Now the blood moons have passed, where are the world-changing events that many thought would accompany these celestial signs?
Blood Moons and the Shemitah Year
On September 28, the final of the tetrad of 'blood moons' was visible across the world. The blood moons were considered significant because they coincided with God's 'appointed times' (moedim), the biblical feasts of Passover and Tabernacles, two years in a row.1
In addition, 2014-2015 was a Shemitah (meaning 'release') year. Every seventh year Israel's land was to lie fallow and debts were to be released.2 Added to that, a Jubilee year is thought to begin (calculations of years are uncertain3) in September 2015 at Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year, the biblical Feast of Trumpets).4
America or Israel?
Yet the financial collapse leading to global catastrophe that many anticipated has not occurred - at least not yet! It may be that with hindsight we will see how current events from this period set in train future cataclysmic events.
In the meantime, much has been made of signs of judgement for the United States. As a nation founded on biblical principles, "under God", by its Pilgrim Fathers seeking Christian freedom, its rejection of God's word on marriage and the erosion of biblical values in public life are thought to have invited God's judgement. This focus regarding the blood moons themselves may be misplaced since signs in the moon relate to Israel, according to Jewish tradition, not to the Gentiles.
Much has been made of the blood moons as signs of judgment on America, but this focus may be misplaced - since signs in the moon traditionally relate to Israel .
The Talmud (containing the wisdom of the sages of Israel) considers that signs in the sun are for the Gentiles and signs in the moon are for Israel, since the Gentiles reckon their calendar by the sun and Israel's calendar is lunar:
Our Rabbis taught, When the sun is in eclipse it is a bad omen for idolaters; when the moon is in eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel, since Israel reckons by the moon and idolaters by the sun. If it is in eclipse in the east, it is a bad omen for those who dwell in the east; if in the west, it is a bad omen for those who dwell in the west; if in the midst of heaven it is bad omen for the whole world.
If its face is red as blood, [it is a sign that] the sword is coming to the world; if it is like sack-cloth, the arrows of famine are coming to the world; if it resembles both, the sword and the arrows of famine are coming to the world...Thus saith the Lord, 'Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the nations are dismayed at them, the idolaters will be dismayed, but Israel will not be dismayed.' [emphasis added]
The last part is a quote from Jeremiah 10:1, reminding Israel that God is in charge of their future and that they do not need to fear heavenly signs.
The Coming Sword
Accordingly, not everyone sees the blood moons as a sign of trouble. One Messianic leader in Israel, Bob O'Dell, who has studied the blood moons extensively says that the blood moons are "bread crumbs in the sky", left by God to remind the Jewish people that he has not forgotten his covenant to restore them to the land of Israel. Thus, they should be a cause for celebration for the Jews, rather than fear. He has proposed a theory that the chronology of the Exodus from Egypt fell on the dates of a blood moon tetrad.5
However, the 'sword' did come to Israel and its diaspora during this lunar tetrad period. In July 2014 the Israel-Gaza conflict took place, leading to an upsurge of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe. The worst incidents took place in France, culminating in January 2015 with the kosher supermarket hostage crisis following in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Whilst the blood moons may signify God's faithfulness as well as coming trouble, 'the sword' has come to Israel during the recent tetrad period.
Signs for the Gentiles
The Gentiles are not left out of this picture though. The latest tetrad of blood moons was also accompanied by signs in the sun. In 2014, the Passover and Tabernacles blood moons were followed by a partial solar eclipse and, in 2015, the Passover blood moon was preceded by a total solar eclipse and the Tabernacles blood moon was preceded (just before Rosh HaShanah, the biblical Feast of Trumpets) by a partial solar eclipse.6
What do these signs in the sun mean? Certainly, there is plenty to concern us in the Gentile world. The migrant crisis has worsened significantly during this period, presenting a Gentile mass movement of Exodus proportions. In the stock markets, the most significant event has been what a Beijing spokesman called 'Black Monday' on 24 August 2015, causing hundreds of billions to be wiped off global financial markets and a plunge in oil and gold prices.
The recent 'signs in the sun' perhaps signify that Gentiles are not being left out – with events of global concern including the European migrant crisis and economic problems in China.
In our own nation believers are interceding, pleading for God's mercy in prayer groups up and down the land as we slide into further spiritual torpor and decline. At the prophetic gathering in October 2014, at which Prophecy Today online was announced, a lady received a picture of a sword over Britain. Another participant entered into travail and deep sorrow through the Holy Spirit for Britain's state. Our Editor-in-Chief, Dr Clifford Hill, linked this to the great shaking prophecies received at Mount Carmel in Israel in 1986.
'First to the Jew...'
However, it is in Israel that trouble has arisen most swiftly since the final of the tetrad of blood moons at the Feast of Tabernacles – "first to the Jew".7 There is talk once again of a third intifada. Terror has struck Israel's streets in an unprecedented form. Random stabbings, shootings and vehicles driven into crowds are the new and terrifying weapons being used by Palestinians. Formerly bustling public spaces have been deserted, children have been kept home from school and extra security guards have been deployed on buses.
It is in Israel that trouble has arisen most swiftly since the final blood moon of the tetrad, with a sharp rise in terror attacks and talk of a third intifada.
On 17 October, Palestinians set fire to the compound containing the tomb of the patriarch Joseph, where Jews go to pray. This was doubly calculated to offend as it was set ablaze on Shabbat (during the early hours of Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath).
The catalyst for the current crisis was in July when Jewish worshippers tried to go up on to the Temple Mount for Tisha B'Av (meaning the 9th of the month Av, which is a day of mourning commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples). Muslims worshippers repelled them and soon after Israeli police went up on to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to remove weapons being stockpiled there. It was thought the intention was to attack thousands of Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall below gathered for Tisha B'Av. Stones, Molotov cocktails and firecrackers were discovered inside the Al Aqsa Mosque. As the police entered the Temple Mount they were met with Muslim rioters.8
The Blood Moons and Temple Mount
There is a precedent for violence over the Temple Mount following the occurrence of blood moons.
The last time blood moons coincided with both Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles was in 19969 (also the year that Benjamin Netanyahu first came to power). A new exit was opened from the Western Wall Tunnel on to the Via Dolorosa in the Arab quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, so that visitors could leave the tunnel without having to retrace their steps from the entrance by the Western Wall.
The Palestinians were incensed, believing this to be a sign of major excavation under the Temple Mount that would destabilise the foundations of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, both of which stand on the Temple Mount. This led to the worst violence in Israel since 1967 and the Six Day War. Again, Joseph's tomb in Nablus was an easy target for violence, as it falls under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
The last time blood moons coincided with Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles was in 1996 – when Israel experienced the worst violence since the Six Day War in 1967.
Each time violence flares, Israel and the Palestinians come under pressure to renew peace talks. The Temple Mount is the eye of that storm, being the touchstone of faith for Jews, as the site of the biblical second Temple and their most important religious heritage site, and for Muslims, who deem it their third holiest site. For Christians, it is thought by many that Jesus was crucified somewhere on Mount Moriah (an area larger than the Temple Mount), where Abraham was willing to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, since it links to Abraham's description as being the place where God provided sacrifice: "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided" (Gen 22:14).
Jerusalem an Immovable Rock
The United States and the UN have not tried to push for any further progress regarding the status of Jerusalem because it is the hottest religious and political coal of all. The Lord has decreed that Jerusalem will be a cup of reeling or staggering for those who come against it and an immovable rock (Zech 12:2-3): "All who try to move it will injure [lit. rupture] themselves."
He promises to protect all those living in Jerusalem and destroy the nations that attack his city (Zech 12:8-9) because his ultimate purpose must be protected, which is to pour out on his re-gathered people Israel glorious repentance and grace:
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
God has promised that Jerusalem will be an immovable rock for all who come against it.
No Need to Fear
We need not fear signs in the heavens because the Lord has decreed Jerusalem's future. As the Talmud reminds us, quoting Jeremiah (10:1):
Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the nations are dismayed at them, the idolaters will be dismayed, but Israel will not be dismayed.
Whatever happens, those who have joined with Israel by faith in their Messiah need not fear because the Lord promises: "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you" (Is 54:10).
So as we wait for the Lord's return, let us be faithful in praying for the peace of Jerusalem in the words of Psalm 122:
May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, 'Peace be within you.' For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity. (Ps 122:6-9)
References
1 Biblical references to blood (ie red) moons: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come" (Joel 2:31), which is quoted by Peter in Acts 2:20 and echoed in Revelation 6:12: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood."
2 Lev 25:3–6.
3 Lev 25:8-13. Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs writes, "...there is considerable doubt whether the present identification of Sabbatical years is correct and whether the count begins again on the jubilee year, the fiftieth, or on the next year, the fifty-first after the previous cycle." Jacobs, 1995 Sabbatical Year (Shemitah) and Jubilee Year (Yovel). My Jewish Learning. Re-printed with permission from The Jewish Religion: A Companion (OUP).
4 The year 5775 in the Jewish calendar is the Shemitah year and 5776 thought to be the Jubilee year.
5 Forman, A. Blood Moons: Everything You Need to Know. Israel Breaking News, 22 September 2015.
6 Stucken, P. Signs of the Times. Operation Exodus website.
7 Rom 1:16 and 2:9.
8 Temple Mount Erupts in Violence. Israel Today, 26 July 2015. See also Clashes erupt at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa on Jewish holiday. Al-Jazeera, 26 July 2015.
9 27 September 1996 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_1996_lunar_eclipse.
