"God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion . . " (NCV)
Have you ever checked your horoscope? Most of us, at one time or another, whether in "fun" or when we were too naive to know better, bought into the idea that the stars could guide our lives. However, there is truth in the stars, perhaps more than we ever realized.
In this passage of Amos, there are the names of two star constellations, Pleiades and Orion. (Constellations are groupings of stars that make a particular shape or form in the sky).
The Lord could have positioned the stars in any manner He chose. Their relationship to earth could have been ever changing, even random. But God positioned the stars in such a way that their relationships to each other, in a three-dimensional manner, presented such obvious shapes and forms (constellations) that mankind was able to both identify and name them. Joseph Seiss, in his book The Gospel in the Stars written in 1882, proposed that these star positions, known as constellations, were specifically created by God as signs: "these astronomic figures, in their original integrity and meaning, are from God." He continues in his premise that the constellations which comprise the Zodiac, rather than being signs of pagan religions, actually tell the story of the Lord Jesus, tell the story of salvation.
The star group, Pleiades, according to Seiss, is a grouping of seven stars often known as the Doves and is associated with Noah and the Great Flood. In other words, Pleiades is associated with judgment and salvation from judgment.
Orion is a constellation which depicts a great hunter. In his hand is the head of a lion, and the handle of his sword is the head of a lamb. This constellation is the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, both the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5) and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).
Amos wrote: "God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion." These two constellations weren’t named at random, simply to prove that God made the stars. These two constellations specifically symbolize judgment and salvation. It’s particularly interesting that Amos mentioned Pleiades which is associated with the "ultimate" judgment, the complete destruction of the world (by a great flood). Amos had been prophesying about the evils embraced by God’s people. And now he reminded the Israelites that God had already—in the history of mankind—brought about a cataclysmic judgment through the Great Flood. Amos also spoke of Orion, foretelling the Great Salvation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Great Judgment and Great Salvation.
Our God is so good! He never warns us about our sin but that He provides a way for us to escape judgment through His never-ending mercy.
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).
Here with the comparison of Pleiades and Orion, the Lord is again reminding us that while He is a just God and will bring about judgment for sin, His love is ever yearning toward us. These reminders light the sky above us at night. In those hours of darkness, when our lives seem to be most illuminated to our souls, we can look up and know that our God has provided a wonderful salvation for us through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the promise that is in the stars can also be within our hearts.
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment