Missionary Types and Shadows: Types and Shadows fly in the face of how Biblical prophecy works,

Missionary Types and Shadows

Missionaries rely heavily on very non-literal readings of the Hebrew Bible. They call these types and foreshadows. Jewish Scripture, we are told, points to Jesus even when the text is plainly not discussing Jesus. Is this missionary claim at all justified?

This missionary method is not surprising, as the plain meaning of Scripture (pshat) does not support the missionary agenda. Even missionaries concede prophecy fulfillment is generally not based on pshat:

Don't fall into the mistake of assuming that every time a New Testament writer cites an Old Testament text and applies it to Jesus (even if a "fulfillment" formula is followed), it must have been a direct/literal prediction coupled with a direct/literal fulfillment. In most cases by far, the New Testament takes a broader approach to the subject of messianic prophecy (e.g., typology, thematic parallels, corporate solidarity, historical correspondences/analogies, etc.). (broken link removed. S.)

The Biblical Approach to Prophecy

The missionary approach to prophecy is alien to the Biblical view. When Jewish Scripture identifies prophecy as fulfilled, we see a direct one-to-one correspondence between prophecy and fulfillment. We present an example of Biblical prophecy to show how it works:
"Joshua caused [the people] to swear at that time saying, 'Cursed before G-d is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With his firstborn son he will lay its foundations, and with his youngest he will set up its gates' (Joshua 6:26)."
We read of the fulfillment:
"In his days, Hiel the Beth-elite built Jericho; with Abiriam, his firstborn, he laid its foundations; and with Segub, his youngest, he set up its doors, according to the word of G-d He spoke through Joshua son of Nun (I Kings 16:34)."
We see that Biblical prophecy is directly predictive, the opposite of the missionary method.

Examples Where Jesus Does Not Fulfill the Pshat (plain meaning) of Scripture
a. Matthew 2:15 claims that when Jesus left Egypt he fulfilled Out of Egypt I called My son (Hosea 11:1). The beginning of that verse reads, When Israel was a child I loved him and Hosea calls Israel, not Jesus, G-ds son. Hosea is not making a prediction about anyone but remembering Israels exodus long ago.

Hosea continues to teach us that this son of G-d is not so righteous after all. They sacrificed to the Baalim, and burnt incense to graven images (11:2). Is Jesus a personification of idol worship?
Missionaries do a cut-and-paste job since their types and shadows ignore pshat (plain meaning).
b. Immanuel is clearly born in King Ahazs time, centuries before Jesus. Isaiah predicts to King Ahaz that a young woman will give birth to Immanuel (7:14). Isaiah tells Ahaz, Before the child shall know to reject evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread [Rezin and Pekah- see 7:1-2] shall be forsaken (7:16). The downfall of these two kings quickly took place (II Kings 15:29-30, 16:9).

Missionaries honest enough to admit the timing of Immanuel's birth nevertheless insist it is a foreshadowing of another Immanuel, namely Jesus. (Missionaries do not dare say the first Immanuel was born of a virgin, but we will not let ourselves be disturbed by such facts right now)
and
c. Zechariah 11:12-13 reads, Then I said to them, If you think it good, pay me my wages; if not, dont. So they weighed out my wages, thirty shekels of silver. G-d said to me, Cast it to the treasurer of the Temple, which I have divested of them. Missionaries claim this foreshadows Judas betrayal of Jesus for thirty shekels (Matthew 26:15) as Judas threw the money into the Temple (27:5)

Zechariah never says the transaction predicts a future event. Pshat indicates no prophecy to be fulfilled.
and

d. With this interpretive license, we should not be surprised when missionaries actually admit that the New Testament misquotes Biblical verses. Psalms 40:7 reads, Sacrifice and meal offering you do not desire, ears You have opened for me. The New Testament misquotes it as a BODY you have prepared for me (Hebrews 10:5).  (broken link removed. S.)
There is no real difficulty here since the writer of Hebrews views Psalms 40:7 as typologically referring to Christ rather than as a literal or direct messianic prophecy.

Supposedly, Psalms proves that Jesus fulfills Psalms 40 and that crucifixion atones for mankind. The pshat suggests otherwise: obedience, listening to G-d is greater than sacrifice, similar to "I desire kindness, not sacrifice, and knowledge of G-d more than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6)."

Missionaries assume without textual basis that Psalms 40 is a prediction, and (contrary to pshat) posit the superiority of a particular sacrifice above all else. Since the altered version in Hebrews 10:5 allegedly gives the true sense of Psalms, it supposedly does not matter that Psalms 40:7 never mentions a body.
e. Missionaries press even further, claiming that Jesus fulfilled Biblical verses that do not exist! Matthew 2:23 quotes (if that is the right word) He shall be called a Nazarene. There is no such verse in the Hebrew Bible! Missionaries say this is no problem. Since Isaiah refers to Messiah figuratively as a netzer [shoot] (11:1), Jesus fulfilled the invented words he shall be called Nazarene by going to Nazareth. In fact the city of Nazareth is never mentioned in Jewish Scriptures.
In these and other cases, missionaries claim it does not matter whether Jesus fulfilled the pshat of Jewish Scripture. He fulfilled these prophecies anyway.

Unverified and Unverifiable Interpretations

How does one test the validity of types and shadows? Missionaries cherish them because THERE IS NO STANDARD OF VERIFICATION. How can they determine whether Scripture ever intended types and shadows, and which verses are intended as such and which are not? Given the countless type and shadow meanings one can read into a text, how can they know which meaning is meant? Claims that are not testable are worthless.

Missionaries fail to address other legitimate possibilities. What if Hosea is speaking only of Israel as G-ds son? Suppose Isaiah is speaking of one Immanuel, as pshat indicates. Perhaps Zechariah's acceptance of thirty shekels does not predict any other thirty-shekel transaction. Nothing indicates that types and shadows are absolute truth. Yet missionaries say they are solid enough to dogmatically identify Messiah and send the unconvinced to hell!

Circular Reasoning of Missionaries 

Missionaries would respond that their types and shadows are valid because Jesus and his disciples taught them.

Here we arrive at the circular reasoning of missionaries. The types and shadows are true because they come from Jesus. But how do we establish the credibility of Jesus? Easy- he fulfilled so many types and shadows!

Missionary Double Standard

The perceptive reader will notice the double standard by which missionaries operate. Do they apply the same poetic license in interpreting the New Testament as they do to the Hebrew Bible? Not at all! They take the New Testament very seriously. Anyone claiming to find types and shadows in the New Testament is labeled a Mormon, Moonie, etc. (Certainly missionaries reject Charles Mansons claim that the New Testament hints to the Beatles)

In recent years, however, missionaries have accused Judaism of practicing a double standard. They refer to Midrash- Rabbinic homiletic, which supplement the pshat of Scripture. Missionaries ask why they must be held accountable to the pshat given the existence of Jewish Midrash.

According to Moshe Yosef Koniuchowsky, Hebrew-Christian, counter-missionaries are guilty by refusing to make allowance, and give the New Testament writers the same liberty and literary freedom in using Scripture to portray truth as they do the writers and authors of the Tanach [Hebrew Bible] (Messianic Believers First Response Handbook, p. 7).

As we shall see, Midrash and missionary prooftexting are not at all comparable.

There are at least five critical differences between Jewish Midrash and missionary types and shadows.

a. Midrash is used for Midrash- homiletic meanings. Missionaries use types and shadows to establish pshat (plain meaning).

There is no such thing as a Midrashic fulfillment of a prophecy.
What is a Midrash? According to Moses Mielziner in Introduction to the Talmud, Where the Midrash does not concern legal enactments and provisions, but merely inquires into the meaning and significance of the laws or where it only uses the words of Scripture as a vehicle to convey a moral teaching or a religious instruction and consolation, it is called Midrash Agadah Interpretation of the Agadah, homiletical interpretation. (Emphasis mine) judaismsanswer.com/midrash.htm
Nachmanides, in a thirteenth-century disputation with the Church said,
"We have a third book called Midrash, meaning sermons. It is just as if the bishop would rise and deliver a sermon, and one of the listeners whom the sermon pleased recorded it (Disputation at Barcelona, p. 7)."
In a sermon, the speaker can relate a verse to person X without person X being the actual subject of the verse. The same is true for Midrash.

This is why the Talmud relates the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 with Moses, even though Isaiah is speaking of a future event. Likewise the Rabbis homiletically link Isaiah 53 with the Messiah. Neither is meant literally. In general Midrash is not meant to be taken literally (Maimonides: Introduction to Mishnah Commentary).

Rabbi Moshe Shulman explains in What is a Midrash? :

In Sotah 14a, Isaiah 53 is interpreted as referring to Moses. The ancient Jewish view and that which appears continually in the words of the commentators (as we will discuss later) are that the Servant is Israel who is called Servant throughout Isaiah. Clearly Isaiah when he was prophesying was talking of someone in the future and not Moses who had been in the past, so the question is what lessons are the Rabbis trying to teach by relating Moses to this chapter, and why specifically to this chapter. We all know that Moses was the greatest of the prophets and was known as the 'servant of G-d'. Sotah is showing us that many of the great qualities that Moses had, are likewise there in the Servant, Israel. So, for example, where the servant of Isaiah prays for sinners, so Moses prayed for those who were guilty of the sin of the golden calf, and effected their atonement. By so doing the Midrash allows us to look at the greatness of Moses, and his work

The first is that many times verses that deal with categories of people are used to apply to individuals. It's pretty much like the concept of set inclusion. Something is a member of the set, and then it has all the properties that the set has Since the Jewish understanding is that Isaiah is about Israel (and specifically the righteous of Israel), any individual of exceptional personality could be compared to some of the verses there with valid results.
To better understand the nature of Midrash, let us look at an actual Midrash:
From the beginning of the words creation, the Holy One foresaw the deeds of the righteous and wicked. This is like what is written, For G-d knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall become lost (Psalms 1:6). AND THE LAND WAS CHAOS AND VOID- these are the deeds of the wicked-G-D SAID LET THERE BE LIGHT- these are the deeds of the righteous. But I would not know which of them G-d desires- the deeds of the righteous or of the wicked. But when it is written, G-D SAW THE LIGHT THAT IT WAS GOOD [I conclude] He desires the deeds of the righteous and not the deeds of the wicked (Genesis Rabbah 2:5).
This passage is neither historical nor predictive. Obviously it does not mean human actions took place in the beginning of creation. It is not a prophecy to be fulfilled. The Midrash is teaching a moral lesson: human action is analogous (not identical) to light and darkness, but goodness is  G-ds purpose in creation

Missionaries try to have their cake and eat it too. They use non-pshat methods to get pshat results. They do not merely say that Jesus is homiletic-ally connected to Immanuel; they claim he is Immanuel, period. They do not simply relate Jesus homiletic-ally to the Passover Lamb; they maintain he is actually the fulfillment of this legal datum.

b. Midrash reveals deeper meaning of an existing religion. New Testament needs types and shadows to claim its religion even exists.

Judaism does not rely on Midrash to establish there is such a thing as Judaism. Its not as if Judaism took a scripture of someones religion and then demonstrated through Midrash that Judaism alone is the true successor to that religion. Were that the case, dismissal of Judaism would be entirely justified.

From the Written Law the practices and essential beliefs of Judaism are known. While the details of Biblical commandments are absent, there is no doubt for which commandments a Jew is responsible. As for beliefs, Maimonides' famous formulation of the Thirteen Fundamentals of Judaism is all based on Scriptural verses he cites.

c. Jewish Midrash supplements pshat. Types and shadows replace pshat.

Basic Jewish doctrines, found in pshat of Scripture, are denied by missionaries. These include: the binding character of the commandments, their ongoing validity, practice of the commandments brings righteousness and salvation, commandments can be kept, G-d is not a man, G-d is immutable, the exclusive chosenness of the Jewish people, the Messiah inherits Davids throne solely through paternal birth line, etc.

The Rabbis have a rule that Scripture does not depart from the plain meaning (Shabbat 63a). Midrashic interpretation reveals deeper meanings but does not reject pshat. By contrast, types and shadows are employed to deny basic Biblical doctrines.

d. Jewish Midrash is rooted in an oral transmission from Sinai. The New Testament does not even claim to be rooted in an unbroken tradition going back to the revelation of the Torah.

Judaism posits that that two Torahs were revealed at Mt. Sinai: Written Law and Oral Law. The existence of the Oral Law is evident from the Written Law itself. It is clear from Scripture that (1) G-d is just and (2) G-d wants the Law to be obeyed. Yet we find that the Written Law simply does not tell us what to do. The commandments are stated in vague generalities, without the numerous details found in every respectable legal system.

Leviticus 23:40 commands taking the fruit of the tree of splendor (pri etz hadar) on the Feast of Tabernacles. Pri etz hadar is a botanically meaningless statement even to Hebrew-speaking scientists. There is no clue which species is mentioned without a clarifying Oral Law.

The Passover holiday begins on the fifteenth day of the first month (Leviticus 23:6). To identify this day requires knowing when is the first day of that month, which the Written Law does not say.

Exodus 12:15 bids us to eat matza on seven days of Passover, while Deuteronomy 16:8 says to eat it for six days. Only the Oral Law can reconcile the contradiction.

It is prohibited to leave ones "place" on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:29). Does this mean ones house, property, neighborhood, city or state? Only the Oral Law tells us.

It is obvious to any objective reader that one cannot know how to perform the Biblical commandments based on Written Law alone. G-d must have given an Oral Law to Moses to explain what the Written Law means. It follows that Moses would transmit this Oral Law to his disciples, who then taught it to future generations of Sages.

These Sages have taught us that Oral Torah encompasses both Halacha (law) and also Midrash. Midrash is also given at Sinai (Yerushalmi Peah 2:6). If there is an Oral Torah, only in the hands of Jewish Sages, why not believe those responsible for transmitting it that Oral Torah contains Midrash too?

This does not mean that every Midrashic statement was said verbatim at Sinai. It does mean that midrashic concepts and methodology are essentially Sinaitic.

The charge that the Sages basically falsified the Oral Torah is incoherent. An unwritten tradition by definition is only known from the Sages who transmit it. No outsider can claim to know the Oral Law better than those who teach it in the first place.

e. The Rabbis of Midrash have Biblical credibility. Deuteronomy 17 requires obeying them in matters of law. If G-d trusts them, we can too. Nothing in Jewish Scripture tells us to trust the New Testament writers.

If a matter for judgment is too difficult for you, between blood and blood, between verdict and verdict, between plague and plague, even matters of controversy in your gates; you shall go up the place that the L-rd your G-d shall choose. You shall come to the priests, the Levites and to the judge that shall be in those days. You shall ask and they will tell you the word of judgment. You shall do according to the word that they will tell you, from the place that G-d will choose, and keep the law according to what they teach you. According to the Torah that they teach you and according to the judgment that they say to you, you must do. Do not turn aside from the word that they tell you, neither right nor left. And the man that does willfully, not listening to the priest standing to serve L-rd your, G-d or to the judge; that man shall die, and you shall remove the evil from your midst (Deut. 17:8-12).

This passage clearly establishes that the Jewish judiciary has authority in matters of Jewish law. The place that G-d shall choose means, throughout the Bible, the Sanctuary site. The judiciary that sat there is the Sanhedrin.

Midrash is not from a separate group with separate ideas. The masters of Midrash are the same Talmudic Rabbis who themselves were members of the divinely ordained judiciary known as the Sanhedrin, together with their students. We are obligated to follow this judiciary. There is no good reason not to believe these same Rabbis when they present Midrash as valid and authentic.

Establishing Jesus Credentials

We would like to ask those who preach types and shadows: how could Jesus credential have been established in the first place? The New Testament had not been written yet during early first century. Jews did not then know missionary types and shadows. Their only basis to judge was the plain words of the Hebrew Bible. Assuming the missionary viewpoint, how could those Jews have possibly known what to look for? How can the credibility of a would-be messiah depend on types and shadows? Yet Jesus is portrayed in the Gospels as demanding peoples obedience early in his career!

Didnt Jesus Fulfill Pshat Also?

Missionaries may also deny their dependence on types and shadows by pointing to certain Biblical prophecies that they claim were fulfilled by Jesus according to pshat. Space does not permit a discussion of the mistranslations; misquotations and out-of context readings missionaries use to make such claims. No one has ever shown this writer one prophecy that Jesus clearly and literally fulfilled.

One point is in order, however. It would be disingenuous of missionaries to make such an argument! The missionary enterprise does not generally make distinctions between pshat and non-pshat fulfillments. Websites and missionaries on the beat, that claim Jesus fulfilled 100, 200, even 300 prophecies present an undifferentiated package. Were they to scale down their list to alleged pshat fulfillment, it would be an embarrassingly small list. We quote again from Church in Focus:
In most cases by far, the New Testament takes a broader approach to the subject of messianic prophecy (e.g., typology, thematic parallels, corporate solidarity, historical correspondences/analogies, etc.) (emphasis mine).
We appreciate Church In Focus advising fellow missionaries to practice greater honesty: Evangelicals must seek to reform their messianic apologetics with a greater appreciation for the different ways in which the New Testament cites the Old and with a tad less sensationalism in how Jesus' messiahship is presented to unbelieving Jews (e.g., such tract titles as "300 Prophecies Fulfilled in One Day!" or "70 Prophecies Fulfilled at the Cross!").

We are not optimistic that their advice will be heeded. Missionaries must inflate their own claims by conflating pshat with non-pshat.

Summary: Missionaries rely on types and shadows because they know pshat does not justify their beliefs. Types and shadows fly in the face of how Biblical prophecy works, and actually contravenes the meaning of Scripture. The New Testament writers present unverifiable homiletics. These men have no Scriptural basis for their authority and credibility as Biblical interpreters. Analogies to Jewish Midrash have no validity. Missionaries cannot afford to dispense with types and shadows because they aim to promote a false messiah.

source: http://messiahtruth.yuku.com/topic/3886#.Uu-hiRBkTTp

Star Of David In The Eclipse

Gen 1:14 And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Star Of David In The Eclipse

"The Creator set the sun, moon, planets, and stars in their courses as an elaborate time-keeping device that has not varied since creation. By it we understand His appointed times and seasons, which enables us to live in harmony with Him and His creation."

Total Solar Eclipses on the first of Av in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The dusk of the Church Age, and the heralding of the 70th week about to start?

250 Rabbis Sign Letter to Obama: Hands off Jerusalem

"In a reference to the upcoming “nine days” which culminate in Tisha B’Av, the rabbis tell Obama that “during these days, in which the Jewish people mourns the destruction of Jerusalem and marks the disgraceful memory of its destroyers, we are certain that you, Mr. Barack Obama, do not want to enter that disreputable list of those who raise their hand to strike Jerusalem and those who live in it.”"

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132506

NASA: Total solar eclipses occur on these dates:

* Aug. 1, 2008 (1st of Av)
* July 22, 2009 (1st of Av)
* July 11, 2010 (1st of Av)

“70th Week of Daniel” and of “Jacob’s Troubles”.

"the eclipse was most prevalent, where it OVERSHADOWED the nations with DARKNESS, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia."

Orthodox and Hassidic Rabbonim Declare "Time of Jacob's Trouble"
http://natzrim.blogspot.com/2010/12/time-of-jacobs-trouble.html

"A Sabbatical Year in the Jewish Calendar. Started September 29, 2008, a new Sabbatical cycle will commence. It will run for seven years and conclude with another Sabbatical Year in 2014/15."

Also, you may know that Daniel’s seventieth week will be a seven-year Sabbatical cycle.

"The First of Av. The beginning of nine days of mourning for Israel. Also the date, in which most of Asia, witnessed the longest recorded Solar Eclipse.

SOLAR AND LUNAR ECLIPSES 2014-15

Solar and Lunar Eclipses
by J. R. Church

“As you may know, this year is a Sabbatical Year in the Jewish Calendar. Starting next September 29, 2008, a new Sabbatical cycle will commence. It will run for seven years and conclude with another Sabbatical Year in 2014/15.”

Also, you may know that Daniel’s seventieth week will be a seven-year Sabbatical cycle. Students of biblical prophecy have long compared Daniel’s seventieth week with the Tribulation Period as laid out in the book of Revelation.

Intrigued with the Scriptures that repeat over and over again that our Savior’s Second Coming will be heralded with signs in the heavens, in which the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, Pastor Mark Biltz went on the Internet, to a U.S. Government web site, to see if he could find any solar or lunar eclipses over the next few years that might be significant.

To his surprise, he found four lunar eclipses and two solar eclipses in the Sabbatical Year of 2014 and 2015. Also, he noticed that they all appear on Jewish Holy Days!"

Lunar Eclipses

The four lunar eclipses will occur on:

Passover, April 15, 2014
The Feast of Tabernacles, October 8, 2014
Passover, April 4, 2015 and
The Feast of Tabernacles, September 28, 2015

This is most unusual. It is a rare occurrence for four lunar cycles to happen on successive Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) observances. It will not happen again for hundreds of years. However, Mark found that a series of four lunar eclipses on these particular holy days did occur in the twentieth century -- not once, but twice! The first set occurred in 1949-1950, the year after Israel became a state! The second set happened in 1967-1968, the year Israel liberated Jerusalem! Such a phenomenon is nigh unto impossible, unless it was set up by Divine design. Mark looked back in history and noticed that the last time this set of four lunar eclipses occurred on Passover and Sukkot was in 1493, the year after Columbus sailed the ocean blue and Spain expelled all Jews.

As we look at the next seven years, we wonder, “What is יהוה telling Israel through the upcoming lunar eclipses?” Is it possible that these are fulfilling biblical prophecies?

Solar Eclipses

In addition to the four lunar eclipses in 2014-15, two solar eclipses will occur on:

Adar 29/Nisan 1, March 20, 2015
The Feast of Trumpets, September 13, 2015

These two dates are quite significant because they are special days in Jewish calendar. For example, it was on Nisan 1, the first anniversary of the Exodus, that Mosheh raised up the tabernacle for the first time and the glory of יהוה descended. Two weeks later, the children of Israel, observed their first Pentecost since the Exodus.

Nisan 1 marks the beginning of the religious festival cycle. Six months later, on Tishri 1, the children of Israel, observe Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets. This day is highly prophetic, because it is said to be the anniversary of the Creation of Adam. It is Adam’s birthday. And, even though it's a Jewish observance, it is prophetically significant as a day for Gentile nations.

It is the day when יהוה will sit down upon His throne of Judgment and take the books in his hand. That is when He will begin the judgment of the world. So, a solar eclipse on Rosh Hashanah could precede the Second Coming of Yeshua in power and great glory, and fulfill the biblical description.

The Solar Eclipse This Year

Coming up this summer, there will be the first of three solar eclipses on the day that introduces the first of Av (August 1, 2008). That’s right, all three solar eclipses will be on the biblical date of Av 1, for the next three years -- 2008, 2009, and 2010. Our Gregorian calendar dates are:

Av 1 - August 1, 2008 - partial eclipse
Av 1 - July 22, 2008 - partial eclipse
Av 1 - July 11, 2010 - partial eclipse

In the Jewish calendar, they are all on the first of Av, the day when Jews lament the destruction of the temples. As the story goes, Mosheh caught the people worshiping the Golden Calf on Tammuz 17. Therefore, the three weeks from Tammuz 17 to Av 9 are called “the dark time” and “between the straits.” It is the most sorrowful time of the year for Jewish people. From Av 1-9, no bathing is allowed; no comforts; no clean clothes; we take our shoes off; sits on an overturned chairs and reads the book of Lamentations.

However, there will come a time when יהוה will reverse the fast days and turn them into feast days. Zechariah said:

“Thus saith the YHWH of hosts; The fast of the fourth month [Tammuz 17], and the fast of the fifth [Av 9], and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace” (Zech. 8:19).

Mark Biltz seems to think that the solar eclipses on Av 1, could change the course of history, because solar eclipses are designed for Gentile nations, whereas lunar eclipses are designed for Israel? Therefore, he thinks that יהוה could begin judging the nations soon? Will there be a war in Israel? It is entirely possible. If so, then the solar eclipse could be announcing judgment upon the world -- a sobering thought!

Bible Predictions
About the Sun and Moon

Now, let’s look at the places in the Bible that speak of the sun being darkened and the moon not giving her light. First of all, Isaiah wrote:

“Behold, the day of the YHWH cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger ... the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

“And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible” (Isa. 13:9-11).

We are told that this will occur in the “day of the YHWH.” It is the time when יהוה will punish the Gentile nations for their wickedness. We are not talking about ordinary everyday living, but gross wickedness against יהוה and His Chosen People. יהוה calls them arrogant, proud and haughty. He says that they are terrible, evil and wicked. It seems to me that he is referring to the nations that are trying to destroy Israel. Again, Isaiah said:

“Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the YHWH of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously” (Isa. 24:23).

Since neither the sun or moon has a conscience, the references to being confounded or ashamed seem to be metaphoric of the condition of man on earth. The darkening of the sun and moon, therefore, are signs of man’s condition. These conditions will prevail at the time of the YHWH’s return to judge the wicked and establish His kingdom. Isaiah was the first prophet to write about solar and lunar eclipses, but Yo’ĕl ’s passages are the most widely quoted. Yo’ĕl wrote:

“The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

“And the YHWH shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the YHWH is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” (Yo’ĕl 2:10,11).

Again, Yo’ĕl said:

“And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the YHWH come” (Yo’ĕl 2:30,31).

Finally, Yo’ĕl said:

“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the YHWH is near in the valley of decision.

“The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining” (Yo’ĕl 3:14,15).

Isaiah and Yo’ĕl are the only Old Testament prophets that mentioned solar and lunar apparitions in the day of the YHWH. In each case, however, it is apparent that they are referring to events that precede the messianic kingdom. Yo’ĕl adds earthquakes, blood, fire and pillars of smoke. I think he is describing the battles that attend the Tribulation Period, especially the final Battle of Armageddon.

Gen 1:14 And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: