Joseph Herrin (05-28-2012)

Isaiah 26:20-27:1
Come, my people, enter into your rooms and close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course. For behold, Yahweh is about to come out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; And the earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer cover her slain. In that day Yahweh will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

SpaceX – Dragon Capsule Mission Patch

The image above is of the mission patch for the historic berthing of a privately developed rocket which has this week delivered supplies to the International Space Station. Many things are being signified by this “sign in the heavens.” Of particular interest is the emphasis on the name and image of the dragon.

SpaceX Dragon Capsule

Aside from the capsule itself bearing the name “Dragon,” the vessel utilizes a navigation sensor called the “DragonEye.” The capsule also has 18 (6+6+6) thrusters that are collectively called “Draco.” Draco is the name of a constellation in the heavens.

Constellation Draco (The Dragon)

NASA ended the Space Shuttle program after several decades of service and is now looking to outsource the delivery of material and personnel to the International Space Station. Spacex’s Dragon Capsule was the first privately developed vessel to ever be utilized in this manner. It has garnered great media attention. Those who are seeking to understand the times we live in can gain insight through what is symbolized.

Dragon Capsule Captured by ISS

The dragon has from the beginning of man’s history been a symbol of Satan. In the Garden of Eden Satan is portrayed as a serpent. A dragon is a winged serpent.

Revelation 12:9
And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world…

Now, at the end of the age, there is to be great conflict between Satan’s kingdom and the kingdom of Messiah Yahshua. Satan will rise up against the sheep of God’s folds, and the Great Shepherd, like David of old, will arise and strike the Dragon and deliver His sheep.

Revelation 12:4-6
And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Daniel 7:19-22
Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet, and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates. I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.

The Scriptures, numerous signs and prophecies, and the testimony of the Spirit of Christ, indicate that we are heading into a time of great conflict such as the world has never known. The kingdom of the dragon is ascending. Babylon is being formed upon the earth. All nations will be dissolved into one homogenous world system that is ruled over by Satan and his human emissaries. The Dragon will make war with the people of God, both the natural descendants of Abraham, and the spiritual seed of Messiah. These are the Greater and Lesser Sheepfolds depicted in the heavens.

Draco and Greater and Lesser Sheepfolds

Yahweh has set His message in the heavens. The two sheepfolds have been obscured through the ages, but the original meaning of these constellations is still discerned through the names of the stars contained in them. What is now called Ursa Minor (Little Bear) and Ursa Major (Great Bear), and commonly referred to as the Little Dipper and Big Dipper, were from days of antiquity known as the Greater and Lesser Sheepfolds. Joseph Seiss, in his book The Gospel in the Stars, shares the following:

The way in which Ursa Minor and Ursa Major may have come to be called Bears is perhaps  from the fact that the ancient name of the principal star is Dubheh or Dubah, and as Dob is the word for bear, the Greeks and others took the name of that star as meaning the Bear, and so called these two corresponding constellations the Bears.

But Dubheh and Dubah does not mean bear, but a collection of domestic animals, a fold, as the Hebrew word Dober. The evidence is that, according to the original intent, we are to see in these constellations not two long-tailed bears, but two sheepfolds, or flocks, the collected and folded sheep of God’s pasture.
[End Excerpt]

It is evident from the image of the constellations above that Satan, the great serpent and dragon of old, seeks to interpose himself between the sheepfolds of God, and to attack the flocks of God. Yet, Yahweh has sent forth His Son as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. He will return as the deliverer of His people and strike the enemy. As Isaiah prophesied, “In that day Yahweh will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.”

A fascinating image has been captured by the cameras of the Hubble Space telescope. This image has recently provoked some discussion among those who are fascinated by the glories of the heavens.

(Click on Image to View Larger)

Look closely at this picture from the Orion Nebula. This picture was taken by the Hubble in 2006, and only last year some perceived the image of a dragon and a man engaged in a great conflict with one another.

In the image above, the surrounding areas are masked to draw attention to the image of the winged dragon spewing forth fire (or water) and the man who is advancing toward the dragon with arm outstretched and what might be perceived as a fiery sword making contact with the neck of the dragon. That this image should be taken from the Orion Nebula is significant. According to the several books I have on ancient Biblical Astronomy, Orion is a figure of a giant hunter with a mighty club in the act of striking a lion (the terrestrial adversary of the flocks of man – Satan goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.)

Orion

Can one not in this picture envisage David with his club striking the lion and rescuing the sheep from his father’s flocks? David is a type and shadow of the greater Shepherd who has been given charge over the flocks of His Father. Will not Yahshua stand up at the proper time and deliver His people from the jaws of the adversary? Though for a moment we be accounted as sheep for the slaughter, we will reign victorious in the end.

We are entering that time when this great conflict must come to a head (pun intended). Satan will with great force and cunning bring forth his kingdom upon the earth. He will muster all his power for a final assault on the people of God. For a time he must prevail.

Revelation 13:4-7
They worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.

Before He can make a final end, and triumph over the people of God, Yahweh will send forth His great champion, even He who sits upon the throne; He who was slain and can die no more. He who has been given all power and might and authority will arise. The Son of God who disarms rulers and authorities and triumphs over them by the might of His outstretched arm will come forth with power and cast down the adversary and deliver His people.

There is much relating to these last days that I see only dimly. Yet I am persuaded that in the midst of troublous days Yahweh will provide help to His people.

Daniel 11:33-34
“Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many; yet they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days. Now when they fall they will be granted a little help…”

Revelation chapter 12 speaks of Yahweh having a place prepared in the wilderness for the woman (the church). It speaks of a man child being caught up to the throne out of reach of the dragon. It also speaks of the great serpent going off to wage war with the remainder of her seed.

Revelation 12:13-17
And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yahshua.

Who will be in each of these three groups, I do not know. How these things will be fulfilled, I cannot say. Such things Yahweh knows. What is evident is that a time of great conflict is nearing. The day before the Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station, Andre Kuipers, one of the astronauts aboard the ISS, took the following photograph of the earth.

Kuipers, who is Dutch, put this up with the caption “Er zit een draak achter ons aan!” — “There’s a dragon after us!”

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/

This statement was intended as a double entendre, referring also to the Dragon Capsule that was approaching the space station. The image he snapped was of Lake Rason which is located in the vast wilderness of Western Australia. As I saw the image I was reminded of the passage from Revelation. The woman flees to the wilderness as the dragon pursues her. It is a water dragon depicted in Revelation, for it spews forth floods out of its mouth to sweep the woman away. The dragon pictured above is also formed of water, and the Dragon Capsule is itself a water dragon. It is designed to splash down in the ocean to be recovered by a waiting crew.

Dragon Capsule Recovery

“and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.”

A bizarre and foreboding note to this celestial event in the news this week is revealed in the following excerpt from Wikipedia.

An unannounced addition to the cargo manifest, made public after the launch, was a small canister, affixed to the second stage’s top, containing the 1-gram ash remains of over 300 people including Project Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper, and James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty on the television show Star Trek in the 1960s. The remains were flown semi-secretly by Celestis, a company that has flown burial canisters in the past on SpaceX’s Falcon 1 launch vehicle. The second stage and the burial canister are in a temporary orbit, and will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere in about a year’s time.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COTS_Demo_Flight_2]

The Dragon brings death with it. The ashes of 300 dead people attended this historic flight of the Dragon Capsule. Satan pretends to be a benevolent being, a minister of light, bringer of peace, and supplier of all good things to man, but the Son of God stated that Satan comes only “to kill, steal and destroy” (John 10:10). Evil days are at hand. It is a time to hide oneself in God. He will be a refuge for His people in troublous days. Those who trust in Him will do exploits. Let us be strong and courageous. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Love is stronger than death.