The First Blood Moon And Why It Is Special

There has been a lot written lately about the astronomical event called the “Tetrad” by astronomers and “The Four Blood Moons” by the rest of us.  It is a series of total lunar eclipses happening over a period of two years that will make the moon appear blood red in colour, hence the nickname of blood moons. So, what is so special about it?

 

Well, lunar eclipses are very common, but tetrads are not happening that often. According to NASA there will be 8 tetrads in total this century, but only he tetrad of 2014-2015 will have those four eclipses occur on Jewish Feasts called “The Feasts of The Lord” in the Bible.

 

This kind of tetrads happened only 7 times in the past 1000 years and always accompanied important events in the history of Jewish people. This tetrad is the first and the last in this millennium.  There will not be another tetrad with eclipses falling on Jewish feasts until year 3000, NASA does not have any forecast beyond that year.

 

And that is what makes this tetrad, so special. It also has a biblically prophetic importance as Jesus predicted that before His return to earth “... there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations...”(Luke 21:25) he also mentioned that “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light...” echoing similar prediction made by the Old Testament prophet Joel, “The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.”

 

I don’t think that The Lord Jesus and prophet Joel were talking about regular lunar or solar eclipses and we must remember that they were talking to the Jewish people who lived by the Biblical calendar. Lunar and solar eclipses falling on the feast days would catch their attention and as we can see they do and not only theirs, but also all of those who consider the Bible sacred text inspired by the Spirit of God.

 

In addition to this tetrad falling on the first days of Passover and Succoth in both 2014 and 2015, we will witness a total solar eclipse on Nisan 1(20/03/2015), which God taught the Israelites to observe as “the beginning of months” that in turn led many rabbis to conclude that it might have been an anniversary of the very creation of the world, the day that time itself began.

 

It therefore makes Biblical sense to expect some important events to unfold during this time period, which also leads to the significant year 2018 that marks the 70 th anniversary of Israel’s rebirth also itself prophetically significant number as well as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.

 

Could those be the very last signs Jesus and the prophets predicted thousands of years ago? Could they signal the beginning of the Tribulation period or a significant war against Israel that would begin the end of the period of last days we are currently living in? It is very possible.

 

As the first blood moon appears in the sky this very night, there are many tensions around the world even talk of possible World War III starting over the Ukraine Crisis. Jesus warned us this would happen, nation rising against nation, wars, pestilences, and that no one would stay alive if God did not intervene to “shorten” these days, which is a good news. We are set to watch all these events and glory of God in the midst of it all.

 

And as Jesus charged us to do, so let us do, “ watch and pray so that you might be counted worthy to escape all the things that are coming upon the earth and to stand before the Son of Man.” ( Luke 21)