What do the references to stars in the Bible mean?

Scripture: Numbers 24:17
What do the references to stars in the Bible mean? The reference in Numbers speaks of Jesus, not King David. Revelation 12 speaks of stars as angels. They seem to also indicate church leadership. Stars guide people.
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Co-Host:  Let’s go to the telephones.  We want to talk with Jonathan in Carmichael, CA.  Hello, Jonathan.

Caller:  My question is—in Bible times people were directed by stars.  In Psalms 147:4, Christ counted the stars and called them by name.  Number 24:17, Star out of Jacob designates King David. 

Pastor Doug:  Give me that last scripture again, in Numbers.

Caller:  Numbers 24:17.  And Genesis 37:9, Christians were called stars.  In Daniel and Revelation, stars denote princes, rulers, angels, and nobles of the earth.  Christ…

Pastor Doug:  Now Jonathan, you’re reading, aren’t you?

Caller:  Yeah.

Pastor Doug:  What is your question, though?

Caller:  The question is: What do stars really mean?

Pastor Doug:  That’s a good question.  Now you’ve already given several answers.  You gave something from Numbers and I wanted to stop you there quickly because you might be reading out of a commentary and I had to disagree with what was said there.  The prophecy of Balaam in Number 24:17 is talking, not about King David, but its talking about Jesus. 

The star that was to arise out of Jacob was to be the Messiah.  You remember when the wise men came from the east and they were following a star, and they knew that star was a sign that the Messiah had come.  Those wise men from the east—Balaam the prophet who wrote Number 24:17 was not a Jew.  He was from the east and that prophecy was something they were reading.  They knew this prophecy was a sign that the king of Israel, the Messiah, had come.  That’s why the wise men came and said ‘Where is He who is born King of the Jews’ and they said ‘We have seen His star’. 

So, even though David was a great king, I think that prophecy was pointing to the Messiah.  But back to your question—what do stars mean?  You know, the Bible tells us in Revelation, if you look in Revelation 12, it talks about the dragon who was cast out of heaven—he drew one-third of the stars of heaven with him, cast them to the earth.

Caller:  Yeah, that represents Lucifer when he was kicked out of heaven and he took one-third of the angels with him.

Pastor Doug:  Right.  And so the stars there represent angels, but fallen angels.  And you find in Revelation 1, it says Jesus has seven stars in His hand and these seven stars are also angels.  The Bible tells you that these stars are angels, or messengers, to the churches.  In the prophecies, stars typically represent angels.  In Revelation 12, in the very beginning, it says there was a woman who had twelve stars above her head.  These stars represented the leadership of the church.  Now, let me just explain a secret that will help you understand this.  In Bible times, they did not have a GPS.  Do you know what a GPS is?

Caller:  No.

Pastor Doug:  I’m a pilot.  I just flew today.  When you want to travel, you use something called a Global Positioning Unit, most planes are using them now and they’re replacing almost all the instruments.  They use satellites to guide you.  Back in Bible times, if you wanted to get guidance on a journey, especially at sea, you used the stars, because the stars were constant. 

You can read a story in Acts 27 where for fourteen days the stars were obscured and they didn’t know where they were.  So stars represent divine leadership in the Bible.  And because that’s what they used to guide them in the dark hours.  I do not believe there’s anything in the Bible that tells us we should look to the stars, like astrology.  Now astronomy’s okay, astronomy is a legitimate science of studying the heavens, like, you know….

Caller:  Yeah, like the zodiac, and all that stuff.

Pastor Doug:  Astrology is the nonsense ofare you an aquarius, or a pisces, or a leo, or whatever that stuff is, and it’s just a bunch of jibberish.  There’s absolutely no spiritual or scientific validity to astrology at all.  I’m speaking from first-hand experience because my mother used to write astrological songs and her friends were astrologers that did charts and signs for people, and the biggest hoax in the world is that the people who are writing these things in the newspapers don’t even believe it. 

It’s a big, big hoax it’s a multi-million dollar business, and people get their astrologies in fortune cookies at the Chinese restaurant.  So, you know, it’s really nonsense.  Some people take that very seriously.  Some folks are very superstitious and they believe that being born a certain time of the month means that their course is set for life.  Stars, typically, in the Bible represent some kind of divine leadership.  They were used for guidance. 

Caller:  Okay.

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