Ezekiel 32:7
And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
The verse belongs to the prophecies against Egypt in Ezekiel 29-32, pronouncing judgment against Pharaoh and his host when God puts him out. It declares that Egypt's power would be brought down and abased to become the basest of kingdoms, no longer ruling over other nations or rising again. In prophetic language, covering the heaven and darkening sun, moon and stars portrays the overthrow of a nation, so that its glory and happiness is darkened and brought to nothing. The darkening of the sun and moon is a prophetic sign in the heavens associated with the end and with the coming of the Son of man. That sign was fulfilled in the historic dark day of May 19, 1780, when the sun was darkened and the moon did not give her light that night, with darkness so dense that morning that it seemed all the lights in the universe had gone out.
Judgment Against Egypt
Ezekiel 32:7 belongs to the prophecies about Egypt in Ezekiel 29-32, pronouncing judgment against Pharaoh and his host when God puts him out. It declares that Egypt's power would be brought down and abased to become the basest of kingdoms, no longer ruling over other nations or rising again among the nations. That word was literally fulfilled after Egypt had been a great kingdom and empire.
Though ancient, powerful, populous, and naturally defended by sea, desert, navy, and Nile, Egypt would be invaded, conquered and spoiled, made waste, sold into the hand of strangers and ruled by them continually. It would become the basest of the kingdoms, never again exalting itself or ruling over the nations. Its idols and images would cease out of Noph and there would be no more a native prince. This was fulfilled through Nebuchadnezzar, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Saracens, Mamelukes and Turks, who together describe the revolutions and future state of Egypt.
In prophetic language great commotions upon earth are represented as commotions and changes in the literal heavens, so covering the heaven and darkening sun, moon and stars portrays the overthrow of a nation and the perishing of its heavens. The sun means the religion of the church, the moon the government of the state, and the stars the judges and doctors of both, so their covering and darkening means the glory and happiness of the nation is darkened and brought to nothing, as shown in the destruction of Egypt. The verse describes God bringing darkness over the land of Egypt, with stars, sun and moon deprived of their light and darkness covering the land. That darkness over Egypt agrees with the darkness of the fifth vial, when the beast's kingdom is darkened.
Signs of Christ's Coming
The darkening of the sun and moon is a prophetic sign in the heavens associated with the end and with the coming of the Son of man. It was fulfilled in the historic dark day of May 19, 1780, when the sun was darkened and the moon did not give her light that night as a fulfillment of the signs preceding Christ's return. That morning after the sun was darkened the darkness fell so densely that it seemed all the lights in the universe had gone out, comparable to what is described, occurring as a heavenly sign about two years after the papal persecution ended in 1778.
It is a sacred prediction of the darkening of the sun applied by ministers to the New England darkness at noonday and used in sermons about the Last Day. The covering of the sun with a cloud is one of thirteen prophetic characteristics of the signs in the sun, moon and stars that mark the coming of the Lord as near, even at the door. Those characteristics were fulfilled together in consecutive order with the great earthquake, the sun black as sackcloth, darkness over sun, moon and stars, a dark night with the dark day, darkness beginning in the morning, and darkest at noon on a clear day. They include also the moon become as blood and the stars falling like unripe figs immediately after the tribulation in the twelve hundred and sixty years.
The darkening of the heavens, sun and moon when God brings judgment and puts out the one addressed applies to the heavens becoming dark and vanishing amid the destruction preceding the creation of the new heavens and new earth.