The Sun & Moon are used as similitudes
God figuratively uses the sun and moon as images of man and wife, or male and female.
In the passage below Joseph relates a prophetic vision to his father, Jacob. The patriarchal order in which Joseph mentions the symbols, and the exact same order in Jacob’s reply, shows that Joseph’s father (AKA Israel) immediately knows that he is the sun, his wife is the moon, and the eleven other brothers are the eleven stars.
Genesis 37:9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
Most cultures treat the sun as male and the moon as female and have sun gods and moon goddesses. The moon is the lesser or weaker light that “rules the darkness” and has a 28 day cycle exactly like a woman. In fact our words “menses” and “month” both come from the the latin mensis (month), which derives from the Greek Aeolic form mens (μηνς) of mene (μήνη; moon).
The Bible speaks of the moon as being feminine:
Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Ezekiel 32:7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
God says he is a Sun: (He never claims to be a moon)
Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
In the following passage our earthly bodies are directly likened to celestial bodies:
1 Corinthians 15: 39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42a So also is the resurrection of the dead. …
45 And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
In 1 Corinthians 11 the apostle Paul teaches us that men are “ the image and glory of God“, but that women are “ the glory of the man“:
1 Corinthians 11:4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. 5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
So just as the sun, in all its glory, shines out its light, and the moon only gives a dim reflection off of the moon’s grey dust. I believe we are clearly told that men exhibit the image and glory of God, but their wives just reflect the glory of the man.
Fun Fact:
Some of the ancient moon goddesses were given names like the “Queen of Heaven” or the “Mother of gods”. Do those names sound strangely familiar?
an idol of the ancient polytheists’ goddess Luna
Great post that made me think. The moon only orbits the sun by orbiting the earth.
As men we should try to image the likeness of God as much as we rightly can. Be steadfast as the center of your own family galaxy. Don’t be the orbiter. Let the moon wax and wane, and shift the tides, while you keep to your principles, and stay about your Father’s business, only a small part of which is washing your wife of her uncleanness by scouring her filthy attitudes by natural methods of manipulation, and by washing her with the living water of God’s word. However, that is only a small part of your mission, don’t get too focused on her, or you’ll find yourself pulled into her orbit trying to correct her dysfunction, instead of leading that “natural defiler” while keeping yourself unsoiled by her bad influences. She is more naturally prone to foolishly straying into uncleanness than a man, don’t let any deceiver lie to you about that. You are the sun, you rule the day, shine God’s light into her darkness. Perhaps she will wax more reflective some day, but keep on shining out the image and glory of God with constancy.
I hope that Deep Strength comes here some day, and I think it was Novaseeker too, who call these ideas a heresy, so that a lengthy discussion can take place.
I think it could be a small misunderstanding, with them thinking that you are implying that women are subhumans. You aren’t saying that, but I got the sense from their responses to you at DS’s a couple of weeks ago, that is what they were thinking.
Without further discussion though, we can’t know their specific objections that lead them to the use of an alarming warning of heresy.
Swanny River,
I think it could be a small misunderstanding, with them thinking that you are implying that women are subhumans.
LOL I do come pretty close to saying that. But I actually think women are all too human, and self-defiling. But, unlike men, women lack the image of God, and strength of attributes like the generally stronger moral fiber and impartial wisdom inherent in the stronger vessel.
So far, I’ve only had two or three people who really counter-engaged me Biblically regarding the image of God and women, Dominic “Bnonn” Tennant, LC, and some brief comments by a few others. For the most part, folks claim I’m Biblically incorrect, but when I challenge them to show me what scripture supports their contradiction, all I hear is crickets. They generally say that Genesis 1:27 says women are in the image of God. I say read it again and again until you can see what it actually says and doesn’t say. It is only their Feminism that interprets “them” as being a restating of “Adam”. The early church fathers who certainly had Genesis, had no problem coming to the unanimous conclusion that women were not in the image of God, and stating that in their writings. It is this new feminist view that God is a hermaphrodite having both male and female characteristics, that is the new heresy.
If they could accept that men were created superior, and thus it is in everybody’s best interest that a righteous God put the more righteous, competent, and exalted sex in charge of the second sex that was created to serve and reverence the image of God, then they could truly destroy the foundation of feminism, which is usurping women claiming equality here on earth. Women are promised to be co-heirs of God’s grace in the life to come, and to become more conformed to the image of Christ in the life to come, if they follow Christ in this life, and they do so, in part, by submitting to their earthly husbands as unto the Lord.
Women not being in the image and glory of God like men are, is foundational to all discussion about the relationship between the sexes. And the fact that I kept bringing that up was part of what got me booted from a certain website. I certainly welcome discussion and contention and argument for and about the holy scriptures, but I suspect right now most will just point and shriek, or point and mock, the debate will come after more traction is gained by folks who believe like I do, and the folks in the middle realize they are getting shot at by both sides and they are no longer on the right flank, but now are in the middle. God’s word is to the right of them, Feminism is to their left. God says men are the stronger vessel, and are allowed to come into his presence with heads uncovered, because we bear God’s image and glory. Women are not to enter into God’s presence uncovered, because they are simply not like men in that regard.
Seemingly the seraphim also are not in God’s image, for it would be a dishonor to cover over God’s image:
Isaiah 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
So far, I’ve only had two or three people who really counter-engaged me Biblically regarding the image of God and women, Dominic “Bnonn” Tennant, LC, and some brief comments by a few others. For the most part, folks claim I’m Biblically incorrect, but when I challenge them to show me what scripture supports their contradiction, all I hear is crickets. They generally say that Genesis 1:27 says women are in the image of God. I say read it again and again until you can see what it actually says and doesn’t say. It is only their Feminism that interprets “them” as being a restating of “Adam”. The early church fathers who certainly had Genesis, had no problem coming to the unanimous conclusion that women were not in the image of God, and stating that in their writings. It is this new feminist view that God is a hermaphrodite having both male and female characteristics, that is the new heresy.
Scripture has a lot of things to say that make the worldly mind very uncomfortable, and those with “worldly minds” include what I believe to be a majority of self-described “Christians” today. Just as we can see that the mission of (what passes for) “the church” today is to pervert and pretzel Scripture into something palatable to the World, thus most “Christians”are willfully blind to the Bible’s message when it challenges the comfortable, ignorant assumptions that they’ve held all of their lives.
TL;DR version: to accept Scripture as God’s inerrant Word is to reject worldly wisdom. Most people, no matter how piously they present themselves, are simply not spiritually mature enough to accept the implications of that. Indeed, most probably are not genuinely reborn in spirit at all.
Psalm 36:1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
Amen feeriker! I have written to the leaders of my wife’s “church” showing them the steps of church discipline from the Bible. I have documented that I have done the first two steps repeatedly, and yet they absolutely refuse to confront my wife. They absolutely refuse to confront my wife for her horrid evil and her frivolous(to her) divorce, yet welcome her to even lead their children in “church” activities. I absolutely cannot get them to follow God’s word in even the least bit, they won’t even talk to my wife, about what she is doing, except to assure her that they are on her side, and will not cave to my pressure. They’ve gone full pretzel!
1 Corinthians 15:19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
Why even play church and follow half of God’s commands, if you are going to defy Him on others and refuse to repent of that evil? Their sham religion will not save them from a God they choose not to follow, and they are missing out on many pleasures of sin during this season. It makes no sense to be bound by half of God’s commands, and yet defy him on anything related to the women they really worship. They are just too ashamed of God’s word to follow it where it contradicts Feminism.
Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
I may not prefer some parts of God’s word, and It may be next to impossible to follow all of it all the time, but I’m making every effort to follow it as best I can, and I am repentant whenever I realize I’ve missed the mark. But you can rest assured that I think the Bible is God’s inerrant Word, and believing it by faith, I’m not going to be faithless by being embarrassed of a single word of it. In fact, I believe those parts that seem most embarrassing to us, are the parts where we are furthest from God as a culture, and those parts need to be shouted from the rooftops and preached with passion in the pulpits. That is why we are commanded to teach the whole word of God. I’ll make them cast me out for repeatedly proclaiming God’s truth. I will be a “rock of offense” like Jesus Christ was. We only get one shot at this test called life. Don’t fail! Side with the Father of patriarchy every time. Don’t try to compromise with the world, that’s enmity with God. As long as there is a woman alive who hasn’t heard that God wants her to adorn herself with modesty, shamefacedness, and sobermindedness, then the church of Jesus Christ still needs to work on correcting that satanic ignorance.
Early church father Tertullian wrote:
”And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert, even the Son of God had to die. And do you think about adorning yourself over and above your tunics of skins?”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Bible preached like that. The satanic hirelings are too busy shaming men, God’s image, into submission, to ever shame pretentious and usurping women back into subjection. It would be unloving not to warn people of the error of our ways, as we discover it. Find what embarrasses you in the Bible, become proud of it, live it, proclaim it. Let it be weak-point training for your life.
I have got to ask the churchians; “Do you even lift the spiritual weights Bro?”
When training a sheepdog, you establish quickly the areas of their ‘kit’ which come naturally and which need work. The loose rule of thumb is to send them twice as many times to the side which they are less comfortable, to force aptitude.
It’s a never-ending balance game as other areas of their kit will develop and wane. But the rule of thumb always applies: apply pressure to the weak-points. That goal is that by the end of their development, they have sufficient skills throughout their kit to perform all sheepdog functions.
Paul had a speech impediment. It humbled him and reminded him who he served. Jacob had a limp that he carried to his grave as a constant testament of He who was making a work in his life.
We will have shortcomings, they are precisely the blessings- which look like a thorn in our sides- that we require to better understand- not academically: experience- the way of God.