Transcript The Cords of Orion - Hacked by Fallaga team

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The Cords of Orion
a star-studded study
by
KEN CHANT
text
“Can you bind the chains of the
Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?
– Job 38:31 (ESV)
The most majestic constellation
in the summer night sky is
known as Orion – “The Hunter”.
Each year in Oz its rise in the
eastern sky marks the
beginning of Spring, and its
setting in the western sky,
the approach of Winter . . . .
Orion, early April in Oz,
facing west
We, of course, see Orion upside-down
in relation to the northern hemisphere,
so it is difficult for us to visualise the
“hunter”.
But this is how the ancient Greeks
saw the constellation –
The most
prominent star in
Orion is
Betelgeuse, a red
supergiant, nearly
as large as the
orbit of Mars.
It is about 400
light years
distant, and is
on the verge of
going
supernova –
An enlarged view of Betelgeuse –
In Greek mythology, Orion was a
massive huntsman who was stung to
death by a scorpion in punishment for
his boastfulness.
Hence, as Orion sets in the west, its
nemesis the constellation Scorpius
rises in the east, endlessly pursuing
the Hunter across the night sky –
Scorpius, as seen in Oz, midApril, at 10.00 pm.
Scorpius, as seen in the
northern hemisphere.
Scripture insists that there are lessons
for us in these things –
The Lord Rules the Skies
In the year 1016
Canute of Denmark
became King of
England
He enjoyed such
phenomenal
success as a ruler
that his courtiers
began to credit
him with godlike
powers.
This so exasperated
Canute that he set up the
famous test in which he
sat in front of the
advancing tide and
showed that he was
powerless to stop it!
Yet since then humans have shown
that they often can control, or at least
harness, even the roaring seas and the
howling wind!
But the great constellations above us
follow their serene path, utterly
indifferent to human affairs and vastly
beyond our reach!
The splendour of the
starry sky above us.
Notice the Southern
Cross (or Crux) with
the Milky Way in the
background –
looking south, early
April, 8 pm.
As Spurgeon once said –
“We cannot move the least of all the twinkling
stars, or quench so much as one of the beams
of the morning. We speak of power, but the
heavens laugh us to scorn. When the Pleiades
shine forth in spring with vernal joy we cannot
restrain their influences, and when Orion
reigns aloft, and the year is bound in winter’s
fetters, we cannot relax the icy bands. The
seasons revolve according to the divine
appointment, neither can the whole race of
men effect a change therein.”
No, indeed, as
scripture says, we
cannot unravel the
cords that bind
together the stars of
the magnificent
constellations.
But God can and
does! He rules the
vast heavens with
consummate
ease!
What then is there to fear? Our Lord
governs the limitless skies – he easily
cares for you!
Step outside tonight. Gaze upon
Orion (or any constellation), and
say to yourself that just as the Lord
governs the unalterable pathway of
the stars above you, so he is the
sure guide of your own pathway
through life!
You are Free in Christ
You cannot unleash
Orion.
But neither can the
“chains of the
Pleiades nor the
cords of Orion”
chain you!
That is what Paul
had in mind when he
wrote . . . .
The Pleiades – The Seven Sisters
“For I am sure that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers, nor things present
nor things to come, nor powers, nor height
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
– Romans 8:38-39, ESV
The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac
By “height” and “depth” Paul is
referring to the Zodiac, and the theory
held by astrologers that our lives are
influenced, even controlled, by the
movement of the stars.
Astrological Chart
There are (they say) two
major influences –
1. The Sign that you were
born under.
2. The position of that
Sign in the sky at any
particular time –
whether it is at its
zenith or nadir.
The Zodiac – “The Circle of Animals”
For example, I was born under the
Zodiac sign of Gemini …
Some people are still haunted by
this supposed influence of the
stars.
They live under the tyranny of
superstition.
Gemini –
The Twins, Castor and Pollux
But we are under the governance of the
love of God, not some astrological
nonsense!
So have nothing to do with
superstitious folly!
Castor and Pollux – they are only
stars!
As seen in Oz, early-April, facing slightly
north-west, at about 9.00 pm.
Rather, set yourselves to live
as the freeborn sons and
daughters of the Lord, with a
God-given freedom to forge
your own life-pattern within
the framework of his larger
will.
We are Everything
and Nothing
“I often think about the heavens your
hands have made, and about the moon
and stars you have put in place. Then I
ask, ‘Why do you care about us
insignificant creatures?’”
-- Psalm 8:3-4
Step outside tonight, look up at the
starry sky, as the psalmist did, and
reflect on how little we are! . . .
A galaxy very
much like our
own.
NGC 7331 –
60 million light
years distant,
plus two other
“nearby”
galaxies.
Consider the earth in relation to
the Sun –
Then consider the Solar System (the
Sun and all 8 planets in orbit) in relation
to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, with
its 150 thousand million stars like our
Sun –
All the stars that are visible with the
naked eye (about 4000, when away
from the city) are burning orbs like our
own sun. They are all part of the vast
starry spiral that is our galaxy.
Solar System
The Milky Way
Galaxy
Our galaxy is about
100,000 light years
across. Travelling at
125,000 kmh, it would
take a human about one
billion years to reach the
other side of our galaxy
from Earth. So the
chances of reaching any
other galaxy are slim!
After travelling into deep space for 500,000
light years (9.5 trillion kms each year), this is
what the Milky Way would look like. The arrow
marks the location of our Solar System –
Yet our galaxy is just one member
of a cluster of galaxies, like the
picture below. Each of these galaxy
clusters occupies only one corner
of the vast universe!
450 million light
years distant, the
Coma Cluster
has more than
10,000 galaxies,
and trillions of
stars.
The entire known universe is thought to
contain at least 50 thousand million galaxies
like our own Milky Way!
So we are tiny beyond
imagination, and the
universe is vast beyond
comprehension!
Does that make us
utterly insignificant,
like a mote of dust
briefly suspended in a
beam of light, or a
fragment of an
autumn leaf falling to
the ground? Is it true
that ….
“like a ship that sails through the billowy water,
and when it has passed no trace can be found,
nor track of its keel in the waves; or as, when a
bird flies through the air, no evidence of its
passage is found; the light air, lashed by the beat
of its pinions and pierced by the force of its
rushing flight, is traversed by the movement of its
wings, and afterward no sign of its coming is
found there; or as, when an arrow is shot at a
target, the air, thus divided, comes together at
once, so that no one knows its pathway. So we
also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be!” (Wis
5:10-13)
Thus also the philosopher Carl Sagan –
“We succeeded in taking a picture (of the Earth
from deep space), and, if you look at it, you see a
dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it,
everyone you ever heard of, every human being
who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate
of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of
confident religions, ideologies and economic
doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero
and coward, every creator and destroyer of
civilizations, every king and peasant, every young
couple in love, . . . .
. . . . The earth is a very small stage in a vast
cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled
by all those generals and emperors so that in
glory and in triumph they could become the
momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. . . . Our
posturings, our imagined self-importance, the
delusion that we have some privileged position in
the universe, are challenged by this point of pale
light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great
enveloping cosmic dark. To my mind, there is
perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of
human conceits than this distant image of our tiny
world.”
(Excerpted from a commencement address
delivered May 11, 1996.)
Carl Sagan says it is a
“delusion that we have
some privileged position
in the universe.”
But he forgets that our
planet has been
visited!
Christ has come, and
now, as the psalmist
also cried (verse 5) . . .
. . . . “we have been made only a little
lower than God, who has himself vested us
with honour and glory!”
I too am awed by the
splendour of the starry
heavens above me, and in
a sense must say that I
am nothing – like an
infinitesimal speck on a
microscopic mote on a
miniscule flea on a
diminutive mongrel dog!
But in a much stronger
way the seemingly
limitless skies should
encourage us to say that
we are everything and to
rejoice in the incredible
greatness of our
wonderful God and in the
lofty status he has given
us as his own children in
Christ ….
“Since we who are his sons and daughters
are made of flesh and blood, Jesus, too,
took on flesh and blood so that being
made like us and dying for us he could
destroy the one who had the power of
death (that is, the devil). … So for our sake
Jesus was made a little lower than the
angels, but now, because he suffered
death, we see him crowned with glory and
honour, and through him God is bringing
many sons and daughters to the same
ineffable splendour!” (Hebrews 12:9-14)
So never allow anyone to
belittle your value or
importance.
Each time you gaze
heavenward, or whenever
your eye catches Orion or
the Pleiades, say to
yourself that as a man or
woman in Christ you will
gloriously surpass all that
heavenly splendour!
The Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters
You are a royal priesthood, a chosen
people, a holy company, the redeemed
church, the Bride of Christ, confirmed
by his resurrection from the dead,
glorified by his ascension to heaven,
made in his image, and destined to
reign with him over all creation!
And this is all as indestructible as the cords by
which our Lord God binds together great Orion!