Good Heavens! Stars are Signs in the Sky

Good Heavens! Stars are Signs in the Sky.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,’ and God made the expanse and called it Sky, or the Heavens… And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.’ And God made the two great lights and the stars.” (Genesis 1:1,6,14).

DEFINING OUR TERMS:

Firmament = Latin, for vast expanse or sky; expanse of the heavens above the earth; the expansive atmosphere.

Celestial = Greek, “epouranis;” above the sky; heavenly; belonging to heaven; the world beyond our ability to perceive; contrasted with terrestrial (of the land); in Bible often pertains to spiritual heaven as a divine place above the sky, and the resurrection.

Cosmos = Greek, “kosmos;” all of creation; a well-ordered whole; the harmonious universe; the inherent ordered arrangement of the world; humanity, all the people on earth.

Star = Greek, “aster;” a giant, beautiful, glowing ball of hot gas in space; composed of 90% hydrogen and 10% helium; powered by nuclear fusion as it produces light and heat energy, causing it to shine in the night sky.

Planet = Greek, means “wandering star;” a natural object that has a motion of its own, orbiting a star; is massive enough for its gravity to force it into a spherical shape; composed of rock or metal with solid surface (if nearer to the sun), or hydrogen and helium gas (if further away from the sun).

Galaxy = a huge, organized grouping of stars.

Galaxy Groups = a large collection of galaxies.

Galaxy Clusters = thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity.

Super Clusters = large grouping of galaxy clusters.

Galaxy Filaments = huge ‘walls’ of galaxy super clusters.

Constellation = a group of stars that form a pattern or design in the night sky, making an imaginary shape or design; they are usually named after mythological characters, animals, or objects that they resemble; there are 88 officially recognized constellations.

Light-Year = This is a unit of length, not of time; it is a way of measuring the distance between objects in space; it is based on how far it takes light to travel in one year; light travels at 186,000 miles per second; one light year is about 6 trillion miles. So to determine the distance across the Milky Way galaxy, for example, we would have to multiply 6 trillion miles times 100,000 light-years. Practically countless.

“Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God, for He is gracious and lovely; praise is becoming and appropriate… He determines and counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names. Great is the Lord, and of great power; His understanding is inexhaustible and boundless.” (Psalm 147:1, 4, 5).

BY THE NUMBERS:

Size of the Universe = Impossible to determine the actual size; it may be an infinite size, or “maybe finite but unbounded;” the universe is flat and constantly expanding at a very fast rate; the observable universe is about 94 billion light-years in diameter; the most distant objects in universe are 47 billion light-years away; it is estimated that the universe is 250 times larger than the observable universe, or 7 trillion light-years across.

Number of Galaxies = in observable universe, there are between 200 billion to 2 trillion galaxies.

Number of Stars = in observable universe, there is an average of 100 million stars in each galaxy; many galaxies have billions of stars; the largest known galaxy has 100 trillion stars; astronomers suggest there are more stars in the observable universe than there are grains of beach sand on the Earth.

Number of Planets = For every one of the billions of stars in the observable universe, there are many planets; the number of planets are thus literally uncountable.

Earth’s Galaxy = The Milky Way, which has between 100-400 billion stars; it is 100,000 light-years across; it appears there is only one sun in the Milky Way, sitting exactly in the middle of our solar system; our sun is a star that has eight planets orbiting around it. Our closest galaxy neighbor is the Andromeda galaxy, which has 1 trillion stars.

“Lift up your eyes on high, and see! Who created these? He who brings out their host by number and calls them all by name; through the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power, not one is missing or lacks anything.” (Isaiah 40:26).

Stars are ‘Signs’ – Hebrew word, “oth”; there are many ways to understand how stars were created to be signs in the sky (Genesis 1:14), used by God to communicate with people on earth:

1. On the Star-Sign as a Visual Aid: “And the Lord brought Abram outside his tent into the starlight and said, ‘Look now toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to number them!’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And Abram trusted in Yahweh, and He counted it to Abram as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:5, 6); “And the Lord said to Abraham, ‘I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the seashore.” (Gen. 22:17).
2. On the Star-Sign as a Proof of God’s Existence: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For, ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly perceived in and through the things that have been made – His handiworks. So they are without excuse – altogether without any defense or justification.” (Romans 1:19-20).
3. On the Star-Sign as Evidence of God’s Glory; “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His skillful handiwork. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor spoken word from the stars; their voice is not heard. Yet their voice in evidence goes out to all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4).
4. On the Star-Sign as an Indication of God’s Righteousness and Justice: “The Lord is King, let the earth rejoice! The heavens display His order and proclaim His perfect justice, and all the peoples see His magnificent glory. Yes, the heavens announce that He will set everything right.” (Psalm 97:1,6).
5. On the Star-Sign as a Revelation of God’s Preference for Beauty: “And God saw that it was (‘towb’) good, beautiful, excellent, exactly the way I wanted it!” (Genesis 1 and 2).
6. On the Star-Sign as a Symbol of Goodness: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”(Matthew 13:43); “Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.” (Daniel 12:3).
7. On the Star-Sign as a Symbol of Kingship: “I see him, but not here and now. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.” (Numbers 24:17).
8. On the Star-Sign as a Symbol of Mother Mary: “Then I witnessed in heaven a sign of great significance. I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.” (Revelations 12:1).
9. On the Star-Sign as Useful Guidance: Sailors read the stars for navigation; the Star of Bethlehem: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men, who were astrologers, came from the East to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East at its rising and have come to worship Him.” (Matthew 2:1-12).
10. On the Star-Sign as a Reference to Future Events: “And the disciples asked Jesus, ‘Teacher, when will this happen, and what sign will there be when this is about to occur?’… ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth the nations will feel powerless and terrified in the face of a roaring flood of fear and foreboding, crashing like tidal waves upon them. For the very powers of the heavens will be shaken and caused to totter. The cosmic order will be destabilized.” (Luke 21:7, 25-26). “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; and the sun will be darkened at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.” (Isaiah 12:10).

“He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers – all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17, the New Jerusalem Bible).