Is the Eclipse a Sign from God?

Today I found something hanging on my front door when I went home for lunch. It was a bag containing a book and an informational card about the solar eclipse that will happen in our area on April 8. I haven’t sat down and read the whole thing, but I saw enough to react. The eclipse, which is rare for any one location but not unprecedented, was being connected to a Bible passage. It was a sign from God.

The passage is this one:

³⁰ “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹ The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

Joel 2:30-31 (ESV)

Now in the defense of whoever put together the package, it is not crazy to see signs in the sky as God-given signs. The Bible says the stars can be for that purpose. Not in an astrology kind of way, but rather as a marker timed out from the beginning to show when a significant event was happening. The Bethlehem star and accompanying constellations are an example. (see more here:https://bethlehemstar.com/

This passage is quoted with its larger context in Peter’s sermon on Pentecost found in Acts 2. I would consider Peter, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, to be pretty authoritative on interpreting Old Testament prophecies. He understood the passage as applying to what he and contemporaries just saw and did. During the death of Jesus, the sun was darkened, but not by an eclipse. We can calculate when and where an eclipse will occur. They didn’t have one. The most likely candidate for the year (33AD) did have a lunar eclipse or “blood moon” in Jerusalem which rose after Jesus’ death. That would have been a talked about sign considering all that went on that week. We really don’t need a further explanation of “moon to blood” than that.

The speaking in tongues and prophesying mentioned in Joel happens 50 days later on Pentecost. “Blood” is easy to understand. The death of Jesus is quite bloody. What is “fire” and “billows of smoke”? We may not be privy to every sign that was seen at the time of Jesus’ death, but Peter and his listeners seem pretty satisfied that they had just observed the fulfillment of Joel 2.

How is the death of Jesus, a “great and glorious (or notable) Day of the Lord.”? How could it not be? Many days are called “day of the Lord”. Any time God acts in judgment is a day of the Lord. The exile to Babylon, the destruction of Jerusalem, as well as, Judgment Day are “days of the Lord”. The judgment of the sins of mankind in Jesus is the most “notable” of them all.

Could such a prophecy be repeating or layered? What I mean is that sometimes God has an early, lesser fulfillment and then a big-time fulfillment. We called them “types” and “anti-types” in theological circles. But Jesus’ payment for sin is not a smaller version of anything. Even Judgment Day takes a back seat. By “layered” I mean that part is fulfilled at one time and the rest later. Maybe the “darkness”, “fire”, smoke” is later. Maybe it is April 8. This seems very unlikely, even lame.

There is something about the human nature that wants to rush to discovering signs of Jesus’ return. I’m sure that is why Jesus said that even He didn’t know the time. Jesus will come. There will be no ambiguity when it happens. Until then, beware of false prophets and enjoy the eclipse.