(By Bert Farias) “There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25). A total solar eclipse crossed north of Nineveh (which is the modern city of Mosul) on June 15, 763 B.C. during the reign of King Asher-Dan III. It is not provable but plausible that the solar eclipse was one of the omens which led Nineveh to repent (history records that there was also a civil war and plagues). In other words, along with Jonah’s preaching, a series of signs caused the people of Nineveh to repent. History records that it was one of the most famous solar eclipses in ancient history.
The sun is a sign to the Gentile nations, and the moon is a sign to the Jews. A solar eclipse is a warning of judgment to the Gentiles. The Ninevites were Gentiles, and Jonah declared these words to them: “Jonah began to enter the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “In forty days’ time, Nineveh will be overthrown!” (Jon. 3:4). Since judgment begins in the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17), could the church in America be receiving perhaps a similar last call to repentance preceded by a series of omens that will also grab the attention of a lost and dying world? READ MORE
