OUR FATHER WHOSE TERRIBLE DAY APPROACHES

Isaiah chapter 13 verses 9 - 10 says this;

See, the day of the Lord is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.

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.

The prophet Isaiah prophecied of a day of great judgement that would be a time of destruction and desolation of the land. The stars would not shine and the sun and the moon would not give light.

In this pitch-black night of anger, the fierce wrath of the Lord would wreak havoc on the land and bring total catastrophe to the kingdom of darkness.

Joel chapter 2 verse 10 echoes the astronomical signs this way;

Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

The prophet Joel, in Joel chapter 2 verse 3  adds more context to the darkness of the day of judgement by describing a fearsome army that has been prepared for that hour;

Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come.

This unprecedented army systemtically overruns the fortified positions of the kingdom of darkness bringing its military capabilities to an abrupt end.

The book of Revelation verses 12 - 13, also mentions this distinctive phenomena;

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.

The Apostle John, writing the details of  a vision of the judgement of God that he was shown, brings a broader context to the darkening of the sun, moon and stars.

These phenomena are part of the opening of the sixth seal in a series of seven seals that are opened upon the earth. These seven seals of judgement include the four judgements of the four horsemen, the martyrdom of the saints which is the fifth seal.

The seventh and final seal triggers the judgements of the seven trumpets that the angles blew to first bring hail and fire, then a catastrophic meteor strike on the oceans, then the poisoning of all fresh water, the darkening of a third of the sun, moon and stars, the plague of the scorpion locusts from the abyss, the angelic destruction of a third of mankind and finally, the seventh trumpet which heralds the revelation of Jesus in his glory.

This terrible day of the Lord where His army moves against the kingdom of darkness, is unparralled in all of history and takes its place among the sequence of events that must happen before the God of heaven and earth is revealed in His glory.

Amen.