Philologos
Bible Prophecy Research
Title: Sun, Moon, Stars Smitten
Submitted by: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: March 24, 1998
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr/files/s009.htm
Sun, moon, stars smitten
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.--Revelation 8:12
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.--Genesis 37:9
Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.--Psalm 148:3
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain.--Ecclesiastes 12:1,2
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: 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. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.--Isaiah 13:9-13
Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee. And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.--Ezekiel 32:4-8
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?--Joel 2:10,11
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.--Joel 3:14,15
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.--Matthew 24:29-31
Note that this says "they shall gather together his elect...from one end of heaven to the other."
The phrase of smiting the sun, moon, and stars is Jewish; for the Jews express the eclipses of the luminaries in this way, and say that when the luminaries "are smitten," it is an ill omen; when "the sun is smitten," it is an ill sign to the nations of the world; and when "the moon is smitten," it is a bad omen to the nations of Israel and so the phrase, "the day shone not," is also Jewish.
(The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible)
The Jewish people are compared to the moon. Just as the moon waxes and wanes, so too has the Jewish nation cyclically grown and contracted. However, the most important comparison of the Jewish people to the moon is not in terms of its appearance, but rather, in terms of its mission.
Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, so too are the Jewish people meant to reflect the "light" of God. The "Light unto the Nations" is really a "Reflector" of God's. It is the Jewish nation's role to bring the light of Torah to every last corner on earth. To not fulfill this function is to become "eclipsed," which results in historical darkness, and worse, terribel anti-Semitism.
(Parashas HaChodesh: Nu? What's New...Besides the Moon? Pinchas Winston)