The Sun and Moon Prophecies and Chain of Events, Part 2 of 9

Part 1 covered Isaiah 13 and Isaiah 24.

Both of them tied the darkened sun and moon to a chain of bigger events around them, events that would be impossible to miss and impossible to leave out of the record, and the record does not have them.

In Part 2 we keep doing the same thing. Read the passage in full, list the chain of events in the order the text gives them, then check history and see if that chain ever happened.

The two passages in Part 2 are whole chapters, Isaiah 34 and Isaiah 50, so we read them that way, the whole chapter, from the first verse to the last, because the chain runs through the whole thing.

No teachers, no doctrines from outside. Just the Bible, and the historical record.

1. Isaiah 34

"Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples!"

"Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it."

"For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter."

"Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood."

"All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll."

"All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree."

"For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction."

"The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams."

"For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom."

"Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls."

"Their land shall drink its fill of blood, and their soil shall be gorged with fat."

"For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion."

"And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch."

"Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever."

"From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever."

"But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it."

"He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness."

"Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom, and all its princes shall be nothing."

"Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses."

"It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches."

"And wild animals shall meet with hyenas; the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there the night bird settles and finds for herself a resting place."

"There the owl nests and lays and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow; indeed, there the hawks are gathered, each one with her mate."

"Seek and read from the book of the Lord: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate."

"For the mouth of the Lord has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them."

"He has cast the lot for them; his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it."

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

1. All the nations and peoples are called to draw near and hear
2. The Lord is enraged against all the nations, and has devoted them to destruction and slaughter
3. Their slain are cast out, and the mountains flow with their blood
4. All the host of heaven rots away, and the skies roll up like a scroll
5. All their host falls, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree
6. God's sword has drunk its fill in the heavens
7. The sword descends for judgment upon Edom, and the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom
8. Wild oxen and young steers fall with the mighty bulls, and their land drinks its fill of blood
9. The Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion
10. The streams of Edom are turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land becomes burning pitch, night and day not quenched, its smoke going up forever
11. From generation to generation it lies waste; none passes through it forever and ever
12. Thorns grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses, and it becomes the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches
13. The hawk and the porcupine, the owl and the raven, and the desert creatures possess it, each one with her mate
14. The chapter itself says to seek and read from the book of the Lord and check: not one of these is missing, for the mouth of the Lord has commanded; they possess it forever, from generation to generation

This chapter is a judgment on all the nations that lands on Edom. It opens in the heavens, with the host of heaven rotting away and the skies rolling up like a scroll, and it ends on the ground in Edom, with the land burning, lying waste, and handed over to desert creatures forever.

The claim you will hear is that this was finished when Edom fell. So look at Edom itself, the place the chapter names, and what history actually records there.

Edom was an old kingdom in the land south and east of the Dead Sea, and it flourished there for centuries. Its capital was Bozrah, a fortress city in the hills southeast of the Dead Sea, where the village of Busaira in Jordan stands today. Petra, in the same land, was one of its strongholds.

Edom's end came slowly, after a period of decline, in the 6th century BC, in the days of Babylon. The Edomites were pushed westward into the south of Judah, into the territory called Idumea, and the Nabataeans came in from the east. The Nabataeans were in possession of Petra by 312 BC, and in time they made it the capital of a rich kingdom, full of people, trade, and building.

Today Petra and Bozrah are quiet ruins in the Jordanian desert, walked through by visitors. There is no pitch burning in Edom, no soil turned to sulfur, and no smoke rising from it forever. And no record anywhere says the skies rolled up like a scroll over Edom, or that the host of heaven fell. Edom's real history and the chain in Isaiah 34 are not the same event.

2. Isaiah 50

"Thus says the Lord: 'Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away?'"

"'Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?'"

"'Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.'"

"'Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer?'"

"'Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?'"

"'Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.'"

"'I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering.'"

"The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary."

"Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught."

"The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward."

"I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting."

"But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame."

"He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me."

"Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up."

"Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God."

"Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment."

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

1. God asks where the certificate of divorce is, and which of His creditors He sold them to, and answers it Himself: for their iniquities they were sold, and for their transgressions their mother was sent away
2. God came, and there was no man; He called, and there was no one to answer
3. He asks if His hand is shortened, that it cannot redeem, or if He has no power to deliver
4. By His rebuke He dries up the sea, and makes the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst
5. He clothes the heavens with blackness, and makes sackcloth their covering
6. The Lord God gives His Servant the tongue of those who are taught, so he can sustain with a word him who is weary
7. Morning by morning He awakens the Servant's ear to hear, and the Servant is not rebellious and does not turn backward
8. The Servant gives his back to those who strike, and his cheeks to those who pull out the beard; he does not hide his face from disgrace and spitting
9. The Lord God helps him, so he is not disgraced; he sets his face like a flint, and knows he shall not be put to shame
10. The One who vindicates him is near, and no one can declare him guilty; all of them wear out like a garment, and the moth eats them up
11. The one who fears the Lord and walks in darkness and has no light is told to trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God
12. All who kindle their own fire and walk by the light of it have this from God's hand: they shall lie down in torment

This chapter opens in Zion, in Jerusalem, with God asking about a certificate of divorce that does not exist. His people were not sold to a creditor; they were sold for their own iniquities. Then God answers His own questions with His power: by His rebuke He dries up the sea, makes the rivers a desert, and clothes the heavens with blackness and sackcloth.

The rest of the chapter is the Servant: the taught tongue, the opened ear, the back given to those who strike, the face set like a flint, and God near to vindicate him. It ends with the one who walks in darkness and trusts in the name of the Lord, set against those who kindle their own fire and lie down in torment.

The place is Zion, Jerusalem, and Jerusalem has one of the longest recorded histories of any city on earth. Its wars, sieges, destructions, and rebuildings are written down by the nations that fought over it, and eclipses in its skies were recorded too.

What no record has, in all that history, is the heavens clothed with blackness and covered with sackcloth as a finished event. There is no year anyone can point to and say, that is when it happened. And the chapter itself gives no year. It gives God's hand, God's rebuke, and God's power to redeem, and it never dates any of it.

That is two more chains. Isaiah 34 runs from the skies rolling up like a scroll down to Edom burning and lying waste forever, and Edom's real history has none of it in it. Isaiah 50 puts the heavens clothed in blackness in a chapter that gives no date for any of it, and Jerusalem's long record has no such event in it either.

Part 3 picks up at Jeremiah 4 and Joel 2, and the chains keep going from there, until the last part lines them all up together.