July 18th, 2021

The Old Testament Reading for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost is from Jeremiah 23[:1-6], and the text predicts the reign of a very important king. It is very unfortunate that this picture of a king does not have the significance that it did in the past. Very few people in the twenty-first century have an accurate picture in their minds as to what it means to be a king.

One picture that may be helpful that has been present from almost day one—actually this happened on day four—is that the things in the sky have some dominion. Here are those words in a somewhat-literal translation [Genesis 1:16-18]:

And God made two of the great lights, the greater light, for governing of the day and the lesser light, for governing of the night, and also the stars. And God gave them in the expanse of the heavens to cause light upon the earth, and to govern in the day and in the night and to separate between the light and between the darkness, and God saw that it was good.

The sun, moon, and stars all govern in a way, and they are over the people of the earth. In much the same way, a king reigns over some people. In a very simple way, it is a height issue. The king is over those he governs. He sometime does this by sitting. The problem with sitting is that the king would usually be lower than the others if the others are standing. But the others may be doing something like falling on their faces, and that ends up being an extremely low position.

One interesting tradition is the use of stars in the thrones of the ancient kings. Stars have been grouped into constellations for centuries, almost from day one. I mentioned last week that the book of Job mentions the constellations of Pleiades and Orion, and that is a very old book.

One very interesting connection is between the constellations and the living creatures of the LORD’s throne that are mentioned in both the Old Testament and the New, although they basically have a different order each time they are mentioned, and that can be confusing.

The various constellations are below. The first row are the names of the constellations if you are interested in something like astrology (having the stars determine the future—that seems to be VERY much out of the range of their authority, although it is certainly NOT out of the LORD's authority). The second row are the more typical names of all the constellations. The third row are the four living creatures that come up, each at the same interval (except for the difference between an eagle and a scorpion; this may be explained in that a scorpion has been connected to evil because of its ability to kill; and if you would like to look at the stars that make up this constellation, one might see an eagle's head calling out).
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​Aires                ram
Taurus             bull                              ox
Gemini            twins
Cancer             crab
Leo                  lion                              lion
Virgo               virgin
Libra                scale
Scorpio            scorpion                      eagle
Sagittarius       archer
Capricorn        goat
Aquarius          water-bearer              man
Pisces              fish