Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #22 of Revelation, chapter 6.  We will begin by reading Revelation 6:12-14:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

We have been looking at the “sun, moon and stars,” as they are discussed here in these verses.  We have seen in previous studies that God created the celestial bodies – the lights of the heaven; the sun, moon and stars.  First of all, He created them as timekeepers for “times and seasons” and the world operates according to the course set by these timekeepers which were established at the very beginning of creation.  We continue to keep track of time: 24 hours in a day, the length of a month and the length of a year, according to the movements of these heavenly bodies.

We also saw, from Psalm 19, that God created these things – the greater light of the sun to rule the day and the lesser lights of the moon and the stars to rule the night – in order to declare His glory and to testify and witness to all mankind, regardless of language.  It is a testimony that transcends the language barrier and it witnesses to each individual “under the sun,” to each person that is stationed upon the earth, as they gaze up into the sky above, that there is a God and He is magnificent; it gives glory to God and this glory that is given to the Lord is on a daily basis as the sun shines down upon the earth and the moon and the stars enlighten the night sky.

We have also seen that God has a spiritual dimension and a spiritual level of meaning in regard to these things.  We began to look at the sun in our last study and let us read again in Psalm 84:11:

For JEHOVAH God is a sun and shield: JEHOVAH will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

“JEHOVAH God is a sun and shield.”  This is the identical word to the word “sun” in Genesis 1, when God created the sun to lighten the earth.   Of course, we can see that God is defining the spiritual meaning of the “sun.”  It is a type and a figure of God Himself and since God is Light and His Word is light and the Lord Jesus is “the Light of the world,” according to the Gospel of John, it is very clear why God would choose the sun as an example and figure of Himself.  The sun shines light upon all the inhabitants of the earth.  The sun is necessary for life to exist on earth – all life.  No life can exist without the brightness of the sun, so God created the sun with, of course, the full knowledge that it would be a figure of God Himself. 

Now there is another verse in the Old Testament that also lets us know that we are correct in understanding that the sun is a type and figure of the Lord.  It says in Malachi 4:2:

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Here, the Lord is called the “Sun of righteousness,” and it is not “S-o-n,” but “S-u-n.”    It is the same word that was in Psalm 84:11 and the same word that is often translated as the literal “sun.”  What we are going to do (because we want to be clear about this) is to look at several more verses that will prove beyond any doubt that the “sun” identifies with God.  It identifies with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Eternal God.  Following that, we will look at the “moon” and we will see that the moon also has a spiritual meaning and the spiritual meaning of the “moon” identifies or relates to the Word of God or the Law of God, the Bible.  Then we will look at the “stars.”  The stars are a bit more complicated and we will look at all the necessary verses to help us understand the spiritual meaning of the stars.  Then we will come back to our verse in Revelation 6:12-14 and we will try to put it all together and see what God is telling us.

But, let us begin by looking at a few more verses concerning the sun.  We read in Matthew 17:1:

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

This is known as the “Mount of Transfiguration” in theological commentaries – that is normally what it is called.  And, here, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ’s “face did shine as the sun.”  God chooses His words very carefully; He chose the shining of the sun because the sun represents the Lord God and so does Christ, as Christ is the Everlasting Father and Eternal God.

Also, in Revelation 1, we are going to look at a few verses in the Book of Revelation, beginning with Revelation 1:16:

And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

When we look at the context, we realize that this is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ and He is the one who has the seven stars in his right hand and “his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”  Again, Christ is connected to the shining of the sun.

We are helped by all these other verses to know who is in view in Revelation 10:1:

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven…

The word “angel” can also be understood as “messenger” and this mighty messenger is none other than Jesus; He is the “Messenger of the Covenant,” according to the Book of Malachi. 

Then it goes on to say in Revelation 10:1:

… clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

As soon as we see the reference to “his face as it were the sun,” we have the other verses we just read in Revelation 1:16 and in Matthew 17:1 (on the Mount of Transfiguration) to help us understand and to pinpoint this “mighty angel,” or messenger, as Christ.  And that is how we come to gain understanding in the Bible, by comparing Scripture with Scripture: God begins to define a term, but in other places He does not define that term; He leaves it open-ended and, yet, if we have looked elsewhere and checked the other passages, we realize who God is talking about.  That is what God expects and demands of the Bible student: that we will have done our homework and searched the Scriptures concerning the word we are looking at.

Continuing on in Revelation, it says in Revelation 12:1-2:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

God goes on to tell us more information about this child in Revelation 12:5-6:

And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Then, soon after, Satan (the Dragon) is cast out of heaven and he then begins to persecute the “woman,” it says in Revelation 12:13:

And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

When we take into consideration everything this chapter is saying, we realize the “woman” is the body of believers: the believers that were within the nation of Israel that brought forth the man child, as He came of the tribe of Judah and the believers that would be in the churches and congregations after Christ had gone into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father.  Then Satan came down to earth to persecute the “woman” that had brought forth the man child, the true believers that were in the churches and congregations. 

He pursued them, but God have the woman “wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness” and that pointed to the entire New Testament era.  So the “woman” that is in view in Revelation 12:1 (that “great wonder in heaven” that the Lord revealed to the Apostle John) is “clothed with the sun.”  Now we understand that true believers (God’s elect) are clothed with the “righteousness of Christ;” the fine linen of the saints is His righteousness.  It is the fine, white linen that the Book of Revelation will later talk about in Revelation, chapter 19.  We are clothed with the obedience of Christ and the work that He performed in taking our sins upon Himself and paying the penalty for them – this is our covering for our sin.  God, here, uses another figure of speech: we are “clothed with the sun” because the “sun” identifies completely with God and completely with Christ because He is our covering.

Then it says the “moon under her feet.”   Now, Lord willing, in our next study we will look at the “moon” a little closer and we will see that it represents the “Law of God,” the Word of God.  The whole Bible is God’s Law Book and every Scripture is a Law and, yet, this Law no longer condemns the elect people of God because our sins have been paid for and the demands of the Law have been satisfied and, therefore, we are not “under the Law,” but notice the “moon” is under the woman’s feet – the true believers’ feet.  There is no wrath and no condemnation that the Law of God pronounces upon the believers. 

Then, finally, it says of the woman, “and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”   As God speaks of a crown in the Bible, He speaks of a crown of grace and the crown normally identifies with salvation.  And, here, the “crown” is of “twelve stars,” representing the fullness of all believers.  This “woman” represents the Old Testament believers that brought forth the man child and she represents the New Testament believers because she flees from the dragon after the man child was brought forth and he seeks to persecute her, so she is a representation of the fullness of all of God’s elect.

But, again, we are looking at the “sun” right now and we can see that the “sun” is continuing to hold to that type of pointing to the Lord Jesus. 

Now, after looking at these verses (and there are other verses we could look at which would strengthen what we have learned: the “sun” is a representation of Eternal God as it shines in its brilliance) and once we have this understanding and God has granted us the spiritual insight to recognize that the “sun” is a type and figure of God and the Lord Jesus, then when we read verses such as we read in Matthew 24, there is a far greater impact upon us.  Of course, the impact would not register when people do not approach the Bible in a correct manner – when they are trained to take the “plain, literal meaning of Scripture and look for no other,” or when they are looking for the “moral teaching” and the “practical application” and they are not looking for the deeper Gospel that God has hidden in His Word.  They are just going to “miss” this and they are not going to recognize what God is saying at all, but in Matthew 24:29, God says:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

Well, now, what are we to think, as we are following the Bible’s methodology and we are following God’s teaching?  God is the one who tells us that Christ spoke in parables and without a parable He did not speak.  God is the one who has instructed us, again, and again, to look for the “spiritual” and do not settle for the fleshly meaning.  Even when Jesus was (seemingly) having a regular conversation with the disciples and he mentioned the “leaven of the Pharisees” and the disciples reasoned, “It is because we have taken no bread.”  And Christ rebuked them and admonished them for not understanding that He referred to the “doctrine of the Pharisees,” and the “leaven,” which you would use for bread, had a spiritual application even in casual conversation when Christ had not put them on notice that He was speaking in parables – it was just general talk and, yet, He was speaking in parables.  He is the Word of God.  The whole Bible, really, is embodied in the Lord Jesus and when He spoke in parables (and without a parable He did not speak), He was instructing all on how to understand the Word of God, the Bible. 

Of course, many do not have “ears to hear,” so they miss what God is saying in Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened.”  Now the Lord God is a “sun and a shield.”  He is the “Sun or righteousness that arises with healing in his wings.”  He is the one whose countenance shines with the brilliance of the sun.  How can the “sun” be darkened and what does that mean?  “Oh,” the natural mind will say, “this is just telling us that on the last day at the end of the world, God is going to darken the sun – that sun you see up there in the heavens; that will just be dark.”  Well, if that is so, why does Mark 13:24-25 tell us the following?

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

Here, Mark 13:24 is revealing that there is a period of days (“those days”) in which the sun is darkened and the moon is not giving her light.  Well, first of all, we learned that God created the sun, moon and stars as timekeepers to keep track of times and seasons and days and weeks and months and years.  So if the sun is dark and the moon is not giving her light and the stars are fallen, that would mean there are no more timekeepers and, therefore, there could be no more “days.”  Yet, God is using the language of time: “in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened,” and immediately we are put on guard that He is not talking about the literal sun and the literal moon and the literal stars.  It must be what they represent.  It must be the deeper, spiritual meaning of those things:  the sun represents God and the Light of God, the Light of the Gospel.  How can God put out the Light of the Gospel, the Light of Christ, from the world over a course of days?  How is that possible?  Then when we read Luke 21, we find confirmation that it is not literal.  Luke 21 is the parallel passage to Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and it says in Luke 21:25:

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;

Now, tell me now, if the sun is dark and the moon is not giving its light and the stars are falling (and Revelation 6 tells us the stars are falling to earth), then the earth would be destroyed immediately.  The absence of the sun would wreak havoc upon the earth and even if one star fell anywhere near the earth, it would destroy the earth in a moment.  So we are forced to understand, by the Bible and its language, like this statement: “there shall be signs in the sun.”  Of course, if all those things are literally happening, that would not be a “sign.”  That would actually be the end of all things.  But a “sign,” according to the Bible, is something which you do not look for outwardly, like something in the sky.   The only “sign” that will be given to this evil generation is “the sign of the prophet Jonah” and in order to discover what that “sign” was, you have to turn to the Book of Jonah in the Bible and read it; that is, God is saying that in order to receive a legitimate Biblical sign, you must find it in the Bible and nowhere else.   There is no other sign. 

And it so happens that in these days after that tribulation (and that is exactly where we are in time, according to God’s timetable of times and seasons, since we have passed the Great Tribulation and we are now living “in those days after that tribulation”), the Bible has revealed that the sun is dark and the moon is not giving her light and the stars have fallen.  Therefore, we “see the sign of the Son of man.”  We see the signs in the sun and the moon and stars.  Everything now is in agreement.  Everything fits and harmonizes together.  We have a correct understanding of what God is telling us when He speaks of the “sun” being darkened “immediately after the tribulation of those days.”