We will begin this study in Zephaniah 1. We started a study in Zephaniah a long time ago. Today, we are just going to read one verse in this chapter and we are going to take a look at a couple of things related to this verse. Then we are going to go to another passage and spend the majority of our time looking at that other passage, which should help us understand this verse in Zephaniah 1. Zephaniah 1:14 says:
The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
We had previously studied all the way up to this verse. Then we had put it on hold for awhile and stopped studying this.
This is what I do. It is probably frustrating to some people, but I will study a chapter or a passage, trying to go verse-by-verse, and when I do not understand something, I will go somewhere else, because I do not have a lot of time to devote to study at this point.
It is far better to put something on hold than to rush something and to try to come to conclusions that really are not solid or that can not be completely proven. This is what we did awhile ago with this study in Zephaniah.
The book of Zephaniah, especially this first chapter, has a lot to say about the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is repeated constantly in Zephaniah 1, and it is in Zephaniah 1:14:
The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly…
We have come to learn that the Day of the Lord is not only the end of the world, which is Judgment Day when Christ returns and all mankind is standing before Him. It is part of the Day of the Lord, but actually, the Day of the Lord begins when God starts His Judgment process upon the churches and congregations. Judgment begins at the house of God, we read in 1 Peter 4:17. So the Day of the Lord begins, once God begins to pour out His wrath upon the institution of the church—the corporate body, all the churches and congregations of the world.
Once they come under God’s Judgment, then the process has begun. It will continue until the very Last Day and then transition into the Final Day—the Day of Judgment—and then God will cast all of the unsaved into Hell. This is how God has set up and established the Day of the Lord.
For instance, if we go to Joel 2:1-3, it says:
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness…
If you read the following verse in Zephaniah, Zephaniah 1:15, it is very similar language to what we are reading here in Joel.
…a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
Do you see how it began? It began talking about the Day of the Lord—the day of darkness and clouds and so forth. Then it speaks about an unnamed entity or group at that point, but “a fire devoureth before them.” It is actually referring to the assault of the Babylonians upon Judah and Jerusalem, who typify the assault of Satan upon the churches during the time of Great Tribulation.
You see, this is the picture. The church is as a beautiful Garden of Eden, because God’s Word has been there and God’s blessing has been there and God has been saving individuals through the ministry of the church, through “green pastures” and “still waters”—like the Garden of Eden. But once Satan is loosed, then all the green things are burned up and all the water begins to dry up and it becomes a desolate wilderness behind him. That is the picture that God draws of the Day of the Lord.
Or turn to Amos. Amos is the book right after Joel. We read in Amos 5:18:
Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! To what end is it for you? The day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
This is a common theme because it is a time of spiritual darkness that comes upon the church, as the Lights of the Gospel are removed from them.
Then we read in Amos 5:19, still speaking of the Day of the Lord:
As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him…
In this case, the “lion” and the “bear” are representing Satan.
…or went into the house…
Remember, Judgment begins at the house of God.
…and leaned his hand on the wall…
When we are looking at the word “lean” in the Bible, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding,” we can see that the word “lean” has to do with “trust.” It has to do with what we have faith or belief in. We are not to have trust in ourselves—we are to trust in the Lord.
Here, in the Day of the Lord, someone goes into the house. They are going into the church of our day. They are entering into the Baptist, the Lutheran, the Presbyterian, the house church, the Congregational Church, the whatever church it is, wherever it is, anyplace in the world. They are going into the house and they are leaning upon the wall. They are trusting that church for their salvation. They are trusting the pastor, the denomination, the teachings that they are hearing—that the teaching is going to bring them to Heaven.
What is the result? Well, the Day of the Lord is like someone going into the house and leaning his hand on the wall, Amos 5:19 continues:
…and a serpent bit him.
Sometimes snakes get into the walls, do they not? Especially in the winter, they somehow get into the house, they get into the concrete outside and they can get into the wall. Well in those days, they would have had wooden structures. It is like the snakes were in there hiding and someone leaned on the wall, just trusting, leaning their weight, relying that the wall would hold up them up and that there was not going to be any problem, and a serpent bit them.
This is the exact picture that God is giving us of millions of people today who are going to church today. Today is Sunday. They are going there today, trusting. Yet the man of sin, Satan, has taken his seat in the temple, showing himself that he is god. He comes looking like Christ, the Bible tells us, as “an angel of light” and his emissaries as “ministers of righteousness.” They come preaching the Word of God and the Bible, and sadly, the serpent is biting them. The serpent is devouring them and destroying them with the gospels that they are hearing and believing.
This is the character of the Day of the Lord. This is the character of the Day of the Lord, and this is where we are. It is very frightening to think about it, because you always think that the Day of the Lord is a far-off thing—it is a far-off Day, a Day of final Judgment. But actually, once we understand it, we are currently undergoing it; we are in it.
This can only mean that this great and terrible and awful Last Day—the Final Day, the culmination of all things, the Day of Judgment when mankind stands before God—is close at hand. It is very near at hand. This is what Zephaniah is telling us.
The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly…
It is coming. It is coming for anyone who is not saved, for anyone who is still in their sins, for anyone who does not have Christ as their Saviour.
Going back to Zephaniah 1:14, it says in the next part of the verse:
…even the voice of the day of the LORD…
“The voice of the Day of the Lord”—this is God’s voice. It is God’s voice. He is going to speak in a special way during the Day of the Lord.
We would not have known what this meant until relatively recently, but we understand now that God sealed up the Word concerning end-time events. He had them always in plain view and in plain sight in the Bible. They were always there in the book of Revelation or Ezekiel or Daniel, or wherever God was speaking of the end in the Bible. Yet He held back the understanding of His people (and of everyone) until we reached that Day. Seal up these words, God told Daniel, “till the time of the end.”
Once we reached the “time of the end,” the words are unsealed; they are opened up. Now the Christian can understand them. The Christian can hear “the voice of the Lord” during this time of Great Tribulation.
In the book right before Zephaniah, Habakkuk, we probably have one of the best descriptions of this; it is a very vivid description. Habakkuk 2:1-3 says:
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
You see, God spoke—He gave a vision, the revelation of God—yet it did not speak. They did not hear the “voice” of that vision at that time; but at the end, it will speak. We will hear “the voice of the Lord,” and God will begin revealing things. For example, it is time for His people to come out of the church, so He will reveal information concerning the timing of His whole salvation program, the timing of the end of the world itself. He is going to speak at the end and teach His people these things. This is why in Zephaniah 1:14 it refers to the “voice of the Day of the Lord.”
The last part of Zephaniah 1:14 is what we are going to spend the most time on today, where it says:
…the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
“The mighty man shall cry there bitterly” during the Day of the Lord. We wonder what a “mighty man” is. Who is “the mighty man” and why is he going to cry?
One of the best descriptions of a “mighty man” can be found in Genesis 6:4, where it says:
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men…
The “sons of God” is referring to believers. The “daughters of men” is referring to unbelievers. It is actually saying that there were mixed marriages. There were true people of God who saw that the “daughters of men” were very fair—they were beautiful outwardly—and they got mixed up in a relationship with them.
You know, if you do not cut it off quickly in the beginning, if you do not have the mindset of wanting to find out what the other person believes—“Do they really understand the Truth?”—if you let it develop and if you let it get physical, then in many cases you end up in a marriage between a saved person and an unsaved person and being “unequally yoked” as the Bible tells us.
Here in Genesis 6:4, we read:
…the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
This is telling us that these children of mixed marriages became the “mighty men.” What happened was that they started going down a wrong path. They started going away from God in marrying an ungodly person. Then their children, more than likely (maybe not in every case), began following the course of their parents and getting further and further away from God. Apostasy came into the world.
They were becoming disobedient children and they were becoming just like the people of the world, more and more. Exactly like we find the people in the churches today. The church is becoming like the world. It tries to have the music of the world. It tries to have a gospel that is pleasing to the world, something that is very easy to hear and to listen to and to accept.
This is the kind of gospel that they bring from the Bible, when the Bible is actually something that is repulsive to the world. If it is taught faithfully and honestly, the Bible teaches that we are sinners and that we are under the wrath of God. The Bible teaches that because of our sin, we are going to spend an eternity in Hell and that there is nothing that we can do about it.
We can not get ourselves out of this mess. We can not save ourselves. We can not bring salvation to ourselves in any way. We have to just acknowledge that we are sinners. We can cry out for mercy. We can beseech God that He might save us, but then we wait. We wait on the Lord to see if, perhaps, by chance, possibly, He might save us.
You see, this is not a very acceptable Gospel. This is not a very appealing Gospel. It does not tingle the ears of its listeners, so people in the world resist this type of teaching. The churches recognize this, so they develop gospels that are easy and simple. This is where “accepting Christ” comes in and “walking down the aisle” and “saying the sinner’s prayer.” All kinds of guarantees are given to them: now you are a Christian; now you are a child of God; now you will enter into Heaven—and none of it is true. None of it is true, not a bit.
There are going to be multitudes of professing Christians on the Day of Judgment who are going to be saying to Jesus, “Lord, Lord! We did many things in Your Name.” They were deceived by their pastor, by their church, and by their own hearts. They were deceived into thinking that they were a Christian, when there was never a new birth. They never received a new heart and a new spirit.
Well this is what a “mighty man” is, according to Genesis 6:4—someone who is part of the family of God.
…the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
That word “renown” is translated most often as “name.” They had the “name” of Christ—the “name” of Christian. This is the case today, yet God is telling us in Zephaniah that during the Day of the Lord, “the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.” The “mighty man” is going to cry during the Day of the Lord: the day of darkness, the day when Satan has been loosed and he is overcoming the churches. There will be bitter crying by many who have been deceived into thinking that they were right with God.
If we go to Genesis 27, this is the chapter that is dealing with the time when Isaac is going to bless his eldest son, Esau, so he thinks. He wants to give his eldest son the blessing. So Esau goes out into the field to find venison and while he is gone, Rebekah convinces Jacob [Note: the speaker inadvertently said “Isaac” here in the audio record when he meant “Jacob”] to put on some hairy skins around his wrists, because Esau was a hairy man. He must have had a lot of hair right around his wrists and on the backs of his hands.
Rebekah convinces Jacob to put on some fur and to put on some of Esau’s raiment and to go into Isaac and to pretend to be Esau [Note: the speaker inadvertently said “Jacob” here in the audio record when he meant “Esau”] so that he will get the blessing. Rebekah did this because these twin sons struggled in her womb, so she went to the Lord and the Lord had told her that “the elder shall serve the younger.” This is why it seems that she was favoring the younger son, because the Lord had given her instruction that the younger would actually be the one who got the blessing. She did not have to take matters into her own hands like this, but she did.
God works through the events and circumstances of our lives, and here is a case where Jacob goes in and he is going to lie to Isaac and he is going to pretend to be Esau and Isaac will bless him. Immediately following this, as soon as the door closed and Jacob, who had pretended to be Esau, went out the back door, Esau walked in the front door.
We read in Genesis 27:30-34:
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
You see, Esau found out that he did not get the blessing, and it lead to an exceeding great and bitter cry. This is what Zephaniah is telling us. In the Day of the Lord, the “mighty men,” who are really representing the ungodly within the churches who are called Christians, are going to discover that they are not going to get the blessing. At least they will hear the news of this report. They are going to hear the information, perhaps, that the Church Age is over.
God is calling His people out of the churches and congregations. God is separating the wheat from the tares, the Jacobs from the Esaus. God is making the difference. God is revealing the ones who will be blessed and the ones who will be cursed. God is going to point out and indicate through “the voice of the Lord” that during this time of Great Tribulation, He is going to save a remnant out of the churches.
Yet many in the churches were thinking that due to their church membership or due to their relationship to the church, they would have the blessing. But they are going to find out that no, it did not bring any blessing. They are not going to get into Heaven because they went to a church. They are not going to be given eternal life because they believed the doctrines of a church or the confessions or the creeds of a church. It will not be that way at all, so many will be upset. Many will be extremely angry and they will have this bitter cry going out, just as Esau did when he realized that he would not get the blessing from his father.
We are going to go over to another passage. Let me just talk about why we are going there and then we will go through this passage in a little detail. In Revelation 6:14-17, we read:
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men…
“The mighty men”—do you see that in verse 15?
…and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
It is the Day of the Lord, the Great Day of the Lord, which is in view here in Revelation 6, and we find language of the “mighty men.” The “mighty men” are one of seven groups that are mentioned in this verse, but we can actually understand that they are representing the very same people. They are representing those who think that they are saved, yet in reality they are not saved. They are not saved and here it seems as if the universe is being destroyed; the earth is being destroyed and it seems that they are crying out “Cover us!” to the rocks and the mountains.
Why I am saying “it seems” is because of what we read in Revelation 6:14:
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
The question is, “Where did they hide themselves?” They hid themselves in the rocks and in the mountains, but were not the mountains destroyed? Were not the mountains destroyed if it is the end of the world?
In the previous verses, it says that “every mountain and island were moved out of their places” and “the stars of heaven fell unto the earth.” If one star got anywhere near our atmosphere, what would happen to the entire world? If one of those luminaries out there in the celestial bodies should actually fall to earth, literally, the earth would be burnt in a second. Yet God says that the stars, plural, were falling to the earth. The mountains and the isles were moving, yet the next thing we read, they are hiding themselves in the mountains.
We have to keep in mind that this is the book of Revelation. This is the book that speaks of “a beast” rising up “out of the sea.” This is not to be taken literally. This is a reference to Satan and his rule during the Great Tribulation, once he is loosed.
We can find the Day of the Lord in many verses. Let us go back to Joel 2, where we will look at this one verse, but there are actually many verses like this. In Joel 2:9-11, speaking of the assault of Satan all the way through this chapter:
They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
This is how Satan comes.
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 LORD 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 LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
You see, if you follow this language carefully, it is describing Satan’s loosing and his destruction of the church, yet God speaks of the earth shaking and the sun and the moon being darkened and so forth—just like we have in Revelation 6.
So we are going to go through this. I do not know if we will get through the whole passage today, but we will try to go as far as we can.
We need to go back to Revelation 6:9, where it says:
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
This group is referring to those believers who became saved during the time of firstfruits, during the Church Age. I say this because it is locked in for us in Revelation 20:3-4 where it is speaking of Satan, and we read:
And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God…
Again, just the souls, not the bodies. Just like in Revelation 6 where we read about the souls that were slain for the testimony of Jesus. Here, the souls were “beheaded for the witness of Jesus.”
Then it goes on to say:
…and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
They lived and reigned with Christ for the completeness of eternity because they did become saved, so they will “sit…in heavenly places” in Christ, forever and ever.
But then it says in Revelation 20:5:
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished…
This reference to the “thousand years” is dealing with Satan’s binding, which is a symbolic figure that goes from the Cross, when he is the strongman bound, up until the end of the Church Age and his loosing for a “little season.”
“But the rest of the dead,” those that did not become saved during the Church Age but will become saved during the time of the Great Tribulation, “lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” This locks them in to becoming saved during the “little season” of Great Tribulation.
If we go back to Revelation 6, we will read about these souls that are speaking. In Revelation 6:10-11, it says:
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season…
You see, these are the souls in Heaven and they are going to rest, that is, their testimony was finished, as the two witnesses, once the Great Tribulation began. Now when Satan is loosed during the “little season,” they rest. They do not have to work at carrying the Gospel into the world because their time of ministering was over the many hundred years of the Church Age—from the Cross up until, in all likelihood, 1988. But then it says:
…they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
These are “the rest of the dead.” They “lived and reigned with Christ” during the Church Age. Now they rest during this time. It is only a few years. This is why God calls it a “little season,” and it is only 23 years in all likelihood. Now “the rest of the dead,” the “great multitude” that Revelation 7 speaks of, will be “killed as they.” They will become saved and be witnesses for the Gospel during these last days of earth’s history, during this time of Great Tribulation.
Then it says 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;
“A great earthquake”—there is language in the Bible, like in Jeremiah 10:22, that speaks of “a great earthquake,” except it does not use the word “earthquake.” It is the Hebrew word for “earthquake,” but in English, it was translated as “commotion.” We read in Jeremiah 10:22:
Behold, the noise of the bruit (or report) is come, and a great commotion…
This is the word “earthquake.”
…out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
The earthquake has to do with the shaking up of the whole church world—a shaking up of everything that was known, everything that was constant, everything that was traditional, where the people of God went to church on Sunday.
Now, lo and behold, what have we come to learn? The people of God are to do anything on Sunday but go to church! It is a great shaking in the land. It is something that has been unheard of. It has never been seen before. Yet this is what is in view here as Satan has come and infiltrated the church and the churches have become desolate; there has been a great earthquake because of it.
There are also a couple of other verses that I want to take a look at dealing with the earthquake. In Isaiah 14, I think that we will see it pretty clearly there.
In Isaiah 14:12-16, it says:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
Do you see how Satan’s loosing and his taking his seat as the man of sin, his entering into the “holy place” as the “abomination of desolation,” causes a shaking? It brings about something akin to an earthquake, spiritually speaking. This is the situation today.
Let us go to Jeremiah 50:46, where I think that it gets even clearer. The last verse of the chapter says:
At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.
“The noise of the taking of Babylon”—remember that the church has become “Babylon.” Satan has overcome the institution of the church. The outward representation of the people of God upon earth is now in his hands.
What an incredible bit of news this is! And at the noise of this news, “the earth is moved.” God is indicating that there is a great shaking in the midst of the land. There is an earthquake, spiritually speaking, that is going on.
He also says, going back to Revelation 6:12:
…there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair…
This is an interesting way of putting it. We do read in several places where the sun was darkened. But why does God say “sackcloth”? Why did the sun become a “sackcloth of hair”?
Sackcloth in the Bible is normally put on when someone is hearing of an approaching judgment. For one thing, we can think of the Ninevites. They put on sackcloth because they heard the news from Jonah the prophet that in forty days they would be destroyed. We can think of Mordecai in the book of Esther, when he found out that Haman had arranged for all the Jews to be slain in the month of Adar, he put on sackcloth and sat at the king’s gate. They heard the report that destruction was coming; they were going to be destroyed. Again and again, God speaks of those that are desirous to be repentant, so they put on sackcloth. They know that if they do not repent, they will be destroyed.
This is the normal use of the word “sackcloth” in the Bible—when someone hears the news that there is a destruction coming. But here, it is the sun itself that is putting on sackcloth, “sackcloth of hair.”
If we go back to Isaiah 50, we find a couple of interesting verses. In Isaiah 50:2-3:
Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
The Lord is saying this, but first, it is very significant that He speaks of drying up the water in the previous verse. He dries up the rivers and makes them a wilderness, because the water represents the Gospel. And when God dries up the water, it means that there is no Gospel blessing; there is no salvation; there is no “water of life.”
It is the same picture with the celestial bodies, with the lights in the sky. The sun and the moon and the stars are lights. They illuminate, and the Bible speaks of the Gospel as a “shining light” that enters into the darkness of the world and is able to bring salvation, because the light of God’s Word has shined in a dark heart and has brought it to life. But when the Lord is saying, “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering,” He is indicating that the light is put out. The light becomes dark, just like the water becomes dry.
This is the picture in Revelation 6 when “there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair.” I am not sure as to why God said “hair,” except that it would probably make it even darker. It would be a thicker type of garment and it would be more of a covering over the “light.”
Then it goes on to say in the final part of Revelation 6:12:
…and the moon became as blood;
“The moon became as blood.” Again, the moon is placed in the sky and it reflects the light of the sun. It is there, actually, as a type and a figure to point to the Law of God. The Bible is God’s Law Book, so when the moon becomes as blood, it means that there is nothing but Judgment that remains.
We find the same language in Acts 2, where again the book of Joel is in view. We read in Acts 2:16-20:
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
This is a very interesting verse and difficult verse when you read it, because it says that “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.” Yet when Christ went to the Cross, the sun was darkened, literally. The sun was darkened over the face of the earth, but the moon is never said to have turned “into blood.” We do not read this in the Bible. We do not read this in the Gospel accounts of Christ being on the Cross. So we wonder what this is referring to, and why in Acts 2:21, immediately following this verse where “the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood,” why does it say:
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Is this not an unusual position or an unusual place to put this kind of a verse? Immediately after it says that “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,” salvation follows. Salvation comes right after “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood.” You see, it relates to what we read in Revelation 6, where it says that those souls would “rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were,” and this is going to happen during these days of the Great Tribulation.
Let us go to Joel and find this quote. In Joel 2:28, we read:
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
This is an exact quote of Acts 2, but the interesting thing is that it says that it will come to pass “afterward.” We know that in Acts 2, it came to pass when they said “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” They were saying that right then, at that time, it was being fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, during the time of firstfruits, which ties into the time of early rain that is being mentioned a little earlier in Joel.
We read in Joel 2:23-24:
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately (or righteously), and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
Actually, this is better understood “as the first.”
And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
There are a lot of verses and a lot of information, but, basically, God is telling us that there would come a time of firstfruits when He would send forth the early rain of the Gospel. Then we find in Acts 2 that the sons and daughters will prophesy and it will be a time of deliverance—a time of salvation. This is exactly what took place during the Church Age.
But God is also telling us that there will be another time of the latter rain, and this passage that applies to the early rain also applies to the latter rain. In other words, in Revelation 6, where it says that the sun is darkened and the moon shall be clothed with sackcloth, it identifies with Acts 2 because the same language is used there and it identifies with Joel 2 and the two seasons or the two times of the outpouring of the Gospel—during the Church Age and during this present time of Great Tribulation.
So when God is really giving us a clue, He is giving us a signpost. When He says that the sun will be darkened and the moon will be clothed with sackcloth of hair, it is indicating that a season has changed—that it is now the season of the latter rain. Now God’s people, once again, will begin declaring the Gospel. We will begin prophesying, and that simply means that we will be sharing the Word of God to the world.
It was probably too much to try to get into at once. Next time, I will go over some of this portion in Revelation 6. Then we will continue on to the “mighty men” who are going to flee into the rocks and into the mountains and cry out for them to cover them during the time of the Great Day of the Lord.