Grace Bible Church
Tree of Life
A Weekly Review
Week ending 051913
The Gosple of Jesus Christ is written in the Stars. Psalm 19.
The Star of the universe is the Lord Jesus Christ. When we look up into the Heavens we see a glimpse of His glory. The sun by day…and the stars by night. And the message that is inscribed there is His story.
The vastness of the universe is truly awesome in fact mind boggling.
In 1977 we launched these two spacecraft: Voyager 1 and 2 they are departing the Solar System in opposite directions at a speed of about 39,000 miles per hour. They are traveling towards the edge of our little galaxy the milky way. In the next few years the two spacecraft will cross an area known as the termination shock zone where solar winds decrease to around 250,000 miles per hour. After that they will continue on to cross the theoretical boundary of our Solar System. This is where our sun no longer can by seen and has no influence. By 2020 they will be about 14 billion miles from the Sun.
Eventually, the Voyagers will pass other stars: In 23,000 years Voyager 1 will be within 9.3 trillion miles of a star known as AC+79-3888. Voyager 2, in 296,000 years, will be within 25 trillion miles of Sirius, the brightest star in our sky. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 will continue through our Milky Way galaxy in opposite directions and at that speed of 39,000 miles per hour and will pretty much never get out of the milky way, eventually they will probably crash into something.
They have been traveling for 36 years at 39,000 miles per hour and they are just reaching the end of our little part of the solar system, not the galaxy! The universe is indeed vast. The star of that universe is the Lord Jesus Christ. The stars that tell the story of His Glory are out in that vastness and they were arranged by the Lord. When the Lord Jesus Christ created the heavens, the stars were set into an preset order that would provide us of not only a glimpse of His glory, but the story of man’s redemption.
The stars were put there to tell a story in fact the greatest story that would ever be told, an epic indeed. And since the fall of man in the garden, man has been born with a craving…a desire to know that story. Indeed this is also a part of God’s grace. He is always reaching out to man. His love towards man has never changed, He desires that none perish has never changed.
ECC 3:11, God has planted the longing for eternity [the story of salvation] in man.
There is a Christ shaped void and therefore only Christ can fill it. That’s why Satan has so many things to offer to man to fill the void, but only Christ will truly fill it completely. Satan has done his best to corrupt that story in fact it has been hidden from us because he is the villain in the story who hates us and wants to destroy us. Wants to limit the role that we will accept in that story.
The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring The work of His hands. Day to day they pour forth speech, And night to night it reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. The Heavens, the constellations spell out the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. And that is what David is referring to in this Psalm.
The most important story ever told… the Gospel message was and is told by the stars written in the Heavens in plain sight and nothing man nor Satan could do could or would ever take it away. There are twelve chapters in the Star Gospel.
The number 12 represents God’s perfect and ultimate authority. The background for the Star Gospel is the fall of Satan, his sentence to the Lake of Fire, and Satan’s appeal of the sentence. God granted him an appeal trial. Witnesses were needed for the trial, and man was created to resolve the pre-historic angelic conflict. When man fell, the Lord promised a Savior to redeem fallen mankind to pay for the sins of the world.
So it should come as no surprise that Satan, from earliest times, has set out to obscure and deny the witness that is the Gospel told by the stars. Satan knew that man would see the stars you can’t hide them. And the message would be passed down through time using these memory aids. Satan knew he had to offer an alternate story…a counterfeit of the true heavenly message.
So Satan offered astrology to replace the true meaning of the stars which is the salvation message and by this seemingly harmless little distraction has led many away from the truth throughout the ages. There are many who view astrology as seemingly harmless entertainment…that’s because they have become lazy and numb and ignorant to the ways of the enemy. For it has a very real evil side.
DEU 4:19, And when you look up into the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars-all the forces of heaven—don’t be seduced into worshiping them.
The star Gospel may have been a reminder to the angels as well, but that is a part of the AC that we don’t know. With the fall of man there was now certainly a need for man’s redemption. Jesus Christ has a covenant a connection with man from the very beginning and it is as close now as it was then. Adam and the woman are no more important to the Lord Jesus Christ than you or I are. We belong to the same fraternity.
GEN 3:8, They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…
This was right after the fall. This is Jehovah Elohim the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ch 1 of Genesis the word for GOD is Elohem the plural for the Godhead. In Ch 2 beginning with the first interaction with His creation…man, Moses who wrote Genesis makes a definite change (GEN 2:4) to the member of the Godhead the Lord Jesus Christ. In the phrase the LORD GOD the word LORD is Jehovah. That name in the Hebrew for Lord looks like this: יהוה
So the Lord in the phrase LORD GOD is referred to as יהוה from R to L In the English it would be YHWH: This is where we get YaHWeH, this form of His name is the most frequently used in the old testament (about 6,800 times). And it looks like that in the Hebrew text. These four Hebrew characters, YHWH = yod, hay, vav and hay are called the Sacred Tetragrammaton. YHWH is translated as LORD in all of the Bible translations.
So what does the Sacred Tetragrammaton YHWH mean?
Yod = Hand
Hey = behold or reveal
Vav = nail, nailed or bound to something.
Hey = behold or reveal
When read in English from left to right, it says:
BEHOLD THE NAIL, BEHOLD THE HAND!
Or, BEHOLD THE NAILED HAND.
Think about that for a second: The burning bush said to Moses this is My name: “Behold the nail, Behold the hand.” Over 6800 times in the OT this is the name of God. The O.T. saints knew it.
Many Jews who have converted to Christianity, believed upon the Jesus Christ as Lord…many have done so because of this very thing. In fact it is bazare to think that all the Jews believed in the Messiah, until He actually came. Then many said nah that cant be. But here is a key thing don’t you think? believed
GEN 3:6-7, she took from the tree of knowledge of good and evil its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together.
GEN 3:9, The Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “why are you where you are.
And Adam said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself. Adam, why are you where you are?\
The Lord went looking for the man, just as it has been ever since, the Lord is still calling out to those who are hiding from Him. Whether unbelievers who have yet to believe or unbelievers who have gone astray the question is the same.
WHY ARE U WHERE U ARE,
Why you have let the same villain deceive you. The answer to the problem, well. The unbeliever must believe and the unbeliever must stay in fellowship. In GEN 3:10 the blame game begins.
The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, well….she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Operation blame game begins and this is something man would master for sure. And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Interesting that now she knew deception was involved.
GEN 3:15 I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed;
Here is the first mentioned principle of the angelic.
“He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
And here is the first mentioned principle of the Gospel of Salvation. It is interesting at this point to follow the thought pattern of the man and the woman, they recognise that they were involved with evil. They realize they were naked, and as far as they could tell this was no longer good, because they immediately tried to do something about it. Every day Jesus Christ came in the garden and they had conversation with Him; they learned from Him. Now they are spiritually dead and they can’t even think about Him. But they still have their souls and they can think about each other, and that is exactly what they did. This is the same as those today who propose the same.
Thinking that man can become godlike, where man can solve man’s problem without God…when man’s problem is being without God.
The man and woman in the Garden believe now that they must solve their problems. Man still tries to solve man’s problems by his own ingenuity to this day, and he still fails. This is where globalism comes from. It would be manifested again and again and again and again, the next time we would see it would be with Nimrod and the tower of Babel. Here is an attempt to solve a problem by something man could do [legalism] rather than by something that God does [grace]. Grace and legalism are always antithetical they are always opposite in nature.
Adam did not know fear of any kind…until he sinned. There is a very definite correlation between sin and the resulting fear. Fear will always exist in the human race until one is properly re-related or reconciled to God through regeneration. In fact…
The place where you truly stop being afraid is not being fearless regarding the details of life…but it is when you are no longer afraid of death. Then you truly stop being afraid.
Satan was smart, he was already thinking about his next move. Little did he realize that the very plan for redemption of man was right above him, written in the stars. So in GEN 3:15 we see the first Biblical declaration of the gospel.
“I will put enmity (the state of being an enemy) between you [Satan] and the woman.”
“and between your seed and her seed” – your seed refers to every person coming into the human race and the old sin nature; her seed refers of course to Jesus Christ in His Hypostatic-union. Another first mentioned principle: All members of the human race, because of Adam’s sin are born with a fallen sin nature. The fact that we sin after that does not worsen our condition as far as the relationship with God and the OSN is concerned.
When we believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour we now have a new nature, the OSN is still there…thus a new internal battle now takes place until the day we die and go home to be with Him minus the OSN. So the solution to the problem is to have a new nature that will replace the OSN. And that happens through regeneration, by believing in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ. The old sin nature is passed down through the male. So the solution is that if a virgin can become pregnant and not have a male involved in that act of procreation then the result will be a person who comes into the world without the old sin nature. Which of course was to come with the hypostatic union of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So Adam brought the entire human race into sin—ROM 5:12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
He [the Lord Jesus Christ] shall bruise your head – the word bruise is the Hebrew word which means to crush. Jesus Christ would crush the head of Satan when Satan is imprisoned for 1000 years. Ultimately in REV 20:10 he is thrown into the lake of fire.
and you [Satan] shall bruise [crush] His heel”
This is the Cross.
“you shall bruise his heel” was fulfilled—1 Pe 2:24; 2 Co 5:21.
1 Pe 2:24, and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Among many other verses as well. So God, the Lord Jesus Christ must become a member of the human race.
GEN 3:20– the salvation testimony. Adam called his wife Eve, which means giver of life. Because Adam had believed upon the seed of the woman as his saviour. The seed of the woman is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the giver of life. Adam and Satan both understood the message adam accepted Satan didn’t.
Because the giver of life would come into the world and die spiritually for Adam and those after him, Adam believed on Him and therefore called his wife Giver-of-life because the saviour would come through a woman.
Adam didn’t know how long it would take but he believed it would happen. After all it was the Lord who just told him…
The seed of the woman emphasises the virgin birth.
So man and woman were kicked out of the Garden, verses 22-24. Man, after he had sinned could not go to the tree of life. If man had eaten of the tree of life in his sinful state he would have been perpetuated forever in a sinful state and could not have been saved. He would have lived forever in the state of spiritual death. There would be no salvation issue at all.
So the tree of life became a tree of death (eternal life without God) and man would now believe upon a yet to come tree of death (the Cross) to give them eternal life. So the tree of life had to be put out of man’s reach… and the tree of death had to be brought into man’s reach so that man could, through his free will volition, believe on work that would be done on the Cross for eternal life. Adam had already made his choice but his children and theirs and so on would have to make their own choice as well. You see it was God’s grace that took Man out of the garden. I think we can all note times in our life when God took us out of a place or a situation or a relationship, and in the long run we see it was for our own good through His grace.
So after the fall man and woman were reconciled to God and He continued to teach them. Satan looked at all this with great interest and disdain. One of the things that the Lord Jesus Christ taught Adam and that Adam taught Cain and Able although Cain rejected it was the Gospel message. And Adam taught Seth and Seth taught to his son and on it went. After the fall the star Gospel is how God would continuously call out to mankind as a sign, a path to follow that would reconcile them to God as well. So powerful is the witness of the stars to bring a person to God and to Salvation that Satan has attacked it constantly. To attack it Satan invented Astrology, and it is Satan’s counterfeit for life guidance. Satan’s counterfeits are always self-oriented.
His message through astrology is that you have this internal clock, which began with the star and planets alignment at your birth, and so they govern or guide your life. Satan makes it sounds sexy and complex and people study it in fact convince many not to make a move without first knowing what the stars say. Satan says that if you apply this astrological information properly, you can do life on your own, you don’t need God. You don’t need to be accountable to God. You can do it by honoring Satan. Not needing God…not needing to have access to all of His Knowledge and Power not needing to follow His commands… well that’s been Satan’s tactic since Eden.
So The 12 main chapters of the Star Gospel are told by these constellations or groups of stars: Here’s a quick look:
The Virgin Maiden (Virgo). The constellation, Virgo, was given to represent God’s promise in Genesis 3:15.
It was in Eden that God spoke to Satan: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.
ISA 7:14: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name, Immanuel.”
The picture of Virgo is that of a woman with a shock of wheat in her left hand and a branch in her right hand.
The brightest star in the constellation is called Spica, a Latin word meaning “the branch.” There are three smaller constellations or decans to each major constellation, The three (divinity) for Virgo are:
Coma: The word Coma means “the desired,” and represents the desired one, the desire of all nations the Messiah.
Boötes: Boötes means, “the Coming One.” Another name for the Constellation was taken from a star in the left knee of the Shepherd. It was called Arcturus, which also means, He that will come.
Centaurus
The name Centaurus means two natures. The Seed of the woman was “virgin born,” he was not of the seed of man. His two natures pure humanity and pure deity. He is God in human flesh and, therefore, can rightly be called Immanuel, which means God with us. Virgo and her attending constellations represent the beginning of an epic story to rescue the human race.
The Scales (Libra). The next major constellation is Libra. Libra was depicted as a set of scales. Libra represented the condition of the human race after the fall of Adam. The sign of Libra has been associated with justice and order throughout the centuries. The Balance or Scales represents the price owed for sin and the price being paid by the suffering of Jesus Christ in his role as Redeemer (ISA 41:14; ISA 48:17).
This was the message given to Belshazzar, king of Babylon. In Daniel 5:27, Belshazzar failed to satisfy the righteous demands of God: “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.” We are all guilty before the great Judge.
There are two main stars in the sign of Libra, which tell the story of the prophecy. In one side of the scales, there is a star called Zuben Al Genubi. It’s a mixture of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic (a whole other study of the origins of language). This name means the “the price which is deficient.” it points to the price which man attempts to pay for redemption with works its always lacking. the price is deficient.
On the other side of the scales, however, there is a star called Zuben Al Chemali, meaning “the price which covers.” It is a picture of the price paid by Christ for the redemption of the sinner.
The constellation, Libra, is attended by three smaller constelalltions which help to tell the story of the price of redemption. One of them is named the Crux -The Southern Cross. Here is the stars Acrux and Gucrux.
a group of stars in the form of the Southern Cross. It lies below the southern horizon. The south always represented hell, and the north represented heaven.
This constellation represents the role of Christ as the Redeemer, who paid for our sins with his suffering, and who literally bought us with His blood. BY the way Libra surrounds the southern Cross on three of it’s sides (the # of divinity).
The Scorpion (Scorpius). This killer is shown stinging the heel of the One who is in turn is crushing the scorpion’s head. This is the great promise given to Eve that her seed would crush the serpent’s head, even though it would bruise his heel (GEN 3:15). Her descendant Jesus Christ would overcome death, hell and Satan, even though he would be crucified by the forces of evil. The Scorpion is the symbol of the evil which attacks the people of God. One of the decans of the Scorpion is the Serpent, which clearly represents the same concept.
The rest of the star-story shows the mighty man (or strong man) restraining Serpens the Serpent from reaching Corona the Crown, and at the same time bringing his heel down on Satan. Antares is the brightest star in the constellation and means “the one who is Against the Lamb”.
The Archer (Sagittarius). The archer is a centaur which represents the dual nature of Christ, being God and man. It is shown shooting the scorpion, overcoming the adversary.
Capricornus. Is a goat with the tail of a fish. This strange monstrosity presents a magnificent message when we understand that the goat represents the sacrificial animal used on the Day of Atonement and the fish represents that body of believers who have received life out of the death of the great sacrifice.
There are two stars in the head of the goat that tell the story. Daneb Algedi, which means “the sacrifice comes,” and Dabih, which means “the sacrifice is slain.” From the dying goat comes a living fish. From the spirtitual death of the Son of God comes the Church age for those who believe and get off the bench and join the battle.
Next is Aquarius The Water Bearer (Aquarius). Here is a man pouring out an entire stream of water from a small jar onto the head of the Southern Fish. This represents Christ pouring out blessings and revelations onto his Church. The Lord spoke through Isaiah “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; and I will pour my Spirit upon your seed and my blessing on your offspring…”
Here the star Gospel is depicting the God-Man, Jesus Christ, pouring out His Spirit in the form of blessings and Bible doctrine so that those who believe on Him (represented by the Fish) might live in the spiritual sense. The small constellation that is the fish is dominated by the star Fomalhaut which is Arabic for the “Mouth of the Fish”.
The Fishes (Pisces). There are two fish tied by their tails. The fish represents Christians, being in bondage to death and hell. Yet their free will, will decide their ultimate fate. This is a representation of the priest Jesus Christ interceding on our behalf, and yet we must make the choice through own free will.
The Ram (Aries). Represents the sacrifice.
The Bull (Taurus). The white Bull is a mighty animal, being an extinct type of wild ox. It is used in the book of Enoch to symbolize the Kingdom of God in the Millennial reign. The Hebrew word for bull or ox is “shur” which also means “to return” or “to come back”. The brightest star is Aldebaran which means “the on who follows”. One distinct star group in Taurus is the Pleiades. Pleiades comes from the Hebrew for “gathering the great”. The word for “bull” is also the word for “return,” and this is another important part of the story.
The Twins (Gemini). The Hebrew name for this constellation means “Joined Together”. The two brightest stars are the twins Castor and Pollux. The star in the left foot of one figure bears the name “Al Henah” which means “wounded” or “bruised.” The star in the right knee of the other figure and bears the name Mebsuta” which means “ to trample underfoot. Another star is called “Waset” which means “appointed”.
The twins show the human and divine nature of Christ. They also tell the story of the hero of the First Coming and the Second Coming are the same person.
The Crab (Cancer). The crab represents the Savior tenaciously holding onto his flock after having purchased them, so that no one can pluck them from his hand. This symbolism may be very important in the choice of the Crab. It is an animal which can descend into the sea and come back out onto the dry land with its treasure securely held in its strong claws. This represents the descent of Christ into the Hell, proclaiming the gospel. It represents His grasp is such that no one can “pluck those wha are His from His hold.
The Lion (Leo). The king of beasts is chasing its prey of the Fleeing Serpent (Hydra), representing the final and the ultimate victory of good over evil at the end of the Millennium. Of course Christ comes from the tribe of Judah,
PSA 147:4, He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. God revealed the stars and their message to man from the beginning.
GEN 1:14, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years”.
When you think about it is any wonder that God would do it like that in such spectacular style?
Why wouldn’t God write the story of redemption the theme of the entire universe in a place the whole world could see? A place where everyone could believe or doubt, free will…Wouldn’t He put that story everywhere in our lives? Even the names of the first ten patriarchs tell the story.
The Bible is a message system: It’s not simply 66 random books penned by 40 random authors over thousands of random years. There is in the OT in particular messages within the messages, the letters the numbers.
in Gen Ch 5, where we have the genealogy of Adam through Noah.
This is not simply a genealogy from Adam to Noah. Not at all.
The stars contained the story, the names contained the story.
From Adam to Noah, the first ten Patriachs. 10 of course is the number for perfection, in fact perfect completion.
Adam’s name means man, probably needs no more to be said. As the first man made from the earth, that seems straight forward enough. Cain murdered Abel and then about 135 years later Eve gave birth to Seth. Adam lived for 937 years. So Adam’s son was named:
Seth, which means he who is appointed. Eve said, “For God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”
Enosh: Seth’s son was named /Enosh, which means mortal, frail, or in a miserable state.\
It is from the root word anash, meaning to be grief, sickness, or wickedness. It was in the days of Enosh men began to defile the name of the Living God. Enosh lived 905 years,
Kenan: Enosh had a son named Kenan, which means sorrow. Kenan lived 910 years
Kenan’s son was Mahalalel, which means blessed or to be praised; El is a name used for God. Rememebr el Shaddai. Often Hebrew names include El, the name of God, as Dan-i-el, “God is my Judge”
Mahalalel means the Blessed God is with us.
Jared: Mahalalel’s son was named Jared, from the Hebrew verb yaradh, meaning shall come down.
Jared means shall come down, shall arrive from above. Jared’s son was named /Enoch, which means teaching or preaching. He was the first of four generations of preachers. Interesting that perhaps the earliest recorded prophecy was accredited to Enoch, in the book of Enoch which amazingly enough deals with the Second Coming of Christ. And is much aligned with Revelation. Why it is not in the cannon is a subject for another day.
So, although the book of Enoch is not in the cannon, the book of Jude which is references the book of Enoch also,
Jud 14-15, Enoch the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against.
Methuselah: Enoch was the father of Methuselah, the name Methuselah comes from muth, which we have seen before, it is a root word that means death; and from shalach, which means to bring, or to send forth. The name Methuselah means, his death shall bring. So apparently Enoch was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld. But as soon as he died, the flood would be sent forth. And, the year that Methuselah died, the flood came.
Methuselah’s life was a symbol of God’s mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the flood.
So it is fitting that his lifetime is the longest in the Bible. This speaks to us regarding the extent that God goes to show His mercy.
Enoch, of course, never died: he was taken without death That’s how Methuselah can be the oldest man in the Bible 969 years, yet he died before his father! For the jeopardy category of Biblical characters for 1200….
Lamech: Methuselah’s son was named Lamech, where the word lamentations comes from.
Lamech suggests those who are despairing, depressed, humiliated.
Lamech, is the father of Noah, grandfather of Shem Ham and Japheth
Noah is derived from nuach, which means to bring relief or to comfort. Lamech himself explains the name of Noah, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed.”
Rather remarkable: The first ten patriarchs names means: Man is appointed mortal sorrow; but the Blessed God shall come down teaching that His death shall bring the despairing rest. Here is the Gospel hidden within a genealogy list in Genesis! From the earliest chapters of the Book of Genesis, God had already laid out His plan of redemption for the predicament that the original man and woman put the rest or the follow on of mankind in.
It is truly a love story, an epic love story, written in blood on a wooden cross which was erected in Judea more than 2,000 years ago. Our God is an awesome God indeed.