One of the plagues that fell on Egypt involved darkness. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt” (Exodus 10:21). It says that not only could the people not see, but they also felt the darkness. This must have been a really spooky feeling.

Our God is the source of light. And He wants to give us light, not darkness. We see another, different example, where He overruled the natural cycle of dark time and light time. In Joshua 10:13, we read how God stopped the earth’s rotation so that: “the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.”

A special star was used to announce Jesus’ first coming. Remember the wise men that travelled all the way from the east to see baby Jesus? They came to Jerusalem, “saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2). The Jews knew that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem and they should have known that the time had come for Him to be born, but did they go? No. These pilgrims had to be led by a star in order to find the promised Messiah. Actually, we are told what this was in reality:

“The wise men had seen a mysterious light in the heavens upon that night when the glory of God flooded the hills of Bethlehem. As the light faded, a luminous star appeared, and lingered in the sky. It was not a fixed star nor a planet, and the phenomenon excited the keenest interest. That star was a distant company of shining angels, but of this the wise men were ignorant. Yet they were impressed that the star was of special import to them. They consulted priests and philosophers, and searched the scrolls of the ancient records. The prophecy of Balaam had declared, ‘There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel.’ Numbers 24:17. Could this strange star have been sent as a harbinger of the Promised One? The magi had welcomed the light of heaven-sent truth; now it was shed upon them in brighter rays. Through dreams they were instructed to go in search of the newborn Prince.

“As by faith Abraham went forth at the call of God, ‘not knowing whither he went’ (Hebrews 11:8); as by faith Israel followed the pillar of cloud to the Promised Land, so did these Gentiles go forth to find the promised Saviour.”1 The Creator employed this unusual phenomenon in the sky to guide the earnest seekers after truth.

One of the seven last plagues that will fall on the earth after the close of probation also involves darkness. “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness” (Revelation 16:10). As the beast (the antichrist power) has long been a strong proponent of spiritual darkness, its seat (city) will also receive physical darkness as a punishment.

From these few examples, we can learn that the same God who created the sun, moon, and stars can also use these instrumentalities to communicate special messages to humanity.

God promised that in the end times, there would be prophetic manifestations involving the sun and the stars: “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25). Here we will cover two such events:

The Bible speaks of the 1260 years of tribulation (an historic time period unveiled not by mere guesswork but by comparing in the sacred scriptures Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6; Daniel 7:25; Revelation 11:2, 3.) By comparing Scripture with history, we know this to be the 1,260 years of persecution or the Dark Ages, a time when God’s church had to be underground.

Jesus plainly foretold: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light” (Matthew 24:29).

An exact timeframe is given in this prophecy. It says, “after the tribulation.” What does that mean? It refers to that time of difficulty, trial, and intense persecution, when over 50,000,000 souls were martyred. Jesus explained, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21, 22).

“What rendered this [darkening of the sun] more striking was the fact that the time of its fulfillment had been definitely pointed out. In the Saviour’s conversation with His disciples upon Olivet, after describing the long period of trial for the church—the 1260 years of papal persecution, concerning which He had promised that the tribulation should be shortened—He thus mentioned certain events to precede His coming, and fixed the time when the first of these should be witnessed: ‘In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.’ Mark 13:24. The 1260 days, or years, terminated in 1798. A quarter of a century earlier, persecution had almost wholly ceased. Following this persecution, according to the words of Christ, the sun was to be darkened. On the 19th of May, 1780, this prophecy was fulfilled.”2

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come” (Joel 2:31). This was to be a sign of the end times.

“An eyewitness living in Massachusetts describes the event as follows: ‘In the morning the sun rose clear, but was soon overcast. The clouds became lowery, and from them, black and ominous, as they soon appeared, lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and a little rain fell. Toward nine o’clock, the clouds became thinner, and assumed a brassy or coppery appearance, and earth, rocks, trees, buildings, water, and persons were changed by this strange, unearthly light. A few minutes later, a heavy black cloud spread over the entire sky except a narrow rim at the horizon, and it was as dark as it usually is at nine o’clock on a summer evening. . . .

“ ‘Fear, anxiety, and awe gradually filled the minds of the people. Women stood at the door, looking out upon the dark landscape; men returned from their labor in the fields; the carpenter left his tools, the blacksmith his forge, the tradesman his counter. Schools were dismissed, and tremblingly the children fled homeward. Travelers put up at the nearest farmhouse. “What is coming?” queried every lip and heart. It seemed as if a hurricane was about to dash across the land, or as if it was the day of the consummation of all things.”3

“By noon of 19 May 1780, the pall cast over coastal New England was so deep that citizens of Portland, Boston, and Providence had to eat their midday meals by candlelight. Many thought the Day of Judgment was at hand.”4

The darkness was not just in one small locality. From the following paragraph, it seems to have covered the entire east coast of the United States.

“The extent of this darkness was extraordinary. It was observed as far east as Falmouth. To the westward it reached to the furthest part of Connecticut, and to Albany. To the southward, it was observed along the sea coasts, and to the north as far as the American settlements extend.”5

Can you imagine experiencing such an event? I know many of us are afraid of the dark—but how would we feel if it wasn’t even just normal darkness? This was a supernatural type of darkness. No one expects it to get dark in the middle of the day!

When it finally was time actually to get dark in the evening, there was still something different about this darkness. Remember earlier when we read about a darkness that could be felt? It seems this was that way, too:

“The darkness of the following evening was probably as gross as ever has been observed since the Almighty fiat gave birth to light. . . . I could not help conceiving at the time, that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete. A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes was equally invisible with the blackest velvet.”6

“After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first visible, had the appearance of blood.”7

From these several eyewitness accounts and the fact that the prophecy references a time period in which this would take place, we can safely conclude that this event was fulfillment of the prophecy. It was designed by God to wake people up to eternal realities and serve as a reminder that the end time is at hand. “It was needful that men should be awakened to their danger; that they should be roused to prepare for the solemn events connected with the close of probation.”8

The churches, which once were beacons of light, had became characterized by pride and formalism. Once zealous but now cold, the Christian world had forgotten about the Second Advent. People had been enjoying the freedom and ease offered in the New World, and had become absorbed in the things of this life. They had allowed darkness to obscure their vision of the future.

“ ‘Somebody in the quarters started yellin’ in the middle of the night to come out and to look up at the sky. We went outside and there they was a-fallin’ everywhere!

“ ‘Big stars coming down real close to the groun’ and just before they hit the ground they would burn up! We was all scared. Some o’ the folks was screamin’, and some was prayin’. We all made so much noise, the white folks came out to see what was happenin’. They looked up and then they got scared, too.

“ ‘But then the white folks started callin’ all the slaves together, and for no reason, they started tellin’ some of the slaves who their mothers and fathers was, and who they’d been sold to and where. The old folks was so glad to hear where their people went. They made sure we all knew what happened . . . you see, they thought it was Judgement Day.’ ”9

The above paragraphs are an eyewitness account handed down over generations of what that eventful night was like. Some were awakened by the exhibition, and they screamed in panic because it seemed like the whole sky was alight. Slave owners believed they would be judged for their evil deeds, and so they confessed to the slaves. But did that wake-up call change their course of action in the days that followed? Unfortunately not.

Frederick Douglass records in his autobiography: “1833 . . . was also the year of that strange phenomenon when the heavens seemed about to part with their starry train. I witnessed this gorgeous spectacle, and was awe-struck. The air seemed filled with bright descending messengers from the sky. It was about daybreak when I saw this sublime scene. I was not without the suggestion, at the moment, that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the Son of Man; and in my then state of mind I was prepared to hail Him as my friend and deliverer.”10

What made this meteor shower different from all others? “The meteor storm of 1833 was of truly superlative strength. One estimate is over one hundred thousand meteors an hour, but another, done as the storm abated, estimated in excess of two hundred thousand meteors an hour over the entire region of North America east of the Rocky Mountains.”11

What else was going on during this time? “In 1833, two years after [William] Miller began to present in public the evidences of Christ’s soon coming, the last of the signs appeared which were promised by the Saviour as tokens of His second advent.”12

We find this foretold in Matthew 24:29, “the stars shall fall from heaven.”

“This prophecy received a striking and impressive fulfillment in the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833. That was the most extensive and wonderful display of falling stars which has ever been recorded; ‘the whole firmament, over all the United States, being then, for hours, in fiery commotion! No celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was viewed with such intense admiration by one class in the community, or with so much dread and alarm by another.’ ‘Its sublimity and awful beauty still linger in many minds. . . . Never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same. In a word, the whole heavens seemed in motion. . . . The display, as described in Professor Silliman’s Journal, was seen all over North America. . . . From two o’clock until broad daylight, the sky being perfectly serene and cloudless, an incessant play of dazzlingly brilliant luminosities was kept up in the whole heavens.’—R. M. Devens, American Progress; or, The Great Events of the Greatest Century, ch. 28, pars. 1-5.”13

When the people experienced these events, they immediately recognized the voice of God trying to speak to them. But how long did it last? Did they really change their lives and confess their sins and begin a lasting walk with the Lord?

How many times do we as humans determine that we are in the wrong only when in fear of immediate consequences? Perhaps when something bad or surprising happens, we remember God. But as soon as life returns to normal, so do our thoughts.

Mark 13:33 instructs us: “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” God is looking for characters formed after His likeness—the results of a lifetime, not a moment or a day.

The prophecies are plentiful; the fulfillments accurate. Even the sky has spoken. What are we waiting for?