E. W. Bullinger

“ To what it signifies we are for ever shut up as the only saving faith. In that dying Seed of the woman we must see our sin-bearer and the atonement for our guilt, or die ourselves unpardoned and unsanctified. ”

“ Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer the Lord of hosts.” (Isa. xliv. 2, 3, 6.)
This is the meaning of the Sign. The MAN Christ Jesus, who was humbled in death will yet be seen to be the pourer forth of every blessing. Physically pouring forth literal waters, removing the curse, and turning this world into a paradise:
“Making her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord.” (Isa. li. 3.)
And morally pouring forth His Spirit in such abundance as to fill the whole earth with peace, and blessing, and glory, “as the waters cover the sea.” ”

“ Again we have the picture of a Centaur as to his outward form, i.e. a being with two natures. Not now far down in the south, or connected with His sufferings and sacrifice as man; but high up, as a sign of the Zodiac itself, on the ecliptic, i.e. in the very path in which the sun “rejoiceth in his going forth as a strong man.”
According to Grecian fable, this Sagittarius is Cheiron, the chief Centaur; noble in character, righteous in his dealings, divine in his power.
Such will be the coming Seed of the woman in His power and glory:—
“The sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. ”

“ No more sorrow, suffering, or conflict; no more the bruising of the heel of the Redeemer. We have now done with the prophecies of “the sufferings of Christ,” and have come to those that relate to “the glory that should follow.”
No more reference now to His first coming in humiliation. No more coming “forth” to suffer and die, a sacrifice for sins; the reference now is only to His second coming in glory; His coming “unto” this earth is not to suffer for sin (Heb. ix. 28.) , but it will be a coming in power to judge the earth in righteousness, and to subdue all enemies under His feet. ”

“ But this brings us to the Signs themselves and their interpretation.
These pictures were designed to preserve, expound, and perpetuate the one first great promise and prophecy of Gen. iii. 15, that all hope for Man, all hope for Creation, was bound up in a coming Redeemer; One who should be born of a woman; who should first suffer, and afterwards gloriously triumph; One who should first be wounded by that great enemy who was the cause of all sin and sorrow and death, but who should finally crush the head of “that Old Serpent the Devil.” ”

“ It is very thinly veiled, and the Old Serpent has not succeeded in blinding the eyes which the Spirit of God has opened. True, we see in all Rome's pictures and statues the foot of Mary, on the Serpent's head, but the foot is not coming down, nor is the head crushed! Rather is the woman's foot resting on its head; and the woman herself supported by the Serpent. ”

“ Religion without Christ is enmity against God! Knowledge of the Scriptures where the heart is not subject to Christ, and where Christ is not seen in them, is powerless and lifeless. It is true of the Scriptures, as it will be of the heavenly Jerusalem—“the Lamb is the light thereof” (Rev. xxi. 23) .
The Church of Rome has been used of the great enemy to rob the Lamb of God of His promised glory. Jerome, in his Latin translation of the Bible (405 a.d.) , wrote “ipse,” He, in Gen. iii. 15, as the “bruiser of the serpent's head.” ”

“ There is an ancient Greek fable which calls Ophiuchus Æsculapius, the son of Apollo. Having restored Hippolytus to life, he was everywhere worshipped as the god of health, and hence the serpent entwined around him is, to this day, the symbol of the medical art! This, however, is, doubtless, another perversion of the primitive truth that the Coming One in overcoming the serpent, should become the great healer of all the sorrows of the world, and cause all its groanings to cease. 44. Cerberus, or the serpent with three heads, was placed by Hevelius (1611-1687) by the side of Hercules. ”

“ The star marking the kids is called Gedi (Hebrew) , kids.
In Latin, the word Auriga means a coachman or charioteer, the band in his right hand being taken as his reins. But the incongruity of a charioteer carrying a she-goat, and nursing two little kids, never struck them; nor did the fact that he has no chariot and no horses! When man blunders in the things of God, he does it thoroughly!
In the Zodiac of Denderah the same truth was revealed more than 4,000 years ago; but the Man, instead of carrying the sheep, is carrying a sceptre, and is called Trun, which means sceptre or power. ”

“ In all the ancient Zodiacs, or Planispheres, we find a goat with a fish's tail. In the Zodiacs of Denderah and Esneh, in Egypt, it is half-goat and half-fish, and it is there called Hu-penius, which means the place of the sacrifice.
In the Indian Zodiac it is a goat passant traversed by a fish.
There can be no doubt as to the significance of this sign.
In the Goat we have the Atoning Sacrifice, in the Fish we have the people for whom the atonement is made. When we come to the sign “Pisces” we shall see more clearly that it points to the multitudes of the redeemed host. ”

“ How different are the primeval star-pictures of the heavens. There, the club is lifted up, the foot is coming down, yea, the foot is actually planted upon the enemy, treading the Scorpion under foot.
Rome may corrupt the words of the Book, but she cannot touch the stars of heaven! The Devil [pg 174] himself cannot move them from their places. He may choose and use his servants and agents for corrupting the Scriptures written in the Book, but he cannot change the Revelation of the stars. ”

“ To a person north or south of the Equator the stars therefore rise and set obliquely; while to a person on the Equator they rise and set perpendicularly, each star being twelve hours above and twelve below the horizon.
The points where the two circles (the Ecliptic and the Equator) intersect each other are called the Equinoctial points. It is the movement of these points (which are now moving from Aries to Pisces) which gives rise to the term, “the precession of the Equinoxes.” ”

“ The stars were not seen from Tarsus as he describes them, and he must therefore have written from a then ancient Zodiac. For notwithstanding that we speak of “fixed stars,” there is a constant, though slow, change taking place amongst them. There is also another change taking place owing to the slow recession of the pole of the heavens (about 50" in the year) ; so that while Alpha in the constellation of Draco was the Polar Star when the Zodiac was first formed, the Polar Star is now Alpha in what is called Ursa Minor. This change alone carries us back at least 5,000 years. ”

“ He is the Serpent; he is the Dragon; “the great dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan” (Rev. xii. 9) . The Serpent represents him as the Deceiver; the Dragon, as the Destroyer.
This First Book concludes with the Dragon being cast down from heaven.
The Second Book concludes with Cetus, the Sea Monster, Leviathan, bound.
The Third Book concludes with Hydra, the Old Serpent, destroyed.
Here, at the close of the First Book, we see not merely a dragon, but the Dragon cast down! That is the point of this great star-picture.
No one has ever seen a dragon ”

“ Concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
In those days, and at that time.
Will I cause a Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David;
And He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.” (Jer. xxxiii. 14, 15, r.v.)
This is what we see in this sign—Messiah's peaceful reign. All is rest and repose. We see “His days,” in which “the righteous shall flourish; and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth” (Ps. lxxii.) .
But, for this blessed time to come, there must be no enemy! All enemies must be subdued. ”

“ Abarbanel, a Jewish commentator, writing on Daniel, affirms that the Sign Pisces always refers to the people of Israel. He gives five reasons [pg 097] for this belief, and also affirms that a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn always betokens a crisis in the affairs of Israel. Because such a conjunction took place in his day (about 1480 a.d.) he looked for the coming of Messiah.51
Certain it is, that when the sun is in Pisces all the constellations which are considered noxious, are seen above the horizon. What is true in astronomical observation is true also in historical fact. ”

“ When we read the whole passage and mark its structure, and note the words employed, we are emphatically told that the heavens contain a revelation from God; they prophesy, they show knowledge, they tell of God's glory, and set forth His purposes and counsels. ”

“ Accomplished is the sacrifice,
The great redeeming work is done.” In the ancient Egyptian Zodiac of Denderah this first Decan of Libra is represented as a lion with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, as if in thirst, and a female figure holding a cup out to him. ”

“ It is sufficient to point to the fact that no Bear is found in any Chaldean, Egyptian, Persian, or Indian Zodiacs, and that no bear was ever seen with such a tail! No one who had ever seen a bear would have called attention to a tail, such as no bear ever had, by placing in its very tip the most important, wondrous, and mysterious Polar Star, the central star of the heavens, round which all others revolve. ”

“ We can understand how the original star-picture must have been a prophetic representation of Him who shall destroy the Old Serpent and open the way again, not to fabled “apples of gold,” but to the “tree of life” itself. He it is who though suffering in the mighty conflict, and brought to His knee, going down even to “the dust of death,” shall yet, in resurrection and advent glory, wield His [pg 062] victorious club, subdue all His enemies, and plant His foot on the Dragon's head. For of Him it is written:—
“Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder ”

“ Thus Aratus sang of Cheiron:—
“'Midst golden stars he stands refulgent now,
And thrusts the scorpion with his bended bow.” [pg 065] In this Archer we see a faint reflection of Him who shall presently come forth, all gracious, all wise, all powerful; whose arrows shall be “sharp in the heart of the King's enemies.”
“God shall shoot at them with an arrow;
Suddenly shall they be wounded.
So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves;
All that see them shall flee away.
And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God ”

“ A circle has proverbially neither beginning nor end. In what order then are we to consider these signs? In the heavens they form a never-ending circle. Where is the beginning and where is the end of this circle through which the sun is constantly moving? ”

“ There can be no doubt that we have in this Sign the foreshowing of the multiplication and blessing of the children of promise, and a token of their coming deliverance from all the power of the enemy.
But why two fishes? and why is one horizontal and the other perpendicular? The answer is, that not only in Israel, but in the seed of Seth and Shem there were always those who looked for a heavenly portion, and were “partakers of a heavenly calling.” In Heb. xi. we are distinctly told that Abraham [pg 098] “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (v. 10) . ”

“ True, we do see a woman in this heavenly and Divine revelation; for there are four women. Two are connected with the Redeemer, and two with the Redeemed. The Redeemer is seen in the one (Virgo) as the “promised Seed”; in the other (Coma) , He is seen as the child born, the Son given. The Redeemed are represented in one as a captive chained (Andromeda) , with no power to wage conflict with an enemy, but a prey to every foe ”

“ Orion is the most brilliant of all the constellations, and when he comes to the meridian he is accompanied by several adjacent constellations of great splendour. There is then above the horizon the most glorious view of the celestial bodies that the starry firmament affords ”

“ How is it that all the stars unite in one harmonious voice in testifying of the Lamb of God, slain, and bruised, but yet living for evermore, singing together, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. v. 12) ?
This rejoicing connected with the Lamb shines faintly through the heathen perversions and myths: for Herodotus tells us how the ancient Egyptians, once a year, when it opened by the entrance of the sun into Aries,55 slew a Ram, at the festival of Jupiter Ammon ”

“ In Daniel ii. and vii. it is shown first to Nebuchadnezzar in a “dream,” and afterwards to God's servant the prophet in a “vision,” that Israel was to be put on one side and become “Lo-Ammi” (not My people) , while government was to be put into the hands of the Gentiles. Jerusalem was the central point of both these great and solemn facts. That is to say, during 2,520 years, while Jerusalem should remain in the power of the Gentiles, Israel could be “no more a nation” in possession of their land and city. ”