The Biblical Astronomy of the Super Blood Moon on 9-29-2015
As we consider the Solar and Lunar signs and how they relate to the Hebrew Calendar in September of 2015, the heavens are speaking loudly to those who are listening. September 2015 is super packed with heavenly signs, capped off with the first Super Blood Moon on a Hebrew feast during a Blood Moon Tetrad.
[Joel 2:31, Matthew 24:29-34, Mark 13:24, Acts 2:20].
There have only been eight Blood Moon Tetrads since the Ascension of Christ. The modern Blood Moon Lunar Tetrads have consistently happened on Passover and Tabernacles – the first and last of the 7 Biblical feasts, and have always been indicative of persecution and/or war for Israel. These Alpha and Omega heavenly signs linked to the Hebrew Feasts are notable also because they emphasize the entire set of 7 key feasts marking the first and last holy days with the Blood Moons. They have emphasized the order of these feasts in history related to prophecy and the Return of Christ. There is also a long standing Jewish tradition linking the Second Coming of Jesus Christ with the Feast of Tabernacles, since Christ will finally “Tabernacle among us.” During the last 2000 years of the Age of Grace, Israel has been dispersed and persecuted among the Gentile nations, yet the Almighty has protected them even though Israel did not keep God’s Feasts as a unified body. Since the Nation of Israel was reformed in 1948, the Heavenly Father has consistently reminded Israel of His providential protection, restoring them in stages. The Blood Moon Lunar Tetrads and Solar Eclipses have served to mark these feasts, while the specific acts of God’s deliverance and restoration brought Israel back together as a nation, retaking Jerusalem as their holiest capital city. As the citizens of Israel have shared in their national restoration, they have also re-awakened to recognizing the Heavenly Father, and His perpetual Feasts. The Blood Moon Lunar Tetrad and Solar Eclipses, have stood out because of they are linked to Hebrew Feast and holy days. The Creator views these convocations as His Feasts. These perpetual feasts are designed for humanity to honor the Almighty as the ultimate Source of Light, Life and Love in Creation.
The current Blood Moon Tetrad cycle is concluding with the Super Blood Moon on the Tabernacles Feast, September 28, 2015. The history of Blood Moon Tetrads teaches we should expect efforts to persecute Israel along with the Christian Church, while remaining cognizant of how the Almighty protects His people. As noted above, the modern Blood Moon Tetrads have been significant in marking Israel’s restoration, as a sovereign nation, with its reclaiming of Jerusalem. The next logical step observers are on the look out for relates to the restoration of the Temple of Israel and its daily sacrifices. Preparation along these lines has been active in Israel for a number of years, but we should expect some developments in this area along political fronts in the near future. As the modern Blood Moon Lunar Tetrads have drawn attention to the Hebrew Feasts, a review of these seven Feasts, is in order with special emphasis on the yet to be fulfilled Fall Feasts.
The FALL FEASTS OF ISRAEL
Jehovah’s feasts are referenced in Leviticus 23. The seven feasts are Feast of Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of First Fruits, Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and Feast of Tabernacles. God has done miraculous things for Israel on these days, as He continues to do today!
The first four feasts take place in the Spring of the Hebrew Calendar, which have already been fulfilled by Jesus as the embodiment of the Passover Lamb, the Unleavened Bread of Life, the first fruits of the dead, and the personification of the gift of holy spirit given on the day of Pentecost.
Jesus died on the cross exactly at the hour that the priests offered a lamb on the altar in Jerusalem for the evening sacrifice on Passover. As the priest proclaimed; “It is finished,” referring to the sacrifices in the temple, Jesus also declared at 3pm that day in the month of Nisan; “It is finished.” Jesus not only fulfilled every jot and tittle of the OT Law in his suffering, but His complete sacrifice was finished for the redemption of all mankind. The Feast of Unleavened Bread took place the next day. Jesus was already crucified. He was the Unleavened Bread, which he declared in John 6:35; “I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger.” (KJV)
The Feast of First Fruits represents the first part of the harvest. When Jesus arose from the dead, He became the First Fruits, or the First to rise from the dead by God’s power, indicating that the remainder of the harvest in Christ would also be risen. [Rom. 11:16]
1 Corinthians 15:20 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” (NAS) Jesus arose from the dead on the precise day of the Feast of First Fruits. 50 days following Passover comes the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.
Acts 2:1-4 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
Pentecost links with the same date on the Hebrew calendar and the central candlestick on the Menorah, when fire descended on Mt. Sinai, and Moses received the Ten Commandments. The last three feasts occur in the fall of the year, seen in the last three candlesticks of the Menorah.
Passover/Bread/1st Fruits/Weeks/Trumpets/Kippur/Tabernacles
Feast of Trumpets is called a hidden feast, primarily falling in September/Tishri, the 7th and holiest month on the Hebrew Calendar. Moses was commanded by God to make two straight silver trumpets, whose blasts call a holy assemblage in Israel. These trumpet blasts can also signify a war-cry or an expression of joy.
Leviticus 23:23-24 says, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ‘” (NKJV)
This is a two day feast taking place on a New Moon under dark skies. There is also a marriage custom in Israel of the bridegroom arriving at night with friends to carry away his bride. He awakens her to secret her away, with the prior approval of the family. This 2-day feast may speak to the 2 phases of Christ’s victorious return for his Church as seen below. These and other Hebrew wedding details, paint a picture of Christ coming for His people. There are however different gatherings for different groups of God’s people. This has caused untold confusion among Christians everywhere. The Gathering Together; [2 Thess. 2:1], popularly known as the “Rapture,” is not a resurrection by definition, because Jesus does not grace us with his personal presence [parousia] upon the earth, we meet him in the air, [1 Thess. 4:13-18]. People have confused the Rapture with these Resurrections along with the groups of believers linked with each event, combining the Body of Christ or the NT Church with the OT Church-Israel, who except for the Messianic Jews, have not recognized the first appearance of Christ yet. These are two distinct groups that do not share in the same Gatherings, since all Resurrections are Gatherings, but all biblical Gatherings are not Resurrections.
The Feast of Trumpets is important for a number of reasons. First, it commemorates the end of the agricultural harvest and festival season. This appears to answer to the Feast of First Fruits, since Christ returns to gather the remainder of his harvest for which he sacrificed himself. The Day of Atonement follows on the tenth of the month, and the Booths of the Tabernacle Feast were built on the fifteenth of the month of Tishri. The blowing of the trumpets on first of the month heralds a solemn time of preparation for the Atonement sacrifice; this preparation period is known as “Ten Days of Repentance.” These trumpet blasts on Rosh Hashanah, and the Anniversary of Creation served as an alarm consisting of both the silver trumpets and the shofar, as a call to introspection and repentance. A key aspect of remembering God’s Creation is seen in Genesis.
Gen. 2:7 tells us that God breathed the breath of Life into Adam’s lungs and Adam became a living Soul. This breath is actually commemorated in the Shofar blast in the Hebrew tradition. Since Adam was the first man, he is representative of all humanity, and with his first breath encapsulated in the Shofar blast, we find the universal call for all mankind to repent and give honor and worship to the Almighty and His Perpetual feasts, marked by the Blood Moon Tetrads. The seven key feasts embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ depict how we are to approach the Almighty with a contrite and humble heart in the spirit of repentance, so that we can enjoy a complete redemption and unity. This is embodied in the 6th feast-Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. It is a special day every year when Israel fasts without work. The theme of unity or being At-one with the Heavenly Father on the Day of Atonement, is based on the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, the universal Savior of All humanity, the first and last way that the Almighty has provided to be reconciled back into fellowship with Him.
The prophets also linked the blowing of trumpets to the future time of Judgment:
“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand” (Joel 2:1, Zeph. 1:14-16). In the New Testament, we find that the Gathering Together will be accompanied by the sound of a trumpet (1 Cor. 15:51-52, 1 Thess. 4:16-17), but this so-called Rapture event is only the first phase of the Second Coming of Christ FOR his Saints. The Second phase is when Jesus returns to exterminate the evil on Earth WITH his Saints, to set up his Millennial Kingdom; [Rev. 19]. Just as the shofar called Isreal to turn in repentance to the Lord and ready themselves for Atonement, so the “trump of God” calls the body of Christ to join the Heavenly Father in unity and warn the world of coming judgment.
On the Atonement feast the High Priest entered the Holiest of all, in the temple and sacrificed for the sins of Israel, as the Aaronic priests after the blood of bulls and goats, but Jesus has fulfilled this after the order of Melchizedek, as a complete sacrifice for us once and for all.
The seventh feast is the Feast of Tabernacles. Here Israel made temporary booths outdoors of tree branches, to dwell in for this week-long feast symbolizing their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness with Moses. All these feasts were perpetually ordered by God to be observed by all mankind.
Levi. 23:4 “These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.”
The word “convocation” in Hebrew is also translated as “rehearsal.” Christians should consider these feasts as “appointments” or rehearsals with the Almighty each year. The timing of Jesus’ return may coincide with one of these convocations, so we should ever be prepared.
The Biblical Astronomy of the SHEMITAH Cycle–
The Shemitah Cycle occurred every seven years when God required that the land lay free from planting as seen in Leviticus.
Leviticus 25:1-4, “The LORD said to Moses at Mount Sinai, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the LORD.’” (NIV)
Israel went into captivity for seventy years during the time of the Prophet Daniel partially because they did not let the land rest. God’s people were materially blessed when they kept the Shemitah Cycle, and they were cursed when they disobeyed, to the extent of losing all their possessions in war and captivity. The 2015 Blood Moon Tetrad is the 1st linked with the completion of a Shemitah Cycle. As we have seen the septenary pattern in the anniversary of the Creation Week, so we find it also in the 7-year Shemitah Cycle. There was a completion of a Shemitah Cycle in both 2001 and 2008. On the last day of the Shemitah Cycle (the 29th of the Hebrew month Elul), for both those years, the Dow Jones Market crashed. On our secular calendar, these dates were September 17, 2001 and September 29, 2008. The Dow suffered the largest point drops in its history, and in the 2008 crash the Dow fell 777 points. This depicts God’s expectation that both Christians and the Israel should honor the Shemitah/Sabbath cycles. We are currently completing a Shemitah Cycle in 2015 where as the people, the land also must enjoy a Sabbath rest. The cycle ended Sept. 12, 2015 (29th of Elul) and in the following 24 hours a Partial Solar Eclipse fell on Rosh Hashanah, 9-13-2015.
BLOOD MOON TETRAD 2014-2015 Summary
Sept. 13th 2015 [Partial Solar Eclipse-Rosh Hashanah]
Sept. 17th 2015 [Sun clothing Virgo with the Moon at her feet]
Sept. 17th 2015 [Mercury-Spica in Virgo]
Sept. 23rd, 2015 [Hebrew Jubilee Year opens on the Day of Atonement]
Sept. 28th 2015 [Final Super Blood Moon, Feast of Trumpets]
October 8th, 2015 [Venus-Regulus in Leo]
Super Blood Moon over Jerusalem
As we close out the last Blood Moon Lunar Tetrad, capped off on Sept. 28th, 2015 with the First Super-Blood Moon on the Tabernacle Feast, this Blood Moon will be the closest to earth in its orbit and appear about 15% larger in full eclipse. We must note however some eye-popping heavenly signs taking place between the Partial Solar Eclipse on the Feast of Trumpets and the final Super Blood Moon on the Tabernacle Feast. On Sept. 17th the Sun appears in Virgo clothing the stellar woman symbolizing Israel with the Moon at her feet as we see in [Rev. 12]. For added emphasis Mercury-Gabriel is in conjunction also on the 17th, with Spica-Al Zimach. This star tells a special story about the Messiah Jesus Christ and his 4-fold ministry as King, Son of Man, Servant and Son of God, as related in the 4 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. With all that we have just seen regarding the ministry of Christ as it is embodied in the 7 feasts of Israel above, when we combine the narrative of the birth signs of Jesus Christ from [Rev. 12], that also relate the story of his victorious Second Coming as seen in the dual significance of the Biblical record in [Rev. 12], we find an emphasis placed on this theme by the Hand of the Almighty that cannot be ignored. This inter-weaving of the Blood Moon Tetrads with the birth and Return of Christ comes alive in the heavens before our eyes this month! We are living in the generation starting in 1948 that has witnessed the reforming of the nation of Israel (the fig tree) which will witness the time of the Lord’s return (Luke 21:29). As Christ said; “This generation shall not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:32-34). The miraculous signs shown by God helping Israel to win the wars over their Arab-Muslim enemies, with vastly fewer troops and equipment, reminds us of Old Testament battles when God delivered His people. The final Super-Blood Moon of this Tetrad will be visible directly over Israel. When Jews are making their booths of palm branches to celebrate the Tabernacle feast, they will see the first Super Blood Moon on this day in the night sky above!
THE BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY OF THE JUBLIEE YEAR –
The Year of Jubilee begins on September 23, 2015, the Day of Atonement, and it ends on October 2, 2016. God told Israel to set aside yet another year of rest after seven Shemitah cycles; as a special Sabbath after every 49 years. It is the 50th cycle called the Jubilee. Just as there are 50 days between Passover and Pentecost, so there are 50 years between Hebrew Jubilees. Not only is this the time to allow the land rest, but debts are also forgiven and slaves are freed. (Leviticus 25: 33-49) This is symbolic of God freeing us from work on earth and the earth enjoying its Sabbath rest. The Jubilee has not been kept by Israel as a whole since the OT due to Israel being dispersed in the Gentile nations, but today both Israel and the Christian Church have renewed attention on the Jubilee Cycle, especially in light of the prior Blood Moon Tetrads where these signs of the end times from the Hand of God Almighty have become central in the public eye.
Romans 8:22-23, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” (NIV)
SOLAR ECLIPSES 2014-2015 – A SIGN to the Gentiles
Key Solar eclipses are also happening within the framework of this Blood Moon Lunar Tetrad. A Total Solar Eclipse occurred on Nisan 1 opening the ecclesiastical New Year, March 20, 2015. And a Partial Solar Eclipse took place on the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), September 13, 2015. Recall that Solar signs relate to the Gentiles. Jesus has not fulfilled this feast as yet as he has the prior Spring feasts. The Feast of Trumpets is the next in godly order, is uniquely marked in 2015 with a Solar eclipse. The Trumpet Feasts remind Christians of “the last trump” (1 Cor. 15:52) or “the trumpet call of God” (1 Thess. 4:16), linked with the Gathering Together of the Body of Christ. This appears to be another way that these heavenly signs are being distinguished between Israel and the Gentile world. The Partial Solar Eclipse on the Feast of Trumpets is a sign warning the Church of the Body of Christians for their Gathering together unto Him, even as Israel is warned by the same signs according to their biblical culture. As we consider impact on the Gentiles of the Solar eclipses in this Blood Moon Lunar Tetrad: first on Nisan 1-Ecclesiastical New Year, March 20, 2015, (total) AND the other on the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) Partial Solar Eclipse, September 13, 2015, we find key inception dates on the Hebrew calendar marked for the Gentiles. We also find the Shemitah (Sabbatical) year from September 2014 to September 2015 being marked with two Blood Moon Lunar eclipses for the first time ever! (Leviticus 25:9) It seems that if the Almighty was trying to get the attention of the Gentile world with these heavenly signs, He is succeeding. If people are heeding these warning signs of the Almighty, and honoring Him with proper recognition as He commands us in His Word, we should be joyful that our time to meet Him is close at hand. Our judgement will be one of rewards for faithful service, which He recognizes for eternity. For those who do not heed these warnings, they will reap a different kind of judgement. We hold our destiny in our own hands.
Footnotes:
1. I Cor. 15:20 [New American Standard]
2. Levi. 23:23-24 [New King James Version]
3. Levi. 23:4, John 6:35 [King James Version]
4. Levi. 25:1-4, Rom. 8:22-23 [New International Version]