In this video, Chuck Misler conducts a supplementary study on the book of Genesis, specifically focusing on the testimony of the stars. He acknowledges that this topic may be considered heretical and urges the audience to seek the Lord in prayer. Misler refers to Isaiah 40:12 to introduce the concept of God's power and ability to measure and control various elements of the earth. He then briefly mentions Genesis 15:4-5, where God speaks to Abraham about his heir.

This tape is a special supplementary study to the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, The Testimony of the Stars. I thought tonight would be an interesting opportunity to do sort of a parenthesis, something a little different. And so we have sort of a one night thing we'll do tonight that's sort of an appendix to last week's lesson. And so it will be more heretical than normal. And so because of the exposure into this deep, dark, risky area that we'll go into, let's diligently seek the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for this evening to gather together. For, Father, we would see Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, for the incredible testimonies that you have placed for our learning. We pray, Father, that you would just send your Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds and eyes that we might behold Jesus Christ, know him better, and more fully grasp the miracles that you have accomplished on our behalf. We ask you, Father, to feed us, strengthen us, encourage us, and help us to more fully commit to your way and that unique ministry which you have for each and every one of us. For we ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. So tonight will be, those of you that are taking notes, you can just consider this an appendix to the study we did on the Tower of Babel. Those of you that aren't here tonight won't miss a thing. I knew as soon as that sentence started I wasn't going to be able to come out of it gracefully. We might have fun by starting. Turn to Luke, chapter 1. We're going to wander around aimlessly for a little bit and then try to tie this all together, so don't panic. Luke, chapter 1, and I'm particularly interested in verse 67 and following. This, of course, is the gospel of Luke and we have here an incident occurring early. Anyway, verse 67, And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, So we're going to have some words here that are ordained by the Holy Spirit. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. Who's he talking about? Jesus Christ. Anyone's not sure of that? You should see me after the hour. Verse 70, As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the ages began. Who's that? Would that be Moses? David? Jeremiah? What prophets have been there since the ages began? That's kind of interesting, isn't it? Enoch, maybe? He's certainly there early, overlapped Adam quite a while. Don't let anyone tell you that Adam couldn't read or write, there's some evidence that he did. But anyway, we'll get into that right now. Let's turn to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3, Peter's second sermon. We're all familiar with his first sermon. As good charismatic Christians, we're all familiar with Acts chapter 2. We often don't get into Acts 3. But anyway, Acts chapter 3, verse 20, And he shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution of all things. Interesting phrase referring to the Jubilee year, prophetically. And if you're interested in that whole story, you can get the Joshua tapes. But going on, Which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets. For how long? Since the ages began, or the age began, or the world began. Kind of interesting phrase. Kind of a provocative phrase if you take it literally. And I do. Which leads us into kind of a peculiar excursion that we'll get into tonight. And I think we'll probably start this, popping back to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1, verse 14. God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven. For what purpose? To divide the day from the night. Good. And what else? Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. And he let them be lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so. Interesting thing. Let them be for signs. For signs. We can't take on a topic like this without being reminded at least a little bit of the strange passage in Job. Book of Job is full of provocative things. But turning to chapter 38, after all this advice from his would-be friends, God steps in. And chapter 38 and 39 is a couple of the most fascinating chapters in Scripture where God himself comments on himself. You know, the Bible does not argue for the existence of God. It assumes it. And you generally don't find passages in the Scripture that are, you know, apologetical on behalf of the nature of or the existence of God, except on a couple of occasions. The letter that God addresses to Cyrus 150 years before he was born, it's penned by Isaiah in chapters, end of 44 and chapter 45 is one such passage. Job 38 and 39 is another. Very interesting to hear God almost, I don't think sarcasm is the right word, but certainly sort of provocatively raises questions knowing full well Job can't answer. And there's a whole string of these that are just, each one could be a lifetime study in their own right. But we might start with verse 31, where God says, Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth the Maseroth in its season, or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set its dominion in the earth? And on he goes with similar kinds of questions drawn from other fields of science, these references obviously being interesting because they're drawn from the field of astronomy. And as you can probably have guessed by now, we're going to wander lightly into this area. The word Maseroth that you find here in the book of Job is the Hebrew equivalent of what you would call the Zodiac, the Zodiac. The word Zodiac is actually from the Greek, but it's a transliteration of a word from the Sanskrit which comes from a Hebrew word meaning Sodai, or the way. And it can be the way or the path of the sun in the sky. And it's also, interestingly enough, what is the way, an idiom for in the book of Acts? Well, the church, yeah, following Jesus Christ, following Jesus Christ. And it's interesting that the Hebrew word adopted by the Sanskrit is the root word from which the Greeks called it the Zodiac, which is kind of interesting. What I'm going to generally suggest, so I don't keep you guessing, I'm going to suggest that we have only a faint hint, or we're victims of a corrupted record of what the traditions about the stars really are. Our traditions go back to the Latin, the Romans, the Greeks, in some cases a little earlier to the Babylonian and Egyptians. And the real meaning of the Zodiac and the constellations, as we call them, actually go far back earlier than that, but we're subject to a substantial corruption in the period that we just recently studied, the Tower of Babel. And it's interesting, though, that first of all, we can find from the Scripture some strong suggestion that God had an original intention here of these things being a witness. And that's what we're going to explore a little bit. We find from Romans chapter one, which you can read as your homework assignment, not tonight, that there is testimony in the universe itself that will bring all the world guilty before the Lord. And that testimony is not limited to, but certainly includes the heavens. Now, as we explore this whole area, it's kind of interesting about the Zodiac, because the signs of the Zodiac, and you're all familiar with them from their pagan nomenclature, but what's interesting is, independent of the names, they are the same idioms in every language, in every country, in every culture. That in itself is provocative. You talk about, I've got the list of them here, so I won't mess that part of it up. Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Spiceys, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo. That sequence is the same all the way, all the way, way back. And, but the, well, it's just as I'm talking along, I'm talking on that. The Chinese, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians have records involving the Zodiac that go back more than 2,000 B.C. That's a long time ago. In a couple of temples, Temples of Dendera and Esna in the Egyptian background, more than 4,000 B.C. been dated. In fact, because of the way they're recorded, these records apparently were drawn when the summer solstice was in Leo. It's presently in Aries. It moves about one degree every 71 years. In fact, let me back up and talk a little bit, give you a little bit of orientation. And I'm deliberately trying not to use diagrams and things, because, first of all, it'd be easier for those listening to tapes, and it also will keep me from getting too, too technical. If you took the equator of the Earth, if you imagine the stars that you see as being imprinted on a very large sphere, we'll call that the celestial sphere. We'll ignore for the moment the fact that stars are actually different distances. Visually, they appear relative to one another as if they were on a large sphere. And if you took the equator of the Earth and extended it outward, you would draw a line on that celestial sphere, and that's the celestial equator. And if... No, that's the celestial equator. The sun itself circumscribes an arc through the celestial sphere that's something other than following that equator. And that's because of the... Well, it's because for a lot of reasons, but the primary thing is that we have the Earth is canted on its axis. The path, the apparent path of the sun through the sky throughout the year is called the ecliptic. There are a series of constellations. In fact, 12 of them, 12 major signs. Actually, the signs consist of a collection of constellations, but they're 12. The path of the sun, that band, roughly 16 degrees wide throughout the sky is divided into 12 sections or signs. Each sign actually consists of about three constellations. Now, and you know, in fact, because of the ancient cultural references to those stars by virtue of their position within these imaginary figures, and we'll talk about in a minute, even legitimate straight scientists that are interested in astronomy will still reference the stars by their position, their apparent position within these constellations. Where the ecliptic... The ecliptic is like a circle in the sky that's at an angle to the celestial equator, and where it crosses the celestial equator, we call that an equinox. There's a summer and a fall, or a summer and winter, solstice, and there's a spring and fall equinox. The equinox, the vernal equinox, the spring equinox is the arbitrary reference point for all mathematics in the celestial sphere. You and I think of that, if you're a celestial navigator, as being in the first point in Aries. It's in the constellation called Aries, which you may not realize is just as the Earth revolves. It rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun. It is also precessing. You all know it's the angle of the spin of the Earth is at an angle, and that angle is wobbling. In order to correct our calendar back to a sidereal calendar, we have to add a day every four years, right? You also have to add a day every 25,579 years, and that's because of that wobble. But also, just thought you ought to know that, right? What's perhaps more significant is, is that because of that wobble, that turns out to mean that the equinox, the equinox being that period of time when the days and nights are equal length, that's when the apparent path of the sun is crossing the celestial equator, the equinox point itself is moving through the apparent heavens, and it moves about one degree every 71 years. What's interesting though, by the ancient records of the constellation, we can roughly date when they were drawn because of what they see because of that precession, and that's how we can infer that some of these records are that far back, four or five thousand years ago, roughly. Now, incidentally, the Persians and the Arabians have traditions that the whole system, astronomical nomenclature, started with Adam, Seth, and Enoch. Isn't that interesting? Josephus records it starting with Seth as a tradition, and Enoch preaching two judgments, fire and water, and we'll come out of that and come back to that in a minute. There was a major astronomer about 400 years before Christ, by the name of Eudoxos, who did a major astronomical work called Phenomena, that a certain king, Macedonian king, asked a poet by the name of Aretas in 270 BC to render into poetry, which he did, and the only reason I'm mentioning, and incidentally, the poetry's name was called the Divine Signs. What's interesting about this, that poet was a native of Tarsus, and none other than Paul himself quotes from that poem in his address on Mars Hill in Acts 17-28. No big deal, but it's just a little cultural reference to prove I did a little reading. And also, before I forget it, those of you that are interested in this area, we're going to summarize it rather lightly, but there are two books that are not in your bibliography that I passed out that should have been, and they will be in any revisions. One, there are actually a number of books on this subject, but there are two references that look pretty good. If you're interested in getting into this in more depth, and we'll have time for here, I commend to you two books. The first one by Joseph A. Seiss, S-E-I-S-S. He's famous for his commentary on the apocalypse, published in 1850, but he wrote a book called The Gospel in the Stars. He published it in 1882 by E. Claxton and Company in Philadelphia. It's quite scholarly, and there's a lot there, probably more than you really want to know, and yet at the same time, a lot of it may be quite specious, so it's the kind of thing, it's really very, very peripheral material. But a second book, also well known in the same subject, Ethelbert W. Bullinger, published a book called Witness of the Stars in 1893 in London. Both of those can be tracked down by your bookseller, if you really are committed to this sort of thing. Okay, let me switch now, let's get into the scripture and take a quick couple of glances, and show you some things that I think may be a little unusual. First of all, turn to Psalm 147. These things won't surprise you, but just to build up our background as we charge into this rather strange area, Psalm 147, verse 4. He appointeth the number of the stars, he calleth them all by their names. The idea of counting the stars is a pretty hopeless task, because the more powerful telescope you have, the more you discover there, and it's sort of unending. But it's interesting that God has, not only has them numbered, but each one has a name. I wouldn't infer that the names we're going to talk about tonight are the names he uses. On the other hand, some of them might be right, by the time we're through, you may have, you'll come to some of your own opinions about that subject. You might also turn to Isaiah 40, 26. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, yeah, Isaiah chapter 40, verse 26. And behold, who hath created these things? Who bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for he is strong in power, not one faileth. Same idea, but it's interesting. Okay, let's take a look at one of the most classic references about the night heavens, Psalm 19. Psalm 19, verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. We're all familiar with that verse, we've quoted it many times, sung it, and what have you. The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth his handiwork. You and I probably would be willing to rest on the idea, gee, that as you look up from the heavens, you become conscious of the breadth of creation, the incredible scope of our universe. And of course, that's an attribution to our creator, and that's great. Except, except, what is the glory of God? Is the glory of God his creation? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think the glory of God is his redemption, as well as his creation. Now, how does the heavens, how do the heavens declare his redemption, or his love, or his program for us? It's the question that we're going to explore a little bit. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night uttereth knowledge. You wonder what that means? There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Whose voice? The voice of the heavens. What does the heavens say? We're going to explore here a little bit. Their line has gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them, in them he hath set a tabernacle, a dwelling place that is, for the sun. And we're going to be very conscious of the fact that the signs throughout the zodiac, the sun passes through those. And we could go to John 3 and speak of the bridegroom, Revelation 21, Ephesians 5, things of that nature. I don't think we need to do that among this group. But we can speak of Malachi 4, where the Lord is spoken of as the sun, S-U-N, of righteousness. We think of him as the sun, S-O-N, of righteousness. He's also spoken of by Malachi in chapter 4 as the S-U-N of righteousness. Which is like a what? A bridegroom. Who's our bridegroom? Jesus Christ. That's not just a New Testament idea. It's right here in Psalm 19. Coming out of his chamber and he rejoices like a strong man to enter race. We're going to discover as we look around in the heavens that there's continual reference to the strong man that's coming. The ancients called him by many names. We call him Jesus. To run a race. His going forth is from the end of heaven in a circuit unto the ends of it. There's nothing hidden from the heat thereof. And we could go on, but that's probably a good shot at that. Let's sort of peek ahead in our study in Genesis and take a look at Genesis 15. I'll try not to destroy our lesson for chapter 15. Let's just extract one idea here. I'm interested. Let's look at verses 4 and 5. And behold, the word of the Lord came. This is to Abraham, right? Where the Lord says Abraham had made reference to Eleazar, his eldest servant, born of his household, who would be his heir since Abraham, or Abraham at this time, did not have an heir. The Lord said unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own loins shall be thine heir. Verse 5. And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now, it's very reasonable to assume, and that's the way we usually teach this passage, is that God is saying to Abraham, Well, go look at the stars. Can you count how many there are? You obviously can't. The longer you stare at the place you think is blank, the more you'll see a few that you didn't notice before, right? Just unending, innumerable. And he's saying to Abraham, that's what your offspring is going to be like, right? And Abraham believed the Lord. Chapter 15, verse 6. And he believed the Lord, and he counted him for righteousness, is quoted several times in the scripture, where Abraham believed the Lord. Now, a couple problems, subtle problems with this. In verse 5, where it says, Count the stars, if you can number them, and so forth. The word tell and number is the same word in the Hebrew. And what it really means is enumerate in order. Enumerate them in the order and proper sequence. Okay? And what it might mean, I don't want to sell us too strong, because I might be wrong, but what it might mean, what is suggested here, maybe, is God is saying to Abraham, Look at the stars and put, enumerate them in the proper order. So shall your seed be. The word seed is singular. The word seed is singular, and therein lies the problem. Now, if this sounds a little contrived, if you think they're making too much of something here, you might turn with me to Galatians chapter 3. Hold your finger here, but turn to Galatians 3, verse 16. Paul is writing to the Galatians, and in chapter 3, verse 16, Paul says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Is Paul making a big thing of the singular of seed? You bet. Now, does Paul have in mind Genesis 15? I think so. Skim back here to Galatians 3, 6. In this chapter, Paul has already drawn upon the record that we're looking at. In verse 6, he says, Even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. He's, in effect, quoting Genesis 15, 6. I submit to you, Genesis 15 is the passage that Paul has in mind as he goes through and makes this point of the singular seeds, right? Why am I making a point? Go on from verse 6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they who are of faith, the same are the sons of Abraham. Faith, in singing the songs, said she wasn't Jewish. I have news for her. We're all Jewish, some of us by adoption. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith did what? Preach before the gospel unto Abraham. Interesting. How did Abraham have insight in the gospel earlier? Well, one possibility is the thing we're exploring is this idea that it's recorded in the heavens. Now, we are taking this sort of departure into this sort of strange area, somewhat controversial area, primarily because of our study of Genesis chapter 11, and where we came to the Tower of Babel, right? In Genesis chapter 11, we had this strange, we explored this strange episode where we have Nimrod, this tyrant, providing leadership, which leads to the establishment of Babel. And the key verse is verse 4, and it said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower, and the way your English Bible probably has it with italics, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad, etc. The proper translation would be, let us build a tower with the heavenlies in its top. It doesn't make much sense at first, until you recognize that what it is, is a religious combination, religious planetarium thing that has this record of the heavenlies in its top. And those of you that want to follow this whole thing, which is really a pursuit of astrology, and this is where astrology has its roots, can go through Isaiah 47, Deuteronomy 415, Amos 5, 26 and 27, the first chapter of Romans, particularly verses 21 through 23, Acts 7, 41 through 43, 1 Kings 23.5, and Leviticus 26 for the tape. Those of you that want to track further study on that. Well, maybe we should not skip over some of these references. Turn to Isaiah 47. I had these really as background references, but maybe unless someone misunderstand me, we should probably jump in and take a look at this. We'll take verses 11 through 14. Therefore shall evil come upon thee, thou, speaking to Israel, thou shalt not know from where it rises, and mischief shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to put it off, and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast labored from thy youth. If so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be that thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon me. Sort of a taunt, a dare, in effect a put down of their idolatrous ways and what's at the guts of it, astrology, stargazing, prognosticators. We're not talking about astronomy here, but I would consider the legitimate study of astrophysics, if you will. We're talking here about the occultic use of these signs as a form of idolatry. And we could go on through Deuteronomy and Leviticus and find very clearly that astrology was a capital crime in the camp of Israel. So I don't want anyone to assume that I'm suggesting any kind of a pursuit or interest in the field of astrology. I am going to suggest we take a look at the heavens tonight and we'll use some of the idioms that the secular world has ascribed and see if we can't, by putting a few things together, get a glimpse of what lies behind those ideas before they were corrupted. Now the first thing that probably has struck you, if you have ever looked at the stars and taken a handbook out and talked about the constellations, that the figures that are drawn in no way are laid out by the stars that are in the figures. And you've probably had planetarium directors or other people tell you that, well, at one time the stars were in a slightly different place or what have you, so those things looked like the names they were given and it's just been through thousands of years that they don't look that way anymore. That's nonsense. It's utter nonsense. Those things never did look like the things that they're named after. But it's interesting that the names and the idioms that are used by the so-called constellations are the same in all the cultures and languages and they all go back to a common root. And I believe that root was prior to Babel and at Babel we had a satanic corruption of the whole system because, you know, it could be Satan being who he is and what his destiny is. So let's start. We're going to start our little tour with Virgo. What does Virgo mean do you think? The Virgin. The Hebrew name for Virgo is Bethulah. Now when we speak of the virgin birth, we obviously think of Isaiah 7, right? And we've, in our Isaiah study, spent some interesting time with Isaiah in chapter 7. But let's turn to it now and get the context. This famous verse, in verse 14, Let's go back a little bit and get the context. Verse 10, Ask a sign of the Lord thy God. Ask it either in the depth or what? The height above. Isn't that interesting? And he has said, I will not ask, neither will I test the Lord. And he said, hear you now, house of David, it is a small thing for you to worry men, but will you worry my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Who? House of David. Behold, not a virgin, the Virgin. Very important point, by the way, in any case. The Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. That's a reference to Mary. It's also a reference to Israel. Israel, it may surprise you, is referred to as a virgin, as a nation, in Isaiah 37, verse 22. That's not an idiom you're more familiar with. We're more familiar with Israel being typified in the idiom of the Old Testament prophets as the adulteress, the harlot, the unfaithful wife of Jehovah. She's also referred to idiomatically as a virgin. The virgin that shall conceive is the woman of Revelation 12 that started with Eve, to whom the promise was given that the seed of the woman would come forth, right? So there's a double reference here. The virgin, of course, specifically refers to Mary, the virgin birth, but there's also a national overtone to this also. Okay, so those of you, and I won't take this opportunity to springboard again into Revelation chapter 12, but it's certainly to understand Genesis 3.15 at the beginning, and Revelation 12 at the climax, we have the whole scenario of the woman that brought forth the man-child. It's a very, very important study, which I commend to you if you haven't been through that with us. Okay, now if we look at this collection of stars known as Virgo in our Latin traditions, in each of the constellations there is very bright stars, less bright stars, and so forth. They speak of the brightest stars as the first magnitude stars, second magnitude, third magnitude, fourth magnitude, each number being a lot more faint. So one of the interesting things in understanding this cluster of stars arbitrarily labeled the virgin, it would be interesting to see what the star's names are. Now the brightest star is called Spica in the Latin, which means seed of wheat or barley. In the Hebrew, the name of the brightest star is Tzera, which means the seed, the seed. Now this thing's getting kind of interesting. We have the seed from a constellation called the virgin, Bethulah, and the seed, of course, shows up two places in the book of Genesis. We just looked at Genesis 15.5, where God says to Abraham, review the stars in order by their names, so shall your seed be singular. Throwing back to what? Genesis 3.15, where God declares war against Satan. Adam fell, Adam and Eve are there. God's first indictment is to turn to the serpent and declare war. I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. Same word, Tzera. The second most bright star in the constellation of Virgo is, and I forget what the Latin is, I haven't tracked that all the way through, it's Tzemach, which means the branch, the branch. That word, there are 20 Hebrew words that can mean the branch. One of them, Tzemach, is the only one used exclusively in the Old Testament for the Messiah. It appears four times. Isaiah chapter 4, verse 2. We're practically there. Let's just turn back a couple pages. Isaiah chapter 4, verse 2. In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and splendid for those who are escaped of Israel. Next place it occurs is in Jeremiah 23, verse 5. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the earth. And in his days, Judas shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely in his, and this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord of Righteousness. Jehovah's Sitskanu. And chapter 33 of Jeremiah, verse 15, is an equivalent passage. In those days, at that time, I will cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land, and so forth. It's virtually a repeat of the previous passage. Zechariah, which you all, you diligent students, will all recall immediately, of course. In Zechariah, since we just finished that, Zechariah chapter 3, verse 8. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows who sit before thee, for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth my servant, the branch. The Ebed Yehovah. So the concept of the suffering servant and the branch are linked there. In the shows up in Zechariah 6, 12. And speak unto them, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Kind of interesting that in the constellation of Virgo, we have it by the Hebrew name, Bethula. We have Sarah the seed, Zemech the branch. Now in the ancient star charts from the Greek traditions, you'll find Virgo there with a tuft of wheat in one hand and a branch in the other. And the wheat in the Latin speaker, the star speaker, is a seed. It's wheat, but it's the seed of the wheat, you see. So what I'm suggesting, what seems to be the idea that I am drawn to is that originally, there was a scenario you could learn from the star's names that would recount God's redemptive plan. And in the Babylonian institution, that was corrupted into the form of the deities, the idolatries, the idols that were worshipped by the Babylonian, you know, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and the Romans. And it's that tradition that we have in our secular world. But veiled behind that, especially as you study the ancient star charts, and if you can get ones that have the Hebrew or Arabic even names to those, we can get a clue as to what may have been suggested behind them. Now also connected to Virgo, there is a coma, which is a Hebrew word, which is mentioned in Haggai 2.7, by the way. The Egyptian name for that constellation is Chesnu, or the desired sun. In Haggai 2.7, the Hebrew word is used for the desire of nations, another title of Jesus Christ. Something that's a little more obscure, but also associated in the sign of Virgo is the constellation of Centaurus, the centaur, which is a, in Greek mythology, a creature of two natures, part horse, part man. But the concept of the two natures is there, both in the Arabic and the Chaldeic name for that constellation is Beza, which means the despised one. That may sound strange until you recall Isaiah 53.3. He was despised and rejected of man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Right? And incidentally, that occurs adjacent to another constellation, which we never see. It's called the Southern. Well, isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting that we have in this one constellation of the Virgin, the seed, the branch, the desire of nations, the despised one, and the cross. Isn't that interesting? Remarkable coincidence. There's our available time. Let's, let's move on to Libra. Next sign of the Zodiac. If you were in the, if you look across the heavens by our, our secular rendering is a collection of stars known as Libra in the Latin. In the Hebrew, it's Maznaim, which means the balances. In the Arabic, it's Al-Zibana, which means a purchase. In the Greek, it's Agora, which means redemption. Isn't that interesting? We turn to Isaiah chapter 40, verse 12, and we have an idea, a concept introduced in our gospel that relates to this, perhaps may help illuminate what may be behind our thinking here. Isaiah chapter 40. We might start at verse 10 to get the pace of Isaiah's passage here. Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand. His arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with them in his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and hath measured out the heaven with the span, and measured the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. Very interesting, very interesting. The balances, the balances. Interestingly enough, two of the stars, the Arabic names mean Zuban al-Ghanoubi or Zuban al-Kamali, and the Zuban al-Ghanoumi means the price is deficient, and Zuban al-Kamali means the price that covers. The Hebrew name for that star is Khafar, which means to cover, and it's used as the word pitch in Genesis 6, but everywhere else in the Old Testament that word is translated atonement, the price that covers. Also associated with Libra is a constellation known as the crown in the Hebrew Artara, and we can of course track the crown in Isaiah 28, 5, Hebrews 2, 9, Zechariah 6, 11 through 12, where the Lord is crowned. Remember in Zechariah 6 where Joshua the high priest is ceremonially crowned, being a king and a priest in effect. Remember that when we studied Zechariah, very significant, and we could spend more time on that, but I think that's straightforward enough that we have. Very interesting idea though that we have the concept of the crown associated with the price of redemption in the balances. Now let's move on a little bit and come to the next sign in the Zodiac as it's called, the collection of stars that are called Scorpio. Scorpio. This is an interesting constellation. The Hebrew is Akrab, which means conflict. Psalm 144 verse 1, that word is used to imply war by the Lord. The ancient Sumerians referred to this constellation as the lawless one or the perverse one. That sound familiar? That bring back, is that reminiscent of Second Thessalonians chapter 2? Now, if I had an ability to show you a slide of the classical sketches associated with Scorpio, there is a strong man, Ephratathos is his Greek name, but what's interesting if you see the ancient renderings of him, he is restraining a serpent while his feet are crushing the scorpion. Isn't that interesting? Now what makes that so suggestive, or by the way, the names of the stars on his heels, in the one case is Daka, which means to crush, and the other one is Shuf, which means to bruise. And what's interesting about this in Revelation chapter 20 verse 2, when the Lord returns, he crushes, he puts in the Gehenna, the lawless one, the Antichrist, right? He doesn't do that with Satan. What does he do with him? He restrains him for a thousand years. Puts him in chains, right? Very interesting idea, in the sense that his man is wiped out, but Satan himself is only temporarily restrained, temporarily for a thousand years, and then turned loose. That idea is very important in the book of Revelation. It's interesting that even in the corruption of the pagan, you know, the pagan corruptions of the zodiacal system, is that we still have rendering, the strong man restraining the serpent, but crushing the scorpion. Very interesting. We have associated with this also the name Hercules, in the Hebrews, Gebor, as in 2nd Kings 14, 16, and Psalm 19, 5, where you have the strong man, the concept of the strong man, and we could spend a whole evening on the various traditions of Bhutis and the rest of the various names of the so-called strong man theme in the heavens. But let's move on to Sagittarius. Sagittarius, in the Hebrew, is Kesheth, which means the archer, and we could go through a number of passages, Revelation 6, 2, Psalm 45, verses 5 and 6, where there is the archer. One of the stars in this associated with Sagittarius is Nashushta, which means going forth, and nearby there are two other stars, Nesher, which means the eagle, and the eagle, incidentally, is traditionally the enemy of the serpent. We'll come back to that before the evening is over. And Noser, which is the harp, which in the Latin is Lyra, Lyra. And we have as a target of all of this, Draco, the dragon, the sea monster, and we could just explore Isaiah 26 and 27. Chapter 26, verse 1. Yeah, no, excuse me, 27, verse 1. In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan, that crooked serpent, and he shall slay the sea monster that is in the sea. Now, these are either are three serpents, or three ways of speaking of the same serpent, but I won't get into that tonight, but it's interesting that this may be a reference to Draco, the dragon, or the sea monster, or what have you, which in the Hebrew word is Tannin. Let me just move on to Copernicus, which is the goat in the Latin. Now, in the Hebrew, it's either Gedi or Seir, which is words in the Old Testament that are used for kids of the goats of sacrifice, kids of the goats of sacrifice. The Arabic is Al-Gedi, which means the sacrifice. And from here, we could go into a whole side study. We might turn to Leviticus 16 as to give you a quick glimpse, and then you can elaborate this on your own if you like. Leviticus 16 has the scapegoat. They have the sin offering, the sin bearer, introduced in, Aaron offers a bullock in verse 6, and then when we get down, verse 70, she'll take two goats and present them before the Lord. Verse 7, the door of the tabernacle, Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord, one for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, offer it for a sin offering, and then we have this interesting thing of the scapegoat, which is elaborated, you know, more elaborately, in the latter part of the chapter. Verse 15, it shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat, he shall make an atonement for the holy place, and so forth. And there's a whole study we could go into in the scapegoat, but I'm just going to suggest at least at one point that this is a possible link to this area. The scapegoat's an interesting study in its own right, but it's pretty self-evident. I'll let you go ahead and read that. Okay, let's move on to the water bearer, Aquarius. Aquarius, the water bearer. In the Hebrew, it's delai, meaning water buckets. We see this, interestingly enough, referenced by Balaam in Numbers 24. So Balaam is prophesying here. In Balaam's oracle here, we have in verse 7, he shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than a gag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. What we're going to get into before the evening is over, there are 12 signs in the Maseroth that is mentioned in Job. There are also how many sons of Jacob? 12. Which of the signs do you think associated with the tribe of Judah? Leo. Very good. All right. You'll discover, and we'll cover this before we're through, is that there's a sign associated with each of the 12 tribes. In fact, the sign was carried on a pole, so it was an ensign. Ensign. So we get the term. And we're going to talk a little bit about that. We're going to run into this whole idea again as we study Genesis, when we get to Genesis 49, because Jacob, in prophesying, as he leans on his staff in his old age before he dies, he prophesies over each one of his sons in order, and he takes us through the Maseroth in so doing. And this Aquarius, or I should say Adelai, the water buckets refer to Reuben, we'll discover, and Balaam himself deals with that. While we're here with Balaam, yes, verse 17. Balaam is, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not near. There shall come a what? A star out of Jacob. A star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheph. And he shall be of possession, and so forth. Star out of Jacob. Many people associate this prophecy of Balaam, in Numbers 25, 24, with the star of Bethlehem. Star of Bethlehem. I also, it's interesting to be aware of something else. There is a historian by the name of Abel Faragias, who lived in the 13th century, 1226 to 1286, roughly, who records that there was a guy by the name of Zoroaster, or Zerdush, if is the other word for him, who was a pupil of a very interesting guy. Do you know who Zoroaster was a pupil of? A guy by the name of Daniel, when he was a big wig in the Persian empire, under Cyrus the Persian, after he was a big wig with the Babylonian empire, somewhat in retirement, called out of retirement, to come over to the banquet and explain what was going on the wall. And the Zendevesta, which is a religious writings of that group, point out that when a new star occurs in Virgo, that is a big deal. And so it's very interesting that Gabriel, when he gave Daniel the 70 weeks prophecy, may well have given Daniel some other prophecies that aren't recorded in the Book of Daniel, which became a tradition by which Daniel organized a priesthood, which became later corrupted into the Zoroasterism, but nevertheless included a sect, a Kabbalistic sect, that we know is the Magi. So it's kind of interesting. So back to Aquarius, we have here the water bearer, the buckets, okay, and water is used two ways in the scripture. 1 Peter 1.23 and John 3.5 are two examples. They refer to the water of the word and also the Holy Spirit. Both idioms are used in the scripture. And we get into this heavily when we do the revelation study. Those of you that are, you can dig back into your notes on that to run with that if you like. Meanwhile, we're going to, we'll move on to Pisces, the fish. Latin, the fishies. In the Hebrew, which means also the fish. And interestingly enough, we find this word that's used of the, this sign of the Maseroth mentioned in Genesis 48.26, Genesis 48.26. And to get ahead of ourselves a little bit, we'll take a peek ahead and look at, uh-oh, I'm in trouble, aren't I? Oh, boy. Well, let's see if I can, I can't read my writing. Let's see if I can do it another way. I'm not, there's, there not being 26 verses in Genesis 48, I am in deep trouble. However, I can, it's 19 apparently. Yes, okay. The word in Genesis 19, I mean Genesis 48, verse 19. Sorry about that. When I panic, I go in a complete shock. Uh, Genesis 48, uh, verse 19. Uh, Jacob is talking, Joseph is talking to his father, and then Jacob responds and says, I know it, my son, I know it. This is when he crisscrossed his hands and the blessing. We'll get to that when we study this part of Genesis. But there's a, it says at the end of verse 19, it says, his seed shall become a multitude of nations. That's actually a mistranslation. What it really means is that he will multiply as the fishes do increase. And the word there is dagim. And, uh, Pisces, the fishes are, are references to, could be, may be references, uh, to the two sons of Joseph. Okay. And interestingly enough, there's a band between them in the ancient star charts. And the thing that's, has his hoof right there at the band that connects the fishes is the hoof of Ares. Rests upon them. And who is the, who is Ares? The ram or the lamb, the lamb, which is kind of interesting, which takes us to the next constellation, Ares. Ares is, uh, familiar to astronomers. If you don't know any of the other signs, you know Ares, because that's the reference point for all the other, if you're going to do a celestial fix, all your numbers go from the vernal equinox, the spring equinox, summer, and that's roughly in the, in Ares. Um, every 71 years, it gets a little further off. It's heading towards, um, Pisces and, um, but anyway, getting, getting into this, uh, Latin, um, it means the lamb, but also in the Hebrew, it's Tala, which means it's used in first Samuel seven, nine, they refer to as a lamb. And of course you're all familiar with John the Baptist's declaration of Jesus Christ when he first sees him in public, the lamb of God, behold the lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. And of course we could go into many references. We certainly want to include Revelation five, verse 12, worthy is the Ares. Okay. Well, virtue is the, is the Tala or the lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. Uh, okay. Now we get into Taurus, the bull, the Latin means bull and the Hebrew, I forget the Hebrew word I didn't write down. Anyway, Bullock is the way we would have it translated. And, um, interestingly enough, this one also seems to refer the strange usage of it. There are two horns in the bull and the two horns are regarded as the two sons of Joseph. Now, one of the things we're going to find out shortly is that the 12 signs of the Maserat can equate to each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And if you recall with the 12 tribes of Israel, you've got a problem because there's really 13 of them, right? It turns out what you really want to do is the tribe of Levi is in the set. You want to have 12, you have four camps of three tribes, each surrounding the camp with a tabernacle in the middle. And the Levites are to deal with the tabernacle. Well, if you take the Levites out in theory, it only gives you, it gives you 11 tribes to take 12 positions, right? And the way this works is the tribe of Joseph is broken down to the two tribes. Ephraim and Manasseh are his two sons. Jacob adopts Joseph's sons. When Jacob gets to Egypt along with the rest of the gang, and so there's Jacob and his 12 sons. Joseph has had two sons from his Gentile bride by then. And these two sons are named Ephraim and Manasseh. Jacob blesses them. That was the passage we read from a minute ago. And he does a strange thing. He crisscrosses the hands, blessing the younger before the older, and that upsets Joseph a little bit. And Jacob says, I know what I'm doing. But he also is adopting them. So there's actually 13 tribes. If you recognize that Joseph is thus split into two. So when you want 12 tribes, you want to count Levi, you count the tribe of Joseph as a tribe. He has a double portion. But if you want to hold the Levites out to take care of the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle, and you still want 12, then you're counting from Manasseh's two tribes and you still get 12 plus the Levites. So it's a little shell game going on. It's confusing. And there's a whole study, and we'll get into this when we get to later in Genesis. We're going to talk a great deal about the 12 tribes. There's lots of exciting, interesting things there. And we'll talk about the stones and the breastplate of the high priest and the New Jerusalem and the stones there. And we'll get into all that later. But Taurus has two horns. And in some renderings of the 12 tribes against the Mazaroth, the two horns are, that Taurus speaks of the tribe of Joseph and the two horns being his two sons. And so we're going to talk a little bit about now this incidentally also is probably where in the corruption that occurs at Babel, we have the worship of the sacred bulls come out of this. And the Egyptian zodiac, Edendora, has the golden calf, as we think of it. It's a bull with a sun disc between the horns, the sun disc being the sun and the sun being in the house of Taurus at the time. And Isis, which is a virgin born savior, is a whole theme through this so Satan doesn't lose a crack to really screw things up. Also associated with Taurus is a constellation. If you can't find any other constellation in the heavens, easily you can find this one. It's Orion. Some people call him the Irish hunter, O-r-y-a-n. That isn't the way the Greek spell it. O-r-i-o-n. Orion the hunter. In Hebrew called Chisel, which is the strong one. The strong one. And the star near his foot is named Saif, which means bruised. And we could, running out of time so I don't get too much into this, but Job 9.9 and 38.31. Orion is mentioned, also in Amos 5.8. In the English Bible it mentioned Orion, but it's actually in the Hebrew names and used as such. Okay, another, this one's crazy. Another one that's associated with Taurus the bull and Orion the hunter is Lepus the rabbit. Strangely enough, in the ancient star charts, the word that's used there is the one for the enemy. That's not obvious that a rabbit's the enemy. It's a strange thing. But it may become clearer when you realize the enemy is associated with Ashtoreth, which is also known as Ishtar. And which, from which we have the corruption of the holiday, which we worship as, guess what? Easter. Right. Which is associated with the queen of heaven, whose worship included hot cross buns, believe it or not, eggs, and Easter bunnies. And if you are into that sort of thing, turn to Jeremiah 7.18 or Jeremiah 44 verses 15 to 30 to find out all about the Easter bunny and that sort of thing. There is something in the star charts, the ancient star charts, that also deserves a comment here. They speak also of a collection of eridinous, which is a river of fire that flows from Orion's foot that's crushing down and it rolls up on Cetus, the sea monster. And it's very interesting because it ties to Isaiah 26 chapters 26 verse 21 through chapter 27 verse 1 about the, you know, the, remember we just read part of it where the, you know, with the, I'll destroy the sea monster, etc. But the fact that it's a judgment of fire from the strong one to the sea monster is kind of interesting. And from here we get charged into Daniel 7, Revelation 19.20, Psalm 53, Habakkuk 3.5, and Isaiah 30, and some other places. But we'll keep moving. There's also the next constellation in the Zodiac is Gemini, the twins. In the Greek, there were two star groups there. On the right was Apollo, on the left was Hercules. The Latin, they changed the names to Castor and Pollux. And it's from this that Paul's ship gets named, incidentally. The ship happens to be in Acts 28.11. But the Castor and Pollux, the two twins in mythology are regarded as the two sons of Zeus. Now it's interesting to mention who Zeus was. Zeus lived on Mount Olympus in the midst of the 12 gods of the Greeks. So as we peer back through this corruption, you can begin to get a feeling for what might have, you know, lain behind all of this. The Hebrew name for Gemini is Thalmon, which means joined together, joined together. And, excuse me, the Arabic names for the two key stars there is Al-Hinnah, which means wounded or bruised, and Mabusta, which means tread underfoot. And you can build a notion here that what we have joined together in one idiom is the righteous judge and the suffering servant. Let's go on to a more complicated one, and that's what we know as Cancer, which is typified by the crab. We don't really have a good Hebrew name for the constellation, at least I was not able to find it. But we do have Hebrew names for the two key stars there, Acelos Boreas and Acelos Australis, which means the northern ass and the southern ass. And the ass idiom of Cancer is tied to Issachar in Genesis 49.11, and we're going to see that when we get to Genesis 49.11 how there's that link there. Associated with this constellation, and it's in, of course, the donkey, the ass is prophesied in Zechariah 9.9 to be the symbol of the coming king to Jerusalem and fulfilled in Matthew 21.5 and so on. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, you're probably familiar, big and a little, you know, big bear, little bear, big dipper, little dipper is the way we think of it. Ursa Major, Ursa Minor are named the greater flock and the lesser flock as sheepfolds, and thus may be a reference from John 10.16 as an idea. And now we get to the climax of the whole string of 12, which is the last one left. Leo, right? Which is Aslan in C.S. Lewis-ism, right? Hebrew is Aryeh, which means lion, and we might take a glimpse at Genesis 49. And take a look at, it actually starts verse 9, 8, excuse me, verse 8. And Jacob is going through his list here, and he's saying, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Thy father's children, in other words, your brothers, will fall down before thee. He's pronouncing Judah as the royal lion. Judah is a lion's rope. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down and he crouched as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? By the way, on all the ancient star charts, Leo is shown as a lion leaping towards his prey, and his prey is Hydra, the sea serpent. Okay? Verse 10 is an interesting one. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Very interesting verse, because the high priests in Jerusalem felt that the Word of God was broken. Very interesting period when the Romans removed the right to capital punishment in their jurisdiction of the province of Judea. The high priests were really upset about that, because that was classically, from Genesis chapter 9 onwards, the right to capital punishment is the right to govern, associated with that. And as far as that was concerned, that was the event that caused the scepter to depart from Judah. And they're really upset by that. Of course, then, you know, that's when they have, you know, they have a, they had, referring to Genesis 49.10, they felt that the scepter departed from Judah and Shiloh had not come. And they actually put on sackcloth and ashes and went wailing through the streets of Jerusalem, because they thought the Word of the Lord had been broken. What they did not know is, at that time, there was a young boy in a carpenter shop in Nazareth learning his father's trade, that they would see shortly. We will talk more and develop this whole thing when we get to Genesis 49. That's a whole study in its own right. Balaam also speaks of this. We return to Numbers again, 24. Numbers 24, verse 9, he crouched, he lay down like a lion, like a great lion, who shall stir him up? Blessed is he who blesseth the incursive. There's just another reference. I'm not sure it's that fruitful. Okay, now, just to sort of tie a few other things together, we've gone through 12 signs of the Zodiac as we think of them. Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo. The Virgin, the Scales, the Scorpion, the Archer, the Sea Goat, the Water Bearer, the Fishes, the Ram, the Bullock, the Twins, the Crab, and the Lion. Now, if we were to sketch a map or a chart of the camp of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness, the center of the camp was always what? Tabernacle with its one opening, its gate or door, opening to the East, right? Now, the tribe of Levi was assigned the custody and care and administration of the tabernacle, so they were in the center. If you want to do a little sketch of the camp, visualize it as square, and there's three tribes to the North, three tribes to the East, three tribes to the South, and three tribes to the West, North, South, East, and West, a total of 12 tribes. Since we've gotten Levi out of there, that means you take the tribe of Joseph, break him into two, Ephraim and Manasseh. Now, to the East, we had three tribes, Zebulun, Issachar, and Judah. The three tribes camping to the East were collectively known as the Camp of Judah, and they would rally around the Ensign of Judah, all three tribes. Zebulun's sign was Virgo, Virgin, Methula, I guess, I should call it. Issachar was Cancer the Crab, or the Hebrew rendering of that, and Judah, of course, was the Lion. But they would all rally around the Ensign of Judah to the East. On the other side of the camp, to the West, we had Ephraim and Manasseh and Benjamin, which was Taurus the Bull and Gemini the Twin, or the equivalent in Hebrew, I really should say. To the South, we had Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, Aquarius, Pisces, and Aries. Reuben being Aquarius, the Water Bearer, but the Water Bearer was what? A man. A man. A man bearing water, but it was a man. So the sign of Reuben, the Ensign of Reuben was a man, but the sign that we think of that correlates with that would be Aquarius. Reuben, Simeon, and Gad. That leads us to the North, in which we had Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. Now, the sign that corresponds to Dan is Scorpio, the Lawless One, and it's interesting that that's consistent, at least, with this tradition that the Antichrist was to come from the tribe of Dan. And we find, very interestingly, in the tribal lists, we'll study this when we get to Genesis 49, the tribe of Dan is not listed in the 12 tribes that are sealed in Revelation 7. They're conspicuous by their omission. In fact, even Ephraim isn't listed directly. It's listed indirectly, because Manasseh is listed, and then the tribe of Joseph. Well, if you take Manasseh out, what's left of Joseph? Ephraim. So that list is kind of interesting, because Ephraim and Dan are the means by which idolatry entered the land, and we'll get into that when we study that. But Dan's sign would be, in theory, the Scorpion. However, we substitute for Dan the traditional enemy, namely the Eagle. And Asher is the Sagittarius, or the Archer, and Naphtali the Goat. And it leaves one of the 12 signs, namely the scales. Okay, the price is sufficient, redemption, etc. with the tribe of Levi in the center of the camp. Now, what makes this particularly provocative is that around the camp of Israel, you then have four incense. You have an eagle, a lion, a calf, and a man, which are the four faces of the church. Every time we see the throne of God, whether we see it in Ezekiel, or whether we see it in Isaiah, Isaiah 6, or whether we see it in Revelation chapter 4 and 5. Very interesting that the camp of Israel, in the model of the tabernacle, was a model of heaven, even to the extent of emulating the cherubim. And if you're interested in that, you can get the tapes on the Revelation studies, where we get into that a little bit, when we talk about the throne room of God, and how it was foreshadowed in the tabernacle structure, and in the camp of Israel broadly. And also the four gospels are mapped against those four ideas. Been through that? A whole other study, I suppose, and we're over time already, but it turns out that if you study the mission of the four gospel writers, Matthew being interested in the Messiah, he's a Levi, and he recounts the family tree from Abraham on, through the royal line, to prove that Christ was the Messiah of Israel, the lion of the tribe of Judah. That's what Matthew's preoccupation is. Mark is interested in Christ's role as a suffering servant. The symbol of servant was the ox. A servant you don't care about his pedigree. It's the only gospel without a genealogy. If you look at the first miracle, the last miracle, you look at the main key phrases, each gospel, it all supports those ideas. A very interesting study. Luke, of course, is interested in Christ as the son of man. His humanity takes his genealogy from Adam on and through the natural line that is through Mary. And he's interested in, you know, the great emphasis in Luke is in his humanity. And, of course, that leaves John preoccupied with Jesus Christ as the son of God. His genealogy addresses his pre-existence, the gospel opens, and his whole thrust is the deity of Jesus Christ. But those four map, interestingly enough, against the four idioms, if you will, or thrusts, or concepts of the cherubim as an idea. Now, we're running a little over time, but this has just been a kind of an excursion as background to what might have gone on in the entire Bible. As man, who at that top till that time, up through the flood maybe, had a tradition and understanding of God's plan through the stars. As one of the ways that God revealed himself, declared his plan towards men, and man found a way to corrupt that. And on the one hand, it's interesting, and I've given a couple of references, those that you want to study. It's really a side trip, because we have the value, the benefit, the advantage of a more, a fuller revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ himself. As described in the 66 books that are in front of us, and as highlight or climax of the book of Revelation at the end. And as we have even better yet, an opportunity to know him personally. So these references that are astronomical or interesting, history or background to our study of Genesis and these obscure beginnings. It occurred to me, because of all the interest that was expressed last time in this side issue, and the fact that we had sort of an isolated evening, separated by a couple of absences here, might be a good excuse to swing through. But I think as you go out on a summer evening and see the heavens, and as you get a chance to, if you're drawn that way because of your interest to learn the heavens and play out of the stars, then I would commend to you the learning of at least enough of the Hebrew traditions behind those constellations. It wouldn't be hard to weave that together into your knowledge of the scripture and God's redemptive plan. And so in that sense I hope that glorifies him. This concludes the study on the Maserat, the gospel or testimony of the stars.