In Numbers 12, we are given the rule for interpreting the prophets. In this passage we are told that God speaks to Moses plainly and face to face. Not so with the other prophets. He speaks to them in visions, dreams, and riddles. This means that visions and dreams are given in the form of riddles. But even though Moses understood what he saw, he still veiled these things for us. Only by using the New Testament apostolic method of interpretation, can we see that there is a veiled meaning to the Old Testament. This does not mean that the literal historical account has no meaning. It means that we first take the natural historical meaning and then use that as a blue print for interpreting the symbolical meaning.

In the following passage we are told that God made the stars, the sun, and the moon to rule. The veiled meaning is that these are not only God's literal creation, but that they symbolize rulers of nations.

GEN 1:16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.

17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,

18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

GEN 37:9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me."

10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?"

REV 12:1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

Since the woman is clothed with the same number of stars as in Joseph's dream, then this must represent Israel. Israel (the church) gave birth to Christ. The dragon, in the form of Herod, tried to kill her child. Her child ascended to God. The true Israel then fled from Jerusalem to Pela in A.D. 66 where she was sustained for 1260 days ( three and a half years) during the war with Rome.

The following prophecy against Babylon was fulfilled starting around 500 B.C. when the Medes invaded. Note the "the stars...will not give their light; the sun will be darkened...the moon will not ....shine." This means that the rulers of Babylon would fall.

Isaiah 13:1 The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

2 "Lift up a banner on the high mountain, raise your voice to them; wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

3 I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have also called My mighty ones for My anger--those who rejoice in My exaltation."

4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like that of many people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts musters the army for battle.

5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD and His weapons of indignation, to destroy the whole land.

6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore all hands will be limp, every man's heart will melt,

8 and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; they will be amazed at one another; their faces will be like flames.

9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.

11 "I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them.

The prophecy of Edom's fall by Isaiah was fulfilled when Babylon came less than one hundred years after the prophecy. In this prophecy, the sun, moon, and stars are called "the host of heaven." Note the exaggerated expression, "the mountains shall be melted with their blood...For My sword shall be bathed in heaven..." This passage has a double interpretation. It applies first to Edom's fall, and secondarily to the destruction of all nations.

Isaiah 34:2 For the indignation of the LORD is against all nations, and His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter.

3 Also their slain shall be thrown out; their stench shall rise from their corpses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

4 All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; all their host shall fall down as the leaf falls from the vine, and as fruit falling from a fig tree.

5 "For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; indeed it shall come down on Edom, and on the people of My curse, for judgment.

6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made overflowing with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

The following prophecy was fulfilled in March, 584 B.C. when Babylon crushed Egypt.

Ezekiel 32:2 "Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: 'You are like a young lion among the nations, and you are like a monster in the seas, bursting forth in your rivers, troubling the waters with your feet, and fouling their rivers.'

3 "Thus says the Lord God: 'I will therefore spread My net over you with a company of many people, And they will draw you up in My net.

4 Then I will leave you on the land; I will cast you out on the open fields, and cause to settle on you all the birds of the heavens. And with you I will fill the beasts of the whole earth.

5 I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your carcass.

6 'I will also water the land with the flow of your blood, even to the mountains; and the riverbeds will be full of you.

7 When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

8 All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you, and bring darkness upon your land,' says the Lord God.

Isaiah 24:21 It shall come to pass in that day that the LORD will punish on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth the kings of the earth.

22 They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison; after many days they will be punished.

23 Then the moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before His elders, gloriously.

In Jeremiah's lamentation over the fall of Jerusalem in his day at the hands of Babylon, he pictures her as a fallen star.

LAM 2:1 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, and did not remember His footstool in the day of His anger.

Jesus uses the same word picture in describing the fall of Capernaum...a fallen star.

MAT 11:23 "And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

The Syrian king Antiochus is pictured as a rising star who throws down other stars and exalts himself. Notice how the Spirit mixes metaphors. He is called a "little horn" who "grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars."

DAN 8:5 And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

6 Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power.

7 And I saw him confronting the ram; he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him; and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand.

8 Therefore the male goat grew very great; but when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven.

9 And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land.

10 And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them.

11 He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.

This prophecy is against the king of Babylon. Some see in it a double meaning. They see it as applying also to Satan. It must apply first to the king of Babylon because that is what it clearly says.

Isaiah 14:4 that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: "How the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased!

13 For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;

REV 9:1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

How can a key be given to a star? Because the star is a person. He is probably a fallen ruler.

The following prophecies in Joel and Haggai refer to the end of the Old Testament age. i.e. the "end of the age." God says "I will shake heaven and earth." Hebrews clearly interprets this expression as the "removal of those things." He is referring to the ceremonial laws. Hebrews was written shortly before those "weak and beggarly elements" were destroyed in 70 A.D. How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. (Gal. 4:9,10)

Joel 3:15 The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness.

6 The LORD also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the LORD will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

Haggai 2:6 "For thus says the LORD of hosts: "Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land;

7 'and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,' says the LORD of hosts.

Hebrews 12:26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."

27 Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Jesus also uses this hieroglyphic expression in describing the destruction of Jerusalem.

MAT 24:29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Jesus declared twice that this prophecy would be fulfilled in that generation. (Mat. 23:36 & 24:36) It was fulfilled in 70 A.D.!

The word translated elements comes from the Greek word STOICHEION which means "first things." The A,B,C's. In Hebrews it is translated "rudiments." In Colosians it is translated "basic principles." Each time it is used in the New Testament to refer to the "weak and beggarly elements" of the ceremonial law. The "heavens" are called the elements also. The heavens are made up of the sun, moon, and stars.

COL 2:20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations--

21 "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,"

GAL 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

4:9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

HEB 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Since the powers (rulers) of the heavens over Jerusalem were to fall, the apostles looked for new heavens and a new earth. This expression "new heavens and earth," meant the rule of the New Jerusalem (the kingdom of God) instead of the Old Jerusalem. The old Jerusalem dealt with weak and beggarly "elements." Speaking in apocalyptic language, these elements were to melt with the fervent heat of God's Word. This prophecy was fulfilled in that generation.

2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

The new heavens and new earth is another way of saying the kingdom of God. The weak and beggarly elements of the old heaven and earth were destroyed in A.D. 70. They were burnt up by the Romans with Christ leading them on a white horse with a sword proceding out of His mouth while trampling the winepress of the fiercenes and wrath of Almighty God.

Every time the New Testament says that Christ or the day of the Lord is coming soon, that promise was fulfilled in A.D. 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and her rulers who used the ceremonial law in order to have power.

In conclusion, we see that all of these words mean the same thing. 1. SUN, MOON, AND STARS. 2. ELEMENTS. 3. THE HEAVENS. 4. THE CEREMONIAL LAW. 5. THE TEMPLE. 6. THE WEAK AND BEGGARLY ELEMENTS. 7. MILK. 8. THINGS MADE. 9. FIRST PRINCIPLES.

I think we can conclude then, that those who hope to have a rebuilt temple are living in the Milky Way. Those who look at things that are not seen, are seated with Christ in the new heavens.

FRIENDSHIP IN ACTION, 2411 MIMOSA, MISSION, TX. 78572