An exceedingly rare solar eclipse will take place next week over a most symbolic location on a day infused with both great natural significance and profound religious meaning, according to Root Source.
There will be a total eclipse of the sun for two minutes over the North Pole on Friday, March 20, the day of the Spring Equinox which coincides with the beginning of the Hebrew month of Nissan, the first month in the biblical calendar year, a solar occurrence that has likely never happened before in human history.
"The concurrence and rarity of this natural event, together with the times in which we live, indicates the finger of God," said Gidon Ariel, an Israeli Jew and co-founder of Root Source, an online platform where Christians can learn Jewish concepts, ideas and thought, and more deeply understand the roots of their faith.
A total solar eclipse at the North Pole on the first day of spring occurs once every 100,000 years. For it to occur on the first day of the first month of the biblical calendar year is, however, entirely unprecedented since this is only the year 5775 according to Jewish tradition, meaning that there has never been such a solar occurrence in human history.
Root Source founders Bob O'Dell, a devout Christian, and Gidon Ariel, an Orthodox Jew, are both calling all Christians and Jews to join them for two minutes of prayer as a response to the solar eclipse. O'Dell and Ariel chose a specific Bible verse for the global prayer.
"I will be praying Isaiah 11:9 for two minutes at the Western Wall in Jerusalem at 12:18 PM local time," Ariel said.
"I invite Jews and Christians worldwide to join me at that exact moment, and to speak that verse out loud as a prayer in your native language. May God hear and quickly answer the combined prayers of all of us around the world," said Ariel.
"God directed Gidon and me to pray Isaiah 11:9, as it describes a future where all land is a place of safety because the knowledge of the LORD is as omnipresent as all the the earth's oceans, signified by the path of an amazing eclipse that eventually reaches the top of all the world's oceans," said Bob O'Dell.