Harbor Presbyterian Church - Uptown

Conflict and Community:  Predicting the End

Luke 21:5-38

Introduction

The economy continues to dominate the news—people are struggling with finance, I read this week that 25% of homes in San Diego are worth less than their mortgages. And we had a marriage retreat these last two days.  This reminds us that many people have struggling marriages.  When finances get tight, this causes greater conflict within marriages. 

How many of you had a conversation with a friend this week about the difficulties you are facing today?  We have these conversations because it feels good to talk to people about our problems.  “Misery loves company” is one way we say it.  I prefer, “Our joys are multiplied, our sorrows are divided.” 

In our sermon series, Jesus is crafting his followers into a community because he knows that they are going to need each other for the suffering and hardship that is coming for them.  Today we’re going to see that the right perspective is key if we are going to be a community, a family that can truly give each other strength. 

In our text, Jesus’ words will make us strong, so that we can care for each other and for the people in need around us.  We’ll see this in 3 points today:

I. The End Is Coming, II. The End Is Your Beginning, III. The Beginning is Growing.

1. The End Is Coming
   1. The Public Debate is Over

Jesus has concluded his verbal battle with the religious leaders of his day, and is pronouncing the final judgment on them and those who follow them.  He has made it clear that God opposes their abuse of the poor, their tyrannical leadership, their hypocrisy, and their rejection of him. 

1.  
   2. Jesus introductory prediction

   This judgment would mean that the temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed.

   This was staggering. The temple was a 1000 year old symbol of God’s relationship with Israel.  This would be the end of Israel as a nation.  So the disciples ask the natural question—v7  when will this happen?  What will be the sign that it’s happening?

   Jesus responds by telling them that there are two periods coming up—the end, and the time leading up to the end.  We can see this in the text itself. 

   The Time before the end

V9— These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.

V12— But before all this…

Before the destruction of the Temple and the city, there will be an incredible time of tribulation:  Jesus’ followers will endure intense persecution, they’ll be betrayed by the people closest to them, they’ll be blamed for the unrest that is brewing and they’ll be punished—even put to death (v16), all because they believe in Jesus (v12). 

The End

V20—²⁰ "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near (has come).

V22— For this is the time of punishment

V28—²⁸ When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."  (is come near)

Then the end will come.  Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed.  Armies will surround the city.  Great distress on the land and wrath on the people.  People will be taken captive and Jerusalem will be trampled.

   What is Jesus describing?  He is predicting the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70AD.  We read and preached about this same thing in chapter 17 last year.  Jesus is saying that the End is Coming, and it’s coming soon for his hearers.  Jesus says this explicitly in verse 32, he seals it with a promise—“I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.”

Controversy:  Now some of you know that there is another interpretation of what is being taught here.  What I am saying may sound controversial to you.  Many believe that Jesus is describing the events leading up to his 2^nd coming at the end of earth’s history.  Books have been written and movies have been made, describing this view that cosmic, cataclysmic upheavals will literally occur right before Jesus returns. 

People think this for two main reasons from this text.

      First, v25—the signs in the sun, moon, and stars.  V33—Heaven and earth will pass away.  People have argued that the signs are going to literally happen:  the sun will go dark, the moon will stop shining, and the stars will fall from the sky. 

      I’ve had long discussions with people over these verses:  is Jesus talking about the 2^nd Coming or is he talking about the destruction of the temple in 70 AD?  Often the case is made because they say these heavenly signs haven’t happened yet.  If the bible says it, it must happen literally.  Since it hasn’t happened literally, therefore it couldn’t be describing the past, but must be describing the future. I don’t want to belabor this, but this is a good opportunity for us to do some work on how to read and interpret the Bible. 

      The more we read the bible, the more we learn that the bible uses all kinds of imagery—some is meant to be interpreted literally, and some is intended to be taken metaphorically.  So how do we decide in this case? 

      We need to see the other places where the Bible uses this language.  This is the principle that Scripture interprets Scripture.  We use the more clear passages in Scripture to help us understand the passages that are less clear.  There are no less than 8 times in the bible where it says that the sun and moon and stars will cease to shine.  Isa 13:9-17; 51:6; Jer 4:23-36; Ez 32:7; Joel 2; Amos 8; and Acts, chapter 2! If Jesus is saying here that these things are literally going to happen, then that means that this must have happened already at least 8 times in human history! 

      Isaiah 13:1 - 14:2   The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.  ⁹ Behold, the day of the LORD comes, ¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine.  ¹¹ "I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.  ¹³ Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger. 

      What’s good about this passage is that we find out exactly how God is going to do that in this passage.  V17 reads ¹⁷ " Behold, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon.”

      This is one of 8 places where this is used.  This passage teaches that this is metaphorical language.  So when Jesus speaks this way, he is quoting Old Testament images that his hearers were very familiar with.  They all knew that this was not to be taken literally.

      But what does the metaphor mean? 

Haggai 2:21 "Speak to ^aZerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, ^bI am about to shake the heavens and the earth, ²² and ^ato overthrow the throne of kingdoms.”  Shaking the heavens is to uproot kingdoms.  Throughout the Bible, starting from Genesis 1, heavenly bodies—the sun, moon, and stars, consistently represent the kings and rulers of the earth.  What Jesus is saying in Luke is that his coming in judgment will result in the upheaval of kingdoms.  The end of a nation’s capitol and main religious institution certainly qualifies for this image.

      The Second Reason, v27—“At that time, they will see the Son of Man coming n a cloud with power and great glory.”  People argue “that has to be the second coming, it couldn’t be any clearer.”

      This is a reference to Dan 7:13-14—“In my vision I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.  He approached the Ancient of Days (God) and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” 

      In Daniel, this Son of Man comes and receives a kingdom with conquers the enemy kingdoms of the world.  In Luke then, Jesus is saying that when the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple happens, this will mean that Jesus has established the kingdom of God—and his enemies are being judged.

      In Daniel, the coming of the Son of Man refers to the Son of man coming to the Ancient of Days—he is “coming to heaven.”  This isn’t a picture of him coming to earth.  This is the ascension of Jesus into heaven.  Revelation 5 says that he receives a kingdom and he builds his kingdom with people from all peoples, all nations, and all languages.

      One of the clinchers for this interpretation is verse 33—Jesus makes it really clear that everything he is predicting is going to happen in this generation.  Generations were approximately 40 years long.  Jesus is speaking in 33 AD, so 70AD would have been 37 years later. 

   But how is 70 AD the End?  The destruction of the temple was literally the end of an era, the end of the Old Covenant.  With the destruction of the Temple, God was declaring that the Old Covenant was obsolete (Heb 8:13).  This means that Jesus is now God’s leader, and anyone who would want to come to God must come through him.  Given the 2000 year relationship that God had with Israel, this transition was so significant, that it required cosmic imagery to portray its significance.

   Conclusion:  This doesn’t mean that Luke doesn’t believe in the 2^nd coming of Jesus.  He clearly teaches it in Acts 1.  But here in Luke 21, Jesus is announcing judgment.  The End is Coming.

So that was a lot to think about, but this text takes effort to understand.  It’s important for us not to shy away from passages like this, but to learn how to understand them. 

   But this does leave us with the question:  What does this have to do with us?  How is it relevant to us that Jesus predicted the end of Temple in 70AD?  This brings us to point 2.

2. The End Is Your Beginning
   1. Jesus can be trusted. 

Everything that he says in these verses did come true in 70AD and the years preceding it.  Jesus has an authority that can be trusted.  If he makes a promise to you, you can take it to the bank.  He promises that he will protect you in the midst of suffering.  He promises to give you wisdom to know how to handle your suffering.  He promises that if you are weighed down, he will give you rest. 

      Today there are many people who want to predict when Jesus is going to return.  When I first became a Christian, I remember being shown a video of a preacher who said that Jesus would come back in September/October of 1993.  This has destroyed the credibility of Jesus for lots of people. 

   But these words of Jesus were meant to establish credibility.  Jesus knew what it was going to be like for his followers during the next 40 years and so he spoke to them to prepare them so they could be strong enough to  make it through.  Everything Jesus said happened.  When the Roman armies surrounded the city, the Christians fled, they ran.  It’s interesting because a lot of Jewish folks who didn’t believe in Jesus also fled.  Those who didn’t were destroyed or sold into slavery.  Jesus’ promises can be trusted.  When you know the promises of Jesus, they will carry you.

1.  
   2. Coming to Jesus means you begin a new life.

   The end of the temple means a new start for Jesus’ followers.  This began a whole new era.  In the Old Testament, it was one nation—and the rest of the nations were called to come into the nation of Israel for blessing.  With the destruction of the temple, now the presence of God goes wherever his people go!  This presence of God in you makes you new.  Knowing God means new life. 

1.  
   3. Promises also mean you get strength.

So in the midst of suffering, Jesus is not only making promises, but he stands ready to give you strength.  V16—you’ll be betrayed by family and friends, put to death, hated… v18—but not a hair of your head will perish.  By standing firm, you will gain life.  This is an odd expression—they’ll kill some of you, but not a hair of your head will perish.  Seems contradictory.  This is an idiomatic expression. It means that no matter what happens, Jesus will take care of you.  If the worst should happen, if you are betrayed and killed, then Jesus will ensure that you will live forever.  He will raise you up to a life that is more glorious, more wonderful, more happy, more satisfying than you could ever imagine.  If Jesus’ power can give you life after death, then he can also give you life before death.  This power makes us strong in anxieties with work, family, finances. 

This brings us to our final point:

3. Your Beginning Is Growing

Where do you go with Jesus?  Where is he directing you this week?  You need to realize that a relationship with Jesus grows as you spend time with him.

Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace. 

Over all victorious in its bright increase. 

Perfect, yet it flows fuller every day. 

Perfect, yet it grows deeper all the way.

This is wonderful because it reminds us that our relationship with God grows and deepens over time.  This hymn captures the balance.  When we believe, we receive the perfect peace and blessings of heaven.  It’s like heaven opens and drenches us with the blessings of heaven.  Eph 1:3—we have “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”  BUT, we don’t always feel like we have all these blessings, do we?  We don’t feel drenched with heaven, sometimes it feels like we’ve merely gotten our feet wet, doesn’t it?

But this hymn says, though we have the perfect blessings of God, like a river that flows into our lives when we believe.  It gets fuller every day.  More and more blessings come.  PLUS, our ability to experience those blessings grows deeper and deeper as we grow in our relationship with God.

Throughout this chapter, Jesus tells his disciples that this relationship with God grows when we do three things: 

1.  
   1. Guard your heart.  V34

Be careful or your hearts will be weighed down with drunkenness and the anxieties of life. 

      Drunkenness.  Notice that this isn’t just a rigid command to not get drunk.  What’s the core of what Jesus is saying?  He’s saying be careful because there are things in life that will lull you to sleep.  There are things that will distract you from thinking about what is most important.  What are those things for you?  What keeps you from thinking about God?  What keeps you from growing in your relationship with him? 

      Anxieties.  Jesus also says we get weighed down with the anxieties of this life.  There are things that distract us because they cause us to stop thinking—lulls us to sleep.  But anxieties cause us to do the opposite.  When we get anxious about life, it fills our minds with everything but God. 

      Jesus is telling us to resist both temptations:  Don’t medicate your fears, but also don’t be controlled by them.  How do you keep from falling into these traps?  Through the second thing Jesus says,

1.  
   2. Pray.  V36.

   Prayer is powerful.  Philippians 4:6-7   ⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;  ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Talk to God—on your own, with groups, pray through Scripture, sing to God, keep an open dialogue.

      Thanksgiving.  Tell him your needs, with thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving in prayer is powerful—it deepens our relationship with God because

1.  
   1.  
      1.  
         1. it moves us to trust him when we are thanking him for the things he’s doing in our lives. 
         2. It also changes our perspective, because in the midst of every miserable situation, there is good that God is working. 
         3. And it gives us joy because that’s what thankfulness does.  Thankfulness starts the engine in our hearts that produces joy.

 

1.  
   3. Look for opportunities to be a witness.  V13

All the persecution, betrayal, standing before authorities—it will result in you being a witness.  What’s a witness?  It’s someone who can give testimony to the reality of Jesus.  In the midst of your suffering, if you are pursuing your relationship with God, if you are growing in your ability to speak to God with thankfulness, you will experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.  And you will have opportunities to share that peace with others.  Look for opportunities, pray for them so you’re ready when they come.  Being a witness is merely being able to say that Jesus is real because this is what he’s done in your life.  The people who saw him rise from the dead bore witness to that.  What we have to bear witness to is our experience of his peace and comfort, his loving authority—that he can be trusted in all of life.  That is your witness.  That is your call.  No one can take that away from you.

CONCLUSION

I think it’s interesting that God established this pattern in our text.  There is the end, when God’s enemies will be punished—the destruction of Jersualem and the Temple.  But before the end is the time where Jesus’ own followers must suffer first.  Why?

      I think it’s so that we can lead people, so we can show people how to endure, how to overcome suffering. God calls his own people to suffer and allows his enemies to even persecute his own people so that they can get a close up look at just how real God is.  God wants to put his own power on display in their lives, and what better way than to show the world that his people can endure suffering, can persevere through hard times.

      This is a call to all of us to see a purpose in our suffering. God has given us great promises, and also great power to endure in the midst of suffering.  We really need each other so that we can continue to remind each other of this—and support each other.  When we suffer, God is giving us the chance to show all of San Diego that God is more powerful than suffering.  That we can suffer and not lose hope.  That we can even turn suffering into greater joy and happiness because it draws us closer to God. 

      And we can do this, brothers and sisters, we can do this as a family because there was one who did this even before us.  Jesus himself—in the midst of all his encouragement to his disciples to keep watch, stand strong, endure persecution, give a witness—he was able to tell them all these things because he knew that he himself would suffer, and he would suffer for them.  His words now encourage us, because He has also suffered for us, so that he could give us his strength, that strength we need.  AMEN. 

 

SCRIPTURE VERSES THAT DEMONSTRATE TWO THEMES:

1.  
   1.  
      1. Heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars) are consistently used in scripture as representative images of the rulers and kings of the earth.
      2. Changes in the heavenly bodies (darkening, failing, moving out of place, shaking, etc.) are not meant to be taken literally, but refer to political upheaval and the end of established rule.

 

Genesis 1:16  ¹⁶ And God ^amade the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. ¹⁷ And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to ^arule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Psalm 72:1-17 

Give the king your ^bjustice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! 

² May he ^ajudge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! 

³ Let the mountains bear ^aprosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! 

⁴ May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor! 

⁵ May they fear you¹ while ^athe sun endures, and as long as the moon, ^bthroughout all generations! 

⁶ May he be like ^arain that falls on ^bthe mown grass, like ^cshowers that water the earth! 

⁷ In his days may ^athe righteous flourish, and ^bpeace abound, till the moon be no more! 

⁸ May he have dominion from ^asea to sea, and from ^bthe River¹ to the ^cends of the earth! 

⁹ May desert tribes ^abow down before him, and his enemies ^blick the dust! 

¹⁰ May the kings of ^aTarshish and of ^bthe coastlands render him ^ctribute; may the kings of ^dSheba and ^eSeba bring gifts! 

¹¹ May all kings ^afall down before him, all nations serve him! 

¹² For he delivers ^athe needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. 

¹³ He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. 

¹⁴ From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and ^aprecious is their blood in his sight. 

¹⁵ Long may he live; may ^agold of Sheba be given to him!

May prayer be made ^bfor him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day! 

¹⁶ May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave;

may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people ^ablossom in the cities like the ^bgrass of the field! 

^{17 a}May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun!

^bMay people be blessed in him, ^call nations call him blessed!

Psalm 89:34-37  

³⁴ I will not violate my ^acovenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. 

³⁵ Once for all I have sworn ^aby my holiness; I will not ^blie to David. 

³⁶ His ^aoffspring shall endure forever, ^bhis ^vthrone as long as ⁱthe sun before me. 

³⁷ Like ^athe moon it shall be established forever, ^ba faithful witness in the skies." Selah

Psalm 136:7-9 

⁷ To Him who made great lights, For His mercy endures forever -- 

⁸ The sun to rule by day, For His mercy endures forever; 

⁹ The moon and stars to rule by night, For His mercy endures forever.

Isaiah 13:1 - 14:2   The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.  ² "Lift up a banner on the high mountain, Raise your voice to them; Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.  ³ I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have also called My mighty ones for My anger -- Those who rejoice in My exaltation."  ⁴ The noise of a multitude in the mountains, Like that of many people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts musters The army for battle.  ⁵ They come from a far country, From the end of heaven -- The LORD and His weapons of indignation, To destroy the whole land.  ⁶ Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.  ⁷ Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man's heart will melt,  ⁸ And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames.  ⁹ Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it.  ¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine.  ¹¹ "I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.  ¹² I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.  ¹³ Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger.  ¹⁴ It shall be as the hunted gazelle, And as a sheep that no man takes up; Every man will turn to his own people, And everyone will flee to his own land.  ¹⁵ Everyone who is found will be thrust through, And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.  ¹⁶ Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; Their houses will be plundered And their wives ravished.  ¹⁷ " Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, Who will not regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it.  ¹⁸ Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; Their eye will not spare children.  ¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.  ²⁰ It will never be inhabited, Nor will it be settled from generation to generation; Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.  ²¹ But wild beasts of the desert will lie there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches will dwell there, And wild goats will caper there.  ²² The hyenas will howl in their citadels, And jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, And her days will not be prolonged."  ^NKJ Isaiah 14:1 ¶ For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob.  ² Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the LORD; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

Isaiah 51:4-8  ⁴ " Listen to Me, My people; And give ear to Me, O My nation: For law will proceed from Me, And I will make My justice rest As a light of the peoples.  ⁵ My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait upon Me, And on My arm they will trust.  ⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, And look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished.  ⁷ " Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults.  ⁸ For the moth will eat them up like a garment, And the worm will eat them like wool; But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation from generation to generation."

Jeremiah 4:19-31  

¹⁹ O my soul, my soul! I am pained in my very heart! My heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, Because you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.  ²⁰ Destruction upon destruction is cried, For the whole land is plundered. Suddenly my tents are plundered, And my curtains in a moment.  ²¹ How long will I see the standard, And hear the sound of the trumpet?  ²² "For My people are foolish, They have not known Me. They are silly children, And they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they have no knowledge." 

²³ I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void;

And the heavens, they had no light. 

²⁴ I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled,

And all the hills moved back and forth. 

²⁵ I beheld, and indeed there was no man,

And all the birds of the heavens had fled. 

²⁶ I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were broken down At the presence of the LORD, By His fierce anger. 

²⁷ For thus says the LORD: "The whole land shall be desolate; Yet I will not make a full end.  ²⁸ For this shall the earth mourn, And the heavens above be black, Because I have spoken. I have purposed and will not relent, Nor will I turn back from it.  ²⁹ The whole city shall flee from the noise of the horsemen and bowmen. They shall go into thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city shall be forsaken, And not a man shall dwell in it.  ³⁰ "And when you are plundered, What will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, Though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, Though you enlarge your eyes with paint, In vain you will make yourself fair; Your lovers will despise you; They will seek your life.  ³¹ "For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labor, The anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, The voice of the daughter of Zion bewailing herself; She spreads her hands, saying, 'Woe is me now, for my soul is weary Because of murderers!'

Jeremiah 31:33-36  ³³ "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  ³⁴ "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."  ³⁵ Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name):  ³⁶ "If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever."

Jeremiah 33:20-21   ²⁰ "Thus says the LORD: 'If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season,  ²¹ 'then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers.

Ezekiel 32:7 ^aWhen I blot you out, ^bI will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. ⁸ All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and ^aput darkness on your land, declares the Lord GOD.

Haggai 2:21 "Speak to ^aZerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, ^bI am about to shake the heavens and the earth, ²² and ^ato overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and ^boverthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, ^cevery one by the sword of his brother.

Joel 2:10 ^aThe earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. ^bThe sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

Joel 2:31 ^aThe sun shall be turned to darkness, ^band the moon to blood, ^cbefore the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

Joel 3:15 ^aThe sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

Amos 8:9 "And on that day," declares the Lord GOD, ^a"I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. ^{10 a}I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; ^bI will bring sackcloth on every waist ^cand baldness on every head; ^dI will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

Acts 2:13-21  ¹³ Others mocking said, "They are full of new wine."  ¹⁴ But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.  ¹⁵ "For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.  ¹⁶ "But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:  ¹⁷ 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.  ¹⁸ And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.  ¹⁹ I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.  ²⁰ The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.  ²¹ And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.'