The tendency is that as we look at the exceptional correlation between the Christmas Sky Ballet with the Bible, we want an encore – in fact, just like with every audience, if the production is really good, we would wish for encore after encore if we could (although I don’t know if that works so much with ballets).
After seeing this spectacular display in the heavens for Jesus’ birth, I turned to the time of His death anticipating that there would be a similar heavenly display for this most significant event – after all, the Creator’s death for the sake of the cosmos’ infinitesimally small humanity is no minor occasion.
Imagine my disappointment! I could find very little of significance happening. Well, there may have been great things happening, after all I am not all that versed in godly astrology and astronomy; yet What I could recognize of the sky events, the heavens really seemed pretty colorless.
Yet as I thought about it, this was a useful experience. I was doing what people have been doing with the gifts and signs of God ever since the beginning. A good example of what I mean is the bronze serpent. When I was doing my Covenant study, II Kings 18:4 made me do a double take:
(Hezekiah) removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.
The origin of this serpent goes back to Numbers 21:8-9: to end the plague of the fiery serpents, Jehovah commanded Moses to place a bronze serpent on a pole. Because of God’s promise, anyone who looked on this serpent after being bitten would be cured – it did not matter if one could see how intricate Moses’ handiwork was, as perhaps one standing under the snake might see, or if it were merely a glint in the sun, as someone on the fringe of the camp might see – any who looked to God’s solution was saved. It was a marvelous sign of Jehovah’s Glory: His grace and mercy, His steadfast love and forgiveness to those who held to Him and to His promise of Life.
We were victims of it in the 1960’s when our young people were bombarded with drug orientation in schools, in neighborhoods, in the songs of the day, (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, referring to LSD. This malfunction can degrade your life quality and sexual ability by order generic cialis https://regencygrandenursing.com/life-at-our-facility/accommodations taking treatments. Air Tran, Miami Everglades tours and Everglades Tours and Miami Attractions and Reserve online and Save. Headache is due to the opening of the arteries in his penis relax and widen. Jesus referred to the occasion [John 3:14-15] as a description of what He was about – that as He would be lifted up on the cross, so also any who looked upon Him as God’s solution to Satan’s bite of rebellion and death would be given eternal life.
Yet someone must have taken home that bronze serpent after Numbers 21, and kept it throughout the remainder of the wilderness journey and throughout the conquest of the Promised Land. Was it kept merely as a souvenir? But then, what had started out as a signpost to God’s solution gradually itself became the focus of attention: it did have “power” to heal, did it not? Even though the power lay in God’s promise, the bronze snake began to be assumed as the source of the miracle. Would it really be long before it became a god in its own right, where incense was burned to it?
I had been so impressed with the Sky Ballet that in a sense I began to forget what its purpose was, which, despite how phenomenal it was, it still was to be merely a signpost directing attention to the HIS-Story of Jesus, His birth and what He was going to be about as the Savior. My focus, though, was subtly turning toward the stars themselves and Jesus became more just in a supportive role to the expected show. I wonder what I would have done, had there been a similarly impressive Sky Ballet at Jesus’ death.
I do not think I would have gone fully into “corrupted” astrology, but I wonder how much I would have for a while drifted from what the real focus must be, which should be on that event which has eternally affected humanity and all creation: God’s death on the cross. It was a rude awakening to remember that Jehovah rarely does the same thing twice, just so that we keep paying attention to Him and do not become preoccupied with appearances or with the tools that He will occasionally use:
Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” [John 6:26]
What I learned was that, yes, on Good Friday, there were indicators in the heavens to point to the scene on earth, yet the sky was not to compete with what was actually happening on the cross, where the essential HIS-Story of salvation was to be seen for itself.