The Witness of the Stars. E. W. Bullinger
glory that should follow.”
CHAPTER I.
MESSIAH, THE COMING JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH.
TAURUS (The Bull). Messiah coming to rule.
§ 1. ORION, Light breaking forth in the person of the Redeemer.
§ 2. ERIDANUS (The River of the Judge). Wrath breaking forth for His enemies.
§ 3. AURIGA (The Shepherd). Safety for the Redeemed in the day of that wrath.
CHAPTER II.
MESSIAH’S REIGN AS PRINCE OF PEACE.
GEMINI (The Twins). The twofold nature of the King.
§ 1. LEPUS (The Hare), or THE ENEMY trodden under foot.
§ 2. CANIS MAJOR (The Dog), or SIRIUS, the coming glorious Prince of Princes.
§ 3. CANIS MINOR (The Second Dog), or PROCYON, the exalted Redeemer.
CHAPTER III.
MESSIAH’S REDEEMED POSSESSIONS.
CANCER (The Crab). The possessions held fast.
§ 1. URSA MINOR (The Lesser Bear). The lesser sheepfold.
§ 2. URSA MAJOR (The Great Bear). The fold and the flock.
§ 3. ARGO (The Ship). The redeemed pilgrims safe at home.
CHAPTER IV.
MESSIAH’S CONSUMMATED TRIUMPH.
LEO (The Lion). The Lion of the Tribe of Judah aroused for the rending of the Enemy.
§ 1. HYDRA (The Serpent). That old Serpent—the Devil, destroyed.
§ 2. CRATER (The Cup). The cup of Divine wrath poured out upon him.
§ 3. CORVUS (The Crow, or Raven). Birds of prey devouring him.
Such are the contents of this wondrous book that is written in the heavens. Thus has God been speaking and emphasizing and developing His first great prophetic promise of Gen. iii. 15.
Though for more than 2,500 years His people had not this Revelation written in a book as we now have it in the Bible, they were not left in ignorance and darkness as to God’s purposes and counsels; nor were they without hope as to ultimate deliverance from all evil and from the Evil One.
Adam, who first heard that wondrous promise, repeated it, and gave it to his posterity as a most precious heritage—the ground of all their faith, the substance of all their hope, the object of all their desire. Seth and Enoch took it up. Enoch, we know, prophesied of the Lord’s coming, saying, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all” (Jude 14). How could these “holy prophets, since the world began,” have recorded their prophecies better, or more effectually, or more truthfully and powerfully, than in these star-pictures and their interpretation? This becomes a certainty when we remember the words of the Holy Spirit by Zacharias (Luke i. 67-70):—
“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;
As He spake by the mouth of HIS HOLY PROPHETS
WHICH HAVE BEEN SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN.”
The same truth is revealed through Peter, in Acts iii. 20, 21:—“He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all HIS HOLY PROPHETS SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN.”
These words have new meaning for us, if we see the things which were spoken “since the world began,” thus written in the heavens, which utter speech (i.e. prophecy), and show forth this knowledge day after day and night after night, the heritage of all the earth, and their words reaching unto the ends of the world.
This Revelation, coinciding as it does in all its facts and truths with that afterwards recorded “in the Volume of the Book,” must have had the same Divine origin, must have been made known by the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit.
We now proceed to compare the two, and we shall see how they agree at every point, proving that the source and origin of this Divine Revelation is one and the same.
The First Book. The Redeemer.
(His First Coming.)
“The Sufferings of Christ.”
The First Book is occupied with the PERSON of the Coming One. It covers the whole ground, and includes the conflict and the victory of the Promised Seed, but with special emphasis on His Coming. The book opens with the promise of His coming, and it closes with the Dragon cast down from heaven.
Chapter I. The Sign VIRGO.
The Promised Seed of the Woman.
Here is the commencement of all prophecy in Gen. iii. 15, spoken to the serpent:—“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” This is the prophetic announcement which the Revelation in the heavens and in the Book is designed to unfold and develope. It lies at the root of all the ancient traditions and mythologies, which are simply the perversion and corruption of primitive truth.
VIRGO is represented as a woman with a branch in her right hand, and some ears of corn in her left hand. Thus giving a two-fold testimony of the Coming One.
The name of this sign in the Hebrew is Bethulah, which means a virgin, and in the Arabic a branch. The two words are connected, as in Latin—Virgo, which means a virgin; and virga, which means a branch (Vulg. Isa. xi. 1). Another name is Sunbul, Arabic, an ear of corn.
In Gen. iii. 15 she is presented only as a woman; but in later prophecies her nationality is defined as being of the stock of Israel, the seed of Abraham, the line of David; and, further, she is to be a virgin. There are two prominent prophecies of her and her seed: one is connected with the first coming in incarnation, Isa. vii. 14 (quoted in Matt. i. 23.)
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
And shall call his name Immanuel.”
The other is connected with His second coming, leaping over the sufferings and this present interval of His rejection, and looking forward to His coming in glory and judgment, Isa. ix. 6, 7 (quoted in Luke ii. 11 and i. 32, 33)—
“For unto us a child is born,
Unto us a son is given;{20}
And the government shall be upon His shoulder;
And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government there shall be no end.
Upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom,
To order it, and to establish it
With judgment and with justice
From henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”
It is difficult to separate the Virgin and her Seed in the prophecy, and so, here, we have first the sign VIRGO, where the name points to her as the prominent subject; while in the first of the three constellations of this sign, where the woman appears again, the name