December 7 Morning Stars
“O morning stars together proclaim”
Pray
The heavens declare Your glory, O God, the firmament displays Your handiwork. I praise You, for You are both the Maker of all things, and my Redeemer. Amen.
Read – Job 38:7
“The morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy…”
Reflect
The book of Job, which is probably one of the oldest books in the canon of Scripture, contains several references to the stars. The constellations are distinguished and named. Ancient Israel knew Pleiades and Orion, Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Time was calculated on the basis of the observation of the stars. The year was divided into twelve parts and special ceremonies and festivals were fixed on the calendar according to the movement of the stars. The brightest star in the sky, after the moon, was Venus, the morning star. Actually, there were two morning stars. Because of their orbits, Venus and Mercury are most visible in the morning sky. They are the morning stars. Together, they sang of Christ’s birth.
Astronomers disagree about the identity of the star that the wise men followed from the east. It has been claimed that Halley’s comet made an appearance at about the right time. There could be some truth in this. We don’t really know. What we do know is that the heavens have often been interpreted as displaying the wisdom and power of God. Whatever star it was that guided the wise men, it merely added its witness to that of the hosts of heaven. Centuries before the coming of Christ, the Psalmist looked up and saw the work of God’s hands, the moon and the stars, and was moved to ask, given this context, “What is man that You remember him?” Jesus Christ gives the answer to that question. We are worth more than any star. The hands that threw the stars into space were pierced for us.
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