The Witness of the Stars
Dearly beloved of God, not only did the shepherds witness the swaddling ceremony of God’s only begotten Son, the King of the Judeans, but God marked his birth by the witness of the stars.
Revelation 12:1-5
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
God revealed this information to John in a vision, which concerns both past and future events regarding the spiritual warfare between the One True God and the devil.
The birth it speaks of can be none other than that of Jesus Christ.
“There appeared a great wonder in heaven.” “Wonder” is the Greek word “semeion,” which means sign. It can be any kind of a sign, but one notable usage is in reference to a sign of the zodiac. The sign mentioned here appeared “in heaven.”
This sign concerns a woman. The only sign of the zodiac that this could be is the constellation Virgo. Furthermore, she was “clothed with the sun,” another heavenly body.
Each year the sun passes through the mid body of Virgo between her neck and her knees “clothing her with the sun,” for approximately twenty-one days. In 3 B.C. the sun passed through Virgo from August 27 through September 15.
Verse one also tells us that the “moon was under her feet.” This only occurred in 3 B.C. on Tishri 1 (September 11 on our calendar,) between sunset at 6:18 P.M. and moonset at 7:39 P.M. from their vantage point in Bethlehem. Jesus Christ took his first breath during this eighty-one minute window of time.
Verses 2 and 4 tell us that the woman was ready to deliver her child. Verses 3 and 4 recount the devil’s fall from heaven, and his plan to devour her child as soon as he was born. Verse 5 speaks of the child’s birth, and his ascension to God’s throne.
There was another significant astronomical event that same day. Jupiter, the king planet, and Regulus, the king star in the constellation Leo, could be seen approaching conjunction before dawn. The constellation Leo was the sign of Judah from which the Messiah, the promised seed was to come.
As the Feast of Tabernacles began on Tishri 1, in 3 B.C. at sunset (the beginning of the Judean day,) the Day of Trumpets, Jesus, the King of the Judeans, the King of kings was born. Tishri 1 on our calendar is September 11. God marked His Son’s birth with the witness of the stars.
Psalm 19 speaks of how God wrote His Word in the heavens. The witness of the stars recorded in the firmament of heaven parallels the record of the written Word of God in the second half of Psalm 19. Day after day they speak, and night after night they inform us of God’s plan for the ages. They speak of the coming of the Christ.
Only God could synchronize the movements of the heavenly bodies with the timing of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the fulfillment of prophesies, some spoken about 4,000 years before, to celebrate the birth of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The religious leaders, nor the 70 of the Sanhedrin, nor the King and his court knew anything about Jesus’ birth, but God sent the angel of the LORD, and the heavenly host to inform the faithful shepherds of the birth, and to invite them to his swaddling ceremony that night.
Rejoice, dearly beloved of God, and live with thanksgiving in your heart for God’s great grace, mercy, and love toward us in Christ Jesus.