The Astronomy of the Bible Part 5

[43:1] _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, p. 32.

[46:1] Ruskin, _Modern Painters_, part vii. chap. i.

CHAPTER V

THE ORDINANCES OF THE HEAVENS

As has been already pointed out, the astronomical references in Scripture are not numerous, and probably give but an inadequate idea of the actual degree of progress attained by the Hebrews in astronomical science. Yet it is clear, even from the record which we have, that there was one great astronomical fact which they had observed, and that it had made a deep impression upon them.

That fact was the sublime Order of the heavenly movements. First amongst these was the order of the daily progress of the sun; rising in the east and moving slowly, majestically, and resistlessly upward to the meridian,--the "midst" or "bisection" of heaven, of Josh. x. 13,--and then pa.s.sing downwards as smoothly and unfalteringly to his setting in the west.

This motion of the sun inspires the simile employed by the Psalmist in the astronomical psalm, the nineteenth. He sings--

"The heavens declare the glory of G.o.d.

In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course.

His going forth is from the end of the heaven, And his circuit unto the ends of it: And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."

The night revealed another Order, in its way more majestic still. As the twilight faded away the bright and silent watchers of the heavens mustered each in his place. And each, like the sun during the day, was moving, slowly, majestically, resistlessly, "without haste, without rest." Each had its appointed place, its appointed path. Some moved in small circles in the north; some rose in the east, and swept in long curves over towards their setting in the west, some scarcely lifted themselves above the southern horizon. But each one kept its own place.

None jostled another, or hurried in advance, or lagged behind. It is no wonder that as the mult.i.tude of the stars was observed, and the unbroken order of their going, that the simile suggested itself of an army on the march--"the host of heaven." And the sight of the unbroken order of these bright celestial orbs suggested a comparison with the unseen army of exalted beings, the angels; the army or host of heaven in another sense, marshalled, like the stars, in perfect obedience to the Divine will. So in the vision of Micaiah, the son of Imlah, the "host of heaven" are the thousands of attendant spirits waiting around the throne of G.o.d to fulfil His bidding.

"I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on His right hand and on His left."

But more frequently it is the starry, not the angelic, army to which reference is made.

So Jeremiah prophesies--

"As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, Neither the sand of the sea measured: So will I multiply the seed of David My servant, And the Levites that minister unto Me."

The prophets of Israel recognized clearly, that the starry host of heaven and the angelic host were distinct; that the first, in their brightness, order, and obedience formed fitting comparison for the second; but that both were created beings; neither were divinities.

The heathen nations around recognized also the hosts both of the stars and of spiritual beings, but the first they took as the manifestations of the second, whom they counted as divinities. There was often a great confusion between the two, and the observance or worship of the first could not be kept distinguished from the recognition or worship of the other; the very ideogram for a G.o.d was an 8-rayed star.

The Hebrews were warned again and again lest, confusing in their minds these two great hosts of stars and angels, they should deem the one the divine manifestation of the other, the divinity, not accounting them both fellow-servants, the handiwork of G.o.d.

Thus, in the wilderness, the Lord commands them through Moses--

"Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, . . . 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 G.o.d hath divided [distributed] unto all nations under the whole heaven."

But the one celestial army continually suggests the other, and the two are placed in the closest parallelism when reference is made to the time when the foundations of the earth were fastened, and the corner stone thereof was laid,

"When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of G.o.d shouted for joy."

So when Deborah sings of the deliverance which the Lord gave to Israel at the battle of the Kishon, she puts the stars for the angelic legions that she feels a.s.sured were engaged in warring in their support.

"They fought from heaven; The stars in their courses fought against Sisera."

The "courses" of the stars are the paths which they appear to follow as they move round the pole of the heavens as the night proceeds, whilst the stars themselves stand for the heavenly helpers who, unseen, had mingled in the battle and discomforted the squadrons of Sisera's war-chariots. It almost reads as if to Deborah had been vouchsafed such a vision as Elisha prayed might be given to his servant:--

"Therefore sent the King of Syria thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compa.s.sed the city about.

"And when the servant of the man of G.o.d was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compa.s.sed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

"And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

"And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

The solemn procession of the starry host through the long night--the rising in the east, the southing, and the setting in the west--is not the only ordered movement of the stars of heaven that may be recognized.

As night by night brightens to its dawn, if we watch the eastern horizon and note what stars are the last to rise above it before the growing daylight overpowers the feeble stellar rays, then we see that some bright star, invisible on the preceding mornings, shines out for a few moments low down in the glimmer of the dawn. As morning succeeds morning it rises earlier, until at last it mounts when it is yet dark, and some other star takes its place as the herald of the rising sun. We recognize to-day this "heliacal rising" of the stars. Though we do not make use of it in our system of time-measuring, it played an important part in the calendar-making of the ancients. Such heralds of the rising sun were called "morning stars" by the Hebrews, and they used them "for seasons"

and "for years." One star or constellation of stars would herald by its "heliacal rising" the beginning of spring, another the coming of winter; the time to plough, the time to sow, the time of the rains, would all be indicated by the successive "morning stars" as they appeared. And after an interval of three hundred and sixty-five or three hundred and sixty-six days the same star would again show itself as a morning star for a second time, marking out the year, whilst the other morning stars would follow, each in its due season. So we read in Job, that G.o.d led "forth the Mazzaroth in their season."

This wonderful procession of the midnight sky is not known and admired by those who live in walled cities and ceiled houses, as it is by those who live in the open, in the wilderness. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that we find praise of these "works of the Lord . . .

sought out of all them that have pleasure therein," mostly amongst the shepherds, the herdsmen, the wanderers in the open--in the words and prophecies of Job, of Jacob, Moses, David and Amos.

The thought that each new day, beginning with a new outburst of light, was, in its degree, a kind of new creation, an emblem of the original act by which the world was brought into being, renders appropriate and beautiful the ascription of the term "morning stars" to those "sons of G.o.d," the angels. As the stars in the eastern sky are poetically thought of as "singing together" to herald the creation of each new day, so in the verses already quoted from the Book of Job, the angels of G.o.d are represented as shouting for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid.

The "morning star" again stands as the type and earnest of that new creation which G.o.d has promised to His servants. The epistle to Thyatira concludes with the promise--"He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, . . . I will give him the morning star."

The brightest of these heralds of the sun is the planet Venus, and such a "morning star" for power, glory, and magnificence, the king of Babylon had once been; like one of the angels of G.o.d. But as addressed in Isaiah's prophecy, he has been brought down to Sheol:--

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!. . . For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of G.o.d . . . I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."

But the "morning star" is taken as a higher type, even of our Lord Himself, and of His future coming in glory. St. Peter bids the disciples, to whom he writes, take heed unto the word of prophecy as unto a lamp shining in a dark place "until the day dawn, and the Day star arise in your hearts." In almost the last words of the Bible, the Lord uses the same image Himself:--

"I, Jesus, have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the Churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star."

In the sublime and ordered movements of the various heavenly bodies, the Hebrews recognized the ordinances of G.o.d. The point of view always taken in Scripture is the theo-centric one; the relation sought to be brought out is not the relation of thing to thing--which is the objective of physical science--but the relation of creature to Creator. We have no means of knowing whether they made attempt to find any mechanical explanation of the movements; such inquiry would lie entirely outside the scope of the books of Holy Scripture, and other ancient Hebrew literature has not been transmitted to us.

The lesson which the Psalmists and the Prophets desired to teach was not the daily rotation of the earth upon its axis, nor its yearly revolution round the sun, but that--

"If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever."

In the Bible all intermediate steps are omitted, and the result is linked immediately to the first Cause. G.o.d Himself is the theme, and trust in Him the lesson.

"Lift up your eyes on high, and see Who hath created these, That bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by name; by the greatness of His might, and for that He is strong in power, not one is lacking.

"Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is pa.s.sed away from my G.o.d.

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? the everlasting G.o.d, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of His understanding.

He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."