Is there any significance to a full moon in the Bible?

This is entirely confirmed if we inspect the context more closely. For where would be the sense of the light-bearers "for signs and for seasons, and for days and years," if it had been an age (thousands, myriads, millions of years) before Adam? If, on the contrary, God was not creating them, but, after that which had intercepted, only "setting" them to their ordained task in immediate view of man, all is clear and consistent. And to whom could this be of such interest as to Israel, the people of His choice, in whose history we have them acting as "signs" on critical occasions for His sovereign will? Without dwelling on His wonders in Egypt where light was in Israel's dwellings, darkness thick in all the rest of the land, or later at Sinai, we see what a sign it was to Israel when Joshua said in their sight, "Sun, stand still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon"; or in far other days when Jehovah spoke to sick Hezekiah, and gave him a sign in the shadow that went back ten steps on the dial of Ahaz. And what a sign again where all was lost, as far as man is concerned, in the Cross of Messiah when darkness for three hours covered all the land! A mere eclipse was then impossible. Nor will whole clusters of signs be wanting when He comes in power and glory on the clouds of heaven. For "seasons" is needed no comment: man alone on earth understands and appreciates these fit and recurring times. As the same Hebrew word means "the congregation" and "the solemn feast," as well as the season or appointed time at which they kept it, "seasons" may have a sacred aspect; but the more ordinary sense seems confirmed by what follows. Very little astronomy is requisite to know how "days and years" are defined by them, but only for man. In the ages before him this were all irrelevant. In view of man, and Israel especially, it is as affecting as full of interest. The constant design is reiterated in "Let them be for light-bearers in the expanse of the heavens." It was their effect, not their structure, that is intimated. "And it was so."

A seven of months formed the cycle of Jehovah's annual feasts, even as a seven of days culminated in the weekly feast of the sabbath. The sabbath is introduced at the commencement of the complete circle of the feasts; (see Lev. 23) it is the seed plot of the whole series. The first year of deliverance from Egypt began with a week ending with a sabbath, and the second week ended with the Passover sabbath. On the fifteenth day — the day after the second Sabbath — Egypt was left, that is, at the full moon, the symbol of the full strength of the month.* The year's feasts were of the number which is so frequently used by God in His measurements of prophetic time. The last of the seven of months, like the last of the seven of days, was a season of rest, and more, of joy. The seven of days proclaimed that rest should come, as well as that the rest of God from creation had taken place; the seven of months proclaimed how the rest should come, as well as that Israel had been delivered from Egyptian bondage. When the rest should come was left for the lips of the prophets to tell. But, week by week, God used the sun as the divider of time into days to announce the coming sabbath; and, month by month, He used the moon as the divider of time into months to announce the same news; while He used the seasons and their fruits, the corn harvest and the harvest of oil and wine, to teach how this end should be realized.

On the first day of the seventh month there is the feast of trumpets. This is the day of the new moon, speaking of a weak testimony raised up by the Lord. This testimony will gradually increase until the day of atonement is celebrated on the 10th of the month (in repentance). Following this, the feast of tabernacles commences on the 15th of the month — at full moon, speaking of a full testimony. This feast foreshadows the millennial blessing into which the remnant will enter.

At the creation the 'lesser light' was to rule the night. Its brilliancy is seen much more in the east than in the west, and its light is more appreciated in the former, especially when the heat of the day necessitates travelling by night. The NEW MOON among the Israelites was a festival: it was watched for on the hills, and as soon as it was seen, it was ushered in by sound of trumpet. Num. 10:10; 1 Chr. 23:31; Ps. 81:3; Ezek. 45:17; Col. 2:16: cf. 1 Sam. 20:5, 18, 24.

The Israelites were warned against worshipping the moon as well as the sun and stars. Deut. 4:19; Deut. 17:3: cf. Job 31:26-28. Of Israel, in the time of Hoshea and of Manasseh it is said they worshipped 'all the host of heaven.' 2 Kings 17:16; 2 Kings 21:3, 5. Jeremiah also states that in Judah and Jerusalem cakes were made to the QUEEN OF HEAVEN, which is commonly supposed to refer to the moon, worshipped as Astarte. Then when the residue of the people had gone into Egypt, they declared that in spite of the prophet's warning they would burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and pour out drink offerings unto her. Jer. 7:18; Jer. 44:17-19, 25.

God at the first gave the sun and moon "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." (Gen. 1:14-15.) He marked out the course of time by this means, and man, from the earliest, was acquainted with the periods into which time — as we know it on this earth — is divided. The fourth commandment given to Israel after their separation from Egypt, recalled a truth previously known, and sanctified again the seventh day in the name of Jehovah. In Israel, the measures of time were ordained by God, and days, and weeks, and months, and years were regulated by sacred feasts.

Above all the various experiences of His creatures, God reigns in sovereign wisdom and power. The phases of the moon mark off the months, and these have an effect on all mankind (v. 19). The sun is spoken of as "going down" before we read of its rising (v. 22), for we find in experience that times of trial and darkness so frequently precede the times of light and joy. God makes the darkness (v. 20), and the beasts of the forest emerge, expecting to find food when their prey is unaware. But God has ordained this so, for He cares for the cruel, predatory animals as well as for the weak and helpless.

But the number 1 is the number of rule also; and here sun. and moon are especially appointed to be respectively the rulers of the day and of the night. As the result, upon these now depend the alternations of light and of darkness, and the seasons — here first named. Four, let us remember, is the number that speaks of transitoriness and change, which naturally point here to the "seasons." But the seasons are dependent upon the rule of sun and moon: so that the 4 and the 1 come for the second time together. Surely there is some meaning in all this.

These changing seasons, while they affect all living things, have yet plainly their chief significance for God's responsible creature, man, so soon now to appear upon the scene, and thus the word "signs" precedes "seasons" in the command given. The earth being dependent upon heaven in the way it is, it could not but be that man would seek the significance of all appearances in sun and moon; with which the stars would soon. come to be conjoined. By all these he would learn his littleness and his dependence, as we find in an exaggerated form and turned to evil, as he turned away from God, in his wide-spread worship of the heavenly bodies. Their power for evil shows their power for good; upon which it is not here for me to dwell. It is enough here to point out how plainly all this heralds the near approach of man, and the tender interest shown by God in His creature. Purpose of love is read in the Scripture physics from the beginning; and the book of Scripture opens for us the book of Nature with lessons for the heart.

But more than this was included in God's purpose as to them. They were to be "for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years." We are well aware that the times — whether days or years — and the seasons are determined by them but the fact of their being signs is perhaps not so familiar to us. Yet there are illustrations of it in Scripture, such as Joshua 10:12-14; 2 Kings 20:8-11. There is also the Lord's prediction in Luke 21:25. The beginning of Psalm 19 points in the same direction.

Then again, they were to rule the day and the night respectively. From the outset the earth was placed under the rule and control of heaven, even as regards the action of inanimate matter, so that in this these heavenly bodies become a sign that "the heavens do rule" (Dan. 4:26), and a faint prophecy of "the kingdom of heaven," of which we read in the Gospel of Matthew. The sad fact confronts us that fallen man soon perverted all this, and began to worship these lights as though they were creator and not creature, thereby changing God's truth into a lie. Romans 1:25 refers to this, we believe.

There will be SIGNS IN THE MOON as well as in the sun when the time of God's dire judgement has arrived. Joel 2:10, 31; Luke 21:25; Rev. 6:12. As a symbol the moon is used in prophecy to signify derivative authority, the sun being the supreme source of heavenly rule.

Then He is spoken of in His works of wisdom, the One who alone doeth great wonders. His creative work — as given in the second, third, and fourth verses — evidently corresponds to that of the second, third, and fourth of the six days. The second speaks of the firmament of the heavens, therefore, the separation of the waters from the waters. The third, of the bringing up of the dry land from under the waters, by which man's abode was formed for him. The fourth, of the luminaries, which condition, by the changing seasons which they occasion; all the activities of his practical life. But this the psalmist cannot pass so briefly, but must expand it in the two following verses. In the fifth place, the sun, as ruler in the day, is really the physical governor of man's earth, and so of man: among material things the fullest representative of that goodness of God which wakes up all Nature in response, to minister to him. The moon; on the other hand, is but, as it were, a delegate of the sun; and can only imperfectly reflect his rays so as to limit the darkness. All this has abundance of teaching for us, and should help to make Nature, what God would have it for us, a great open lesson-book. But we have not space to dwell upon it here.