Tuesday and you only have today, tomorrow and Thursday to purchase any last-minute Christmas gifts. Don’t forget you need time to wrap them!
Yesterday was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the official start of winter. It also just so happens that a rare celestial event occurred last night, making it one of a kind: the planets Jupiter and Saturn converged so closely in the evening sky that they appeared as one bright star to the naked eye.
What makes this year’s spectacle so rare, then? It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.”
Sometimes called “The Christmas Star,” the close alignment of the two planets hadn’t happened since 1623. The last time Europe and North America were privileged to see it was 1226.
But the event isn’t really what we know as the “Star of Bethlehem.” Rick Larson believes that the real Star of Bethlehem was much more complex and didn’t involve Saturn.
Larson has done a lot of research on this topic, tracing the actual movements of the planets and stars back to the time of Christ. “The Star of Bethlehem is a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus,” he explains. “The conjunction, which means a coming together, was so close that they basically stacked like a figure 8 and they didn’t obscure one another’s brightness, and the result was the brightest star that anyone alive had ever seen.”
Matthew’s gospel is the only one of the four to describe the star.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2)
Again, Rick Larson:
Larson explains what the Magi likely saw were five astronomical conjunctions that took place over a span of time from August of 3 BC to June of 2 BC. When one planet passes another and, as seen from earth, they line up – that would have been of great significance to these astrologer-advisers.
We now know what these conjunctions meant to these Magi as they would have observed from their far-off land. The conjunctions involved the constellation Leo the Lion, the planet Venus, the planet Jupiter and the star Regulus.
To the Babylonians, the lion represented Israel. Venus was motherhood. Jupiter stood for fatherhood or kingship. And Regulus symbolized royalty.
Put these together in the Babylonian mindset and what do you get? A clear and repeated message that a grand king had been born in Israel.
Larson used computerized astronomical tools to track the convergence of these heavenly signs involving Jupiter, Venus, Leo, and Regulus, back to when they would have occurred.
“Nine months after that first conjunction – nine months – the gestation period of a human. We see Jupiter and Venus come together to form the brightest star anyone had ever seen,” Larson said.
What’s remarkable is that because we understand the solar system and the way the planets orbit the sun, we can literally retrace the orbits to prove that such an event actually happened. And the scriptures tell us that Jesus was born and that afterward, Magi “from the east came to Jerusalem” to worship the new king.
This disturbed King Herod so much that he “called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared” (Mt. 2:7). Once he understood that, he sent them off to Bethlehem, telling them to find the child, “so that I too may go and worship him” (v. 8).
Yeah, right. If only Herod had taken the prophecies at face value.
While it’s interesting to work out what the celestial phenomenon actually might have been, the Star of Bethlehem was only a guide. It lead both believers and unbelievers to the newborn King who one day would say to the Apostle John, “I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16).
The real star of Bethlehem was Christ Jesus Himself.
[Image credit: NASA, pixy.org]