Translation
The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
Paraphrase
The rulers that control many things or bring about major accomplishments will not be able to accomplish anything, and the
lesser rulers that control clandestine activities will not be able to function during the lead-up to the day in which the Lord does great and awesome things that only He can do.
SOME AMAZING SIGNS
Peter was saying, “This is it folks! Today is the fulfillment of that prophecy!”
But wait. Did any of this stuff actually happen on the day of Pentecost? No, not literally, but it did happen symbolically. For them symbolism was very important, and Peter saw the coming of the Holy Spirit as a direct fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. We think of symbolic fulfillment as being inferior to a physical fulfillment, but for the ancient Jews it was often the other way around; there were many times when for them, symbolism was more powerful than reality.
In Matthew 24:29 Jesus drew from Isaiah 13 and 34. Isaiah 13 proclaims judgement on Babylon and chapter 34 proclaims judgment on the nations. The context of the Isaiah passages makes it clear that these events will not be a sign that something is coming; they will not be a wakeup call. They will be part of God’s judgment on the nations; judgment will have already begun! The sign will not indicate “you better get ready by repenting,” rather it communicates, “judgment has arrived; it is too late to repent.” God is a just and fair judge, He gives plenty of opportunities to repent, but there will come a time when there will no longer be time to repent, rather time for punishment has arrived. That is why the nations will mourn at His arrival, all people will understand what His arrival means and those who are not right with Him will weep.