What Does It All Mean?
On the 28th of July in the online edition of Israel Today a headline appeared which read; “Blood Moons and Earthquakes-What Does It All Mean?” In this decade alone we have seen several blood moons occurring. On the 27 of July last month there was an earthquake in Israel and also on the very same day the longest blood moon lunar eclipse of this century also occurred. Many in Christendom, Israel and even in the Muslim world saw in this latest ‘sign’ of a portentous event coming upon the earth never before experienced in history.
What the Lord Jesus said
In Matthew Chapter 24 the Lord Jesus speaks about “birth pains” and He uses the idea of contractions in a women’s pregnancy to illustrate the ‘signs’ that would precede His Second Coming. He speaks of false Messiahs, wars, rumours of wars, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, famines and earthquakes in various places and Luke’s record adds diseases or pestilence, the persecution of the saints and the apostasy. (Matthew 24:5-13) He actually warns us about spiritual deception at least four times in His discourse. (Matthew 24:4-5, 11, 23-26) All these signs are conspicuous features in today’s world. According to the Lord Jesus the main sign at the end of this age would be the world wide proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom and after that He says the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)
Signs in the heavens and on earth
Also the Lord Jesus mentions the constellations in the heavens being affected as the sun is darkened and the moon is not giving its light and turning blood red. In scripture we also see the stars falling from the sky and the heavenly bodies bring shaken. (Joel 3:15-16) (Isaiah 13: 9-10; 24:23; 34:4) (Revelation 6:12-14) (Matthew 24:29) (Revelation 16:21) In the Bible we are not told to work out dates but we are to watch and observe the ‘signs’ that will precede the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. How do we know His Coming is drawing near? The very idea of birth pains is the key to understanding these signs. When a pregnant woman’s contractions increase in intensity and frequency you know that the birth of the baby is imminent but once the baby is here the birth pains or contractions are quickly forgotten in the joy of the new baby. These signs the Lord Jesus mentions have always been around including signs in the heavens. As we see the increase of blood moons and other signs in the heavens and nature going wild in many nations we know that the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus is much closer now. These blood moons are no accident but harbingers of what is soon coming upon the world.
The ‘Big One’ is coming!
A day will come, immediately after the Time of Great Trouble for Jacob also known as the time of Great Tribulation, when at the end of it the sun will be darkened and the moon turned to blood and not giving its light, the stars will be falling from the sky and the heavenly bodies shaking and even mountains being removed from their place. This will happen when the Lord Jesus comes back. Notice that the saints are caught up to meet the Lord Jesus in the air at His Second Coming “immediately after the tribulation of those days” and not before then. (Matthew 24:29-31) The earthquakes being experienced in Israel most likely are the harbingers or a pattern of the big one that is coming. (Zechariah 14:3-5) (Revelation 16:21) Are these small tremors then, the harbingers of the final big earthquake? How far ‘The Big One’ is away we cannot tell but the signs or birth pangs are becoming more frequent and intense as we see the Day of the LORD approaching with an ever increasing rapidity. As we see these signs in the heavens and on earth we can be assured that the birth of God’s physical Kingdom on earth is coming, and possibly coming sooner than we think! As the ‘birth pains’ the Lord Jesus mentions increase in intensity and frequency we know that the coming of His Messianic Kingdom is near even at the very gates. Once He is back the birth pains will quickly be forgotten in the joy and peace of His Messianic reign!
We need to be ready
Indeed the Lord Jesus encourages us as His followers to stay spiritually alert, sober and faithful to Him in these last days when we see things around us deteriorating into chaos as He foretold they would. (Matthew 24:21-22) These signs on earth and in the heavens, the roaring and perplexity of the nations tossed in turmoil as a wild sea in a storm and the anxiety rampant with people fainting in terror being apprehensive of what is coming upon the world, will all culminate in the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. As these signs begin to increase in frequency and intensity we need to be ready to meet the Lord Jesus when He comes back. What are we to do when we see these signs increasing at an alarming rate? Well He tells us what we should do as His precious and beloved saints.
#1. We are to stand up and not to buckle over at the knees with anxiety but rejoice in that our redemption is imminent and to lift up our eyes to the sky in anticipation of the rescue coming and not fixing them on what is happening on the earth.
#2. We are to be careful not to have our hearts being weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of this present life being aware that if we do these things the day of His Second coming will catch us expectantly and we will be judged along with the rest of the ungodly world.
#3. We are to be always on the watch against spiritual deception and complacency and above all be praying that we might escape the wrath of God and stand unashamedly before the Lord Jesus. (Luke 21:25-36)
#4. We are to recon on the fact that we who believe are not destined for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ…who saves us from the coming wrath.” (1 Thessalonians 1; 10; 5:9)
#5. We are to be actively engaged in preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom until He comes back. The sooner the job is done the sooner He will come back! (Matthew 24:14)
When ‘The Titanic hits the iceberg’
‘The Titanic’ of this world is heading for ‘the great Iceberg’ of the wrath of God and many will sink into the depths of eternal perdition as they go down with the ship. Many will be in the cabins and halls of this world’s pleasure palaces, pursuits and ambitions and be caught un-expectantly and unawares when the ship hits the iceberg. Many of them will scramble to find life jackets but it will be too late for them. Those who have ‘the lifejacket’ of salvation buckled on may be “aliens and strangers in this world” and ‘in the cold’ being on the outside of this world’s pleasure palaces because they know the iceberg is coming but they also know the rescue is coming and that when the ship hits the iceberg and goes down they will not go down with it! As these ‘birth pains’ increase in intensity and frequency may we as God’s beloved saints not have ‘a bunker mentality’ but instead be actively seeking to get those without the lifejacket of salvation on to put it on before it is too late and they sink into the dark depths of eternal perdition and to that place where there is no reprieve.
