“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The Bible begins with God, not with philosophic arguments for His existence nor does it include how long ago the heavens and earth were created. The Hebrew name for God is Elohim which is a plural noun in form but is singular in meaning when it refers to the true God—the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore, the first verse of the Bible is far-reaching in its impact. If something has a beginning, then it must have a creator. There must be some outside source that brought this into being. The Bible is written in such a way that when we start to tell the story of humanity, our fall, and our redemption, we naturally connect the creation with the Creator. God is the One who spoke creation into existence—it is a story about God! This quote puts it into perspective: “It is no accident that God is the subject of the first sentence of the Bible, for this word dominates the whole chapter and catches the eye at every point of the page: it is used some thirty-five times in as many verses of the story. The passage, indeed the Book, is about Him first of all; to read it with any other primary interest (which is all too possible) is to misread it.” From this one verse we know that God is all-powerful as He created the heavens and the earth; He had to have His existence separate from the thing which He was creating—God doesn’t need creation in order to have existence; and God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. The remainder of that chapter reveals that God wants to be involved with His creation and points to His care and concern. God, as Creator, establishes His rights over us. From the beginning verse, God is telling the story of redemption. With this in mind, I would like us to focus on verse 14: “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs and tokens of God’s provident care, and to mark seasons, days, and years.”
This verse seems to have lost its significance over the millenniums and departed from its original meaning in the Hebrew. The Hebrew meaning for signs in the Old Testament is “signal, omen, warning.” The Hebrew meaning for seasons in the Old Testament is “Moedim” which means God’s appointed Feast Days: Passover (Pesach), Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feasts of Tabernacles. His Feast Days are powerful and all about the 1st and 2nd coming of Christ, are prophetic in nature and transformative in practice. They are the true and perfect time clock that brings perfect rhythm to all creation. The first Christians continued the observance of God’s festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals foreshadow. Jesus commanded His disciples and future believers to observe the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22: 15-22) which was the evening portion of the day of Passover. (Exodus 12: 6-13) The Apostle Paul confirms he maintained the customary observance of Passover, as was given to him by Christ Himself. (I Cor. 11: 23) We as Christians today have traded the prophetic Feast Days of the Lord that are all about Christ and allowed the Roman church to feed us a steady diet of watered-down Roman holidays that are steeped in pagan traditions. God’s plan has not changed: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handiwork!” (Psalm 19: 1) Isaiah instructs us to “Lift up your eyes on high and see! Who has created these? He Who brings them all by name; through the greatness of His might and because He is strong in power, not one is missing or lacks anything.” (Isaiah 40: 26)
In the Bible we have the history of warning signs in the heavens in the form of eclipses that connect to major turning points on the timeline of mankind and biblical milestones. One in which we are all familiar occurred in Exodus 10: 21-23: “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.” The supernatural signs performed by Moses and Aaron in Egypt led to their deliverance from bondage on the first Passover pointing to Christ—the Lamb of God. In Joel 3: 15 we read: “The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine.” In Amos 8:9 we read: “In that day,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.” In Isaiah 13: 10 we read: “The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.”
Now for the historical background of another Old Testament event found in the book of Jonah that is a topic of much discussion today. Jonah’s prophecy of judgment to the large city of Nineveh (71 square miles) that resulted in restoration came early in the reign of Jeroboam in the first half of the 8th century from about 793 to 750 BC. Modern astronomical calculations date an eclipse to June 15, 763 BC, and show it was a total eclipse as it passed near Nineveh. According to the Assyrian writings here’s what a solar eclipse would have meant to them: “The king will be deposed and killed, and a worthless fellow will seize the throne…rain from heaven will flood the land…the city walls will be destroyed.” The Assyrian nation was weak and in chaos in that decade. They had one earthquake (one sign of divine wrath). There was a famine from 765-758 BCE. Assyria was losing battles and losing territory to its enemies. There were domestic riots. Nineveh was the hub of worship of Ishtar, the false goddess of fertility, and those who served in her temple were men dressed up as women, many considered themselves nonbinary, and practiced homosexuality. (Does any of this ring true with our nation’s condition?) Jonah entered the city and cried: “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” The Assyrians tell us that at such a time, there would be solemn fasting, and the king would hand over his throne to a substitute until the danger passed. With all the trouble they already had going on, they could have easily believed that Jonah’s warning would come to pass. Jonah was sent to call Ninevah to humble themselves before Almighty God to avoid total destruction from a fierce judgment that was about to come down on the whole nation. They repented and were spared judgment for over a century. The repentance of an entire pagan city the size of Nineveh would be a greater miracle than for Jonah to survive getting swallowed by a fish! The prophet Jeremiah gives us this warning: “Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not learn the way of the nations, And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens although the nations are terrified by them.” (Jeremiah 10:2)
Let us consider signs in the heavens revealed in the New Testament. We all are familiar with the Bethlehem Star that appeared at the birth of Christ. Jesus Himself warned of signs in the heavens as the day of His return approaches in Matthew 24: 30 and Luke 21: 11, 25. Mark 15: 33-38 reveals that darkness was upon the earth for three hours as Jesus was upon the Cross followed by an earthquake that tore the curtain of the Holy of Holies from top to bottom. Peter predicted signs in the heaven in the last days before the return of Christ to the earth in Acts 2: 17-20—wonders in heaven, signs in the earth and an outpouring of God’s Spirit upon the young and old enabling them to prophecy from the Lord. Of course, we have many signs and wonders revealed in Revelation as God’s wrath is poured out upon all who oppose God. (Rev. 12: 1,3; Rev. 15: 1)
America too has experienced signs in the heavens during the history of our nation. Solar eclipses: November 30, 1776 at the birth of the nation; June 24, 1778 began in Pacific Ocean and moved eastward close to PA as America prepared for the Revolutionary War; Oct. 27, 1780 when colonies were in the heat of war with Great Britain—Revolutionary War; 1806 and 1811 that formed an X over the U.S. at the New Madrid Fault; July 18, 1860 during the Civil War from Pacific Ocean—Oregan northeast into Canada—Laymen’s Revival—D.L Moody; 1918—across America—End of WWI, Spanish flu epidemic; March 7, 1970—100 mile wide path—Gulf of Mexico up to Atlantic Coast—height of Vietnam War, middle of Jesus Movement; August 21, 2017—Great American Eclipse—first total solar eclipse to go from coast to coast since 1918. From Oregon to South Carolina, crossed 7 of the 36 cities in the U.S. named Salem (Biblical name of Jerusalem—Peace—Hebrews 7: 1-2)) Salems: Salem, Oregon; Salem, Idaho; Salem, Wyoming; Salem, Nebraska; Salem, Missouri; Salem, Kentucky; Salem, South Carolina.
It is important for us to go into greater depth in the 2017 eclipse since it directly relates to the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024—the first day on the Hebrew calendar. In Scripture 7 is the number of perfection. It was the Hebrew year 5777. Jubilee--50th anniversary of Israel being capital of Israel—107 days later at hands of American President who was 71 years old recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The last city before the totality of the eclipse was Jacob, IL—totality was a 7 mile radius of Little Egypt that includes Devil’s Lake, Lake Egypt, Giant City National Park. The last city is Jacob (Name changed to Israel) and then to point where the X marks the spot at Little Egypt where the 2017 and 2024 eclipses converge. The complete solar eclipse ushered in the most devastating hurricane season in U.S. history. Four days after the eclipse, Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Texas, the first major hurricane to do so in over a decade. The 2017 eclipse also ushered in the COVID epidemic, the war in Ukraine, and the horrific attack on Israel and the war on Hamas and the beginning of greater changes that threaten to overturn the order of the world.
The 2024 eclipse is named the Great North America Eclipse and is a twin sister of the 2017 eclipse. If God does something once, He gets our attention—when God does something twice it is a wake-up call! In 2017, the path of the eclipse ranged from about 62 to 71 miles wide—the path of the 2024 is between 108 and 122 miles wide meaning at any given moment, this eclipse covers more ground. Now we go back to the Old Testament account of Jonah and Nineveh! The eclipse will occur over or near 7 cities named Nineveh and 1 in Nova Scotia: Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York. This eclipse passes through the town of Jonah as well and the epicenter of the two eclipses is Little Egypt. A road in the middle of a national forest is the point of conversion on Salem Road! It crosses at Devils Kitchen and Egypt Lake! X in Hebrew is the letter Tav and forms a cross, a seal, a sign and represents truth.
At this point we need to address another partial eclipse called an Annular eclipse that ran north-south rather than east-west. That eclipse happened on October 14th, 2023. If you overlay this “annular eclipse” with the other two total eclipses it creates the shape of the ancient letter Aleph, symbolic of God. Aleph represents the oneness of God. A also represents ALPHA, for the Lord is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, who sits on the Highest throne and judges the nations righteously and carries out justice. God is signing His Son’s name across America! His name will be put on the forehead of His saints in heaven!
The last time a solar eclipse formed an X over America was in 1806 and 1811. Three months after the second eclipse on December 16, 1811 the largest earthquake in the history of the U.S. caused the Mississippi River to run backwards and rang the Liberty Bell 1300 miles away. The largest magnitude of these earthquakes was 8.0 and a record 6000-10,000 occurred through March 1812. Six months later the war of 1812 began. A comet named Devil’s Comet also appears on April 8, 2024 for the first time in 71 years and lines up with the sun. A comet also appeared in 1811 right before the new Madrid earthquake occurred. For centuries scientists have been confounded by a mysterious phenomenon called the Allais Effect that seems to alter the laws of physics during solar eclipses causing pendulums to swing in a bizarre pattern, reversing their precession during an eclipse. The DHS has alerted states to prepare for unknown circumstances and to limit travel during the time of the eclipse. Many schools in its path have announced closings, FAA has put pilots on alert, and National Guard units are also on alert.
It is apparent that America is at a Jonah moment. The heavenly bodies were put in place for us! Our wonderful loving Heavenly Father put this entire celestial timepiece in place, so let us draw near to Him during these days leading up and during His appointed times—His Feast Days especially Passover, April 22-30 and Pentecost June 11-13. In a time of spiritual crisis, we as the people of God have to get our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, get in the secret place, and wait patiently upon Him. God is looking for a people who, when the world is on fire, will turn to the Lord. If we trust Him, it doesn’t matter how dark it gets. “For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD WILL ARISE OVER YOU, and HIS GLORY WILL BE SEEN UPON YOU.” (Isaiah 60:2) “Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” (Micah 7:7) God is getting us ready for His Divine Reversal, Restoration and Revival as the HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF THE LORD so hold on and God will bring joy and rest and meet our needs. The best is yet to come! God has a plan, God is in control and God loves us!