This week we are going to take a closer look at Our Lord’s prediction of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in the Gospel of Luke.

In Luke 21:20-22, Our Lord says: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Let those within the city escape from it, and let those in the countryside not enter the city, for these days are the time of punishment when all the scriptures are fulfilled.”

Jesus’ prediction was fulfilled during the First Jewish Revolt (AD 66-73) when the Jerusalem temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

However, if you continue reading you’ll see something amiss. In verse 25, Jesus states that “there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars ...” Did these signs really occur?

Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, was an eyewitness to the siege of Jerusalem and he does report some unusual phenomena occurring in the skies at that time. For example, Josephus notes that a star or comet hung over Jerusalem, showing its impending disaster. He also records the following:

“Besides these [signs], a few days after that feast, on the one- and-twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities” (Wars, 6, 5, 3).

Were these the signs that Jesus mentioned? Possibly. But Jesus wasn’t the only one to speak of signs involving the sun, moon and stars. St. Peter also spoke about these signs being fulfilled at Pentecost. The crowd being astonished by the fact that each person understood the apostles in their own language, Peter explained that it was the fulfillment of a prophecy by the prophet Joel. Near the end of Peter’s quote from Joel, God says, “And I will work wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below: blood, fire, and a cloud of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and splendid day of the Lord” (Acts 2:19-20). But if the preaching of the Apostles fulfilled the words of Joel — and Joel said that the sun would turn to darkness and the moon to blood — how can these words be fulfilled? To answer this question, we need to look into the Old Testament background.

The Old Testament prophets sometimes used images of the darkening of the sun, moon and stars when describing God’s judgment on a nation. Isaiah’s oracle against Babylon in Isaiah 13:10, for example, says, “The stars and constellations of the heavens send forth no light; The sun is dark when it rises, and the light of the moon does not shine.” Likewise, Ezekiel uses the same language against Egypt (Ezekiel 32:7-8) and Amos 8:9 against the Israelites. Obviously, the sun, moon and stars didn’t literally cease to give light. What then do these words mean?

The sun, moon, and stars provided two important functions in the ancient world. They provided a means by which travelers could navigate land and sea. Therefore, the absence of these heavenly bodies would have deprived the ancients of direction. These bodies also provided an even more important function in that they were used to track time. Ancient cultures used the sun, moon and stars to calculate the dates of religious feasts and even political and military strategy. In other words,



these bodies functioned as a master clock that regulated and ordered the nation’s past, present and future. The darkening of the sun, moon and stars essentially meant that the time for that nation has come to an end. To use an old TV commercial catch phrase, “The nation’s watch has taken a licking, but it won’t keep on ticking.” A new era has begun.

Gary Michuta is an apologist, author and speaker and a member of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Livonia. Visit his website at www.handsonapologetics.com.