Signs in the Sky – Week 16 / April 15th

Something strange is happening on planet earth in that unusual events and phenomenon are taking place all over the world and in the heavens. Are these natural events or is the One True God sending us a message of warning? The God we serve is a God of love who seeks to reach His world with the message of the cross of Jesus. He will stop at nothing to do this and therefore has promised to send us harbingers of judgment to come. Repentance is His goal but global rebellion and wickedness in contradiction of His revealed word and character must be judged. He therefore has promised to show us signs of warning before it is too late. These signs are now with us! Consider the following:

Signs in the heavens
Just in the last month an asteroid careered across our skies and struck an unknown little town in Russia. The spectacle was impressive to say the least and just a few days later “showering meteorites” crossed our heavens leaving a trail of light like sparkling water. Then another asteroid almost side-swiped our planet as it just missed us and sped on into the darkness of outer space. Now astronomers are telling us that in 2014/5 the phenomenon known as a Tetrad will occur over Israel. This means that four blood red moons will appear at Passover and Tabernacles over the next two years. This is not a usual occurrence and has only happened a few times over the centuries and always when some great, tragic or special event is about to take place in Jerusalem or in the history of the Jewish people. David Dolan, a middle east commentator and journalist of repute, writes, “If we closely examine the last three Tetrads that began on the full moon of Passover and ended a year later on the first night of the annual Feast of Tabernacles, we can clearly see that they have three things in common and all involved the shedding of Jewish blood…” This is sobering indeed and should cause us to seek God more earnestly about what the meaning of all this could be. At the very least He is warning us of things to come. The question is; “Are we listening?’

Signs in the sky
Just a year and a half ago a volcano in Iceland erupted spewing out vast columns of smoke into the sky. At first it was generally ignored until in gained strength and put out such a huge volume of smoke that air travel throughout all of Europe was brought to a halt. We all watched with amazement as this column of smoke rose to the sky and thereby disrupted travel schedules all over the world. At the same time vast quantities of birds began to fall from the skies all over the earth with no apparent reason for doing so. Scientists are completely baffled by this phenomenon and even lately it has continued unabated. Moreover, who can forget the images of the Nuclear Facility meltdown in Japan? A massive tsunami, triggered by an earthquake of vast proportions, sent huge amounts of water into the facility and crippled it. The scenes were astonishing as we saw vapor of smoke rising into the clouds and destruction everywhere. The question again is; “Are we listening?”

Signs in the earth beneath
On the earth we have disrupted weather patterns that are producing winter in summer and summer in autumn and who knows what else. Storms and hurricanes, like never before, are battering our shore lines and even those who subscribe to global warming are baffled because it too often appears as if we are suffering from global cooling. The truth is; all of this has very little to do with global warming but a lot to do with global warning! We attribute all of this to natural phenomena when indeed it has to do with supernatural phenomena. It will increase as humankind continues to ignore God and happily travel down its chosen road of perversion.

Then there are the Tornados that are ripping whole communities apart in the USA chiefly and of course elsewhere. I could go on and on but the point is made. God is doing exactly what He said He would! He is giving signs on the earth beneath. Does anyone get it?

Blood and fire
Conflicts are raging all over the world and millions of people have died in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Christians are now the most persecuted group on the earth and the blood of Christian Martyrs is running on many continents. Chiefly this killing of Christians is being done by Muslims and in particular the Muslim Brotherhood who now controls Egypt and is seizing control of much of the Middle East. In Sudan the Muslim North murdered two million Christians from the South while the world did very little to stop it. The blood of 100,000 people now runs in Syria and fire rages everywhere as the scourge of war ravages city after city. The conflict is spilling over into Lebanon, Turkey and may even embroil Israel.

Who can forget the awful images of 9/11 when the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York exploded in fire and caused the blood of many to run in the streets! These are terrifying things and I have a sense that there is more to follow if we do not repent, seek God and rectify our ways.

All of the above most certainly appears to fulfill Joel’s prophetic oracle. Who can deny it? Nevertheless, though the picture is bleak and foreboding it is in fact one of the patience and love of God since He is trying to get His world’s attention. The death of Jesus, that splits human history down the middle, is the only hope for all of humankind and therefore these signs from the God of heaven are designed to make us call out to Him in repentance.(2Peter 3:9;Revelation 16:11) Those who do will be saved! What a wonderful promise and what a glorious deliverance the world can have from a lost eternity. Peter also assured his listeners that, in a day of considerable upheaval and danger, God would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh and thereby empower His Church to do exploits for Him. This is our day to rise and shine for soon our redemption will draw nigh.

Malcolm Hedding.

©Malcolm Hedding Ministries