So the eclipse has come and gone and it looks like the scientists were right after all. The moon blocked the sun creating a beautiful celestial spectacle for us all to enjoy and nothing more. CERN, red heifers, cicadageddon and NASA’s serpent rockets be damned. As a man of science, I’m glad the superstition and irrational fear is behind us.

The scoffers and conservative Christians found common ground as well. The rapture didn’t happen. Nobody spotted Jonah wandering through their town; nor did the eclipse mark the beginning of the seven-year tribulation. Everyone that’s still reading this, can breathe a sigh of relief.

But before you do, remember what God said about the sun and moon:

“Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs…” (Genesis 1:14 (KJV Strong’s))

Signs? You mean like STOP, YIELD, and winding road ahead? Yes, the Hebrew word ‘ot’ can mean a sign or a monument. It is comparable to the Greek word σημεῖον (pronounced: sēmeion) that Jesus used for “signs”. Sēmeion is where we get the word semaphore from.

Coincidentally, eclipses and street signs share four basic design elements: physical design, language, purpose and placement. For now, we will just focus upon just one aspect of how God uses eclipses as signs — their placement.

Like traffic signs, eclipses are placed before the judgement they warn of.

The prophet Jonah visited Nineveh following an eclipse that occured in June of 762 B.C. and warned that judgment was soon to come (it didn’t Nineveh repented). After an annular solar eclipse that took place on September 17, 1811, the War of 1812 broke out between Britain and the United States. Coincidentally, nearly every battle of the war including the burning of the White House took place where the shadow of the moon had crossed. The eclipse of June 8, 1918 warned the world of the coming plague of “Spanish” flu that would kill millions; and Hurricane Harvey followed the eclipse of August 21, 2017.

The judgment always follows the eclipse.

In each case, the time span between the eclipse and the judgment that followed was different. Jonah likely arrived in Nineveh months after the eclipse during the festival of Sukkot. The War of 1812 came 276 days after the eclipse. “Spanish” flu followed a hundred days later. Hurricane Harvey made landfall 48 hours after the eclipse.

The war, the flu and the hurricane were all judgments of God, but he will not judge without first providing a warning sign.

With every day that passes after the eclipse of April 8, 2024 we draw nearer to judgment. If the eclipse has captured your attention, have you stopped to ask what God is warning us of?