I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Joel 2:30-31
Along with the previous words (given as prophecy for the time when God’s Spirit would be given to us and live within us) here are words that point to the end of days. And they’re terrifying for most folks.
This month, planet Earth is estimated to currently contain 8 billion people. Think about that. 8. Billion. Human. Beings. Perhaps never before in history has the Third Rock held so many living beings all at once (we don’t know about the pre-diluvian world). Of those 8 billion, nearly 7 billion of them don’t know about or don’t care about Jesus. If all these 8 billion are around when Jesus has His judgment day (as David Allen Coe would say), then it’s going to be a great and dreadful day indeed. It will be the most terrifying day in history.
Yet there will be signs. Signs so significant, in fact, that Jesus paraphrases Joel, and this is recorded in three of the four Gospels. Nobody knows what the “wonders in the heavens” will be. Perhaps there will be comets, or nova, or stars and lights and unexplainable phenomena that draw people to ask, “what does it all mean?”
When it happens, if it happens in your lifetime, you tell them. Tell them, “it’s what the prophet Joel spoke about almost 2500 years ago, and it’s what Jesus foretold centuries after that.” You tell them that everything Jesus said was true, that what He promised centuries ago is finally coming true in front of our own eyes. Tell them that the signs are for them that Jesus is God, the Savior of the world, and that He wants them to know Him. Talk with them about the Good News of Christ’s forgiveness and how He died and rose to conquer death and forgive our sins.
And tell them that the signs mean time is running out. That, for the believer, the clock is counting down to the start of the greatest adventure possible. For those who don’t believe, a different eternity awaits. Won’t they please take up the Lord’s invitation? Even if we sometimes think we’ve never felt the touch of God in our lives, the wonders and miraculous signs in the sky, sun, and moon will be evidence yet again that He is alive and at work and readying us for the moment when history as we know it will end. 8 billion people need to know this.
Tell them about the signs.
For more reading: Isaiah 22:5, Jeremiah 4:23, Obadiah 15, Malachi 3:2, Malachi 4:1-5, Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:24-25, Luke 21:11, Joel 2:32
Lord Jesus, I eagerly anticipate the signs You will show in the heavens, beckoning all of us to ready ourselves for Your return.
Practical Proverbs 