The Sun and Moon Prophecies and Chain of Events, Part 1 of 9

This theme is about the chain of events. Every one of these prophecies gives more than a dark sun or a dark moon by itself. Each one gives a chain, a set of things that happen together, in the same event, in the order the text gives them. So in this series we are going to read each passage in full, list out the chain of events in that passage exactly as it is given, one event at a time, check history to see if that chain ever happened, and then, at the end of the series, line all the chains up side by side and show how they connect into the same chain in every prophecy.

Some people will tell you all of this already happened in history. So let us do this the simple way. Read what each passage actually says happens together, in the same event, then check history and see if history ever recorded those things happening together. No teachers, no doctrines from outside. Just the Bible, and the historical record.

1. Isaiah 13:6 to 13

"Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger."

The chain in this passage, in the order it is given:

1. The day of the Lord is near, destruction from the Almighty comes
2. All hands are feeble, every heart melts, anguish like a woman in labor, faces aflame
3. The day of the Lord comes, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and destroy its sinners from it
4. The stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light
5. The sun will be dark at its rising
6. The moon will not shed its light
7. The world is punished for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and the pomp of the arrogant is put to an end
8. People are made more rare than fine gold
9. The heavens tremble
10. The earth is shaken out of its place

The claim you will hear is that this was finished when Babylon fell. History kept a record of that fall. Babylon fell to Cyrus of Persia in October of 539 BC, and the Nabonidus Chronicle, a Babylonian record written at the time, says Sippar was taken without battle, Cyrus entered Babylon, and peace was established in the city. That is the historical record of Babylon falling. It records no dark sun at its rising, no moon refusing its light, no stars and constellations going dark, no heavens trembling, and no earth shaken out of its place. The text puts all of those things in the same day, the day of the Lord in this passage. That day, as it is written here, is not in the chronicle, and it is not in any other record of Babylon's fall.

2. Isaiah 24:17 to 23

"Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again. On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders."

The chain in this passage, in the order it is given:

1. Terror and the pit and the snare are on the inhabitant of the earth
2. The windows of heaven are opened
3. The foundations of the earth tremble
4. The earth is utterly broken
5. The earth is split apart
6. The earth is violently shaken
7. The earth staggers like a drunken man, it sways like a hut, it falls, and it will not rise again
8. The Lord punishes the host of heaven, in heaven
9. The kings of the earth are gathered together as prisoners in a pit, shut up in a prison, and after many days they are punished
10. The moon will be confounded
11. The sun will be ashamed
12. The Lord reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory is before His elders

Read the end of it. This passage does not finish with just a dark sun and a confounded moon. It finishes with the earth broken, split apart, violently shaken, fallen, and not rising again, and with the Lord reigning on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, His glory before His elders. History records no year where the earth was split apart and fell and did not rise again. The earth is still here, the nations are still here, and Jerusalem's long history after Isaiah is a matter of record, war after war, empire after empire, with no reign like the one described in verse 23 sitting in any of it. If this had already happened, the earth in this passage would not have risen again. We are standing on it.

That is the first two chains, and the pattern of this whole theme is already showing. Both of them tie the darkened sun and moon to a chain of things that would be impossible to miss and impossible to leave out of the record, and the record does not have them. Part 2 picks up at Isaiah 34, and the chains keep going from there, until the last part lines them all up together.