SUN MOON AND STARS

“These are the generations of JACOB. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.Now ISRAEL loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.”

The Lord, from the beginning, set many things in the visible sky, declaring them to be “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so”. And so, from that time until this, Sun, moon, planet, star, falling meteoroids, etc., all were capable of conveying a message written in them. The light given upon the earth is more than the photon radiation we see by. More than the invisible spectrum essential to life as we know it. There is contained within the light subject to the laws of nature, another form of light, in the form of understanding. Light that illuminates the inner being. These forms of light conspire to make us aware of the one great light, the one who is light, and in whom is no darkness. The one who can dawn in your heart and change the fabric of your being, to the extend and end that you may become children of light. Only in very recent history are we become aware of many of the myriads of light giving bodies, radiant entities, massive gatherings of light and energy falsely labeled “black holes”, etc. All have signification in many arenas. The very fact that man is only now looking into things heretofore totally unknown to him, is a message in itself of the proximity of the subject of all true witness…the one who crafted the witness. The use of the words “sun-moon-stars” must not be confined only to the basest objects in the cosmos…the things the apostle Paul named “The weak and beggarly elements”. To do so, is to relegate the understanding to messages repeated over and over again, as a favorite old movie that is fun to watch, but does not change. What must be grasped, is the lesson and subject of the message. When the eternal truth is grasped, the repeating message is seen for what it is…a tool to a greater knowledge and understanding. The gospel of Matthew begins by speaking of the “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ”. A book within a book. One pen and ink, one not. One penned and written at some point in time. Another made flesh at some point in time; made flesh, slain, raised and glorified. Known after the flesh no more, abiding eternal. King David, demanding bread of a priest, was told there was no bread in the house but the show bread, which only a priest may eat. David, understanding the message of the house, and so no longer bound by it, said it will do. David said “It is after a manner, common”. David comprehended that the hidden manna in the holiest place was superior in meaning to the show bread, which was from that perspective, common. Christ in you, the true bread of heaven. The apostle Jude, comprehending Christ in you, refers to the “common salvation”. Salvation, as lofty as it is, is not as lofty as it gets.

When Joseph told his dreams of sun, moon and stars, his father did not look up into the sky. He asked, “What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?”. Therefore, is it reasonable to conclude that henceforth in scripture, sun-moon-stars may have meaning that is deeper, and more abiding that the oft repeated message of the solar system? And does one message void the other? No. But can one be superior to the other? Yes. For that very reason, Joseph suffered. He, by faith, rose above the message that his natural household was. Joseph named his first son “Manasseh”, and declared: “For God, (said he), hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house”. Joseph was made a figure of resurrection. He was thrown into a pit to die, and was raised up out of it because he believed his God, just as Daniel was raised out of the den of lions completely unhurt…he believed his God. Joseph, Daniel, you, me…we live by the faith and life of Him who God raised. We live by the life of Him who lives and abides in us. We live by the faith of Him who is the subject and object of all true witness. If you comprehend this, you comprehend that Joseph’s star was not the tribal star he was born with. It was the bright and morning star, risen in him by faith. Joseph’s star is Christ. This message is further confirmed by Israel, upon Jacob’s death bed. Reading chapter 49 of Genesis is far more meaningful if you know that the two names, Israel and Jacob, are of a treasure in an earthen vessel. And one, while having treasure in an earthen vessel, is advised to exodus from the clay to the treasure in faith, before the clay fails, lest one awake naked. (as it was in the days of Noah). Consider that on Jacob’s death bed, Israel acknowledged that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was Joseph’s Father. That bears chewing on for a while.

So, fast forwarding to the book of Jude, I submit for consideration, that the message of the natural sun, moon and stars, while valid and unending so long as natural sun, moon and stars are set in their course…are by absolutely no means, the only valid use of the words. Jacob, Rachel and sons, are also sun, moon and stars throughout the scripture, and throughout the book of revelation. The bright and morning star, the resurrected Christ, is a star of the book. And per Joseph’s dreams and Israel’s declaration, he was separated from his brethren, only to be rejoined in resurrection. There is no other way. The sheaf all else bow to is the word of Christ in your heart. YOUR heart. The star all others bow to and diminish before, is the resurrected Christ in you. In YOU. There are teachers and teachings, none of them new, that pull everything down to it’s basest and lowest format. Jude referred to these, among other things, as wandering stars. There is language of messengers who do not keep their first estate, but are under chains of darkness. The book of revelation speaks of stars falling to the earth. Jesus spoke of the same thing. The heavenly and eternal things will never be fulfilled in or by flesh and blood. If I pull all the meaning of these witnesses down into earthy things only, I deceive you. A wandering star, as per the book of Jude, is a planet. The very words are from “planetes aster”, and our word “planet” is from the word for wandering. Only the stars, true stars, are made an eternal message. Job was admonished regarding Mazaroth, the reading of constellations. Planets, small and relatively powerless, have two things in their arsenal. They are very close to the earth. They are good reflectors. So, they are in a perfect place to mimic a star from the perspective of one on earth, looking up into the night sky. And the fact that they do not appear confined or fixed in place, but locomotive about in the night sky, gives then an aura of freedom not enjoyed by real stars. This, to the untrained eye, makes them seem special. But they are not stars. And the attempt to be part of the message of the heavens, and indeed, add and subtract from it seasonally, is a complete deception. They are vagabond wanderers, pulling the eternal message down to themselves, corrupting it. To read the night sky correctly, one must learn to separate out the wanderers from the eternal message, and discount them. Then, the message of the cosmos becomes a clear message, but seen for what it is. A message. A repeating message about things, much of which are and have been at hand, and no longer a mesmerizing attempt to avert my eyes from the eternal to the always over the horizon “future”. If the eternal is only off in the future…it is not eternal. Hence Jesus said “I am the ROOT and offspring of David”. And again, “Before Abraham was, I Am”.

As a further study for any interested, recall that Joseph is not a camp around the tabernacle, being separate from his brethren by resurrection. Ephraim and Manasseh are not stars of Joseph’s dreams. So around the camp are eleven stars. Recall that John, in Revelation, sees a third of the stars of heaven fall to the earth. 1/3 of twelve stars, is four. In Christ’s hand are seven stars. Eleven minus the fallen to bondage. He Himself is the eighth. Consider that four sons of Jacob are sons of bondwomen. Eight sons of Israel are by wives, Rachel and Leah. (the book of Ruth teaches you that the house of ISRAEL was built by these two women). The evil report that Joseph brought to his father was of the sons of slaves (Zilpah and Bilhah). This message is 100% spiritual (as is every abiding message of scripture). It has nothing whatsoever to do with any tribe of the man Jacob. It is a message of a house of bondage and a free house. And which house I belong to is not a factor of natural birth, but spiritual. It is not out of my control, but totally within it. I CHOOSE which house I belong to, when I choose faith in Christ, and continue in Him, and He in me. The bright and morning star which Christ is, and which he promises the overcomer, the day star arising in your heart, is Christ come in you by faith, translating you by faith, from the clay to the treasure.

A star, fallen from heaven, can remember from whence it is fallen, and so, be restored.