jerk."

Verse 14: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in you sight; O Lord: my strength and my redeemer."

So, here's an amazing psalm. The first six verses talk about a message that comes from nature. The last verses, from 7 on, speak about a message that comes from written communication of Scripture.

The apostle Paul is referring to this psalm in Romans 10:18. That's what he's quoting from: general revelation of nature; and, the special revelation of Scripture are equated in this psalm, because they complement one.

Paul indicates in Acts 17:24-31 that creation does indeed tell us something about man. Verse 24: "God, Who made the world and all things in it, seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything; seeing He gives to all: life; and breath; and, all things, and have made of one blood, all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and at determinant times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, though He's not very far from every one of us."

Verse 28: "For in Him we live and move, and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said. For we are also his offspring." Even the great poets recognized that we have some kind of a connection to deity: "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that Godhead is like gold or silver or stone, carved by art and man's device." Paul says, "If even you Greeks, who are pagans, from your own observation, and from your own philosophers, have concluded that we have some kind of connection with a deity that must be out there, why would you think that the deity would be something less than you are? If you have a brain, and can think, don't you think He can do it? And a lot better? If you have a will that can make decisions, don't you think He can do it a lot better? If you have emotions that can be expressed about different things, don't you think He has emotions to be expressed? What kind of a god is that when you say, "Here he is. He's a chunk of metal. He's a chunk of stone we've carved out. He's the god. "In short," Paul says, "That's dumb."

Verse 30: "And the times of this ignorance God overlooked." Yes, God was patient when all this dumbness was going on: "But now, He commands all men everywhere to repent. But God says, 'No more.'" The time for making images of God in the form of sinful man are no longer acceptable. Why not? Because you have information. Because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man (Jesus Christ), Whom he has ordained, concerning which He has given assurance unto all men, in that He has raised Him from the dead." Paul says, "Because Christ was raised from the dead, it proved that everything He said and everything He claimed was true.

However, the point of this, Paul says, "From what God has created (the world around us), and even we ourselves, we have a message concerning what God is like. Therefore, it behooves us to recognize that He is more than we are. He is superior to us. We are obligated to obey Him. We must be subject to Him, and we need information from Him. This message of the heavens goes out to the whole world of mankind so that they become aware of God. Some are moved to seek Him in salvation.

The Message in the Heavens

So, let's begin to look at this message in the heavens. The Bible indicates that the universe is God's creation, and that it declares His glory; meaning the perfection of His essence. We read that in Psalm 19:1. Creation tells man something about God Himself. Just creation itself will tell us of His deity. And it will also tell us about his omnipotence. Creation will not tell us how to go to heaven.

The creation, as observed by mankind, does not of itself give the message of the gospel for salvation. But creation does illustrate the work of God in salvation, and we understand the illustration by the message which has been made known to us in another way, through verbal communications from God.

Genesis 1:14 makes a statement about the creation of God, which is telling us a great deal – more than it seems to. Genesis 1:14 says, "And God said, 'Let there be light in the firmament of the heaven." In the expanse of the heaven above the earth, let there be light: sun; stars; and, moon. And let them be there to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years:" signs; seasons; days; and, years. One of those words doesn't seem to fit there. We can understand how the sun, the moon, and the stars are out there, to be markers for seasons; to be markers for days (days and nights); and, to be markers for years. But what does it mean that it should be a sign? Aha? We have a word here that tells us that there is another intent besides just the time cycles of the universe. Those things were put out there to be signs – a sign to communicate a message.

The Signs

The signs are the lights (the luminaries), as you see from the verses which follow. Genesis 1:15-16: "And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day; and, the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also." That's what he's talking about. Those are the luminaries that He has put up there to be signs.

The Judgments of God

It is true that the sign purpose may be viewed as indicating the judgments of God. We have clearly told that God is going to use the luminaries of the skies to indicate messages of judgment upon mankind. For example, Matthew 24:29: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the power of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." So, when the tribulation era arrives, we're told that things are going to happen to the sun, the moon, and the stars that are absolutely spectacular. And everybody's going to see them and know about them.

Visual Aids

So, it is true that God has put these luminaries out there to communicate judgment. But I think it is equally possible, as I think you will see, that God's sign purpose is more than that. His purpose is to send a message – to make a proclamation of spiritual truth via visual aids in the form of the star constellations. We're saying that the constellations of the Zodiac that you can see on such charts, starting with Virgo the virgin, around to Leo the lion – that these constellations have a message. And that's what the Scriptures mean, in part – that these are signs.

It is not unusual for God to use visual aids to communicate spiritual truth. The whole tabernacle system was a system of visual aids. The whole sacrificial system was a system of visual aids. The holy days were a system of visual aids. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that these visual aids were established by God so that the Jewish children, as they grew up, would see these rituals and these visual aids, of one kind or another, before their eyes. And they would say, "Why are you doing that?

The Passover

For example, Exodus 12:21: "Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, 'Draw out, and take you a lamb, according to your families, and kill the Passover. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning." Here was the instituting of the Passover sacrifice and the protection of the blood – the night that the death angel was going to come through Egypt to kill all the first born children, and the cattle, and everything else.

"For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when He sees the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not permit the destroyer to come into your house to smite you. And you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you, and to your sons forever. And it shall come to pass, when you become to the land which the Lord will give you, according as He has promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you: 'What do you mean by this service?' That you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, Who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smoke the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.' And the people bowed the head and worshiped."

So, here you have an explicit example. God says, "I'm giving you a visual aid so that you can later have a basis of discussing this with your children.

You have another example of that in Joshua 4:1-7 that you can read on your own. There is a visual aid so that you have a point of departure for discussing, and thus, to teach your children.

Water Baptism

We in the church age have two visual aids. We have water baptism, which is done after an adult (or a person has grown to a point of rational ability to make choices), and has decided to accept Christ as Savior; and, therefore, by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, has been placed in Christ. Now we portray that placing in Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit with immersing a person in water, and thus demonstrating his being placed in Christ. It's a visual aid.

The Lord's Supper

Tonight we will observe the Lord's Supper, which is another clear visual aid with the bread and the juice of the grape representing the body and the blood of Christ: "And the Lord said that night, "Do this until I come, for in this you do proclaim," and the word there is you "preach" My death. It's a preaching service every time you do the Lord's Supper. It's a visual visually conveying a truth.

So, this is God's way of doing things. So, it should not surprise us that He stuck something up in the sky that he says is telling us a message if you know how to read it. It would not be unusual for Him to do that as a basis of discussion. Certainly, you and I know that every ancient Indian tribe from everywhere has looked up at the sky, and they've seen these constellations of the Zodiac, and they've made up stories about them. And they have discussions about them with their children. These stories have been made up to convey something about the tribe. These are not the true stories that these constellations represent.

The ancient people did not read, of course, the message of man sin; the message of God's holiness; or, the message of God's divine solution for salvation in the star constellations directly. There are some people who understand this principle of what's up there in the zodiac that push it too far. And they try to say that this is what Paul meant – that all are without excuse, because you should have been able to look up there in the sky and start at Virgo, and go around the zodiac, and understand the message of salvation as written in those constellations. But that's not true. What was up there, was indeed placed there specifically by God, but originally the information was given to Adam. God said, "See those stars right there. I want you to imagine that there's a woman there lying on her back with a grain of corn in one hand, and a staff in the other. Do you see it?" And Adam said, "Yeah, I see that." And God said, "So, do you know what that means, Adam?" And God gave an explanation. He went around the next one right, around the Zodiac, finally came to Leo. I hardly have to explain to you what Leo described of the Savior in His royalty and his kingliness. Nor do I probably have to explain to you very much what that virgin was telling about the nature of this coming child, who was going to be the Savior of the world. The ancient people didn't get that information just by looking up there any more than you and I could. So, I think it is pushing it too far to say that everybody has the gospel message if they look up in the sky, and so they are without excuse.

It is because the information of what all that means has been given to us, just like the information of what water baptism means has been given to us, and what the rituals of the Old Testament tabernacle meant have been given to us. That's why we know those things.

So, the constellations are visual aids whose meanings have to be revealed to Adam by God, and then was passed along from generation to generation. Thus, there was the verbal transmission of the divine names given each of the constellations of the zodiac, and its message. Over the centuries, the revealed message of the constellations has been corrupted by national myths, which, however, still reflect traces of the original truth. And as you know, the signs of the zodiac were then taken over by astrology, not astronomy, for fortunetelling. That was a corruption of the original message.

The later-written revelation of the Bible confirms the original meanings of the constellations to the extent that they have been preserved. And through the centuries, there are the preservation of information that tell us about those constellations – the same message that we read later in the Bible about the person of Christ and His work.

The main heavenly signs, as we have indicated, are the 12 constellations of Zodiac, through which the sun appears to travel in the year. And that's what it is on zodiac charts. Now when the sun is up in the sky, in other words, you can look up at the sun. You can't see through the sun, but if you could see through it, right behind it would be that particular constellation of the Zodiac. Then it moves 30 degrees to the next one. And so, around the year. In Job 38:32, God makes a statement to Job, challenging Job, in his arrogance, whether Job really can handle things so that he can make judgments about what God is doing. That old story, you know. So, God describes a little bit of what he's capable of doing. So, he's making Job look silly by asking him this question.

In Job 38:32, God says, "Can you bring forth the Mazzaroth in his season? Or can you guide Arcturus with his sons (his satellite moons). Arcturus is one of the constellations. This word "Mazzaroth" is used only here in the Old Testament Scriptures. . . . What does "Mazzaroth" mean? It means the signs of the zodiac. That is very interesting. What in the world is God asking Job about? "Job, can you bring forth the constellations in their season? That is, each month? Can you bring up the constellation that's supposed to be for this month, and this month, and this month, in the signs of the zodiac?" This refers to those 12 basic constellations that are named in the zodiac that you have on zodiac charts. God is asking Job if he understands the laws of heaven, by which God holds the star constellations together, and by which He governs their movement (the apparent movement of the sun) through the zodiac cycle each year. From the earth, it appears that the sun each month is moving in front of a different constellation of the zodiac.

This word "zodiac" that we have in English comes from the Greek word "zodiakos." What does "zodiakos" mean? It means "a way" or "a step." And you can see what we're talking about – a step from one constellation in the Zodiac to the other. It is a way – a circuit around the signs of the zodiac. On zodiac charts, it's called the "ecliptic." That's the apparent path of the sun. That's called the ecliptic, as the sun appears to move through the steps on its way around the 12 main constellations. Each constellation is a circle that occupies 30 degrees on the sun's path as it moves from segment to segment.

The word "Mazzaroth" also includes three smaller constellations. As we will show you, for every main constellation, which has a basic message, that message is expanded, of all things, by three constellations that surrounds that main one. Those are called decans, which is an Arabic word. It means "part." So, God says, "Job, can you move the sun through the signs of the zodiac?" There, He's also talking about these associated smaller constellations that expand the basic message of the main constellation.

The original meanings from God of each constellation cannot be arrived at from the arrangement of the stars in the constellation. The images were created by God, and they were assigned to the constellations to tell the story of salvation through a coming mighty man. It is from the Bible that we receive much more detailed information on the meaning of these constellations of God's work and salvation.

People, however, before coming to Jesus Christ, were saved with received considerably less detail than we are saved with today. Abraham was saved by believing that God was going to send a Savior. We know a great deal more about that Savior in God's plan, on the basis of our redemption. So, people had indeed limited information. So, the zodiac, with a true explanation of God's meaning of His star signs, provides limited information, but enough for us to understand the plan of salvation, and how to be saved.

So, any father could sit down and start with Virgo, and explain that there was the virgin. The Hebrews call it "bethulah." All over the world, from ancient times, as far back as 4000 B.C., the signs of the zodiac are known. And guess what? They always have the same name. In a particular language, the first one is always a virgin. Whatever the word is in that language for "virgin," that's what it's called, because that's the start of the story of the salvation program. Some of the ancient ziggurats (these towers that the Babylonians had for studying the stars) have the signs of the zodiac, and they indicate where to begin by putting a sphinx between Virgo the virgin and Leo the lion; meaning that you start with the virgin, and you end up with the royalty of the lion. And the Sphinx has the head of a woman, and the body of a lion. And that is inserted on these monuments to tell you, by the way she's facing, how you begin the story. There was a time in the ancient world when the story was transmitted from God to Adam, and passed on to the children, and they knew what those signs meant as they went around them. They knew what the story was that they were describing. The heavens declare the glory of God. Next time we shall continue with that glory.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1988

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