Blood Moon

Blood Moon

Good Morning Friends,

In a few days I might get back to our series on sevens in the Bible and will only note a few in today’s meditation. Instead today, because of its timeliness, we explore the nature of signs and the signs of nature. You see early this morning in the Western hemisphere is a total lunar eclipse. Because red light waves are longer and pass through the atmosphere and because blue and green are shorter and get dispersed in the atmosphere we see the event colored during this Passover in what is called a Blood Moon.

I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 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 2:19-20 (NIV)

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,

Revelation 6:12 (NIV)

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Matthew 12:39 (NRSV)

The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name,

Amos 5:8 (NRSV)

Message: Seeing astronomical events during the Seven Feast Days would have been pretty spectacular for the Hebrews of the Bible. One thing they would not have seen would have been a solar and lunar eclipse at the same time. It does not happen that way. Though one of the things they would have seen, though rare, would be blood moons. That would have been pretty memorable stuff. Some are going a bit apocalyptic over the night sky because of the fact that four blood moons will all take place during the Feasts of Passover and Tabernacles over the next eighteen months. Some think it a sign of the End Times. As I am typing this at a little after 3 A.M. on April 15, 2014, during the second day of Passover the eclipse is complete. I just walked outside and took a look at the red tinted moon and bright stars in the sky. That said, there is nothing particular extraordinary about these Holy days coinciding with a full moon. In fact, the Jewish holy days are based upon a lunar calendar. Passover is always celebrated the first full moon after the vernal equinox and the Feast of Tabernacles is always the first full moon after the autumnal equinox. Blood Moons occur on full moons. Now the Bible often speaks of astronomical signs indicating the End Times. But friends, lets understand that there is a difference between providential signs and miraculous signs. Jesus discourages us from getting them confused. Still prophets knew about the stars. Amos writes about the Seven Sisters also known as the Pleiades. Jesus’ birth is intertwined in the mystery of astronomical events and in the Book of Sevens much is written about Seven Stars and other astronomical events related to Christ’s return that we may never get to see this side of heaven. I like to think that God set up the universe, and specifically our solar system, such that the combination of the earth’s and moon’s rotation and orbits would establish fixed, regular intervals that prescribe when to engage in various activities in every sphere of life, from the agricultural, social, civil and spiritual. It is clear that God frequently uses the things in nature, however, there is a fundamental difference in predictable events in nature such as lunar and solar eclipses and what we are told in scripture cannot be predicted accurately…. the coming of the Lord. Still we are talking about God and that is a good purpose in itself. Still I am going back to bed.

Pray that instead of looking to the heavens for signs of the future, we focus on the hope and promise of the gospel message. Pray that instead of thinking about what the moon does and does not reflect we instead seek to reflect Christ in word and deed. Pray that as we enter Holy Week and anticipate Easter, that we look within our own hearts for those shadows that keep us from enjoying the fullness of relationship with God. Pray we rejoice in the Creator of the sun, the stars, and yes the Creator of blood moons.

Blessings,

John Lawson