I know that this is a hit title of a song from the 80’s by Air Supply, Bonnie Tyler yet, I have chosen this title for this blog entry. In just a few day millions will witness a total eclipse. April 8 is one of the most anticipated dates in the 2024 calendar.
In recent years, we have all seen highly promoted astronomical events. Along with these event has come with many prophetic interpretations. A fascination with the track of cosmos and biblical named cities will cross in the United States has raised doomsday warnings.
This article is not about any of those prophecies. It is about the prophecies that revealed the Christ thousands of years before the death of Christ. My article centers on Psalm 22 as well as a unique translation found in the New American translation of Luke 23:44-45. This is an account of the Crucifixion of Christ.
One translation reads, "It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun."
The prophecy of Psalm 22 sheds a great deal more detail over 1,000 years before the Romans invented the cruelest form of execution, death on a cross. In just the first 22 versus of this passage of scripture we can learn of 17 prophecies being fulfilled. King David wrote this Psalm of the Suffering Savior while also writing of his on grief and suffering yet, this description goes beyond just David’s own experiences. It points to the death of Christ on the cross.
In a recent sermon I shared at a community Pre-Easter Week I shared the details and the purpose of the Suffering Savior. Jesus suffered and God turned His back away from His Son (the Bible reads forsaken) so that we will not be rejected or forsaken but found in righteousness through His death on a cross. Our suffering is not in vain and our salvation is not for our vanity alone. God can redeem our suffering and give us a testimony of grace through forgiveness. Our suffering is not in vain. Neither is our salvation in vanity. It is not that we become better than others but that we are able to tell if God’s great love and others can experience this grace extended to all that believe.
Although the sun was blocked but not darkened by an eclipse lasting more than 3 minutes, as darkness over the three hours that hung over the cross, yet we know that Jesus, we took on the sins of the world, experienced those hours of darkness while suffering the agony of the cross. He took on our sin so that he would be the perfect sacrifice that threw him alone we find redemption and forgiveness of our sins. Romans 6:8 reads that “…God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners He died for us.” (ESV) We also read with greatest clarity Romans 3:23, “…all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.” (USCCB-Conference of Catholic Bishops)
There is hope for all who feel forsaken and need forgiven for the sin we are born in to and experience in our transgressions.
