#22──發光體──Luminaries

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第二部分：可見的創造系統

四、天體：第二十二章 發光體

約伯問我們：「你能繫住昴星的結麼、能解開參星的帶麼？」³¹¹ 我們必須非常誠實地考慮這個問題。在所有的受造物中，有誰能夠俯瞰他所創造的並挪動在他之下的任何星辰呢？除了那創造它們的之外，這當然不會是我們，更不會是任何一個眾生。以賽亞向我們辯稱，除了那聰明的設計者外，認為任何力量都可以做到這一點的，那是愚昧的想法。「你們向上舉目、看誰創造這萬象、按數目領出、他一一稱其名．因他的權能、又因他的大能大力、連一個都不缺。」³¹²的確，只有耶和華創造了它們、給它們起了名字，並從創造中領出它們來。事實上，即使詩人也宣稱：「他數點星宿的數目、一一稱他的名。」 ³¹³

人無法數點所有星宿的數目，但上帝可以，祂賦予每一個各有其目的、呼召和位置。當亞伯蘭領受了上帝的應許之後，他就被稱為亞伯拉罕──從為「父」的，到「多國的父」。創世記15:5節說：「於是領他走到外邊、說、你向天觀看、數算眾星、能數得過來麼．又對他說、你的後裔將要如此。」³¹⁴以及創世記22:17：「論福、我必賜大福給你、論子孫、我必叫你的子孫多起來、如同天上的星、海邊的沙、你子孫必得著仇敵的城門。」³¹⁵ 星辰確實是數不清的，正如經上所說的。³¹⁶ 以色列人一次又一次地記起並講述上帝對亞伯拉罕的應許。³¹⁷

那麼，無數的星星是上帝所創造的，是屬祂的。它們被安放在大地之上，在祂的腳凳之下，為發光、定時令：「神說、天上要有光體、可以分晝夜、作記號、定節令、日子、年歲．並要發光在天空、普照在地上．事就這樣成了。 於是　神造了兩個大光、大的管晝、小的管夜．又造眾星。 」³¹⁸ 人以定時令、月份和季節為要緊之事，上帝使之簡化，人變得以使用這大光：日頭、月亮和眾星。因它們是上帝為日子、時間和季節所命的，所以，它們在耶和華大而可畏、即將臨到的審判之日，也為上帝所命。

「稱謝那造成大光的、因他的慈愛永遠長存． 他造日頭管白晝、因他的慈愛永遠長存．他造月亮星宿管黑夜、因他的慈愛永遠長存．」³¹⁹ 詩人宣稱，因為上帝的慈愛永遠長存，但終有一天，這都必結束──「地還存留的時候、稼穡、寒暑、冬夏、晝夜、就永不停息了。」³²⁰ 眾星將告知大地的結束，所有的人將會確實地知道，因它們將從穹蒼之上墜落，墜到第一層天、大地和洋海──「那些日子的災難一過去、日頭就變黑了、月亮也不放光、眾星要從天上墜落、天勢都要震動。」³²¹在啟示錄中，約翰也四次看到了這種情況。³²²

這不是新約獨有的應許。但以理在異象中看到一隻公山羊興起，將些星宿拋落在地踐踏³²³──這確實是亞歷山大大帝征服歐洲和西亞的一個異象，亞歷山大大帝甚至公認這為真理，儘管他說他並不敬拜上帝。³²⁴ 這樣看來，我們在新約中看眾星從天墜落一事是一種真實，而但以理則視之為改變世界歷史事件的預言。然而我們知道，我們不僅需要查看但以理的記載，以賽亞也記述了：「天上的萬象都要消沒、天被捲起、好像書卷．其上的萬象要殘敗、像葡萄樹的葉子殘敗、又像無花果樹的葉子殘敗一樣。」³²⁵ 而啟示錄6:13也同樣重複了這一點。³²⁶ 請留意，以賽亞描述了天上的窗戶，它們怎樣像書卷般一下子被打開，天上的萬象（眾星）墜落。這節經文不僅描述了眾星之所在，也描述了它們的大小──當所有或三分之一、甚至一小部分的星辰從天墜落時， 大地並未被毀──這並不是我在小學時所學的內容。 ³²⁷

主的日子是大而可畏的，但眾星不一定非要墜落，我們才會因上帝的威嚴可畏而顫抖。「天上的眾星群宿、都不發光．日頭一出、就變黑暗、月亮也不放光。」³²⁸還有「他們一來、地震天動、日月昏暗、星宿無光。」³²⁹、「日月昏暗、星宿無光。」³³⁰ 在那些大而可畏之日，萬軍之主甚至把眾星普照在人臉上的光收回，是祂創造了眾星，故眾星都在祂的管理之下，照祂所喜悅的，使之昏暗或墜落。因祂來是要審判活人、死人，即便如此，祂必快來。

註

³¹¹ 約伯記38:31；另見阿摩司書5:8 KJV「尋找那創造七星和獵戶座，使死蔭變為晨曦，使白晝與黑夜同在，呼喚海中的水，將它們澆灌在地上的。他的名字是耶和華。」

和合本翻譯：「要尋求那造昴星和參星、使死蔭變為晨光、使白日變為黑夜、命海水來澆在地上的、（耶和華是他的名）。」

³¹² 以賽亞書40:26

³¹³ 詩篇147:4

³¹⁴ 和合本翻譯

315 同上

³¹⁶ 耶利米書33:22 「天上的萬象不能數算、海邊的塵沙也不能斗量．我必照樣使我僕人大衛的後裔、和事奉我的利未人多起來。」

³¹⁷ 申命記10:22、歷代志上27:23、尼希米記 9:23、希伯來書11:12

³¹⁸ 創世記1:14-16

³¹⁹ 詩篇136:7-9

³²⁰ 創世記8:22

³²¹ 馬太福音24:29，另見馬可福音13:25

³²² 啟示錄6:13, 8:10, 9:1, 12:4

³²³ 但以理書 8:10

³²⁴約瑟夫《猶太人的古史》，第11冊，第8章。8, sec.5

³²⁵ 以賽亞書34:4

³²⁶ 「天上的星辰墜落於地、如同無花果樹被大風搖動、落下未熟的果子一樣。」

³²⁷ 我記得在六年級時被教導：我們的太陽，是一顆黃色的星星，裡面可以容納 1,300,000 個地球。這到底是什麼巫術？

³²⁸ 以賽亞書13:10

³²⁹ 約珥書 2:10

³³⁰ 約珥書 3:15

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Part Two: The System of Visible Creation

IV: Celestial Bodies──Chapter 22: Luminaries

“Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Orion?” Job asks us.¹ It is with great honesty that we must consider this question. Who is it in all of creation that can look down on His creation and move any of the stars below Him? It is certainly not us, nor any other sentient being besides the one who made them. Isaiah pleads with us of the folly of thinking that any other force besides the Intelligent Designer Himself can do it. “Look up and see: who created these? He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name. Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing.”² It is indeed only the Lord who made them, who named them, and who called them out into creation. Indeed even the Psalmist declares: “He determines and counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names.”³

Man cannot number all of the stars, yet God can. God has given them each a purpose and a calling and a place. Abram, when receiving the promises of God, had his name changed to Abraham. Who was once named: “Father” is now named: “Father of Many.” Genesis 15:5 says: “And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them ” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.””⁴ As well as Genesis 22:17: “indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.”⁵ The stars are literally innumerable, as is given evidence by Scripture.⁶ Again and again, Israel remembered the promises of God toward Abraham and recounted it.⁷

The stars then, innumerable and created by God, are His. They were placed above the earth, below His footstool, for light, and to tell time. “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between day and night and to mark the seasons and days and years, and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well.”⁸ Man has used these great lights: The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars; Telling time and month and season is often of great importance to him and God wanted it to be made easy. Just as they are His to command for the days and times and seasons, so they will be His to command at the Great Day of the Lord, in the coming judgement.

“To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever: The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever: The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.”⁹ Declares the Psalmist, for indeed God’s lovingkindness is everlasting. But there will be a day where this ends. “Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.”¹⁰ But the earth shall end, and the stars will tell of it. Indeed, all men will know it, for they will fall from the firmament, into the first heaven, and onto the earth and seas. “And immediately, after the desolation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from the heavens, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.”¹¹ Four times in the book of Revelation, John sees this as well.¹²

This is not a uniquely New Testament promise. Daniel sees a vision of a Billy Goat rising and stamping out some of the stars from heaven.¹³ Indeed it was a vision of Alexander the Great conquering Europe and Western Asia. Alexander the Great even acknowledged it as truth, though he said that he did not worship God.¹⁴ In this way, we see the stars falling from heaven in the New Testament as a reality, where Daniel saw them as a prophesy of a historical event that would change the world. But we know that it is not only Daniel’s account that we need to look at. Isaiah also recounts “And all the host of heaven will wear away, And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; All their hosts will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine, Or as one withers from the fig tree.”¹⁵ This is repeated in Revelation 6:13 as well.¹⁶ Notice that Isaiah describes the windows of heaven, and how when they are all opened at once, as a scroll, their host (the stars) will fall. This verse not only describes the stars location, but it describes their size as well. The earth is not destroyed when all, or one third, or even a tiny fraction of the stars fall from heaven. This is not what I was taught in grade school.¹⁷

Great and terrible indeed is the day of the Lord. But the stars do not have to fall for us to tremble at the awesome display of God’s majesty. “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations won’t shine their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon won’t shine its light.”¹⁸ And: “The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining.”¹⁹ And: “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.”²⁰ Great and terrible will be those times that the Lord of Hosts withdraws even the stars brilliance to shine down on the faces of men. The stars are in His control, for they are His creation. He will make them to go dark or to fall, as that is His pleasure. For He comes to judge the quick and the dead, and even so, He comes quickly.

Footnotes

¹ Job 38:31 ASV; See also Amos 5:8 KJV: “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:”

² Isaiah 40:26 HB

³ Psalms 147:4 AMP

⁴ NASB

⁵ ibid

⁶ Jeremiah 33:22 AMP “As the host of [the stars of] the heavens cannot be numbered nor the sand of the sea be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.”

⁷ Deut. 10:22, 1 Chor. 27:23, Neh. 9:23, Heb. 11:12

⁸ Genesis 1:14-16 BSB

⁹ Psalm 136:7-9 ERV

¹⁰ Genesis 8:22 DARBY

¹¹ Matthew 24:29 GODBEY, Also, see Mark 13:25

¹² Revelation 6:13, 8:10, 9:1, 12:4

¹³ Daniel 8:10

¹⁴ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11, chap. 8, sec. 5

¹⁵ Isaiah 34:4 NASB

¹⁶ NIV “and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.”

¹⁷ I recall being taught in the 6th grade that our Sun, a yellow star, could fit 1,300,000 earths inside of it. What in the blue blazes is this sorcery?

¹⁸ Isaiah 13:10 ISV

¹⁹ Joel 2:10 AMP

²⁰ Joel 3:15 KJV 2000

──Biblical Cosmology by Pauly Hart
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