About the eclipse
The long-awaited solar eclipse is upon us, beginning in Harrison about 12:35 p.m. Monday, and reaching its peak for several minutes by 1:53. It will be good to get this underway, with all the hype and even some fear and uncertainty surrounding it.
Even our local Walmart is selling T-shirts proclaiming “Totality” is coming to Harrison.
People will be flocking to an area just southeast of my Ozarks hometown and in other spots across northern Arkansas to stare into the heavens together and share this event.
The Internet has teemed of late with comments, predictions and biblical references to the spiritual and physical significance of this particular eclipse.
Among those catching my attention was a reference to the Book of Jonah in which God commanded Jonah to travel to the city of Nineveh and prophesy to its inhabitants. After initially declining, Jonah traveled there and entered the city, crying, “In 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
After Jonah walked across Nineveh spreading God’s message to seek redemption, the people began to believe his message and proclaim a fast. Even the king issued a proclamation which decreed fasting, the common wearing of sackcloth, prayer, and repentance.
God saw their repentant hearts and spared Nineveh. The entire city thereby was humbled and broken as the people (and even the animals) wore sackcloth and ashes.
Today this ancient and sprawling northern Iraq city along the Tigris River is called Mosul, which is a familiar place to our troops involved in the Iraq War.
But its relevance to America lies in the fact this eclipse will involve numerous American communities also named Nineveh, which many Christians are interpreting as God’s message to our nation and its people to repent of unacceptable and immoral ways or face his wrath.
Communities in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania named Nineveh lie in the path of the eclipse. Moreover, the eclipse will cover about a dozen communities named Salem, which in ancient terms means Jerusalem: Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, South Carolina, Maine and Massachusetts.
One Internet user said the total eclipse will last 4 minutes and 28 seconds, then asked readers to look at Jeremiah 4:28, which reads: “For this the Earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be dark; for I have spoken; I have purposed; I have not relented, nor will I turn back.”
Another writer spoke of scriptures that referenced the Temple in Jerusalem being rebuilt and the Euphrates River running dry in the end times, both of which have happened. Other writers cited scriptures about the sun growing dark.
No doubt some will scoff at these signs, dismissing them as nothing more than ancient and backwards thinking. But many others who consider the Bible as the inspired word of our Creator, I can assure you, are paying close attention to these messages.
By the way, I purchased enough pairs of eclipse glasses to share, which are highly recommended to prevent eye damage. Unfortunately, there appears to be a good chance of cloud cover on Monday, wouldn’t ya just know.
INSURANCE SOARING
I saw my auto insurance bill increased again, along with practically everything else in recent years.
It was beginning to feel, despite having no accidents or claims in years (knocking wood now), as if I was being “favored” by my insurers until I received the following email from Mike Sydoriak of Gravette the other day.
“Mike—We just received our insurance bill for our autos and it went up $800. We have had insurance with the [same company] for over 20 years and have not had any accidents.
“When we looked into their billing, we found out that most of the increase was coverage against uninsured motorists. I would bet other people are also seeing an increase because of this. Our representative said there is not much they can do about it because people get insurance then cancel it after they get their vehicles registered. Surely there is something that can be done.”
You’d think state agencies responsible for ensuring fair insurance practices would be on top of such actions and even issue press releases.
That sure seems like a lot of uninsured motorist claims to cause significant price increases for all policy holders. Someone in authority definitely needs to investigate and confirm this excuse or expose and end it. Besides, what happens to such scofflaws when any motorist stopped by police is asked to produce proof of current insurance coverage?
HAD A GODNOD?
I’m still open to receiving accounts from readers about unlikely, seemingly miraculous events they’ve experienced over their lifetime that I call GodNods. Feel free to email me at the address below.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.