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Av New Moon message (9th of Av)

Presentation Notes

5th month. Av.

As you probably know, Av can be a bit of a downer - so fair warning.

However, I promise we’ll end on a positive note.

First, what does Av mean?

Five calamities

The 5th commandant is what? It has Av in it.

that…?

The commandant that comes right before that is?

Keep these 2 commandments in mind, because they will relate to rest of what we'll be looking at.

According to the Mishnah, five specific events occurred on the ninth of Av that warrant fasting:

  1. It is traditionally held that the Twelve Spies sent by Moses to observe the land of Canaan returned from their mission. The 10 gave a bad report and it caused the Israelites to despair and rebel, resulting in the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
  2. The First Temple built by King Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, and the population of the Kingdom of Judah was sent into the Babylonian exile.6(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B'Av#cite_note-jewishencyc-7) According to the Bible, the First Temple's destruction began on the 7th of Av (2 Kings 25:8) and continued until the 10th (Jeremiah 52:12). According to the Talmud,7(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B'Av#cite_note-8) the actual destruction of the Temple began on the Ninth of Av, and it continued to burn throughout the Tenth of Av.
  3. The Second Temple built by Ezra and Nehemiah was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE,8(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B'Av#cite_note-9) scattering the people of Judea and commencing the Jewish exile from the Holy Land.6(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B'Av#cite_note-jewishencyc-7)
  4. The Romans subsequently crushed Bar Kokhba's revolt and destroyed the city of Betar, killing over 500,000 Jewish civilians (approximately 580,000) on 4 August 135 CE.9(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B'Av#cite_note-Ohr-10)
  5. Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Roman commander Quintus Tineius Rufus plowed the site of the Temple in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, in 135 CE.10(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B'Av#cite_note-Barclay-11)

Over time, Tisha B'Av has come to be a Jewish day of mourning, not only for these events, but also for later tragedies which occurred on or near the 9th of Av. References to some of these events appear in liturgy composed for Tisha B'Av (see below).

The bad report of the 12 spies resulted in what?

40 years of wandering outside the promised land.

Today, if you will hear His voice:

8“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

9When your fathers tested Me;

They tried Me, though they saw My work.

10For forty years I was grieved with that generation,

And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,

And they do not know My ways.’

11So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

Psalm 95:11

Mt Ebal/Gerizim

blessing/curse

Destruction of the 1st temple. Failure to enter into God’s rest

Weekly sabbath Jer 17:19-27

Shmitas- 70 years.

Destruction of the 2nd temple. Failure to enter into God’s rest.

But they were keeping the Sabbaths.

Rejected the Lord of the Sabbath.

The one who casts the shadow that is the sabbaths.

How do we know that’s why it was destroyed?

The temple was destroyed in 70 AD

The Lord was crucified, most likely in 30 AD.

40 years almost to the exact day, the Roman siege of Jerusalem began.

Then, on the 9th day of the 5th month, the defenses were breached and the temple was destroyed, then the rest of the city was captured over the next month.

This and all of the tragedies that took place after that can be traced back to this. The Jewish people that rejected Messiah had not only Messiah and John the baptist’s witness, but 4 decades of of the apostles what a spirit filled life looks like. Testifying to them, showing miracles, refuting their errors, and showing what it means to be a light to the world.

It is not as though they were without warning. When they passed into the promised land, the blessing for obedience was proclaimed from Mt. Gerizim, and the curse from Mt. Ebal.

The blessing for obedience:

Health and life, benefiting from work, rising over the stranger, inhabiting the homeland, and serving the God they knew.

The curses for disobedience:

Sickness and death, the inability to benefit from work, falling under the stranger, wandering in foreign lands, and serving unknown gods.

Deuteronomy 28:63 And it shall be, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess. 64“Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other

The fact the Jewish people appear to be under the curse means that there is a reason for it. Their situation is not arbitrary.

God is our heavenly…?

It is the duty of a Father to care for his children, provide a home for them.

But there is another role of a Father, which is a bit more hidden, mysterious. It is only revealed when necessary. That is, to discipline his children. It is not enjoyable to be disciplined, but it is for a reason.

In fact, according to proverbs 13:24, if a Father does not discipline his children, he doesn't love them.

……

The writer of Hebrews hyperlinks to the passage in Psalms that I read earlier

Hebrews 4: 1Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ”

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”

6Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”

8For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

11Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

This is the point of all these tragedies. Not that we would raise our hand against the disobedient and add to their suffering, or gloat over them. It is so that we would pay attention to their example and not get haughty, and not think that because God has delighted to bless us, that he will not also be delighted to curse us if we disobey and dishonor him.

Lets praise God for His mercy and tremble at His awesome zeal.

I said that we would end on a positive note. We’ve probably heard this every Av, but it is important to refresh our souls by meditating on the same truths again and again.

God will not punish the people of Israel forever.

Zecharia 8