Jeremiah 52:4-14, Tisha B’Av

There is a day in Israel that is said to be the saddest day on the calendar.  It is “Tisha B’Av,” the 9^th of the month of Av which is the 5^th month in the Jewish calendar.  It is the saddest day because it is the day that many terrible things happened in Israel’s history.  This includes Biblical events.

In Zechariah 7-8 the prophet deals with a question about fasting.  While captive in Babylon the Jews had set aside several days for fasts.  These fast days are referred to in Zech. 8:18-19.  According to:

·       2 Ki. 25:1 (Jer. 39:1): 10^th day of 10^th month the siege began.

·       2 Ki. 25:3 (Jer. 39:2-3; 52:6-7): 9^th day of 4^th mo., wall broken through.

·       2 Ki. 25:8 (Jer. 52:12-13): 7^th day of 5^th mo., temple burned.  Jeremiah says it was burned on the 10^th day.  The Jewish explanation, as Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible states, is that "strangers entered into the temple, and ate in it, and defiled it, the seventh and eighth days; and on the ninth, towards dark, they set fire to it; and it burned and continued all that whole day, as it is said, Jeremiah 6:4.'' 

There were other tragedies in Israel’s history that occurred on this date and that make up the basis for this day of sorrow.  On the 9^th of Av:

·       the first temple was destroyed by Babylon and the second temple in 70 AD by the Romans.

·       the spies returned to Moses with a bad report.

·       Jews were expelled from England in 1290 AD and from Spain in 1492 AD.

·       both world wars began.

·       the Bar Kochba revolt was lost in 133 AD, and then in 134 the Romans plowed the temple mount.

For religious Jews, Tisha B’Av is the culmination of three weeks of mourning, coinciding with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by Babylon.  In the last nine days of the three weeks the mourning increases in intensity.  On the 9^th itself Jews gather in the Synagogue to read the book of Lamentations.  In the afternoon, toward the end of the day, Jews will increase in gladness as they begin to think about the Messiah and what He will bring.

Now let us consider for a moment the Jewish Scriptures.  In Zechariah the 4 fasts that had been established to remember terrible things that happened at the hands of Babylon were, according to the prophet, to be changed to feasts of hope in God’s promise to restore Israel.  There was a different “saddest” day for Israel in the Torah and that was, of course, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).  That day of “grief” was a day to remember and confess and repent of sin.  Israel’s sin was the cause of all the grievous things that happened on Tisha B’Av. 

The Jews (should) understand this, that Tisha B’Av is second in intensity to Yom Kippur, if for no other reason than Yom Kippur is commanded in the Torah (cf. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4451673/jewish/18-Tisha-BAv-Facts-Every-Jew-Should-Know.htm.)

God’s forgiveness means that we can move on from the guilt and punishment for sin.  If you have had children, or if you remember your own childhood, you know it is easier to be sorrowful over the consequences of sin (i.e. the spanking) than over the sin itself.  I believe our first prayer for ourselves, and our loved ones, when we fall into a grievous situation, is that we learn Christ.  And then we pray that we will be delivered from the problem.