Genesis #11 Ch. Mazzaroth - Testimony of the Stars — Chuck Missler

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 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 that as soon as that sentence started I wasn't going to be able to come out of it gracefully. Okay. 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.

Zacharias’s Prophecy and the Testimony of the Prophets

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. And anyway, verse 67, and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, 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, right, who have been since the ages began. Who's that? 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. He overlapped Adam quite a while. Don't let anyone tell you that Adam couldn't read or write, because 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 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 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 so die 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.

The Zodiac, Its Corruption, and Ancient Traditions

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. Um, 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, um, um, but the, uh, well, it's just as I'm talking, I'm talking on that. Let's the Chinese, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians have records involving the Zodiac that go back more than 2000 BC.

That's a long time ago. In a couple of temples, temples of Dendera and Esna in the Egyptian background, more than 4000 BC been dated. Um, in fact, because of the way they're recorded, these, uh, records apparently were drawn when the summer solstice was in Leo.

It's presently in Aries. It moves about, uh, 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.

Um, if you took the equator of the earth, if you imagine, 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 what's, um, and if, uh, no, that's a celestial equator. The sun itself circumscribes an arc through the the celestial sphere. That's something other than following that equator. And that's because of the, well, it's caused 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, um, 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 a, 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, if you're a celestial navigator, as being in the first point in Aries.

It's in the constellation called Aries. What you may not realize is, just as the earth revolves, 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 the, 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, that wobble, that turns out to mean that the equinox, the equinox being that period of time when the sun, when the days and nights are of equal length, that's when the, 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.

Okay, 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.

The Names of the Stars and God’s Sovereignty

Okay, let me switch now, let's get into the scripture and see what, if you take a quick couple of glances and see, I'll 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, it's a pretty hopeless task, because the more powerful telescope you have, the more you discover are there, and it's sort of unending. 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 philo.

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 in the heavens, you become conscious of the breadth of the 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 through all, 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 run a 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.

Abraham’s Seed and the Gospel in the Stars

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 Abram 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 what God is saying to Abraham, well, go look at the stars.

Can you count how many there are? You obviously can't. There's, 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? I mean, just unending, it's innumerable.

And he's saying to Abraham, that's what your offspring's going to be like, right? And Abraham believed the Lord. And verse 15, chapter 15, verse 6, And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to 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, you know, 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. 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 that 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 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 have these really as background references, but maybe lest 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, this is 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 thee.

Sort of a taunt, a dare, in effect a put down of their idolatrous ways, and what's at the guts of 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, 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.

Virgo and the Promised Seed

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. That'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, 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, the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and call his name Emmanuel. Terrific.

Let's go back a little bit and get the context. Verse 10, moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord thy God. Ask it either in the depth or what? The height above. Isn't that interesting?

And Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I test the Lord. And he said, Hear ye 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 usually 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.

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 stars' 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 Zerah, 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, Zerah. The second most bright star in the constellation of Virgo is, 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 Sitsken. 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, by the Hebrew name, Bethulah, 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 the 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.