Psalms 8:3-4, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
The inspired Holy Bible has MUCH to tell us about the
stars. God is so more than amazing. Genesis 1:16, “And God made two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night: he made the stars also.” I love that simple little phrase...
HE MADE THE STARS ALSO. Astronomers tell us that so far they have discovered 200
sextillion stars in the known universe (no one truly knows how many stars and
galaxies exist out there). Dear friend, 200 sextillion stars equals more than
every grain of sand upon the earth! Yet, Just one atom of sand contains more
atoms than all the stars in the universe. 10,000 billion of billions of stars in
the observable universe equals 1022
(that is 10 to the 22nd power). For a typical grain of sand (size 1 mm) made of
Si02 , the estimate is 1019 atoms. So 1g of grain of sand
truly has more atoms than stars in the universe. Wow! Did I say that God is more
than amazing?!
I won't get into every detail in the Bible about stars in this article, because it would require a lengthy book. Moses warned the Hebrew people about the risk and wickedness of worshipping the solar system instead of God...
Deuteronomy 4:14-15, 19-20, “And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire ... And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.”
Throughout recorded human civilization, occultists and false religions have worshipped the stars. We see in the Muslim religion that they worship the moon. That is why a crescent shaped moon is displayed on their Muslim flag. That is why Muslims (according to their religious book, the Hadith) requires them to pray 5 times each day while facing Mecca, Saudi Arabia (which is their holy city). The Hadith is a book of traditions authored by their cult's founder, Mohammed several centuries ago. It is a wicked sin to worship the sun, moon, stars or constellations.
It is okay to use the stars for navigation, which sea captains and wayfaring vessels have successfully done for millenniums. It is okay to study the stars and marvel at God's handiwork. You can even become passionate and infatuated with the wondrous universe, but you just cannot worship it, letting it take the place of sound Scriptural doctrine in your life. Proverbs 3:5-7, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” There are other websites that will give you some Bible facts about stars, but I prefer to make a practical application to edify my readers. For example: Stay away from Zodiacs and astrology. These are occult practices which every child of God should totally steer clear of.
I heard a family member once teach one of my children that their birthday determines their gifts in life. I overheard and kindly told her to be quiet and stop teach that occult garbage to my children. Your birthday DOESN'T determine anything in your life, it just signifies the place, day and time you were born as a human into the world. God alone is the one who determines our gifts in life, and what family and ethnicity we are born into. The stars do NOT guide our life. You'd be shocked if you knew how many foolish people make all major life's decisions based upon the alignment of the stars.
Having said that, it is okay of God decides to use the stars as a sign. Matthew 2:1-3, “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” We often hear about the “three wise men,” but the Bible actually doesn't tell us how many wise men came. It could have been just two, or a dozen or more. We simply do not know and should not speculate (unless we tell people that we are speculating). It is a serious matter to embellish what God has said in His inspired Word (Proverbs 30:5-6).
The original Bible manuscripts were written in three languages; namely, Hebrew, Chaldean and Greek. Only the book of Daniel was written in Chaldean, since Daniel was taken captive to Babylon (400 miles east of the city of Jerusalem). I think it is safe to assume that some type of prophecy had been made several centuries before Jesus' birth, because Matthew 2:2 says that the wise men from the east followed “HIS STAR,” which led them to the small town of Bethlehem. The Bible does not give us any more details. It could be because the Bible says these wise men brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (3 gifts) that people just assume there were three men. Truthfully, we do not know. Where the Bible is silent we should be silent.
This article is about whether or not stars have any purpose for the Christian. One thing I can think of is that God used the number of stars to compare how many descendents Abraham would have. Genesis 15:5, “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” So God sometimes uses the stars as a gauge of measurement.
I personally think that another reason God made the stars was for our enjoyment and curiosity as humans. Job 9:9, “Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.” Arcturus is a northern constellation, near that called: The Bear. Orion is a more southerly constellation, that rises to us in December. The Pleiades is a constellation not far from Orion, which we call the: Seven Stars.
Stars also apply to Christians concerning Bible prophecy. The Bible prophecies that some very strange things will happen during the future 7-year Tribulation period. Revelation 8:12, “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.” It's kind of funny, if you just drive into any major city in the United States, 90% of the stars will not be visible...lol. When I lived on Guam (2004-2021), I could see most of the stars, but even the lights from Tumon and Tamuning (Guam's most inhabited villages) produced enough light to block out 35% the stars. You'd either need to drive all the way south or north on Guam, where there are hardly any people, or be on a ship at sea, to see all the stars on a clear night when the moon is not shining. I've read that under perfect conditions, you can see about 4,000 stars in the night sky. God is truly more than amazing!
Another reason why I believe God made the stars was so that we would praise Him. Psalms 8:3-4, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” The shepherd boy who was anointed king was humbled by seeing the stars and solar system, pondering the seeming insignificance of mortal humanity, when compared to our immortal, great, good and omnipotent Creator! Let all creatures that hath breath praise the Lord!!! Psalms 150:6, “Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.”
So we see that the stars serve many purposes in a Christian's life. They compel us to praise our great and magnificent God and Creator. The stars make us humble, if we have a thankful heart toward God. The stars can be used to navigate our location if we get lost (which was invaluable throughout human civilisation before GPS was invented). I love the Google GPS on my mobile phone, without which I would get lost all the time. What a blessing from God!!! Now if I can just get Google to stop censoring 90% of my ministry's website articles. Stranger things have happened...lol.
The stars were used by God to make a promise to Abraham in the Old Testament, that his seed should multiply as the innumerable stars in Heaven. One thing that has always amazed me about God, is that He has a name for each and every star in the universe. Psalms 147:4, “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.” Wow! I have difficulty just remembering people's names at church that I met two weeks ago. Yet, our wonderful God knows and never forgets the name of at least 200 sextillion known stars in the universe. Mankind has no idea how big the universe really is, nor what lies beyond that edge of it. Can the universe have an end? If it is ever expanding outward, then what is it expanding into? These are impossible questions to answer with science. The ONLY logical answer is our omnipotent God. Thank you for reading.
