Hope springs eternal

Following our star show:  Somethin' fishy……
http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/something-fishy.html

 

Andromeda galaxy

Okay Grandad, what was that fishy star show in November all about?                  
Does it tell us any more of the gospel about Jesus?

First of all, can you remember where we got up to in the story, back in July?

Mary's special Son paid our penalty with His blood by dying for us …..but it looked like the baddies had won.

Ah!...we need to know if that sacrifice was a tragic defeat or a victorious achievement. Well like I told you, Capricornus may be a dying goat struggling to get up but remember its fishy tail is very much alive...

...so life is going to come out of death after all, hey?

Yep!  Now these constellations may have been especially intended for God's earthly people, Israel, so let me tell you about goat sacrifices in the Bible. A goat was sacrificed for the ‘sin offering’ and two goats were used on Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement, when one was sacrificed and the other was released into the desert – one died but one lived. Can you think of any more examples in the Bible?

Joseph's big brothers dipped his fancy jacket in the blood of a kid goat so their dad would think he had been killed by a wild animal.

How heartless that was!...but in the end Joseph could say:                            
"you meant it for evil against me; but God meant it for good..."                             
The baddies aren't going to win after all.

Just as well!  The next one was Aquarius pouring out all that water for the fish.

Yes and remember fish were the first animals God made, they weren't in Noah's ark but lived thru the great flood and they're always there for the eating - if we can catch them!  
So what can you tell me about water?

We use it for washing but we really can't survive without water - it's like the fuel of life. I think Jesus said: "come to me and drink" and then water came out of His side when He died.

There you are...life out of death!..."a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life". Of course water features many times: the Rock in the desert, the Red Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan river, Jesus walking on water....

…and Peter nearly drowning!  
The fish aren't watered in Pisces - they're trapped by this monster.

Well, the Israel people found out what it’s like to be trapped by the monster - 70 years captivity for Judah in Babylon and finally ‘scattered among all peoples’ just as Moses warned. Amos even warned Israel they would be taken away with fish-hooks and sure enough, that's how Assyrians controlled their prisoners - joined together using fish-hooks through their noses.

Ouch!  Too bad if someone fell over or needed to go to the toilet!

That for sure.  Finally there is Aries the ram…so what does that remind you of?

Lots of stories – Abel, Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah, the Passover…

… a lamb was sacrificed at the temple every morning and evening and remember what John the Baptist called Jesus: “Look! the Lamb of God!”

There might be life out of death but with a dying goat, hooked fish, and a sacrificed lamb, where’s ‘Hope’ come into it?

The apostle John sobbed over nobody being found worthy to open the Revelation until ‘The Lamb’ came along – the Lion of the tribe of Judah.               

See the bright link in Andromeda's chain?

Not only that, associated with these 4 constellations is another: the princess Andromeda in the north, chained to a rock. Can you see the beautiful Andromeda nebula is the bright link in her ugly chain, Andromeda also being the name of the spiral galaxy closest to the Milky Way….even visible to the naked eye!
I wonder if that’s meant to be a sign of hope? 
Like Jeremiah said long ago: “Therefore I hope in Him!”    

Yeah, I wonder…..  Thanks, Grandad. It must be nearly time to look for the last 4 constellations, hey?                                             

                                               

Image credits:                                                                                  

Andromeda / Rogelio Bernal Andreo / deepskycolours.com                                                   

Stellarium