Kermit, The Donald, and the Lunar Tetrad
Joel 2:31 – The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
The simple fact that Kermit and company is dealing with controversial adult themes and is being boycotted by supposedly over a million moms and the other fact that there is a very likely chance that The Donald could not only be a major party choice for President but has a chance of winning it means that this world must be ending very soon.
Now, I am not going to claim that to be a prophecy, but really….re-read that paragraph above! If Donald Trump becomes President, I may need to move to a safer country, like say, Nigeria or Eritrea.
But on a more serious note, there is a lot of stuff going around about this whole lunar tetrad thing and what it means for us as a church. There are entire groups of people who stop about one inch short of saying that Jesus is returning on Monday night, many of those people are well known in Christian circles.
Let me see if I can explain this lunar tetrad thing in a brief synopsis rather than the long drawn out dissertations I have been seeing everywhere. It is not an easy thing to understand, so bear with me on this.
Beginning in 2014, there were a series of “blood moons” that have waxed and waned over humanity. The last of these in the series will be happening beginning the night of 9/27 and going into 9/28. So you only have a few days to stock up on water, toilet paper, eggs, and bread. And if Jesus does return, I will try to make sure you don’t go without this blog and I see if I can set up a blogging site on the Godweb.
Revelation 6:12-14 – When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
But this entire event is planned to last 1 hour and 12 minutes and will be best seen from the east coast of America, all of South America, and the west coast of Africa and Europe. It will start when the Earth’s penumbra covers the moon, causing it to go gray. Then, as the Earth’s umbra begins to cover the moon, it will look black and then turn, well, blood red. Depending on where you are in the world, you might only see the penumbra part of it or you might get the full moon, so to speak.
This final blood moon in the series is happening during the Jewish Feast of Sukkot. The previous one in April happened during the Feasts of Pesach/HaMatzah. The Feast of Sukkot is one of the “pilgrimage” festivals listed in Leviticus 23. It is a festival that asks people to both look back and look forward. It looks back at the 40-year period when the Israelites walked the desert of Sinai. It also asks us to look forward to the 1,000 year Messianic Kingdom where God will be dwelling in, and ruling from, Jerusalem.
The word “feast” is a weird word to choose. The actual Hebraic word is “moed.” A moed is more like an appointment than a feast. Think of it as a time when God takes time away from His busy schedule to meet with us directly. Think of it like Jesus, the future groom, going on a date night with his future bride, the church. When we look at Biblical and non-Biblical history, we find that many major event happened during these “moedim.” (plural of moed).
Leviticus 23:1-2 – The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
We see later in Leviticus that festival is used for another Hebraic word, “chag.” This speaks of a time when there is a party. So these “festivals” are meant to be a joyful, rejoicing time.
Going back to the Festival of Sukkot, this is a fall festival. Christians every year hold fall festivals at churches all across America. It is a modern day version of the Feast of Sukkot. During this time, the Hebrew people would build small “sukkot,” or huts, to live in. They would spend time with friends and family in celebration and also spend a lot of time in synagogue. During the night of the festival, large poles would be put up in the “Court of Women” with large lights hung from them. They would shine enough light to brighten Jerusalem. And then the Jewish people would party into the morning at the world’s first rave with Dr. Dreidel and Boyz II Mensch bringing the beats all night long. (I think I actually just rolled my eyes at that).
Now that you have had a little bit of the history, let’s take a look at possible implications. During many of these lunar eclipses we have seen significant events happen for the Jewish people. Some of these, for example, happened in 1948 when Israel was granted statehood and in 1967 when the Six-Day War was fought.
While a tetrad of lunar eclipses is unusual, it is not the first time it has happened. Just putting these eclipses with a couple Bible verses does not mean that it is time to go get a piece of cardboard and write on it, “Welcome Back, Jesus!”
While John, in Revelation, and Joel, in his self-titled Biblical book, could be talking about solar and lunar eclipses, these are only theories that are put out there by Christians who are very hopeful of the coming of Christ.
Believe me, I am more hopeful than anyone out there that Christ is returning soon. I look at the state of affairs in the world and just know the season is coming when Christ is coming back. But we need to be careful not to jump on every church leaders hope. We need to be very careful to not try to place a time and date on the return of Christ as He warns us in Mark 13.
Mark 13:32 – “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
So when the blood moon comes, go outside and take the family. Think back to a time when you were completely dependent on God meeting your needs. Share that time as a family. Have everyone tell you when they felt the presence of God most in a dark time in their life. Then think ahead to a time when Christ will return. Imagine the beauty of God on the throne and spending eternity in joyful worship.
And then…
If Christ does happen to return on Sunday night…
Enjoy it. You are being welcomed to the table to feast with the Creator, the King, and the Conqueror.
boyradd 