Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
Some people believe that the stars can order our lives and determine our days. The Israelites had met astrologers in Mesopotamia during the exile. What role could these stars have once they had returned from exile?
God shouted out that God did not consider stars more powerful than God. God had not only made the stars, but God has also given them their names and their places in the heavens. God knows where each star is and not one of them is AWOL.
The Israelites may have grown weary from the process of moving back to their home land, the stars in the heavens may even grow faint, but the creator of the ends of the earth does not grow faint and weary. God gives strength and makes vigor abound.
God’s message to the Israelites is that they should put their hope in the Lord, not in the gods of where they were exiles, not in the constellations of the heavens, not is anything except the Lord God. Our loyalty to God, as that of the returning exiles, has to be real and given to God, not to zodiacs, not to constellations, not to political parties, not go anything else except to God the creator of the creator of the ends of the earth.
As Israel returned from exile, this was an important lesson for them. Their loss had been catastrophic, beyond their comprehension. Even the victory of their return may have seemed catastrophic. Their survival, however, in exile and in the return was under the control of God and all of us should recognize this. We are not doomed by losses, nor are we made righteous by victories. Salvation always belongs to our God.
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