“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.  And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.’  And it was so.”  Genesis 1:14,15

When, as the Psalmist said, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host (Psalm 33:6),” it was no random breath that exhaled the starry sky.  God said from the beginning that the lights in the heavens were to be “for signs and for seasons.”  There was an order to their placement and that order was meant to tell both time and truth.  But to whom?  And signs for what?  At this point in creation there wasn’t a single living thing on earth.  It was just skies and seas and rocks and trees.  

But the Creator was setting His stage.  The great story of redemption was about to unfold and these stage lights would play a big part in the drama.  Before the first actors ever took their first breath, sun and moon and stars had already been given their lines.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:  I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.  And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.  For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.  Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and stars for light by night.”  Jeremiah 31:31-35

True to the script, there were wise men studying the fixed order of the stars, and they saw a sign.  The sign of one born king of the Jews.  They saw His star when it rose and they came to worship Him (Matthew 2:1-12).  This child over whom the star rested had come to bring His people the very forgiveness spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah.  

But that was just His first coming.

The stars in their courses have lines yet to speak.

The Star Breather Himself, the one born King of the Jews, spoke of His return this way in Matthew 24:29-31.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will turn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

And again in Luke 21:25-28.   

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.  For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a clown with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” 

The Star Breather is coming again to redeem His forgiven ones!  All creation has been set in place to prepare and declare His arrival.  When the stars speak their lines, how will you respond?  In distress and perplexity, fainting and fear and foreboding?  May it not be!  Repent, and as the prophet Jeremiah said, He will remember your sins no more.  Then you, too, may straighten up and raise your head, for your Redeemer comes in the clouds!