“For Signs And For Seasons.”

We have seen the great truths which are taught from the position, and forms, and names of the heavenly bodies. There are also truths to be learnt from their motions.

When God created them and set them in the firmament of heaven, He said, in Gen. i. 14—

“Let them be for signs and for seasons.”

Here the word “signs” is othoth (אֹתֹת, plural of אוֹת, oth, from the root אֳתֳת, to come). Hence, a sign of something or some One to come. In Jer. x. 2 Jehovah says, “And be not dismayed at the signs (וּמֵאתוֹת) of the heavens, for the heathen are dismayed at them.” The word “seasons” does not denote merely what we call the four seasons of the year, but cycles of time. It is מוֹעֵד, appointed time (from the verb יָעַד, to point out, appoint). It occurs three more times in Genesis, each time in connection with the promised Seed—

Gen. xvii. 21, “At this set time in the next year”;