Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #29 of Genesis, chapter 22, and we are going to read Genesis 22:17-19:

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

We have been going slowly through verse 17, and the “seed” has come up so many times in our study of the book of Genesis that I am sure you are now very familiar with this verse, but I will read it again.  There are always people listening for the first time or maybe it is not firm in your mind yet, but the “seed” is defined in Galatians 3:16:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Christ is the promised seed.  It is singular, so when we read about Abraham’s seed, think of Jesus.  But God fills out that fact a little bit more in Galatians 3:29:

And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Christ is the seed, but “if ye be Christ’s,” then you are also Abraham’s seed and counted as the seed in Him.  That is where the great multitude came from, which is, perhaps, as many as 200 million that are spoken of in the Bible. 

Here, God says, “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven,” and we were looking at the idea of stars and how God used that idea, and we looked at the “multiplying” in some verses that also mentioned stars.  We know that “stars” identify with God’s elect in several places, and there is one place that we may not always think of because it is dealing with Judgment Day, but it says in Isaiah 13:9-11:

Behold, the day of JEHOVAH cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.And I will punish the world for their evil…

It is the day of JEHOVAH and God makes the statement that He will punish the world.  It is the final judgment of mankind and the final judgment of this world which began on May 21, 2011, and it is currently in process.  The “day of the LORD” or the “day of JEHOVAH” is the day of His wrath, and it is a prolonged “day” that the Lord is working out over the course of, perhaps, as many as 22 years.  If we go back before that when judgment began on the house of God officially in 1994, then it would be a “day of the LORD” and an overall period of judgment on the churches and the world of 40 inclusive years.

Regarding the statement in verse 11 concerning the stars of heaven, keep in mind that the spiritual meaning is always the more important meaning.  Regarding the surface literal meaning, if you remember a study we did recently where we laid out several Bible passages and verses showing that the literal meaning was never in view, like things having to do with the Promised Land of Canaan or having to do with the Lord telling the ten lepers to go and show themselves to the priests.  The deeper spiritual meaning is always the more important meaning, and the deeper spiritual meaning of the “stars of heaven” are the elect: “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven…”

And, here in Isaiah 13, we are told, “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light,” and a similar verse can be found in Joel, chapter 3, another passage that details the final judgment of this world.  I will read Joel 3:12-15:

Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of JEHOVAH is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

Just as it said in Isaiah, the stars would not give their light.  Here, it says, “the stars shall withdraw their shining,” and the word translated as “withdraw” can also be translated as “gather,” so it could say, “the stars shall gather their shining.”  That is very interesting, is it not?  We know the stars point to the elect, and we know that here and in Isaiah the context is Judgment Day, and it speaks of the stars not giving their light and of gathering their light.  We wonder why.  It is almost like it is a willful choice of the stars, which would not make any sense if it was speaking of the literal stars above, because they have no mind or will.  They are just simply part of this creation and they do what they have been created to do, which is to shine forth (light).  But the stars point to the body of the elect believers and we do have minds and wills, but our wills are governed by the Word of God, the Bible.  We are governed by God Himself because it is His Word, and if God were to tell us, “It is Judgment Day now, so turn off the printing presses.”  Remember that right after May 21, 2011, the Lord led Mr. Camping to the Biblical revelation that all those to be saved had been saved.  “We are no longer going to evangelize.  We are not going to print ‘Does God Love You?’ tracts any more.  We are not going to do mission trips any more.  We are stopping the presses.”  What was he doing?  He was following exactly what it says in these verses: “The stars shall withdraw their shining.” 

Prior to that, there had been tremendous “shining” of the light of the Gospel, as it was broadcast over the electronic medium into the world one last time in a last effort of God and the people of God to recover the remnant of His elect and to warn the world of the approaching Day of Judgment.  God used that method to broadcast the message across the face of the earth (like never before in history) to find and save the last of His elect.  They were saved “out of great tribulation.”  Once they were saved out of the Great Tribulation, then immediately after the Tribulation the stars withdrew their shining. 

I think that is why the Lord used the word “gather,” because at first, it was just Mr. Camping saying it, but then others studied it (in the Bible) and they began to see and understand, and they said it.  Then other believers checked out what was being said and they believed it, because they heard the voice of Christ.  They understood how the Bible locked in that date of May 21, 2011 and would not draw back from it, and they began to understand: “We cannot tell people to cry to God for mercy any more.  We cannot share with people that God may save people any more.  We see there was a ‘day of salvation,’ but now we are in the ‘day of judgment.’  And to everything there is a time and season.  There is a time to seek JEHOVAH and there is a time when that seeking comes to an end.”  That is not an exact quote, but that is what is declared in Ecclesiastes 3.  There is a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which was planted.  There is a day of salvation and a day of judgment, as we have entered into the official judgment of the world, and God’s salvation program has been completed. 

Now it is slowly multiplying as the elect hear this.  I am sure there are still a few out there that have not heard this, and since they are not aware of this, what will they be doing?  They are going to try to do what the elect have done all along, which is to shine as a light in a dark world and share the Gospel of salvation to people.  But then comes along another elect child of God who shares the message: “You know, we are not to do this any longer.”  They check it out and they say, “Oh, you are right.”  You see, the stars are being “gathered.”  As they are “gathering” their light, they are taking it back out of the world and withdrawing the shining of the Gospel into the world.  And it is all according to the will of God in the Day of Judgment.  There is not to be the light of the “sun.” nor the light of the “moon.”  We know the sun is God Himself and the moon is the Law of God or the Word of God, the Bible, and the stars represent God’s people and they are not to share a message of life and salvation with anyone.  They are not to give that kind of light.  We are no longer to engage in evangelistic efforts and telling people that God might possibly save someone today by crying out for mercy and waiting upon the Lord.  That message had its time.  It has been fulfilled.  That “day” is over, and it is a different time period, and these passages indicate that.

Remember that in Galatians 3, verses 16 and 29, Christ is the seed and the elect are counted for the seed (in Christ).  This is why when we think of Jesus, we can see Him as the star (singular) and we are the stars (plural).  For example, it says in Numbers 24:17:

I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

There is a “Star out of Jacob.” 

Then it says in Revelation 22:16:

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Jesus Himself is the Star.  But, again, the elect are stars.  By the way, God (who is Christ) who is the “sun” is also a star.  We can understand it that way as well, but He is the star and we are likened to the stars of heaven.  We read in Matthew 24:29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

So when we read this, we have to get away from the natural-minded understanding of the Bible that the churches have impressed upon its hearers for centuries about the “historical, grammatical, literal interpretation” that they insist upon, and we must look for the deeper spiritual meaning because that is the more important and all-important level of meaning.  And when we look at the “stars,” we must begin with the promise to Abraham and his seed.  We see that when it says, “and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven,” it has to do with God’s elect.  Several verses can be presented, like Daniel 12:3 and other verses that prove this to be the Biblical definition for “stars,” for the most part.  I am not saying there cannot be exceptions.  As it says in Jude, there can be “wandering stars,” as it says in speaking of false prophets in Jude 1:13:

Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

They are identified as “stars” because they are those that take the name of Christ and claim to be Christians and, yet, they are “wandering” out of the way, and Christ is the way, the truth and the life.  But these are going off course or off the path of the direction that the Word of God would lead.  Thereby, they become “wandering stars” and, yet, they still can be called stars.  The context determines what kind of star it is, but in Matthew 24:29 there is no indication these are “wandering stars,” but they are the stars of heaven, as it says in Mark 13:24:

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light…

Here, again, it seems that it is a willful action of the moon: “I refuse to give my light.”  Of course, that is ridiculous on the natural literal level.  The moon has no mind to make that kind of willful determination whether to give its light, or not.  But the moon points to the Word of God, the Bible.  This is God’s Word and God so determines and decrees regarding His Word, the Bible, to give no more light unto salvation, the moon reflects the light of the sun; that is, whatever the “sun” wills.  The sun would point to God.  Again, it says in Mark 13:24-25:

…and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

Here, the stars are not said to have withdrawn their shining or to be no longer giving their light, as it said in Isaiah 13 and Joel 3, but it speaks here of the stars “falling.”  They are falling because of what the heavens really picture.  There is a literal heaven above us, and in the day,  we see the sun shining and at night we may see the moon or the stars in heaven.  But that is not in view here.  What God is speaking of is what the literal heavens above us represent, and what they represent is more important than the literal sun, moon and stars as celestial objects.  The deeper spiritual meaning has the greater importance.  In Revelation 6, the way God words things gives away or reveals how He is using the sun, moon and stars.  It says in Revelation 6:12-13:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

So already we are helped with understanding Matthew 24:29 and Mark 13:24-25, where it says the stars of heaven fell, but it does not say where they fell.  But, here, we are told that the stars fell unto the earth.  Obviously, this cannot be literal.  What would happen?  Anyone that knows a little about astronomy and the stars knows that they are enormous.  Each star is basically a sun.  Our sun is a star that is a “ball of fire” and the Earth had to be positioned exactly where we are in relationship to the sun.  We cannot be closer, or it would be too hot, and we could burn up, and we cannot be further away, or we would be too cold.  God in His wisdom positioned us exactly where we need to be for life to unfold on Earth and, yet, the sun is millions and millions of miles away from the Earth.  But, here, it is telling us that the stars (not just one star) fell to the earth.  Obviously, even if one star – even a small star – got anywhere near the earth, the earth would burn up even before it was able to fall onto the earth.  In other words, God is speaking figuratively.  He is using spiritual pictures. 

Again, it says, “And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”  The next verse is the helpful verse, as it says in Revelation 6:14:

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

The heaven departed as a scroll, and the scroll was what the Word of God was written on, for example, in the time of Jeremiah when a king took the parchment, cut it with a pen knife and threw it into the fire.  It was the scroll of Jeremiah which had the written Word of God on it.  You see, as God has given His written Word in the Bible, He has (in effect) in the proper time and season placed the light of the sun (God Himself), the light of the moon (His Word) and the light of the stars (His people that would share and declare that Word) in the spiritual heaven.  He lit the heaven above with the light of the Word of God as it shined forth.  It is really all shining forth from the Word of God, the Bible.  It shined in churches during the church age.  It shined outside of the churches among the nations of the world after the end of the church age during the little season of the Great Tribulation.  Then immediately after the Tribulation, the light that had shined forth from the Word of God, the Bible, and had brought salvation to the elect of God was put out by God.  The “moon” would not give its light.  It was a willful decision from God Himself.  The stars would “gather” their light.  Once the elect learned of God’s willful decision, we can only follow, and we could no longer share the Word in the way we had done or even give an impression that it is possible for anyone to become saved any longer.  You see, God has “rolled up the heavens like a scroll.”  I guess in our day the image we would be more familiar with is “closing the book” or closing the Bible.  If you have a closed Bible, you would need to open it to read what is on its pages concerning salvation. 

But God is using the ancient image of a scroll being rolled up, and once He rolled up the scroll completely, the spiritual heavens went dark.  Without the light of this book, the Bible, nobody can be saved.  This is what God is referring to when He speaks of the time “immediately after that tribulation.”  May 21, 2011 was that date and immediately after the Tribulation, God rolled up the scroll.  He put out the light of the Bible in this world and no one thereafter could become saved. 

However, the elect have not gone anywhere – they “fell to the earth,” as it says in Revelation 6.  We are told where they fell.  They fell to the earth and they are living and remaining on the earth in the Day of Judgment in the time of total spiritual blackness and darkness.  In this prolonged Judgment Day, they are right here on the Earth.