Lessons from the expanse of the heavens part 3 – The Planets and Stars
In part 1 and 2 we considered the moon and the sun. In part 3 we will look at planets and stars.
The Planets
When we look up into the expanse of the heavens we can see the sun, we can see the moon. We can also see numerous white dots which we know are the stars. But amongst those dots there are some which are brighter than others. These are the planets in our solar system.
In the modern age we rely on our telescopes to see what the planets looked like. Back in the Old Testament times, mankind had to rely on their eyes with no other mechanical help to see the planets.
Does the Bible talk about planets besides earth? Yes, it does. It doesn’t specifically use their modern names of Venus and Saturn but we can make the connection from the older names used.
Amos chapter 5 and verse 26 has these words:
You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves,
Amos was condemning the Israelites for worshipping these idols which seem to have come from Mesopotamia. The names of these idols are associated with the planet Saturn which was worshipped by other nations. So Amos was saying don’t worship them – they are idols.
Stephen also mentions Saturn in his speech in Acts chapter 7 and verse 43:
You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
Rephan is a star they worshipped. Rephan is the Coptic name for the planet Saturn. It is called Kiyyun or Chium in Amos 5 and verse 26. The verse we just read.
It wouldn’t have been referred to as the “star” Rephan because the general people would have had no understanding of what a planet was and how it was different to a star.
The stars and planets were worshipped as gods of influence watching over the affairs of mankind. A pagan temple dating to the middle of 15th century BC was built on the outskirts of Jerusalem and was dedicated to the worship of Saturn. So Stephen in his speech was condemning the abominable worship of the pagan gods of the gentiles.
The worship of the sun and moon and other objects like the stars and the planets was also done in the time of Moses and laws had to be created to stop it happening.
Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verses 2 to 5 has these words:
“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones.
If the Israelites worshipped the sun or the moon or stars or planets of the heavens they would be stoned to death.
In summary then, the planet Saturn is mentioned in the Bible but as an idol which the Israelites should stop worshipping. The other planet mentioned in the Bible is Venus. We will come back to this planet in a few moments.
The Stars
We have briefly considered planets, let’s now consider stars in the Bible.
Stars were mentioned in the promises to Abraham in Genesis 22: 16-17:
“By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
If you look closely at the words of this promise it is inferring that the number of stars in heaven is similar to the number of grains of sand on the seashore. The promise is suggesting that they are similar quantities.
Now back in those times and for thousands of years since then, some people would have had a problem with these words. They would have looked at the sand grains on the beach with its millions and millions of individual grains……and then compared it to the stars they could see at night time from outside their house……and would have said yes, there are a lot of stars in the sky, maybe one or two thousand, but certainly nowhere near the many grains of sand on the beach. They may have said that the number of stars of heaven don’t really compare to the huge number of grain on sand on a beach. They would then say these verses are not really correct when they compare the stars of haven with the sand on the beach.
But with modern telescopes of the past 30 years like the Hubble Telescope we can look deep into space to see galaxies….
And even deeper into space to see even more galaxies….
And even more galaxies….
Scientists now estimate there are two trillion galaxies. If we take just one of those galaxies, the Milky Way galaxy it has 100 thousand million stars. That is just one galaxy. But there are two trillion galaxies.
This is what the European Space Agency said about the number of stars and galaxies in the Universe:
It has been said that counting the stars in the Universe is like trying to count the number of sand grains on a beach on Earth. We might do that by measuring the surface area of the beach, and determining the average depth of the sand layer. If we count the number of grains in a small representative volume of sand, by multiplication we can estimate the number of grains on the whole beach. For the Universe, the galaxies are our small representative volumes, and there are something like 10 to power of 11 to 10 to power of 12 stars in our Galaxy, and there are perhaps something like 10 to power of 11 or 10 to power of 12 galaxies. With this simple calculation you get something like 10 to power of 22 to 10 to power of 24 stars in the Universe. This is only a rough number, as obviously not all galaxies are the same, just like on a beach the depth of sand will not be the same in different places.
10 to the power of 24 translates to this many stars in the universe:
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars
Think of our sun and then multiply that times 10 to the power of 24. It is a staggering number of galaxies and stars, it just shows the incomprehensible power of our Heavenly Father. It shows how small we are in the overall picture. King David makes that point in one of the Psalms.
So when the promise is made to Abraham where the sand on the beach is compared to the stars of heaven – however unlikely it may have seemed at one time, the Genesis record had the right comparison after all. The number of grains on sand on the beach is similar to the number of stars in heaven.
The Morning Star
The Bible speaks about a morning star and also sometimes in plural…..morning stars. A number of morning stars.
Jesus refers to himself as the morning star. We can read that in Revelation chapter 22 and verse 6:
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
In this verse, Jesus is saying he is the morning star. As the name suggests the “morning star” is seen shining in the heavens at the dawn of a new day. It therefore announces a new beginning. The “Morning star” is actually not really a star, it is actually a planet. It is the planet Venus.
After the moon, it is the second brightest object in the night sky. It is therefore the brightest planet in the sky. This is because it’s relatively close to us compared with the other planets. It also the brightest because its cloud-tops reflect most of the sunlight it receives.
Venus lies between our earth and the sun, and that is why it never crosses our sky in the night. It can be seen only in the early evening in the west, or in the morning shortly before the sunrise in the east. So Venus is both an evening star, the first star to be seen at sunset, and also the brightest of the morning stars. Some say it is the most beautiful of the heavenly bodies as it shines out beautifully as the darkness if night is passing away, and the first light of dawn can be seen. Therefore, the morning star announces the start of a new day. In the same way, the appearance of Christ as the morning star in the future will herald the dawn of a new era.
I am not an early riser but the rare times I have risen to see the sun rise I haven’t regretted it, as it really is a beautiful time to see a brand new day beginning. On a much greater scale, Christ will come at the dawn of a whole new era. A truly beautiful and exciting time that will be full of so many possibilities. It is even more exciting in that we can actually be standing there with Christ when this new era starts. Christ is the morning star as he comes at the start of new era.
But we are told elsewhere in the scriptures that there are many morning stars. Let’s look at Job chapter 38 and verse 7. To get the context we will read from verse 4.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job is being told that he did not witness nor fully understand the creation. He was told that it was so glorious that the morning stars burst into song and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
What about the morning stars? Firstly we notice that it is plural. Not one morning star but many morning stars. In part one of this series we read Psalm 148 verses 1 to 6, and we saw the link between angels and stars. So the morning stars refer to the angels present at the creation.
But the term “morning stars” it refers to the redeemed as well. The redeemed are those men and women who will be found acceptable to enter God’s kingdom in the future and will be given eternal life. The redeemed will become Morning stars. This should be no surprise to us as we know that the redeemed are equal to the angels. We know Christ is a morning star and baptised believers will become like him. They will also become morning stars.
In 1 John 3:2 these words are recorded:
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, ….but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; ….
Baptised believers are sons of God now, but when Christ comes they will be like him. They shall become morning stars.
One Bible commentator wrote these words:
This is equivalent to saying we shall be Morning Stars….stars that come forth as the dew from the womb of the morning shining in all the glory if the resurrection state.
At the resurrection baptised believers will advance to a higher status. They will progress from “sons of God” to become “morning stars’.
Have a look at what Daniel prophesises about the future in Daniel chapter 12 and verses 1 to 3:
“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
So the redeemed will shine brightly like the stars. They will be morning stars.
We saw in the Job quote earlier in this article that the morning stars were rejoicing, singing and shouting at the creation. There will also be rejoicing, singing and shouting when the redeemed enter in the new era established on this earth. This will happen when they become morning stars like the angels.
The saints will be made equal to the angels. This is what is says in Luke chapter 20 and verse 36:
for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
As the angels are morning stars, those who are amongst the redeemed will also become morning stars.
Near the beginning of Revelation are the letters to the seven churches (Ecclesia). In the letter to the Thyatira church (ecclesia) are written these words:
The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star.
So those who are given eternal life will shine forth from the spiritual heavens as stars of glory. They will become like Christ.
Paul wrote these words in 1 Corinthians 15:41
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
In the scriptures, Jesus is sometimes referred to as the sun and sometimes as the morning star. It depends on the context of that particular passage as to whether he is the sun or the morning star. The point is always being made that Jesus will have the pre-eminence. Jesus will always be the brightest out of all the stars.
So in this 1 Corinthians verse, there is the glory of the sun and that glory belongs to Jesus. There is the glory of the stars and that refers to his brothers and sisters as individuals and then there is the glory of the moon which refers to the glory of the ecclesia – in other words, Jesus brethren as a group. They are his bride. We saw in part two of this series that the Song of Solomon refers to his bride, the ecclesia (a gathering of believers), as being fair as the moon.
Each one of us, who are sons and daughters of God, hope to become a morning star where we will shine at the commencement of the new day soon to come on this earth.
I will finish this section considering the morning star with these words from 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 19:
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
Peter is saying that the word of God is now shining in this dark world we live in, but in the future there will be a new dawn of knowledge of God when the morning star rises. So there is some nice symbolism for us to consider. In the future each one of us can be like that star in the picture shining brightly to the world around us. We just need to be baptised and then live our life committed to God.
