Always watch the 9th of Av: Israel’s past and future

It can’t just be coincidence.

(I first posted this in July 2012, but since we’re coming up to the 9^th of Ab again, I thought it was worth repeating.)

In Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, the emperor is warned by an old soothsayer to “beware the ides of March.”  Soon after that, he’s assassinated by several senators including Brutus, his supposed friend. 

I’m actually not a big Shakespeare expert, but I’d like to say – be watching the 9^th of the Hebrew month of Av this year but especially in the coming decade. Jews call it “Tisha B’Av” which means “9^th of Av”. It’s a terrible date in Jewish history, and one we need to be aware of.  The 9^th of Av usually falls in mid-to-late-summer. That’s the easy way to remember it.

This year the 9^th of Av on the Hebrew calendar this year falls on this coming sabbath, August 13, 2016 of our Gregorian calendar. 

I am NOT saying anything will happen on this date this year, or next.  But I want my readers to know that it can’t be mere coincidence that so much has happened on the 9^th of Av on the Hebrew Calendar. As I write this, we are in the period of time they call “the Dire Straits” – from the 17^th of Tammuz to the 9^th of Av.  Remember it as roughly our month of July most years. It was during this time that calamity after calamity has befallen Israel. 

For example, it was during this time that Moses dashed the two tablets of the 10 commandments to the ground during the gold calf incident.  It is a day of fasting among Orthodox Jews.  Maybe nothing will happen this year on the 9^th of Ab but it wouldn’t surprise me if in a coming year something huge happens to Israel.

Could more calamities befall Israel around this period of time, on the 9^th of Av in a soon coming future year?  See the history for yourself, then form your own conclusion if you think this date leaves a particularly loathsome aftertaste in our Creator’s mouth:

• It was on the 9^th of Av when ten of the 12 spies who returned from spying out the Promised Land caused Israel to lose faith, to lose heart, and to rebel. YHVH therefore announces all Israelites age 20 and over would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb were exempted.  You can read the full story in Numbers 14.  After everything YHVH had done for them – the 10 plagues on Egypt, the liberation from slavery, the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven, the miraculous providence of water from the Rock, the giving of His covenant with them and the Law, after forgiving them of their terrible sin with the gold calf – after all that, they still lose faith and rebel once more. That was the last straw. The 9^th of Av (mid-summer) has frequently since then been a terrible date for Israel and later, the Jews. (Yes, our God has deep seated feelings too.)

• The first House of God, more commonly called “Solomon’s temple”, was destroyed on this date, the 9^th of Av. Over 100,000 Jews were slaughtered, and most of the remainder were hauled off into captivity to Babylon (where modern day Iraq is) and the area of Persia (modern day Iran).  Have you heard anything about Iraq and Iran lately in the news?

• The 2^nd temple was also burned and torn down on this exact date as well - 9^th of Av in 70 AD by the Romans under General Titus.  It was gruesome.  So many Jews were crucified, the Romans despaired for lack of wood on which to impale their tortured victims.  It was from the pain of crucifixion that we get the word “excruciating” – as in indescribable pain.  Over 2,500,000 Jews die from war, famine and disease. Another million are exiled. Over 100,000 are sold as slaves. Many are killed in Roman coliseums for entertainment, in gladiatorial “games” and pagan celebrations.  What a dark, dark time it was for the Jews. But it continued.

Click here – on Continue reading – to see at least SEVEN more examples of tragic events that happened to Jews on the 9^th of Av since the time of Christ on earth.

Want more confirmation?

• The Jews rebel against Rome and they believe Simon bar Kochba will be the Messiah. But – on the 9^th of Av, 133 CE, the rebels are massacred in the final battle at Betar and 100,000 more Jews shed their blood. We despair if we lose 9-10 marines, but imagine losing 100,000.

• One year later, on the 9^th of Av 134 AD, the Romans plowed over the Jews’ Temple Mount, their most sacred site. My wife and I have personally walked the excavated streets of the new pagan city the Romans erected on top the ruins of Jerusalem. They call it Aelia Capitolina.

• 1095 AD:  On the 9^th of Av, Pope Urban II announces the First Crusade. This is not good news to Jews, as 10,000 are killed in the first month alone of the Crusade. The killing continues for years to come from the “Christian” liberators of Jerusalem.

• In 1290 AD, on the 9^th of Av, all Jews are expelled from England.  Their books and property are confiscated by the government. 

• In 1492, besides all that good stuff about Columbus sailing the ocean blue, Spain’s Queen Isabella and her husband Ferdinand expel all Jews from Spain and allow them just four months to totally get out or else… The drop dead date was, once more, the 9^th of Av.

• World War 1 began on the Hebrew calendar of the 9^th of Av, 1914 as Britain and Russia declare war on Germany. The issues surrounding WWI are unresolved, resulting in World War II and the Holocaust.  Millions of Jews die in concentration camps as well as pogroms and “ethnic cleansing” later in Hungary, Ukraine, Poland and Russia.

• 9^th of Av, 1942 – Deportations begin from the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp.  (For something interesting, look up the history of the word “ghetto”.)

Sobering, isn’t it? This is not the exhaustive list. But it makes the point. Yahweh does seem to either cause or allow horrific disasters against the Jews on this date. We need to pray for the repentance of Israel as well as our own countries. Don’t stop doing that.  I gave a couple sermons some years back about that. And you and I need to be repenting of our own sins and turning and going the other way.  It seems so often that these calamities occurred after a time of serious sin or apathy in our land.

Our modern nations as well  – USA and Britain  and others – seem to be wanting to distance themselves from God. They want to forbid military officers from praying, or having a Bible on their desk, or having school prayer – while we painfully sacrifice and dismember unborn little boys and little girls in the name of “women’s health rights”.  What about the little women in their womb? What about their rights?  Believers need to speak up – and need to be praying fervently about all these things and so many more.

We are also told to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6).  Let’s all pray: Dearest Abba, our amazing Father in heaven, please send us your Son to bring an end to the way of sin, to the war and destruction of our Enemy’s way – and to usher in Yeshua’s millennial reign here on earth. Please don’t delay, dear Abba. We love you Father. We love you Yeshua, our salvation.