By LARRY STOVER | Praise Park Ministries Church of the Nazarene

All of us could use a blessing. Some of us who have been going through tough times would be ecstatic if we could receive a real blessing from God.

Sunday night will be the last of the four blood moons that have been seen by people all around the world during the past two years. We have experienced four full lunar eclipses since April of 2014. It is known as a “tetrad.”

This is a very rare phenomenon. From 2000 B.C. until 3000 A.D. there has been and will be a total of 12,064 lunar eclipses. Of that number only 3,479 will be total lunar eclipses.

During this period of time there have only been 142 tetrads. There have only been 62 in the past 2,000 years.

What is interesting from a Biblical perspective is that this is only the ninth time in history that these Tetrads of blood moons have also fallen on Jewish Feast days.

This one that is just ending is the only one that will fall on Feast days during the 21st Century. April 15, 2014, and April 4, 2015, both fell during the Feast of Passover. Oct. 8, 2014, and Sept. 28, 2015, both occur during the Feast of Tabernacles.

The month of September has been pivotal time for God’s people.

We experienced the end of the “Year of Shemitah” on Sept. 13. God’s judgment has taken on many forms. The world economy is still shaky with stock markets dropping continually. Climate issues are everywhere. An “El Nino” is expected to bring a warm wet winter. Some of the worst wild fires are raging in the western part of our country. Radical Islam is growing exponentially. Our world is in a mess.

This month is also celebrating three different Jewish festivals. The “Feast of Trumpets” began on Sept. 14. It was a time of repentance for the people of God.

Yom Kippur took place on Sept. 23. This is the holiest of all days on the Jewish calendar. In Biblical times one goat was offered on the altar of sacrifice. Another was sent into the wilderness to die. That goat carried with it the sins of the people. The people reminded themselves that they were redeemed by God.

The last celebration of the month will be the “Feast of Tabernacles.” It will begin tomorrow, Sept. 28, and last for seven days. This was a pilgrimage time. People would gather around Jerusalem and sleep under the stars. They celebrated every year.

Not only will Israel experience a Blood Moon tomorrow, it will be a “harvest moon” as well. Imagine looking into the heavens and watching that larger than life harvest moon turn blood red before their very eyes.

These past two years have brought a lot of interest to students of prophesy. Many saw the combination of the Tetrad of blood moons along with the year of Shemitah as a focal time for “end time events.” In many ways the judgment of God on the world is not complete but still in process.

For others the writings of the prophet Joel headline a possible rapture of the church. He wrote “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (2:31)”

We have not only had four lunar eclipses, we have also had two total solar eclipses (March 20, 2015 and Sept. 13, 2015) during this year of Shemitah. The sun has grown dark and the moon has turned red raising debate about the message from the prophet Joel.

God is very active in the world today. It is a great time to be a believer. Most of all, it is a great time to be ready for whatever the future holds. I’m excited to be a child of God. It makes life “simply beautiful.”