The sun will be turned to darkness
This phrase is often associated with apocalyptic imagery found throughout the Bible, symbolizing significant divine intervention or judgment. In the context of Joel, it reflects a cosmic disturbance that signifies God's power and the seriousness of the forthcoming events. Similar imagery is found in Exodus 10:21-23 during the plagues of Egypt, where darkness covered the land, indicating God's judgment. In the New Testament, Matthew 24:29 and Revelation 6:12 also describe celestial changes as signs of the end times, reinforcing the theme of divine intervention.

and the moon to blood
The transformation of the moon to blood is a vivid image that conveys a sense of foreboding and impending judgment. This imagery is echoed in Revelation 6:12, where the moon becomes like blood during the opening of the sixth seal, symbolizing cataclysmic events. The blood-red moon can be seen as a harbinger of God's wrath and a call to repentance. Historically, lunar eclipses might have inspired such descriptions, but the prophetic language emphasizes the supernatural aspect of these signs.

before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD
The "Day of the LORD" is a recurring theme in prophetic literature, signifying a time when God will decisively intervene in human history to judge the wicked and deliver the righteous. This concept is found in other prophetic books such as Isaiah 13:9 and Zephaniah 1:14-18. The adjectives "great and awesome" highlight the magnitude and awe-inspiring nature of this event. It is a day of both judgment and salvation, pointing to the ultimate fulfillment in the return of Christ, as seen in passages like 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and 2 Peter 3:10. The anticipation of this day serves as a call to repentance and readiness for God's people.

1. Joel
A prophet in the Old Testament, Joel is the author of the book that bears his name. His prophecies focus on the Day of the LORD and call for repentance.

2. The Day of the LORD
A significant theme in Joel, referring to a future time of God's judgment and deliverance. It is both a day of terror for the wicked and a day of salvation for the righteous.

3. The Sun and Moon
Celestial bodies mentioned in the prophecy, symbolizing cosmic disturbances that precede the Day of the LORD. These signs indicate divine intervention in human history.The Certainty of God's Judgment
The prophecy in Joel 2:31 serves as a reminder of the certainty of God's judgment. Believers are called to live in readiness and holiness, knowing that the Day of the LORD will come.

Call to Repentance
The signs in the heavens are a call to repentance. Just as Joel urged the people of his time to turn back to God, we too must examine our lives and seek His forgiveness.

Hope in God's Deliverance
While the Day of the LORD includes judgment, it also promises deliverance for those who trust in God. Believers can find hope and assurance in God's ultimate plan for redemption.

Awareness of Spiritual Realities
The cosmic signs remind us of the spiritual realities that often go unnoticed. We are encouraged to remain spiritually vigilant and discerning of the times.Verse 31. - The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. These wonders in the heavens follow the wonders on earth, and these obscurations of the heavenly bodies - the darkening of the sun and the dull blood-like appearance of the moon - were portents of coming judgment. These miraculous phenomena, if literally employed, may refer to those portentous sights which, as the Jewish historian Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus testify, were witnessed, both by besiegers and besieged, during the siege and before the destruction of Jerusalem. But taken symbolically, as is preferable, blood symbolizes bloodshed; fire, the firing of a town in time of war; and pillars of smoke, the clouds of smoke rolling up to heaven from the burning or smouldering ruins of a town or city set on fire by the enemy; while the darkening of the sun and the turning of the moon into a dull blood-red would portend approaching judgment, and a change, political and ecclesiastical, in the existing constitution of things. Here particularly, by reading Joel's prophecy in the light of the New Testament, we shall understand with tolerable clearness the meaning of the symbols of the sun and moon. The symbolic language of Joel's prediction found its fulfilment, at least in part, within less than half a century from the time when Peter spoke. Scarce forty years from that Pentecostal outpouring and the ruling powers, civil and ecclesiastical, of the Jewish nation came to an end. The Jewish Church and Hebrew commonwealth went out in darkness. The moon of the latter began to wane from the first day the Roman power was set up in Palestine, but at the destruction of the capital the light of that moon was extinguished for ever; the sun of the former was long getting obscured by clouds, but at last it underwent a total and final eclipse. But why, it may be asked, are sun and moon thus symbolic of rulers superior and inferior, or of rulers of greater and less importance, or of rulers in Church and state? By the original constitution of these luminaries, as specified in the record of Creation, they were actually appointed to this, and so naturally enough the physical here, as elsewhere, underlies the symbolic, as we read, "God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night." Thus what was commenced when Judaea became a Roman province was completed when Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple burnt by the Roman army under Titus. "The day of the Lord" is an expression very common with the prophets, and always expressive of some severe visitation or special judgment. Thus we read in this same Book of the Prophet Joel, "The day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come." Again in Amos 5:18, "The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light." But other days of judicial visitation were not to be compared with this. The day of Babylon's destruction is called by Isaiah simply "the day of the Lord;" so Jeremiah speaks of the day of the destruction of Pharaoh's army at the Euphrates as "the day of the Lord;" and Joel himself designates the day of Jerusalem's destruction of Nebuchadnezzar as "the day of the Lord." But the day mentioned in the text before us is "that great and notable day of the Lord," and so it was the day of the final destruction and desolation of Jerusalem.

Parallel Commentaries ...

The sun
הַשֶּׁ֙מֶשׁ֙ (haš·še·meš)
Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 8121: The sun, the east, a ray, a notched battlement

will be turned
יֵהָפֵ֣ךְ (yê·hā·p̄êḵ)
Verb - Nifal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2015: To turn about, over, to change, overturn, return, pervert

to darkness
לְחֹ֔שֶׁךְ (lə·ḥō·šeḵ)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2822: The dark, darkness, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness

and the moon
וְהַיָּרֵ֖חַ (wə·hay·yā·rê·aḥ)
Conjunctive waw, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3394: The moon

to blood
לְדָ֑ם (lə·ḏām)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1818: Blood, of man, an animal, the juice of the grape, bloodshed

before
לִפְנֵ֗י (lip̄·nê)
Preposition-l | Noun - common plural construct
Strong's 6440: The face

the coming
בּ֚וֹא (bō·w)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

of the great
הַגָּד֖וֹל (hag·gā·ḏō·wl)
Article | Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 1419: Great, older, insolent

and awesome
וְהַנּוֹרָֽא׃ (wə·han·nō·w·rā)
Conjunctive waw, Article | Verb - Nifal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 3372: To fear, to revere, caus, to frighten

day
י֣וֹם (yō·wm)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3117: A day

of the LORD.
יְהוָ֔ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel


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OT Prophets: Joel 2:31 The sun will be turned into darkness (Jl Joe.)