The Sign Of Cancer

The Sign of Cancer, in the centre of the Sign there is a remarkably bright cluster of stars, so bright that they can be sometimes seen with the naked eye. It looks like a comet, and is made up of a great multitude of stars. Its ancient name has come down to us as Praesepe, which means a multitude, offspring. The brightest star is called Tegmine, means holding. The star in the lower large claw, is called Acubene, means the sheltering or hiding-place.

In Cancer we see it with reference to his redeemed. The three constellations develop the truth. What is now called Ursa Minor is the Lesser Flock; Ursa Major gives us The Sheepfold and the Sheep; while Argo, The Ship, shows the travelers and the pilgrims brought safely home, all conflict over.

Ursa Minor. The Little Bear - the lesser sheep-fold. A grievous mistake, or ignorant perversion of primitive truth, as shown in the ancient names of these two constellations. 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 heaven, round which all others revolve. 

The brightest star, at the point of the tail, is the most important in the whole heaven. it is named Al Ruccaba, which means the turned or ridden on, and is today the Polar or central star, which does bnot revolve in a circle as does every other star, but remains, apparently, fixed in its position. But though the star does not revolve like the others, the central point in the heaven is very slowly but steadily moving. When these constellations were formed, the Dragon possessed this important point, and the star in Draco, marked this central point. But, by its gradual recession, that point is sufficiently near this star Al Reccaba, in the Lesser Sheepfold, for it to be what is called the Polar Star. The Polar Star has been removed from the Dragon, and is now in the Lesser Fold.

But, how could this have been known five or six thousand years ago? How could it have been known when it received its name, which means the turned or ridden on? That it was known is clear; so likewise was it made known in the written Word that the original blessing included not merely the multiplication of the seed of faithful Abraham, but it was then aded, “And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Genesis 22:17).

Is not this the primitive truth of the Revelation? Will not this Lesser Fold be high, yea, the highest in position? The Polar Star has been removed from the Dragon, and is now in the Lesser Fold; and when the Dragon shall be cast down from the heaven, the Lesser Fold will be safely folded there. But this is the Lesser Sheepfold, which is compared “to the stars of heaven,” but there is the seed that is compared to “the sand of the sea”, the larger flock who will enjoy the earthly blessing also. Ursa Major (The Great Bear) The fold and the flock.

It is a large and important constellation, and it always presents a splendid appearance, and is perhaps, therefore, the best know of all the constellations. In the Book of Job 9:9; 38:31-32 it is mentioned under the name of Ash. “Canst thou guide Ash and her offspring?” which is rendered in the AV, “Arcturus and his sons.” The brightest star is named Dubhe, which means a herd of animals, or a flock, and gives its name to the whole constellation. The ancient Israelite commentators interpreted Ash as the seven stars of this constellation. There is not one discordant voice in the rich abundance of this testimony. We see only the innumerable seed gathered by him who scattered (Jeremiah 31:10). The prophecies of this gathering are as conspicuous in the Word of God as the “Seven Stars” in the sky. It is difficult even to make a selection from the wealth of such promises (Ezekiel 34:12-16). It is of this judgment with which this book, and indeed the whole Revelation, ends, in the next Sign, and final chapter, Leo.

But before we come to Leo, we have one more picture in the third constellation of this Sign, which combines the first two in one. Argo (The Ship) The pilgrims safe at home. Argo, it tells of that blessed home coming (Isaiah 35:10; 51:9-11; Jeremiah 31:11-12). The return of the great emigrant-ship (Argo) and all its company of travelers, for this is the meaning of the word Argo. It will indeed be a large vessel, the true Argo, with its company of travelers, “a great multitude which no man can number.” Its brightest star is called Canopus which means the possession of him who cometh. Is not all this exactly in harmony with the rest of this sign? Jeremiah 30:10-11; the whole chapter of Isaiah 60 should be read if we wish to understand the great teaching of this Sign of Cancer. 

Genesis 3:15

A figure of speech relates to the form in which the words are used. It consists in the fact that a word or words are used out of their ordinary sense, or place, or manner, for the purpose of attracting our attention to what is said. In Genesis chapter three, we have neither allegory, myth, legend, nor fable, but literal historical facts set forth, and emphasized by the use of certain figures of speech. When Satan is spoken of as a ‘serpent’, it is the figure Hypocatastasis or Implication. An implied resemblance or representation. 

Other figures of speech are used in Genesis 3:14-15, but only for the same purpose of emphasizing the truth and the reality of what is said. “Thou shalt bruise his heel”, it cannot mean his literal heel of flesh and blood, but suffering, more temporary in character. 

“He shall crush thy head”, it means something more than a skull of bone, and brain, and hair. It means that all Satan’s plans and plots, policy and purposes, will one day be finally crushed and ended, never more to mar or to hinder the purposes of God.

This will be effected when Satan shall be bruised under our feet (Romans 16:20). This, again, will not be our literal feet, but something much more real. The bruising of Christ’s heel is the most eloquent and impressive way of foretelling the most solemn events; and to point out that the effort made by Satan to evade his doom, then threatened, would become the very means of insuring its accomplishment; for it was through the death of Christ that he who had the power of death would be destroyed; and all Satan’ power and policy brought to an end, and all his works destroyed.

The history of Genesis chapter three is intended to teach us the fact that Satan’s sphere of activities is in the religious sphere, and not the spheres of crime or immorality; that his battlefield is not the sins arising from human depravity, but the unbelief of the human heart. We are not to look for Satan’s activities today in the newspaper press, or the police courts; but in the pulpit, and in professors’ chairs. Whenever the Word of God is called in question, there we see the trail of that old serpent?

Genesis 3:14-15 - What literal words could portray these literal facts so wonderfully as these expressive figures of speech? It is the same with the other figures used in versus 14, “On thy belly shalt thou go”. This figure means infinitely more than the literal belly of flesh and blood. It paints for the eyes of our mind the picture of Satan’s ultimate humiliation; for prostration was ever the most eloquent sign of subjection. Ps. 44:25 denotes such a prolonged prostration and such a depth of submission as could never be conveyed or expressed in literal words.

What literal words could portray these literal facts so wonderfully as these expressive figures of speech? 

Genesis 1:1

Let’s look at the beginning of Genesis, “And” is the figure of speech Polysyndeton or Many Ands. The repetition of the word “and” at the beginning of successive clauses, each independent, important, and emphatic, with no climax at the end. 34 verses of this introduction, each one of 102 separate acts is emphasized; and the important word “God” in versus 1 is carried like a lamp through the whole of this Introduction. 

“The earth” is the figure of speech Anadiplosis or Like sentence endings and beginnings. The word or words concluding one sentence are repeated at the beginning of another. 

“Without form” the Hebrew word is ‘tohu va bohu’ and is the figure of speech Paronomasia or Rhyming words. The repetition of words similar in sound,  but not necessarily in sense. Without form, one of the Hebrew words is ‘tohu’ and is used as a subsequent event. Not created ‘tohu’ (Isa. 45:18), but became ‘tohu’ (2 Pet. 3:5-6). The other word is ‘bohu’ and is rendered “void”, means desolate. The two words together occur in Gen. 1:2; Isa. 34:11; Jer. 4:23.

“Face” in Genesis 1:2 is the figure Pleonasm or Redundancy. Where what is said is, immediately after, put in another or opposite way to make it impossible for the sense to be missed. 

In Genesis 1:2, the two verbs ‘was’ should be the verb ‘to become’. The Revisers ill-advisedly decided that “all such words, now printed in italics, as are plainly implied in the Hebrew, and necessary in English, be printed in common type. One of the consequences of this decision is that the verb “to be” is not distinguished from the verb “to become”, so that the lessons conveyed are lost. 

Isaiah 14:13 - The north, this helps us to localize the dwelling place of God. 

Psalms 75:6 - It comes not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, therefore promotion comes from the north. The immediate place of God’s throne, to which Lucifer aspires. 

Job 26:7 - In order to stretch out the north over the empty place, there has to be a structure in place separating whatever is inside it from the empty place outside of it. 

John 4:24 God is a spirit, not flesh or material substance.

John 5:26 God has eternal life in himself. 

Genesis 1:1 shouldn’t have happened. The bible assumes that the great usurper exits and never questions that assumption. The earth flooded out proves the great usurper is not an unfounded assumption. The beginning of the universe is in Genesis 1:1. Darkness was upon the earth, because it appears the earth is now in some kind of black structure. The great usurper and those who helped him out are swimming around on the earth. Now the earth, the opposite of the created order is ‘nothing,’ (water). But to the ancients, the opposite of the created order was something much worse than ‘nothing’ (chaos).

God just sat for awhile looking at this new black structure from his throne room, letting the great usurper sweet it out. As the great usurper swam around in this black structure board out of his mind, all of a sudden a wind (invisible force) from God swept over the water. Now God is a spirit being, meaning his body is composed of a substance called spirit. God also has a unique kind of life within that body composed of that substance called spirit, but the eternal life God has within himself produces some kind of light (His glory). It was this glory that used to be the light source to the earth, but God can’t control it, his glory just shines right through his body of spirit. As God sat in his throne room, out of nowhere he said, “Let there be light.”

Now at one point in time in God’s life, he chose to create some kind of structure that separated him from the empty place  outside of that structure. But God was not alone, because God rode around on a kind of throne chariot. God’s enthroned above four magnificent creatures. Each of these has a human body and then four faces: the face of a human, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle. These 4 magnificent creatures have the same kind of eternal life that God has within himself, but what these magnificent creatures bodies are made of, is unclear. Not only were these 4 magnificent creatures with God, but there were 24 other individuals with God. These 24 individuals are named Elders and they also have the same kind of eternal life that God has within himself, but these Elders have that eternal life in some kind of flesh and bone body. Now God’s body is different then these 24 Elders and these 4 magnificent creatures.

We know that God did indeed create some kind of structure around him, because he went to the north side of that structure and laid the north side of it over the empty place that is outside of that structure. It is in the north of the north of that new addition to that structure, that God established a different throne to sit on, because his throne (the Ark) is in the tent that God pitched in the north of the north also. Now the reason God created this structure, it was for the beings he was about to create within it.