Studies in the Incarnation

The Star out of Judah

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Doctrinal Studies

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 7 of 7

Track: #69

Dictation Name: RR116D7

Date: 1960-1970’s

[Rushdoony] Almighty God our heavenly Father we give Thee thanks for the joy of this season. We thank Thee that Jesus Christ is come as our Lord and King, and that in Him we have the blessed assurance of salvation unto victory. We pray our Father that we may move in all times in the joy and in the victory of this season. Make us strong in faith, confident unto victory and in all things grateful. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is Numbers twenty four, verses ten through twenty five. The star out of Jacob, Numbers 24:10-25, the star out of Jacob.

10 And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.

11 Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honor; but, lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honor.

12 And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying,

13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak?

14 And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.

15 And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:

16 He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:

17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

18 And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly.

19 Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.

20 And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish forever.

21 And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock.

22 Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.

23 And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!

24 And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish forever.

25 And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place: and Balak also went his way.

This one of the earlier prophesies concerning the coming of Jesus Christ is set in the context of a very dramatic story. We do not have time to go into the details and some of the dramatic episodes in this story, but briefly Balaam was called by Balak to prophesy against Israel. Balak was king of Moab, Israel was approaching, was on their boundary, and Balak was concerned. It is difficult for us at a distance to imagine the terror that filled the world of that day at the coming of Israel. Here was a slave people that had suddenly overthrown their slavery, not by their own might but by a series of supernatural acts that had devastated Egypt and destroyed its armies. And many a great power had been shaken by these events.

Velikovsky in a series of books gives us his theories, which are not entirely to be followed, concerning the events of that period. And he believes he has documentation that the records of the day witnessed to these supernatural events. Certainly his evidences here are most compelling. The nations were filled with fear. Now Israel was on the borders of Moab. Balak, king of Moab, called Balaam to prophesy against Israel. Balaam was a seer, a seer who had some knowledge of Jehovah the God of Israel, but was definitely not a true believer. The purpose of Balak in calling him was magical, as we have seen on previous occasions there is no difference between ancient magic and modern non-Christian science except in methodology. The philosophy is the same; the purpose is the control by man, of man, nature, and the supernatural, of all things. It is not to know things in the light of God, but to play God over all things. The purpose therefore of politics, as well as science, of all things in the ancient world, as well as in the Magical world, the modern world is magical. Balak wanted to halt Israel in its tracks, to dominate to control history. Balaam was one of many resources he utilized to this end. He had amassed his forces, he had made his alliances, he was preparing to do battle against Israel, but he wanted also every possible assistance that he could get.

Balaam when he came asked that seven altars be erected and seven bullocks and seven rams prepared for the sacrifice. This is in of itself significant, the number seven means totality fullness. And by this sacrifice Balaam wanted to appeal to every power in the universe. Every god that might exist, every natural source that would be controllable, so that he would have power over all things and be able to utilize all things to his destined purpose. Each time however the Holy Spirit overwhelmed Balaam and caused him to testify against Balak, and for Israel. And in the third of these three incidents Balaam began his prophesy “How goodly are thy tents oh Jacob, and thy tabernacles oh Israel.” And in all three prophesies he spoke about the coming victory, the triumph, and the prosperity that would be Israel’s. Balaam then faced the anger of Balak, who turned on him and dismissed him. And Balaam turned again on Balak, but then inspired again by the Holy Spirit he prophesied concerning the things that were to come, spoke in spite of himself, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh, there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. Looking down the centuries Balaam saw the Messiah, the Christ. There shall come a star out of Jacob.

In those days and for untold generations until fairly recent times the past couple of generations or so, no one had any difficulty anywhere in the world in understanding this symbolism. But we have been in an age of debunking, and so things that were once apparent and understandable to every man, woman, and child, now require the help of expository, and are sometimes known to very, very few of them.

A star out of Jacob, what does this star mean? A star is a symbol of power and dominion. And for this reason virtually every nation that has either any dream of power, or has attained power, makes use of the star, the stars and stripes, the stars and bars, and so on. The star is the common emblem either on flags of nations or on their shields, or on their various official insignia and shields, it stands for dominion. A scepter shall rise out of Israel, and the scepter of course is an obvious symbol of kingly power, and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth, the children of Sheth can be better translated as “the sons of tumult” Those who are against law and order, those who are against God’s order. Who are in perpetual tumult against it. Thus this star, this ruler, this king, this scepter that shall rise out of Jacob and Israel and shall smite in time to come the corners of Moab, is he who shall destroy all the children of Sheth, all the sons of tumult, all the anti-God people to the end of time. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies, and Israel shall do valiantly.

Moab and Edom were very closely related peoples to Israel. In fact they believed to be the chosen people of God, the culmination of this claim on the part of Edom is recorded in the book of Acts when Herod dressed himself in cloth of gold and proclaimed himself to be God, to be the Messiah. Moab was born of Lot, who was the first heir of Abraham, and therefore claimed the heirship in that respect. And Edom the elder son of Jacob claimed it for that reason. Neither of them were believers, neither people, but they laid claim to being the chosen people of God. They stand in scripture as types of those who are outwardly of the church, but inwardly not of the church. So that this prophesy declares that those who were outwardly of the church, Edom and Seir, or Edom and Moab, are to be destroyed, Seir being the dwelling place of Edom. And those who are the children of Sheth, the anti-God people, the sons of tumult, those who wage war against God’s law order, they are to be destroyed.

“Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion; and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.” Here again the last phrase “remaineth of the city” can also be translated, and better be translated, as “the remnant of the cities” Again the word “city” needs to be explained because the word city in our day has become quite localized in its meaning, we speak of the city of Los Angeles or Pasadena, Santa Ana, Ventura, and the like. But its ancient use was otherwise, when Saint Augustine wrote the City of God he was writing about the kingdom of God. And when he spoke therein about the city of man, he was speaking of the world empires outside of Christ and against Christ. The City of Rome was the empire of Rome, the word “city” having this broader significance. We still have something of an echo of that in the word “civics”; which is the same word basically as city, but has to do with the broader aspects of civil government. Also in the word “political” which comes from the Greek word “Polis, city”. The city was the state, or the empire, of antiquity.

“And out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy the remnant of the city” the empires, the states, that are against Him. And when he looked on Amalek he took up his parable and said Amalek was the first of the nations, but his later end shall be that he perish forever. Amalek is little more than a name to us today. Scholars have not turned their attention to it, there was a time when Amalek together with Assyria was called evidence that the Bible was full of myth and legend because no such empires existed. But in the last two centuries that knowledge has come to us with respect to Assyria, and Assyria’s no longer judged a myth and evidence of the Bible’s falsity, because we have at every point the Bible confirmed with respect to Assyria, and a vast amount of knowledge concerning the Assyrian empire. And we evidences also of this much earlier great empire Amalek. There are those who believe that the Amalekites were the Hyksos people and the Hyksos dynasty that for a time conquered and ruled Egypt. Amalek was the first of the nations, but his later end shall be that he perish forever.

Amalek was characterized by a savage hatred of God, and everything that God set forth and of the people of God. And in him all those who are against God are set forth, and are to be destroyed. And he looked on the Kenites and took up his parable and said “strong is they dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock, nevertheless the Kenites shall be wasted until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.” The Kenites too shall disappear he said as he looked down the centuries. And he took up his parable and said “alas who shall live, when God doeth this?” How can man stand up against such a God? Who looking down the centuries ordains all things that come to pass, and shakes the nations and causes them to rise and to disappear.

“And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish forever.” Fleets shall come from Rome and afflict the Eastern and the Western Semites and conquer the area, and this new empire too shall pass away, it shall perish forever. This is a prophesy concerning Christ and His coming, and because he is declared at the very beginning to be the star and the scepter, the sovereign and the king, He is the principle of Judgment to all nations and shakes the empires to his coming, and to thereafter. So that Saint Paul could declare “The things which are, are being shaken, they shall be shaken yet once more so that the things that cannot be shaken may alone remain.” This prophesy was fulfilled about fifteen centuries later, wise men came from the east bearing gifts and saying “we have seen His star in the East and are come to worship Him.” The Bethlehem star was the fulfillment of this prophesy, and it indicated to the Wise men the birth of The Star, Christ. And so when they reported this star to Herod and its significance he was filled with dismay. And he ordered all children in the area of Bethlehem two years old and under, subsequently to be killed. He recognized the meaning of the symbol, He who is King of kings and Lord of lords has been born, and his claim to sovereignty was nullified.

A century after Christ a false Messiah arose among the Jews and attempted to overthrow the Roman empire, for a time he gained tremendous success militarily, but even at the high point of his success, the instability of his regime was dramatically apparent in the coin of his realm, of which coins I have one. They were slugs comparable to those now circulating, thanks to the grace of President Johnson. This false Messiah called himself Bar Kochba, which means in Hebrew “The son of the star” in self-conscious attempt to fulfill this prophesy, that he was this world King, and world ruler. But Jesus Christ in the concluding chapter of revelation, revelation twenty-two, verse sixteen declared “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” He is the morning star; a star of yesterday, today, and the future, King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Easter Message and the Christmas message are one in declaring Him to be Lord, King and Lord, victor over all things and over the power of sin and death. And the prophesies concerning Christmas all speak of His kingship, how false therefore are the liberal interpretation of Christmas which deny His virgin birth, which deny His kingship and Lordship, and which reduce Him to a sentimental preacher of a wishy-washy love. But the Christmas carols know better, read them and they speak of His Kingship, His Lordship, and this is the ground of their confidence and Joy. There message is “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King”. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, we thank Thee that unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and that the government is upon his shoulders who is the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and we are thankful unto Thee our Father that we are under His government, of the increase of which there is no end. We thank Thee that therefore we can face all our today’s and our tomorrows in the confidence of Thy power, of Thy sovereignty and of Thy triumph. Fill us therefore all the days of our life with the joy of this blessed peace, in Jesus name amen.

Are there any question now, with respect to our lesson first of all, yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] He was residing in an entirely other area. They were not living close together you see, and that was the reason. Now each family had to at the time of the census go to their family place, this was determined of course in terms of the male head of the household, and Joseph of the tribe of Judah, as Mary was also, went to their family place to register for the census, which was Bethlehem. But John’s father was of course a Levite, and more than that of the house of Aaron of the priestly class of Levites, and therefore his place of registry was quite different, and this is the reason why they were a vast distance apart at the time of the massacre of the infants.

Another question with respect to the lesson, any other question? Ah, yes.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Every area of knowledge that is true knowledge is under God, because there is no true knowledge possible apart from God.

[Same audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] From a Christian perspective you see all things in terms of a fundamental law order in the universe, which is God given, God established, not arbitrary. And you see today under our humanistic concept of the sciences, there is no law in science, there is no truth in mathematics, there is nothing anywhere, these are simply pragmatic or relativistic usages, and so you deny that there is a fundamental law order in any sphere. And so you try to teach something that will erode the concept of a fundamental law order, which is of course the basis of the new man.

[Audience member] No absolutes.

[Rushdoony] No absolutes anywhere, because there is no God.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, there are attempts increasingly to deny, in architectural styling, that there is such a thing as gravity. In other words the building must, as it were, float or soar. It must defy the laws of gravity. This is something that is quite amusing, they still have to be anchored to the earth, but they do want to get away from this concept. One of the most recent attempts by I believe his name is Buckminster Fuller, one architect of some prominence, is to design a pyramid building which will house an entire city, and which can float so that it can be on the oceans as well as on land. This vast pyramid city would take perhaps all of Los Angeles, or perhaps two of them, these buildings would take the entire city; but the idea of course is to escape from bondage to the earth. But the Scripture declares “Dust Thou art, and unto dust returns”.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] The Wise men, we don’t know how much later they came. They did come sometime after the birth of our Lord, and how many there were the scripture doesn’t tell us, just that there were more than one, and they brought three kinds of gifts but that doesn’t mean there were just three men. There may have been a fair number of them. Now how soon they set out on their journey we do not know, so we cannot say how long it took them, and when they got there. But when they arrived Mary and Joseph and the Babe we are told, were living in a house, in other words the birth had taken place in a stable because there was no room at the inn since everybody was crowding in to register for the census. But that rush period was gone, they were there in Bethlehem residing in a home, now that there was space available, the Wise men came.

Now Herod, having inquired of the Wise men to be on the safe side, had all children two years old and under slain. The reason for this was, first the child obviously was more than just a newly born baby. He may have been six months or a year old. Now sometimes it’s difficult to tell the age of a child, say a child that is a year that is a year old and a child that is two, because some develop much more rapidly. I’ve seen one or two children that were walking and beginning to speak at eight months, and at a year they looked much further along than children of two. So for this reason Herod, to be on the safe side, so there would be no escaping for the child said “kill them all, two years old and younger”. Hoping thereby none would escape, but of course Mary and Joseph having been warned by an angel had fled to Egypt.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, the birthday is December the twenty fifth.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, from all the evidence, which is scanty, we have reason that December the twenty fifth is the birthday. The reason for this is that in the fairly early centuries of the Christian Era the Jewish calendar had the twenty fifth of December, or the comparable date on their calendar, marked as a day of mourning, without saying what they were mourning. Now whenever there is no reference to the purpose, the reference is to Christ because it was a rule from the time of the resurrection, to make no mention of Him, and so His name was always dropped. SO the fact that that was a day of mourning is regarded by a few scholars of a century again when they dealt with the subject at some length, as evidence that this was truly His birthday. Now the evidence is slender, but the evidence against it is non-existent, it’s just that modern debunking mood.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] The might and the power of Rome guaranteed that they would register.

[Same audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] No but they were no doubt penalized if they did not. So that the people did go to register, Rome took more than one census in those days. And there are penalties attached to refusing to give information now days when the census taker comes around, in those days too there were penalties, those that the registration was quite effective.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Oh yes it can be used as a crutch very definitely, it is important to acknowledge that all things do come to pass by God’s will, so we can’t makes God’s will an excuse for our sin and our failure.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] I think it’s faith rather than trouble that keeps us dependant on the Lord.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] That’s true, but having found the truth we don’t need then the troubles to shake us, we need us faith, ever increasing faith, growth in faith. In other words, you’re very right, it’s troubles, it’s storms, it’s distress that leads us very often outwardly, although it is always the inner working of the Holy Spirit, to come to Christ. I’ve cited more than once here the line of Lowell when he speaks of men “as we who by shipwreck only find the shores of divine wisdom.” But when we are Christians I trust we can use our faith to keep us near the Lord, rather than having troubles, although there’s no question that people pray a lot more enthusiastically when they’re in trouble. But troubles alone will not do it, I can remember during World War II many soldier declaring with laughter when he was out of action, and on leave, that he’d been praying desperately more than once when he was in a foxhole. But of course once he was out of it and safe here, then it was a big joke that he did, you see it didn’t help him any because there was no faith.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] No, discipline, you’re right, discipline is necessary to our growth and sometimes troubles supplies the discipline. But without faith it’s all meaningless. In other words the same thing can happen to two different people and one will grow and the other will not grow. Or they grow in opposites directions.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes but it always has to come from within, you see this is the key fact, otherwise we fall into environmentalism. We can say these outward circumstances stimulate our faith, they quicken it sometimes, but basically without faith nothing makes any difference.

Yes there was a question over here?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Very, very few of the Jewish people today look to these prophesies and hope for a personal Messiah. One of the things that happened very early after the fall of Jerusalem was the re-writing of all their commentaries of the Bible. Everything in the Bible, plus their own commentaries, pointed to Christ so perfectly that whenever a Christian evangelist met with a Jew and expounded the scriptures to him, all he needed to say “but isn’t Christ the fulfillment of everything you were ever taught?” Therefore this teaching had to be changed. And so they began to drop all of this, and to re-interpret these things so that the fulfillment of these Messianic prophesies was increasingly made to be, not Christ, but Israel.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Well the Gnostics were philosophers who were part Hellenic or Greek, part Jewish in their outlook, and they were humanistic in their approach, and they too attempted to re-write the whole of the Bible in humanistic terms. So they may leap with these Jewish forces very definitely in attempting to re-write the faith, to eliminate Christ really, that was the purpose of it.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] No the Torah is simply the Hebrew word for the law, it has reference to the five books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. The Talmud is a commentary on the Torah and this is a re-interpretation really of the whole Bible, in that it takes the plain sense and tries to give it a different meaning. To understand Talmudic interpretation all you have to do is to look at what the Supreme Court does to the constitution, it’s the same principle. You take and twist the meaning of words to get a diametrically opposite conclusion out of them, you use the word because you are paying lip service to it, but you are trying to make it add up to something radically different.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes increasingly the Christian calendar has prevailed in almost every part of the world. Now other calendars exist, but they are increasingly becoming secondary. That is, the Buddhist has a calendar, the Jews have their calendar, and so on. But these calendars are being resereved for religious use and have less and less political and social use in that Christian forms are predominating everywhere. Now there is a rebellion against this, and so you have the Calendar reform movement which wants to abolish the Christian calendar and begin an entirely post-Christian type calendar and calendar dating. Creating new months, new holidays, new festivals which will be world religious festivals, and the like. But so far these are not successful. They are used in some cases by major corporations; the thirteen month calendar is one that is used by some. But so far they have not succeeded in getting this adopted by the various nations, however it is hoped that this will be done through the United Nations. Now the French Revolution tried to begin a new calendar, and begin history from the time of the Revolution. The Russian Revolution attempted the same thing. Both had to abandon their new calendars, but this hope of a new non-Christian calendar is still very much with us.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, you see the Chinese calendar is quite relativistic; the basic premise is pragmatism and relativism. We don’t have the time to go into the meaning of it, but this is what makes it popular and so you do hear a great deal about these things. But however it was definitely not the year of the rat, in spite of what the Chinese calendar may say.

Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] This is utter nonsense; the seventh day Adventist claim is so false that it is ridiculous. First of all their claim is that our modern Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath. That is wrong, dead wrong. The Jewish calendar was made up of twenty eight day months, in other words four weeks of seven days. Now this obviously left some days over you see, at the end of the year. How did they deal with this? The Jewish calendar ran for six months, and at the end of the six months they had two days that were days of Sabbaths, in other words they had three Sabbaths in a row. Then on the fourth day they began again with the first day of the week. So you see, the next Sabbath would fall on a different day because they had had three Sabbaths in a row. Now at the end of the next six months they would have three extra days. Those three extra days they would add on to the last Sabbath, and so you would have four Sabbath days in a row. Then they would begin numbering the week over again.

Do you get the point? In other words, let us say it was the seventh day, or our Saturday, then there would be three or four, depending on whether it was at the middle of the year or the end of the year, seventh days in a row. So with every six months the days of the week would be re-arranged. Now why did they worship on the seventh day? Because the seventh day was the day of the Passover, it was patterned after the days of creation, but as the law in Deuteronomy makes clear, why should they remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? “ Because the Lord delivered to Thee out of Egypt with a strong and mighty arm.” In other words the day of Passover was the first Sabbath, it was their day of salvation.

Now our day of salvation as Christians is not the day of Passover, it is the day of Resurrection is it not? The first day of the week. Therefore the first day of the week from the book of Acts right on through to the present is the Christian Sabbath. And the Seventh day Adventist are thereby declaring when they refuse to worship on the first day of the week, that they are Jews, not Christians. That there day of salvation is the day of Passover, and so this is in a sense a denial of Christ and His salvation.

Our time is just about over and there was a question asked at the conclusion of the hour, I think two weeks ago, about some of the verse that tell us not to pray for the ungodly. Now I John 5:16 “If any man sees his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death, there is a sin unto death , I do not say he shall pray for him.” The Berkley Version translates that last phrase “I advise no prayer for that.” Then Jeremiah the seventh chapter, the sixteenth verse “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up, cry, nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee”. Jeremiah 14:11 “Then said the Lord unto me, pray not for this people, for their good.” John 17:9 our Lord declared “I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me, for they are Thine.” There are other verses as well but here are a few which indicate that for those who are hardened reprobates, like communist leaders and the like, unregenerate men who deny God and make evil their good, we are not to pray for them. Our praying is not to be sentimental.

Well our time is up and so we stand adjourned, and I wish all of you a very, very Merry Christmas.