Quote:
Originally Posted by sirron
I read a great comment regarding the return of the star of Bethlehem.
Since it's technically two planets that appear to merge, Jupiter and Venus, Jupiter being the planet of power, and Venus representing the spirit of love, the "star's" re-emergence is the Power of Love.
Is anyone else excited about the return of The Star of Bethlehem?
The Christmas Star |
When Venus & Jupiter align from our viewpoint on earth,
it is not the star that led the magi to Herod before leading them to Jesus.
Nor was the star that led the 'wise men' ("magi") --to Jesus by way of Herod-- sent by Jesus' Father.
The sign from God was given to the shepherds in the field with their flocks . . .
the angelic announcement that the Messiah had just been born. (Luke 2:8-20)
The magi did not arrive to visit Jesus & his parents until Jesus was already a two-year-old child,
and the family was then living in a house in Bethlehem. . . .
The
New International Version Study Bible makes this comment on
Matthew 2:11:
“Contrary to tradition, the Magi did
not visit Jesus at the manger on the night of his birth as did the shepherds.
They came some months later and visited him as a ‘child’ in his ‘house.’”
The fact that Herod --when seeking to have young Jesus killed-- ordered the slaughter of all two years and under aged boys in the area, is verification that Jesus was no babe in a manger when the magi / astrologers visited. Herod targeted that age group “according to the time that he had carefully ascertained from the astrologers.”—
Matthew 2:16.
Another verification is that, had they visited & brought gold and other valuable gifts to Jesus on the night of his birth, it is
extremely unlikely that Mary would have offered only two birds 40 days later when she presented Jesus at the temple (
Luke 2:22-24), as this was a provision in the Law for
poor people who
could not afford a young ram. (
Leviticus 12:6-8)
The magi themselves were definitely
not servants of the God worshipped by the Israelites. Instead, they were pagan astrologers -and- they were led by that star straight to the pagan, Herod . . . in Jerusalem . . . because the god that provided said star --Satan-- wanted to kill Jesus before he could fulfill all the prophecies about himself in God's Word . . . starting with
Genesis 3:14-15 . . .
(Then Jehovah God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are the cursed one out of all the domestic animals and out of all the wild animals of the field. On your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will crush your head, and
you will strike him in the heel.”)
Satan is identified in Scripture as:
"The god of this system of things," (
2 Co 4:4a);
"The ruler of this world," (
John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11);
"A murderer ... he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him," (
John 8:44b)
"The ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit ... now at work in the sons of disobedience." (
Eph 2:2b);
This goes along with the fact that Satan was able to offer Christ rulership of all the world, if he would only do an act of worship toward him. That offer would have been pointless if the Devil had not indeed exercised authority over them.
When Herod learned the Messiah had been born, he found out from the Israelites where their prophesies said he would be born, and then sent the astrologers to find him, with strict orders to return & tell him where the child was, so that he could have him killed (although he claimed it was so he could go do obeisance to him.) When the astrologers did not return, he "flew into a great rage, and he sent out and had all the boys in Bethlehem and in all its districts killed, from two years of age and under".)
Getting back to the men who brought Jesus gifts. . . .
Astrologers (Gr.,
maʹgoi; “Magi,” AS ftn,
CC, We; “
Magians,”
ED)
brought gifts to the young child Jesus. (
Mt 2:1-16)
The Imperial Bible-Dictionary (Vol. II, p. 139) says:
“According to Herodotus the magi were a tribe of the Medes ... who professed to interpret dreams, and had the official charge of sacred rites . . . they were, in short, the learned and priestly class, and having, as was supposed, the skill of deriving from books and the observation of the stars a supernatural insight into coming events . . . .
So . . .
Justin Martyr, Origen, and Tertullian, when reading
Matthew 2:1, thought of
maʹgoi as
astrologers.
Tertullian wrote (“On Idolatry,” IX):
“We know the mutual alliance of magic and astrology. The
interpreters of the stars, then, were the first . . . to present Him [Jesus] ‘gifts.’” (
The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1957, Vol. III, p. 65)
The name
Magi became current “as a generic term for astrologers in the East.”
—
The New Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, 1952, Vol. 22, p. 8076.
So the circumstantial evidence is strong that the
maʹgoi who visited the infant Jesus were
astrologers.
Thus
The New Testament translated by C. B. Williams reads “
star-gazers,” with a footnote in explanation:
“This is, students of stars in relation to events on earth.”
Fittingly, then, modern English translations read “astrologers” at
Matthew 2:1.—
AT, NE, NW, Ph.
(The entire account ends with verse 16.)
The star that led them brought them from the east to Jerusalm (where Herod was), and then it took them to Bethlehem . . . stopping over the house where Jesus' family lived.
Thus, neither the star itself, then, nor the people following it, nor the person they were first led to . . . none of them originated with Jehovah God OR his followers. They were all a part of Satan's attempted attacks upon the Messiah.
Was the 'Star of Bethlehem' the aligning of two planets . . . ?
How would they have led the astrologers first to Herod, and, then to Jesus . . . ?
Remember . . . the Egyptian 'wise men' were able to conjure up a snake, in defiance of Jehovah God. (
Ex 7:9-13)
Demonic power was undoubtedly the source of that snake . . . as well as the source of the star that was followed by the astrologers who visited Jesus & his family.
SO . . .
No . . . I'm not excited about the aligning of Jupiter & Venus from our earthly vantage point . . .
And, No . . . that was not what formed the 'star of Bethlehem' that the astrologers followed.
Jehovah God would never have put the child Jesus in harms way.
Herod showed what a vicious man he was when he ordered ALL the young boys slaughtered, when the astrologers did not return & tell him which one was the Messiah.
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