Four Blood Moons Page 3

  The second heaven is where Satan has his throne. God converses with Satan in the second heaven (Job 1:6–8) and casts him out in the book of Revelation (20:1–3).

  The apostle Paul was given a guided tour through the eternal heaven, which he refers to as the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2). Paul, who could say more in less time than any author in recorded history, after seeing the grandeur of heaven simply recorded the following description for future generations:

  Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

  Nor have entered into the heart of man

  The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

  (1 CORINTHIANS 2:9)

  You often hear people speaking of the seventh heaven; it doesn’t exist unless you are on an ethereal drug-induced trip!

  Why is Genesis 1:1 controversial? Why does the prince of darkness hate this verse and every concept of this verse? Because if you don’t believe Genesis 1:1 and trust the Holy Spirit when He tells you of the creation, why would you trust Him when He tells you about the Father’s plan of salvation for your eternal soul in John 3:16?

  If you don’t believe Genesis 1:1, you have no solid foundation to believe the rest of Scripture. You can’t believe that God parted the Red Sea for Moses or stopped the sun for Joshua and you can’t possibly believe that God controls the sun, moon, and stars and creates signs to appear in the heavens at specific times in history.

  If what God’s Word says about the creation is not true, why would you believe His Word when He says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3)? If Genesis 1:1 is not true, why bother believing the remainder of the Word of God?

  GOD’S CONTROL OVER THE HEAVENS

  I asked myself the question as I continued my research, What is the Bible’s evidence that God totally controls the sun, moon, and stars?

  I read the story of Joshua and the children of Israel, who were attacked by the armies of five kings seeking to annihilate God’s chosen (Joshua 10:1–13).

  The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you.” Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal. So the LORD routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon. . . . And it happened, as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon, that the LORD cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.

  (vv. 8–11)

  Keep this story in mind for it will come back in living color in the Gog-Magog War, which we will discuss later in this book. The story of Joshua continues. . . .

  Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:

  “Sun, stand still over Gibeon;

  And Moon, in the Valley of Aijaon.”

  So the sun stood still,

  And the moon stopped,

  Till the people had revenge

  Is this not written in

  the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.

  (vv. 12–13)

  God, the Creator of heaven and earth, took total control of the sun and the moon, which did not move “for about a whole day” (v. 13). For “about a whole day” would be almost twenty-four hours.

  God’s complete control of the sun is beyond the mental power of man to grasp. The sun is 109 times larger than planet earth. The sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit at the core and 10 million degrees Fahrenheit on the surface.2

  On August 31 [2012] the sun expelled a cloud of 100,000-degree Fahrenheit plasma at more than 900 miles per second. NASA’s newest sun-viewing satellite, the Solar Dynamic Observatory, tracked the vast filament, which measured about 30 earths across.3

  The awesome God we serve created and totally controls this powerful sun!

  Additional biblical evidence of God’s complete control of the blazing sun is demonstrated in the story of Hezekiah. The prophet Isaiah visited King Hezekiah and told him he was going to die (2 Kings 20:1). Don’t you know that if your pastor, priest, or rabbi came to your house and told you God told him you were going to die, you would want to change churches or synagogues immediately!

  When Isaiah gave Hezekiah the bad news, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed, reminding God of how faithfully he had served the Lord all the days of his life.

  God heard Hezekiah’s petitions and sent the prophet Isaiah back to Hezekiah to inform him that he would not die; instead, God added fifteen years to his life.

  Think of it! The power of prayer changed the mind of God.

  That was indeed good news, but it was common in the Jewish faith to ask God for a sign so Hezekiah did exactly that:

  Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the LORD will heal me?” Then Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow [of the sun on the sundial] go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?” And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees [because the sun would be setting, which is normal]; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.” So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

  (2 KINGS 20:8–11)

  Hezekiah wanted a supernatural sign, not a natural one. When God caused the shadow of the sundial to back up ten degrees, He didn’t just stop time—He reversed time. He made the sun and time itself go backward. That’s supernatural and absolute control!

  I believe that the exact amount of time Joshua required to win the battle against the five armies that attacked Israel in Joshua 10, and the amount of time that the sun went backward as a sign to Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20, balanced the solar clock.

  That is power my friends, and that is the kind of God we serve!

  WISE MEN FOLLOWED THE STAR

  Consider the story of the wise men that followed the star sent from God in search of the new born King (Matthew 2:2). Their declaration that they had come to worship the “King of the Jews” terrified Herod the Great.

  Who was Herod the Great? Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 40 BC. He was called great because he was the master architect of projects in Caesarea, Jericho, Masada, as well as the wall around the Old City of Jerusalem, built during the time of the Second Temple, which still stands to this day.

  Herod was also a wicked maniac who murdered nine of his ten wives on the mere paranoid suspicion that they may have been unfaithful. Herod knew he was hated, so he demanded that his son be executed on the day of his own death so that Israel would have a reason to mourn.

  Herod the Great was the demonized despot who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents which was the execution of all male Jewish infants in Bethlehem. He feared that a king born of the Jews would challenge his throne.

  Herod’s corrupt administration could not endure a tidal wave of messianic fever among the Jewish people; revolts were born in such atmospheres. So when the Magi made their declaration that they had come to worship the King of the Jews, Herod called his chief priest to search for a prophetic record of a child who could possibly fit this description. The chief priest came back to Herod with the writings of the prophet Micah, which read:

  But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

  Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,

  Yet out of you shall come forth to Me

  The One to be Ruler in Israel. (5:2)

  THE KEY TO THE MAGI’S QUEST

  The wise men understood the meaning of Micah’s prophecy. Therefore, let us turn the key of Scripture to the story of Jacob, the patriarch, and discover the link between the Tribe of Judah and the “One to be Ruler in Isr
ael.”

  When Jacob, on his deathbed, was giving the prophetic blessing to his twelve sons, he stretched out his right hand, laid it on Judah’s head, and spoke these words:

  Judah is a lion’s whelp. . . .

  The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

  Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,

  Until Shiloh comes;

  And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

  Binding his donkey to the vine,

  And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,

  He washed his garments in wine,

  And his clothes in the blood of grapes. (GENESIS 49:9–11)

  This is one of the most significant and profound prophecies in the Bible. Consider the type and shadow of Jacob’s words and the revelation of Jesus Christ: “Judah is a lion’s whelp” (v. 9) and Jesus Christ is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5).

  What Is a Scepter? (v. 10)

  The scepter is the golden rod of authority held by a king as he sits on his throne ruling his kingdom. God, the Father, appointed Christ, His Son, heir of all things and He will ultimately hold the scepter of righteousness (Hebrew 1:1–8).

  Who Is Shiloh? (v.10)

  Shiloh is the ruler to whom the scepter belongs, and it is also a place of rest referring to “the peaceful One.” Christ will be the only Ruler who brings rest and tranquility to Israel and the world. Remember, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

  Jacob is painting a prophetic picture for his son Judah as he describes the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who would change the destiny of mankind forever.

  Not only is Jesus Christ from the tribe of Judah . . .

  Not only do His nail-pierced hands hold the scepter as the Son of David, Messiah, and King of kings . . .

  Not only is Jesus Christ Shiloh . . .

  He also fulfilled Micah’s foretelling of the donkey by sending His disciples to find tied to the vine the colt that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Passover (Mark 11:2), just before His crucifixion.

  And finally, Christ washed His garments in wine.

  In the Bible, wine is a symbol of joy. Jesus changed water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana so that there would be complete joy at the celebration (John 2:1–11). “He washed . . . his clothes in the blood of grapes” (Genesis 49:11). The meaning of this verse is a picture of Christ crushing the enemies of Israel, as one stomps grapes to crush them in the making of new wine.

  What Jacob spoke over Judah applies to our Lord Jesus. He is the Ruler of all His Father’s children, and the Conqueror of all His Father’s enemies. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. To Him belongs the scepter for He is the Lawgiver. In Him, there is sufficient abundance to nourish and refresh man’s soul, producing supernatural joy.

  The prophecy about Jesus does not start in Matthew—it starts in Genesis with breathtaking power and accuracy.

  The Magi followed the star that would lead them to Jesus, who is the “Star” (Numbers 24:17), “the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16).

  Do you need direction for your life? Follow the star of Bethlehem; it will lead to Christ. Wise men looked for Him then and wise men still follow Him today (Matthew 2:9).

  The abovementioned accounts prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has absolute control of the sun, moon, and stars. He has used them in the past to send signals to humanity that something big was about to happen. The heavens are still God’s billboard that sends signals to us today—but are we watching for them?

  SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS

  We have established that God, the Father, spoke through the prophets using the sun, moon, and stars. He then sent His Son on an earthly mission to speak of things yet to come. Did Jesus speak about the signs in the heavens and on the earth? Absolutely!

  When the disciples came to Jesus on the Mount of Olives and asked Him, “. . . what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” He did not rebuke them but answered them by encouraging them to look for the signs on the earth and in the heavens (Matthew 24).

  Jesus told them to beware of deception, which would be followed by wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilence, earthquakes, the attack on Jerusalem by the Romans, and “great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time [could this be the Holocaust?]” (v. 21). He said that “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake [the Jewish people] those days will be shortened” (v. 22).

  Jesus continued in Matthew 24:33: “When you see all these things [these physical signs], know that it [your redemption, according to Luke 21:28] is near—at the doors!”

  Jesus ended His teaching session with His disciples by warning all generations not to attempt to set an exact date in which He would return (Matthew 24:36).

  Although, Jesus warned us about setting a specific day, He did tell us to watch for signs of His coming. He not only gave His twelve disciples the prophecy in Matthew 24, but also He told them, “there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars” (Luke 21:25).

  EUREKA!

  Though I had applied the study of the stars relative to the creation and the birth of Christ, I had yet to discover the connection that Pastor Mark had asked me to make: how were the sun, moon, and stars linked to the study of prophecy?

  I searched the Scriptures for a new revelation with that specific question in mind and came to two verses that shouted out to me!

  The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

  (JOEL 2:31 NIV)

  The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

  (ACTS 2:20)

  What did these two verses have in common? It was the blood moons! Now my blood pressure was up and my mind was racing with questions!

  I knew they related to prophecy, but what were they saying? What was a blood moon? Have they appeared before? Were they coming again? I turned on my computer and started searching for scientific evidence supporting the blood moons. I must confess I am no computer whiz so I found my expedition most exasperating!

  After more than an hour of finding nothing, I was ready to quit when it occurred to me that maybe God was using the heavens to send a sign to Israel and the Jewish people. I began a more focused search; I went to the NASA site and suddenly, there it was! It leaped off the screen, and I gasped with excitement.

  The sun, moon, and stars are unmistakably connected to Israel and biblical prophecy—and that connection inspired this book. God will use them to light up the heavens with an urgent, top-priority message for all mankind.

  What is God saying to us?

  How does the past hold the secret to the future?

  What is about to happen on planet earth?

  Everything is about to change . . . forever!

  Keep reading, because this message from God is so urgent to Him that He sovereignly arranged the sun and the moon to perfectly align themselves to create a Tetrad—four consecutive blood moons. He didn’t do this just one time—but Tetrads linked to Jewish history have happened only three times in more than five hundred years. And it’s about to happen for a fourth time.

  The signs in the heavens through the blood moons are not the only prophetic signs of things to come. The Bible also uses numbers in patterns to teach spiritual truths.

  God precisely measures time on earth. In chapter 3 we will examine the prophecies of the past, which give us guidance into our immediate future in the Shemittah year, which occurs every seventh or every Sabbath year. God has an exact set time for all things to happen.

  King David writes:

  You will arise and have mercy on Zion [Israel];

  For the time to favor her,

  Yes, the set time, has come.

  (PSALM 102:13)

 
CHAPTER 3

  Warning Comes before Judgment

  To whom shall I speak and give warning

  That they may hear?

  Behold, their ears are closed

  And they cannot listen.

  —JEREMIAH 6:10 NASB

  Before we travel any further in our journey, allow me to define some terms I refer to often so you can better understand the prophetic message God is unveiling to His people.

  LUNAR ECLIPSE

  A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth’s shadow blocks the sun’s light, which otherwise reflects off the moon; the most dramatic is a total lunar eclipse. When the earth’s shadow completely covers the moon it will turn red during the total portion of an eclipse.

  BLOOD MOON

  The red moon is possible because while the moon is in total shadow (total lunar eclipse), some light from the sun passes through the earth’s atmosphere and is bent toward the moon. While other colors in the spectrum are blocked and scattered by earth’s atmosphere, red light makes it through. Because of the moon’s vivid color NASA scientists often refer to it as the Blood Red Moon.1

  SOLAR ECLIPSE

  A solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes between the earth and the sun, and the moon casts a shadow over earth. A solar eclipse can only take place at the phase of a new moon, when the moon passes directly between the sun and earth and its shadow falls upon earth’s surface.2

  The Bible clearly describes both blood moons and a solar eclipse in Joel 2:30–31 and Acts 2:19–20, and Jesus confirms them in Matthew 24:29 saying, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”