Page 255 - Foundations

The third shows us Messiah’s redeemed possessions - the Redeemed brought safely home, all conflict
over.

The fourth describes Messiah’s consummated triumph.

The constellation Taurus has been of special interest to me since I was a child. My parents became
Christians when I was three years of age, and I was brought up in the Conservative Baptist
denomination. Anything dealing with the zodiac was considered pagan and occult and was to be
avoided. Warnings were given by the preacher against reading the horoscope in the daily newspaper,
or becoming involved with any form of astrology. Nevertheless, I was still a youth when I learned that
my “birth sign” is Taurus (according to the dates of Tropical Astrology). This information was
probably discovered in the pages of the newspaper, for it was common to list the dates of each sign
th
th
in the horoscope column. The sun transits Taurus from April 20 to May 20 of each year, and I was
th
born on May 7 .
Being warned of the dangers of astrology and reading the horoscope, I never demonstrated any
interest in this subject in my youth. It was not until I was well into my adult years that I encountered
any teaching that suggested a divine, Scriptural role for the constellations. I mentioned previously that
the Pleiades, a group of seven stars, is mentioned several times in the Bible, being twice named in Job
and once in Amos. The Pleiades are not a constellation by themselves. They are an integral part of
the constellation Taurus.

Although hidden to most eyes due to translation issues, Taurus likely appears elsewhere in the book
of Job. Even as Job mentions Leviathan, and this fire-breathing dragon described by Yahweh is
figured in the heavens, so too does God speak of the wild ox that was known to the Hebrews as the
reem.

Job 39:9-12
“Will the wild ox (Hebrew - rimu) consent to serve you? Or will he spend the night at your manger?
Can you bind the wild ox in a furrow with ropes? Or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you
trust him because his strength is great and leave your labor to him? Will you have faith in him that
he will return your grain, and gather it from your threshing floor?”

Strong’s Concordance lists this Hebrew word as follows:

re'em (reh-ame'); or re'eym (reh-ame'); or reym (rame); or rem (rame); from OT:7213; a wild bull
(from its conspicuousness):
KJV - unicorn.

The word “unicorn” is a terrible translation. The reem is an actual animal, though now extinct. It was
a powerful ox, or wild bull, of a ferocious temperament. There was no possibility of domesticating
this animal. Regarding this animal, Joseph Seiss writes:

It has long been a question what animal is meant by the Reem, which is so often referred to in the
ancient Scriptures, and which translators have generally called the unicorn. But modern research