THE JUDGE COMES - AS ANGRY AS A BULL!

IOPNA takes a look at the 9^th constellation of the Mazzaroth (Zodiac):

 

Well, I know this one!...Taurus the bull leading the charge, and he sure looks like he means business. Why is he lit up more than the other constellations?

Align top to north-east

The astrologers will tell you that the sun is now ‘in Gemini’ but they’ve got it wrong as usual – the sun is still ‘in Taurus’. This is the image from late May (2013) and look how crowded it was – Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, the sun and Mars - all lined up like peas in a pod.

Wow! What a pity we missed seeing this through the glare of the sun.                      

So how do we pick out Taurus in the night-sky?

If you extend a line north from Orion’s belt you will see the brilliant red star Aldebaran that gives Taurus his bloodshot right eye and Alnath marking the tip of his left horn. At the moment Jupiter is close to his right horn tip and Mars is on his neck near The Pleiades cluster, while Venus and Mercury have moved on.

In Deuteronomy 33, Moses obviously could have identified the tribe of Joseph with Taurus – ‘a bullock with horns like a unicorn’ representing sons Ephraim and Manasseh.

Yes, the Hebrew word that has been translated ‘unicorn’ was reem or rimu, a wild ox that was probably the ‘aurochs’ (Bos taurus) which became extinct in 1627 when the last survivor died in a game reserve in Poland - 16 years after the King James Bible was first published.

So was this the only biblical reference to the wild ox?

Actually this is another of those challenges that God put to Job in chapter 39: ‘Will the rimu serve you by staying in your stables to plough your fields? Can you trust and rely on him to bring the harvest into your barn?’
In fact, earlier the prophet Balaam identified God Himself as having ‘the strength of a rimu’ in Numbers 23.

Even a wicked prophet recognised God like that??...whoa!  But what’s this got to do with the Redemption story?  Why the title: ’The Judge comes!’?

This is where it really comes alive for us. All the constellations we have looked at so far tell us of what has already taken place - the Redeemer has paid the price - or what exists now: “the whole world lies in wickedness” while Israel struggles and we wait for “the redemption of our body”.  

What’s around the corner?                                                              

Jesus Christ is about to judge the world and take absolute possession.                                              

Okay, this is the turning point from history to future. So where do we find the wild ox linked with judgment?

In Psalm 22 we find David speaks prophetically of the Lord Jesus feeling as if He was being gored by the horns of the rimu as He endured the judgment of death by crucifixion under the Roman Empire’s Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas.  

Soon it will be time for the vengeance of Isaiah 61 verse 2.                                                                  Isaiah 34 is where the Lord (the One with ‘the strength of a rimu’) pours out His “indignation upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies” – even soaking the land with the blood of the rimu – obviously the world’s commanders-in-chief, fierce and intractable as usual.

Ahh…so this is where we’re at in the whole story: judgment is around the corner!      
So let’s see which other constellations have been associated with Taurus…

Next: The world under siege
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/the-world-under-siege.html

Image credit: Stellarium  
Photo credit: mirror.co.uk