In Matthew we are taught that some wise men (usually supposed to be three although this is actually probably incorrect) followed a star to find the baby Jesus when He was born. Have you ever asked yourself how the wise men knew to follow that particular star? In this post we will discuss this topic.
The Gospel in the Stars
In the previous post we looked at how God has written the gospels not only in the Bible but also in the stars and back in ancient times people had a much better understanding of what this gospel read. One part of this gospel is the gospel written in the decan of coma, a decan of the constellation of virgo which shows a young woman holding a child. Albumazar, an Arabic astronomer of the 8th century, tells us what this means:
“There arises in the first decan, as the Persians, Chaldeans and Egyptians and the two Hermes and Ascalius teach, a young woman whose Persian name denotes a pure virgin sitting on a throne, nourishing an infant boy (the boy, I say) having a Hebrew name , by some nations called IHESU with the signification IEZA, which in Greek is called CHRISTOS”
So we see here that the ancient Persians, Chaldeans and Egyptians knew that the sign of coma was a virgin who had given birth to Jesus Christ.
Thomas Hyde, an Orientalist, tells us in his book that the Persians were taught by Zoroaster that “a virgin should bring forth a son, and that when he should be born a star should appear, and should shine and be conspicuous in the midst of the figure of the virgin. It is then said he commanded his disciples, the Magi, when they should see the star that they should go forth where it directed them and offer gifts to him that should be born.” The Mazzaroth, Frances Rolleston.
So here we see that the Persians, of whom the magi were a part, were given this prophecy to follow a new star that appeared in the constellation of Virgo to the baby who they were to worship. As seen earlier, we know that they understood this baby to be Jesus and in the prophecy were probably given the land of Jacob as the place to find this infant and then the star would direct them to the exact point to find Jesus as EW Bullinger explains:
“This new star would show the latitude, passing at that time immediately overhead at midnight, every twenty-four hours, while the prophecy would give the longitude as the land of Jacob. Having these two factors it would be only a matter of observation, and easy for the Magi to find the place where it would be vertical, and thus to locate the very spot of the birth of Him of whom it was the sign, for they emphatically called it ‘His Star’.”
So here we see how the wise men knew to follow that particular star and how they found Jesus based on following the star. In the next post we will look at more prophecies in the constellation of Virgo.