Four Blood Moons (16 page)

Those three dates were the most important dates in all of Israel's history!

There have been several Tetrads (four consecutive blood moons) since NASA first recorded their occurrences, but Tetrads linked to significant Jewish history have happened only three times in more than five hundred years. These specific occurrences could not be ignored. My further research led me to the unmistakable biblical and scientific truth that they are about to happen a fourth time.

I considered my next step. When I discover a potential new prophetic revelation, I go to the absolute truth of the Word of God, which is the foundation of all sound biblical research and teaching.

God Almighty is the Creator of heaven and earth. The first chapter of Genesis is the most God-centered chapter in the Bible. God is mentioned by name thirty-two times in thirty-one verses. The statement “God created the heavens and the earth” in Genesis 1:1 sweeps away atheism by asserting God's all-powerful existence. God is! He's not trying to be—
He is!

From the first word in Genesis to the last in the book of Revelation, there is one God.

He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the One who scooped up a handful of dirt, breathed into it, and allowed man to become a living soul. He is the One who sent
His Son to die on the cross for our redemption. He is the One who holds the seven seas in the palm of His hand. He is the God who created Israel (Genesis 12) and He is the Defender of Israel (Zechariah 12:8).

Hear, O Israel: the L
ORD
our God, the L
ORD
is one!

(D
EUTERONOMY
6:4)

This statement sweeps away polytheism, which is the worship of many gods. The apostle Paul described today's society when he wrote:

In the last days . . . men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

(2 T
IMOTHY
3:1–5)

The world has taken a wrong turn and we need a sign from God to get back on the right track—the Four Blood Moons just may be that signal!

If God gave Joshua and Hezekiah a sign in the heavens
and if He posted a sign in the heavens to direct the wise men to the birthplace of our Redeemer, then why wouldn't He continue to speak to us through signs? God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He has declared that He will give the terminal generation a signal that something big—
something earthshaking
—is going to happen.

He is the God who flung the glittering stars against the velvet of the night. He calls by name the stars that we have yet to locate even with the sophistication of the Hubble telescope. It is a fact that the Creator of heaven and earth is in control of the universe and He is giving us signs in the heavens to alert us of things to come. The question is, “Are we watching?”

In my book
His Glory Revealed
I explain the scriptural applications of the seven Feasts of Israel by giving their relevant historical account and their prophetic interpretations.

The Feasts of the Lord (Festivals) are intended to draw the minds and hearts of the people toward God, they are a time of sweet communion and joy, and, finally, they illustrate profound spiritual truths that create a portrait of God's master plan for the ages. Through these festivals, God is giving us a depiction of what He has already done as well as a prophetic portrait of what is coming in the years ahead.

The Hebrew word for
feast
is
mo'ed
, denoting “a set or appointed time.” A very similar meaning is
mikrah
indicating a
“rehearsal or recital.” Each feast, like a dress rehearsal, offers a significant glimpse of God's prophetic plan. The combined feasts, divinely established shortly after the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt's bondage, would be a spiritual blueprint of what lies ahead for Israel, Jerusalem, and the rest of the world.

All Jewish holidays begin the evening before the date specified on most calendars. This is because a Jewish “day” begins and ends at sunset, rather than at midnight like the Gregorian calendar.

If you read the story of creation in Genesis 1, you will notice that it records, “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” From this, we conclude that a day begins with evening and ends the following evening; that is, sunset to sunset.

As I present the significance of the Four Blood Moons in the chapters to follow, I will mention two feasts that are directly associated with their past and future occurrences. In order to better understand their noteworthy connection, I will briefly describe them; they are Passover (Pesach) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).

Passover (Pesach) begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. It is the first of the two major festivals with both historical and agricultural significance that occur in the Tetrad.

These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.

(L
EVITICUS
23:4–5)

So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.

(E
XODUS
12:14)

Agriculturally, it represents the beginning of the harvest season in Israel, but the primary observances of Pesach are related to the Exodus from Egypt after generations of slavery (Exodus,
chapters 1
–
15
).

The name
Pesach
comes from the Hebrew root
Pei-Samekh-Cheit
, meaning to pass through, to pass over, to exempt, or to spare. It refers to the fact that God “passed over” the houses of the Jewish people that applied the lamb's blood on the door-posts of their home as He slayed the firstborn of Egypt.
Pesach
is also the name of the sacrificial offering (a lamb) that was made in the Temple on this holiday.

The moment John the Baptist saw Jesus, he exclaimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus fulfilled the meaning of the Passover ritual,
for He
is
God's male lamb without spot or blemish (1 Peter 1:19). Jesus, our Passover Lamb, will yet appear a second time.

John the Revelator looked upon heaven's throne room and chronicled the following scene in Revelation 5:

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. . . . And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. . . . And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

because you were slain,

and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,

and they will reign on the earth.”

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom

and strength

and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be praise and honor and glory and power,

for ever and ever!”

(
VV
. 6–13
NIV
)

The Feast of Passover is a time of redemption.

Remember this truth: if you do not understand the prophetical significance of the Feasts of the Lord it's like breaking the hands off your clock—how will you be able to tell the
appointed time
?

The Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Tishri
.
The word
Sukkot
means “booths” and refers to the temporary dwellings that the Jewish people are commanded to live in during this holiday to commemorate the forty-year period during which the children of Israel
were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters.

Say to the Israelites: “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the L
ORD
's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings made to the L
ORD
by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the L
ORD
by fire. . . .” So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the L
ORD
for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest. On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the L
ORD
your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the L
ORD
for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the L
ORD
your God.

(L
EVITICUS
23:34–43
NIV
1984)

Agriculturally, Sukkot is a harvest festival and is sometimes referred to as the Festival of Ingathering. It is so unreservedly joyful that it is commonly referred as the “Season of Our Rejoicing.”
²
The Feast of Tabernacles is ultimately a time of thanksgiving for God's provision.

The Festival of Sukkot is the rehearsal dinner for the millennial reign of Christ. For the first time Israel will possess all the land promised to Abraham in Genesis 15:18–21. Jerusalem, the apple of God's eye, will become the joy of the world, for Jesus will reign there. The Millennium will be a time of rest for the people of God (Hebrew 4:8–9). The prophet Isaiah echoes the thought: “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10
NIV
1984).

The Feast of Tabernacles is a time of remembrance, rejoicing, and rest.

—J
OEL
2:31
NIV

As I have stated, three Tetrads that are specifically linked to Jewish history have appeared in the past five hundred years. Each Tetrad series, consisting of four consecutive Blood Moons with a total solar eclipse occurring somewhere within the sequence of the total lunar eclipses, announced a time of tears and tribulation that would end in national triumph for the Jewish people.

In 1493–94, the first Tetrad of Blood Moons occurred on the Jewish holidays of Passover and Feast of Tabernacles:

1.    Passover, April 2, 1493

2.    Feast of Tabernacles, September 25, 1493

3.    Passover, March 22, 1494

4.    Feast of Tabernacles, September 15, 1494

The Four Blood Moons graphics in this chapter and the rest to follow were inspired by
The Feasts of the Lord
DVD set by Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries.
¹

The first Blood Moon in the Tetrad appeared on April 2, 1493—on the first day of Passover after the Jewish events of 1492. There was a total solar eclipse on September 24, 1493—one day before the blood moon of the Feast of Tabernacles, September 25, 1493.

What was happening to the Jewish people during this time?

Ferdinand II, also known as Ferdinand the Catholic, was king of Aragon and Castile from 1479 to 1516, where he ruled with his wife, Queen Isabella I. They consolidated their power by uniting the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain's entry into the modern period of imperial expansion.