Gen 1:14
And God said,”Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years…”
The Hebrew word for signs is “avah” which means to mark. Scripture has frequent mention of the star constellations and from the above verse, they can be used to mark the seasons and years. Thus when Scripture mentions certain events by marking the position of the constellations, stars and planets, we can know the date of the events by studying astronomy. We must not confuse astronomy with astrology which is forbidden by God. Astrology is the occultic belief that interprets the influence of the stars and planets on the lives of people. Scripture mentions that Magi from the east came to look for Jesus our Lord, the King of the Jews, when they saw His star. Matt 2:1-2. This substantiated that certain unique astronomical signs in the heavens could reveal certain significant events.
In Gen 59:9-10, Jacob on his deathbed prophesized “Judah is a lion’s cub, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares arouse him ? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples…” The Hebrew word for foot is “regal” and this is significant for it may refer to the star Regulus, the brightest star in the Leo constellation, known as the King Star since ancient times. The sign for Leo is the lion. We know from other scripture references that Jesus our Lord is often referred to as the Lion of Judah and the King of Jews. Jupiter (the largest planet in our solar system) in Hebrew means “righteousness” and Venus, the second planet from the sun, is known for its brightness in the dawn sky. Our Lord Jesus is called “the bright and morning star”. Rev 22:16. Jupiter was often referred as the King planet by ancient astronomers. Jupiter came into conjunction with Venus in Leo at 5 am, 12 August, 3 BC. On 14 September, 3 BC, Jupiter came into conjunction with the Star Regulus. Could the Magi see these particular events or other similar conjunction of Jupiter with other celestial bodies around the time of the birth of our Lord Jesus and started planning to set off to visit and worship our Lord ?
Then between the dates of the above two astronomical events, a “great wonder” event happened that fitted the description in Rev 12:1-5.
Rev 12:1-5
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
The description of the great sign started by saying a woman was clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet. The woman referred to the Virgo constellation. And there was only one day – 11 September – that the moon was at her feet and the sun was at the upper torso. This configuration could be seen in Palestine between sunset at 6.18 pm and moonset at 7.39 pm on Wednesday 11 September, 3 BC. The Hebrew calendar month begins on the evening that the new moon appears, so the evening of 11 September was the first day of a new lunar month – the seventh month of Tishri. Tishri 1, Rosh Hashanah, is the New Year’s Day of modern Judaism.
There are other conclusive evidences in the gospels that point to the birth of our Lord in the month of September. Listen to David Pawson’s explanation on how he arrived at the conclusion that Jesus our Lord was born in September. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx50Pbf842E)
Postscript:
(I took the liberty to write a short summary of the information from the following articles and the book by Anthony Ray.
https://www.askelm.com/star/star004.htm
I was given the vision of 911 a few days before the actual attack and I was actually staying next to the World Trade Center then. And I was born on 11 September thus increasing the incredible odds of this string of events exponentially. I have been praying to know why the given Rev 18:17-19 central message has not happened yet and this recent knowledge that our Lord Jesus might be born on this same day may well be the Lord’s way of encouraging me to persist in preparing and waiting for it. Hab 2:3)
