A Message In The Stars

Introduction

Job 38:1–3 KJV

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

The book of Job is thought to be the oldest book in the Bible. Many scholars date it between the 7th and 4th centuries before Christ was born. I tell you this because I want you to keep it in mind for some things we will look at tonight.

I read Job chapter 38 quite often…I know men that don’t like to read Job, they seem scared of it, but I visit this book quite often because it helps me keep focused on Who God is and who I am…It’ll help us to see how small we are and how big God is. He is God and is not accountable to us at all. He does what He pleases, when He pleases. His way is perfect, even if we don’t like it, don’t agree with it, or understand it.

Our responsibility is to trust in Him.

To add some context here, Job had previously complained because God had allowed him to lose everything and wasn't speaking to him. God now speaks and His response is a challenge for Job to gird up his loins like a man. In other words, God tells him to "man up".

Job had insisted that God bring answers to him.

Job said in the chapters leading up to this, “God I just don’t understand this world, everything is dying and broken, why do I see nothing but suffering? God I'm asking could this be Your plan, sin has taken hold of this whole land, will You not say anything else to me?”

Well, God responds in chapter 38; and His response doesn’t address Job’s suffering or offer any comfort. Instead,

The questions God had for Job in this chapter were simply unanswerable and were meant to show Job that he really had no place to demand answers from God. But to see this appearance of God to Job only as a rebuke is a mistake...

God has now appeared to Job!

Job’s greatest agony was that he felt God had abandoned him,

Job 23:8–9 KJV

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:

but now he knew he was not abandoned! Always remember friends, when you cannot track God, just trust Him anyway!

Like any true revelation of God, there were plenty of elements that would make Job feel small before the greatness of God; yet it could not take away from the massive comfort Job felt in simply being once again consciously in the presence of God.

What were some of the questions God asked? They could be summed up into three little words…Where were you?

Job 38:4 KJV

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

God directed His focus upon His creation, authority, and power. The Lord put Job in his place by asking a number of questions about His creative work which Job would be unable and unqualified to answer with a knowledgeable response. They were questions that only God could answer. They included:

Questions about the Start of Creation

Questions about the Sea

Questions about the Sun

In this message, we will focus about God’s Question concerning some stars...

*****Now if you go out tonight and gaze at the stars. There is a lot to learn just by looking at those stars in the sky. They may be saying more to us that we realize.

Psalm 19:1 KJV

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

In the book of Job as God spoke, He made a number of fascinating statements about the heavens in chapter 38.

In v. 31-32 God speaks of His knowledge of astronomical features of our universe.

Job 38:31–32 KJV

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?

Did you notice the peculiarity of God’s expression about these stars?

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades? Canst thou “loose the bands of Orion”? Canst thou “guide Arcturus with his sons”?

It is clear that God expects Job to answer “no” to these questions and to affirm that He can do what Job cannot! But notice these interesting features of the star groups mentioned:

Pleiades

God challenged Job’s ability to “bind the sweet influences of Pleiades.”

It’s as if He was saying, “Hey Job, you think you can keep Pleiades together? Well, I can!”

As it turns out, the Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) is an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus.

Today there are only six stars in the Pleiades that are easily visible with the naked eye. In reality, the seventh star is just at the limit of human vision in terms of brightness.

The Japanese word for Pleiades is Subaru! (In case y’all ever wanted to know where the Subaru car logo come from!) It is classified as an "open cluster" because it is a group of hundreds of stars formed from the same cosmic cloud. They are approximately the same age and have roughly the same chemical composition. Most importantly, they are bound to one another by a mutual gravitational attraction.

Isabel Lewis of the United States Naval Observatory said, “Astronomers have identified 250 stars as actual members of this group, all sharing in a common motion and drifting through space in the same direction.”

Lewis said they are “journeying onward together through the immensity of space.”

Dr. Robert J. Trumpler said, “Over 25,000 individual measures of the Pleiades stars are now available, and their study led to the important discovery that the whole cluster is moving in a southeasterly direction.

The Pleiades stars may thus be compared to a swarm of birds, flying together to a distant goal.

This leaves no doubt that the Pleiades are not a temporary or accidental cluster of stars, but a system in which the stars are bound together by a close kinship.”

From our perspective on Earth, the Pleiades will not change in appearance; these stars are marching together in formation toward the same destination, bound in unison, just as God described them.

Orion

God says to Job, “Canst thou…loose the bands of Orion?”

Despite its size of about 350 light years diameter and despite the vast quantities of gas and dust it contains, the whole system of the constellation Orion is gravitationally unstable and is steadily expanding outwards.

The gravitational "bands" holding the constellation together have indeed been “loosed”, just as God said to Job. Not only that, but even the smaller clusters of stars within the association are fragmenting. What that means is that the stars of constellation are moving in different directions and are not bound together.

Garrett P. Serviss, a noted astronomer, wrote about the bands of Orion in his book, Curiosities of the Sky: “The great figure of Orion appears to be more lasting, not because its stars are physically connected, but because of their great distance, which renders their movements too deliberate to be exactly ascertained. Two of the greatest of its stars, Betelgeuse (Be·tel·geuse) and Rigel (Rye-jul), possess, as far as has been ascertained, no perceptible motion across the line of sight, but there is a little movement perceptible in the ‘Belt.’

At the present time this consists of an almost perfect straight line, a row of second-magnitude stars about equally spaced and of the most striking beauty.

In the course of time, however, the two right-hand stars, Mintaka and Alnilam. These two stars will approach each other and form what's called a "naked-eye double" - That's what they refer to as a star that can be seen with the human eye with no need of telescope, and the third star, Alnita, they say will drift away eastward, so that the ‘Belt’ will no longer exist.”

Unlike the Pleaides clusters, the stars in the band of Orion do not share a common path.

In the course of time, according to astronomers, Orion’s belt will be loosened just as God told Job.

Arcturus

In the last section of the verse, God described Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. God challenged Job to “guide Arcturus with his sons.”

God says, “Canst thou…guide Arcturus with his sons.”

With this challenge, God appeared to be saying, “Hey Job, you think you can direct Arcturus anywhere you want? Well, I can!”

While Arcturus certainly appeared in antiquity to be a single star, in 1971 astronomers discovered there were 52 additional stars connected directionally with Arcturus (known now as the Arcturus stream).

Interestingly, God described Arcturus as having “sons” and Charles Burckhalter, of the Chabot Observatory, (again quoted in the book Wonder Worlds) said “these stars are a law unto themselves.” Serviss added, “Arcturus, one of the greatest suns in the universe, is a runaway whose speed of flight is 257 miles per second. Arcturus, we have every reason to believe, possesses thousands of times the mass of our sun…Our sun is traveling only 12 ½ miles a second, but Arcturus is traveling 257 miles a second…”

Burckhalter affirmed this description of Arcturus, saying, “This high velocity places Arcturus in that very small class of stars that apparently are a law unto themselves. He is an outsider, a visitor, a stranger within the gates; to speak plainly, Arcturus is a runaway.

Sir Isaac Newton gives the velocity of a star under control as not more than 25 miles a second, and Arcturus is going 257 miles a second. Therefore, combined attraction of all the stars we know cannot stop him or even turn him in his path.”

Arcturus and “his sons” are on a course all their own. Only God has the power to guide them, just as described in the ancient book of Job.

Conclusion

You might be thinking, preacher, why in the world have you told us all this tonight.

I told you all this to bring “awe” to the Almighty…There’s a big problem in the Church today and it’s that we have no awe of God anymore...We've lost the amazement we once had. My friend, this stuff right here is amazing, and points to what an amazing God we serve! When I think of God, and everything that is recording in His Word, I can't do anything but stand in awe of His mighty power!

I doubt the point here was for God to teach Job an astronomy lesson, but instead, God challenged Job and had him remember the bigger picture of who had the power, authority, and wisdom to care for him, even when he felt abandoned.

Psalm 8:3–4 KJV

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?

At the end of God’s questioning of Job, Job responds with, “God, I’m sorry, I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, and although I had no right to ask, my God knelt and answered me!”

Job 7:17 KJV 1900

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

Hey! Listen right here! When times are tough, when it seems that we’ve been abandoned, remember!

Matthew 10:29–31 KJV

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Remember!

Isaiah 41:10 KJV

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

I DONT KNOW WHAT YOURE GOING THROUGH, AND I DONT HAVE TO, I KNOW A GOD THAT IS MORE THAN CAPABLE, MORE THAN POWERFUL, MORE THAN BIG ENOUGH TO TAKE CARE OF EVERY PROBLEM THAT YOU AND I HAVE!

I HUMBLES ME TO THINK THAT WHILE GOD WAS HANGING THE STARS, HE WAS THINKING OF ME, HE WAS PREPARING A WAY FOR ME TO ESCAPE SIN, HE WAS PREPARING HIS DARLING SON TO COME TO THIS WORLD, BECOME THE PERFECT SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS.

GOD WAS PREPARING A BETTER LIFE FOR US...

The only response we should have to such an amazing God is WORSHIP! Pure, unadulterated worship! No matter our situation, no matter what we are going through...

Psalm 33:8 KJV

Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.