In Matthew 16: 2-3, Jesus said, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red;’ and in the morning: ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is read and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.”
Some of the signs of the times are actually signs in the sky!
God expected his people who were alive at the Lord’s First Coming to be alert and to discern the signs of the times; and likewise, he expects the generation that is alive at the time of the Lord’s Second Coming to be alert and watchful.
But has our generation fallen into the traps of unbelief and spiritual drowsiness all over again? Will the generation of the Second Coming be as dull as the generation of the First Coming?
At one of The Jerusalem Channel’s recent prayer convocations in Jerusalem, Pastor Derek Walker, a Bible chronologist from Oxford, shared a riveting talk on the blood moon tetrad that the earth is passing through until the next Feast of Tabernacles 2015, when a super blood moon will be visible in Israel.
Several best-selling books have been written on the prophetic significance of the blood moon tetrad by authors such as Pastor John Hagee and Mark Blitz. Pastor Derek Walker has written his own analysis in a new book, “Signs in the Heavens: Interpreting the Four Blood Moons.” Derek holds a master’s degree in mathematics from Oxford University. His book is a very thorough 338-page densely packed volume encompassing not only the blood moon phenomena but also the heavenly signs that accompanied the death of Jesus the Messiah.
It’s important that we appropriate the truth that God uses the sun and the moon for signs and for seasons [Hebrew, moadim, fixed times]. These appointed times are dress rehearsals for the plan of redemption and End-time cosmic events.
The stars were designed to reveal God’s glory and to inspire man to worship the Creator, but mankind fell into heathenism soon after the Flood and started to worship the creation rather than the Creator. The book contains an excellent chapter on “The Gospel in the Stars,” how the heavenly bodies are God’s billboard, but tragically the truths God designed in the skies have been corrupted into the idolatry of astrology.
In Bible history God used signs in the heavens, and as one of his modus operandi, the Almighty will certainly use heavenly signs again in the future. Knowing God’s MO, we should expect the day that Jesus died to be marked with a dramatic sign in the heavens. In fact, Pastor Derek wrote, “The 3 evangelists testify that the darkness lasted 3 hours, and that it covered all the land or earth. . . . Luke used a word that gave rise to our present word ‘eclipse’….Furthermore no eclipse of the sun can last longer than 7.5 minutes in any one place. . . . Hence, the cause of the darkness. . . was a SUPERNATURAL EVENT. . . . The hand of God blotted out the sun. . .” Furthermore, Pastor Derek mentioned an aspect of the darkened sky that is truly deep to ponder:
“. . . the stars became visible, as they do in a total solar eclipse. This means there was a further aspect to the Sign in the heavens at that time. . . the Sun was in ARIES, the sacrificial Ram!. . . Aires came into full view, declaring what was taking place on earth. . . .The Sun represents the Messiah, so the Sun in Aires declares that Jesus was fulfilling the aspect of the Work of the Messiah that Aires represents.”
This is awesome beyond our normal understanding: The people around the Cross and in Jerusalem would have seen “the Sun turned to darkness signifying the Son was dying as a sin-offering, set against the background of Aries, the sacrificial Ram! God painted a dramatic picture in the heavens of what was taking place on the earth.”
And what happened at moonrise on the day that the Lord died for our sins? Not only had the sun turned to darkness in the middle of the day, but there was a ‘blood-red’ moon (enhanced by the dust of a great earthquake). Both signs were mentioned by an eyewitness, the Apostle Peter, in the Book of Acts. In his sermon Peter didn’t have to take time to explain how the two dramatic signs in the heavens prophesied by Joel were fulfilled, because his listeners had personally witnessed these signs just a few weeks before.
Many sermons have been written on King Hezekiah, descendant of King David, and how God turned back time for Hezekiah by 10 notches on the sun dial. Pastor Derek also offers insights on this supernatural sign. With his permission, I quote this intriguing section from the book:
Just as Hezekiah, despite his sin, was saved from death and raised up to fulfill God’s Plan, so it is for Israel, who despite her sin would be saved from destruction and be raised up to possess and enjoy the fulfilment of God’s covenants. Just as when Hezekiah was fruitless at the end of his 15 years God rewound his clock … so likewise when Israel was fruitless at the end of the 70th Week, God rewound her Clock to have those 7 years again (as the Tribulation), giving Israel a 2nd chance to be fruitful and receive her Messiah at the end of the 70th week as prophesied. Thus this Sign of Hezekiah was an illustration and confirmation of what God would do for Israel when she was still in unbelief when the 70 Weeks had come to their end. . . . Hezekiah had that day to live over again. He literally relived that same day (there were 2 noons, etc). Likewise, Israel will have the 70th Week to relieve, but it will finish better the 2nd time. . . . Hezekiah’s raising up after two days [2 Kings 20:5] [typifies] Israel’s raising up after 2 DAYS [i.e. 2,000 years].
“Signs in the Heavens” by Derek Walker is available at his website by clicking here.
In the meantime, The Jerusalem Channel invites you to visit Israel with us for our prayer convocations during Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles in 2015 when blood moons are set to occur again and it will be a super blood moon on September 28.
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