"“Candles were used; and hearth fires shone as brightly as on a moonless evening in autumn.... Fowls retired to their roosts and went to sleep, cattle gathered at the pasture bars and lowed, frogs peeped, birds sang their evening songs, and bats flew about. But the human knew that night had not come.... GC 307.1"
"Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord."
The EGW passage describes the unnatural behavior of animals during the dark day, contrasting with human awareness. Jeremiah 8:7 highlights the animals' instinctual knowledge of their appointed times, contrasting with the people's lack of understanding of God's judgment. The parallel lies in the contrast between animal instinct and human understanding of divine events.
"“Dr. Nathanael Whittaker, pastor of the Tabernacle church in Salem, held religious services in the meeting- house, and preached a sermon in which he maintained that the darkness was supernatural. Congregations came together in many other places. The texts for the extemporaneous sermons were invariably those that seemed to indicate that the darkness was consonant with Scriptural prophecy.... The darkness was most dense shortly after eleven o'clock.”— The Essex Antiquarian, April, 1899, vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 53, 54. “In most parts of the country it was so great in the daytime, that the people could not tell the hour by either watch or clock, nor dine, nor manage their domestic business, without the light of candles.... GC 307.2"
"A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations."
Both passages describe a day of darkness. The Joel passage is a prophecy of a day of darkness, and the EGW passage describes the historical dark day of 1780. The connection is that the historical event is seen as a partial fulfillment or foreshadowing of the prophecy.
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:"
Both passages describe the darkening of the sun. Matthew 24:29 is a prophecy of end-time events, including the darkening of the sun, and the EGW passage describes the historical dark day of 1780. The connection is that the historical event is seen as a partial fulfillment or foreshadowing of the prophecy.