This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Chazon (Sabbath of Vision) where observant Jews grieve over the nation’s sins that eventually led to the destruction of the 1st & 2nd Temples (Plus many other calamities) linked to Tisha B’Av that is observed for a 24 hour period from this evening.
Tisha B’Av falls at the end of a 3-week period known as ‘Bein Ha Metzarim’ from a text in Lament 1:3: “Y’hudah has fled into exile from oppression and endless slavery. She lives among the nations, but there she finds no rest. Her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.” This makes for sad commentary that contains a principle which can be applied to every person whether Jew or Gentile – Apostasy and rebellion always leads to exile.
‘Bein ha Metzarim’ (between the straits) means to navigate one’s way between grave dangers on both sides. The Bible teaches that should one ever allow anything to mar our relationship with God, we will ultimately find ourselves ‘between the straits.’ It is also a term to describe labour and childbirth, a critical time where should things go badly it could lead to dire consequences. We have referred to some of these things in the past few weeks.
The key point in this 3-week period known as Bein ha Metzaim is often missed. God is so full of mercy and forgiveness that this period is actually a transition point where God’s desires restoration as opposed to judgement.
In Zech. 8:19 God promises that one day our grieving, sometimes as a consequence of our sin and at other times as casualties of the evil we are surrounded by, will be turned into joy. Orthodox Jews are reminded of this with a celebratory meal known as a ‘siyum’ a ‘seudat mitzvah’ because even in the darkest season we have reason to rejoice in God’s mercy, compassion and faithfulness – so much more so even for every born-again believer!
Tisha B’Av (9th Av) fell on this Shabbat this year. The greatest tragedies in Jewish history occurred on this day eclipsing with the destruction of the 1st Temple where 100,00 Jews were slaughtered and countless others taken into exile for 70 years and with the destruction of the 2nd Temple when 2million Jews were slaughtered leading again to exile this time lasting almost 2,000 years.
Tisha B’Av reminds us of the stark consequences of spiritual rebellion. Jewish populations have suffered intense persecution and expulsions from at least 79 countries over the past 2000 years. They have been massacred, humiliated, the focus of anti-Semitism and planned exterminations, hounded from pillar to post, scapegoated and trodden underfoot. Only God Himself knows how much of this has been contributed to rebellion in the hearts of the Jewish people and how much has been simply a direct result of targeted attacks by Satan. But in both cases it is a grievous thing that the Apostle Paul bore the grief of regarding His people in his heart at Tisha B’Av as he declared in Rom. 9:1-3: “I am speaking the truth in Messiah. I am not lying: my conscience (enlightened and prompted) by the Holy Spirit bearing witness with me that I have bitter grief and incessant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off and banished from Messiah for the sake of my brethren instead of them, my natural kinsmen and my fellow countrymen.” “If it were possible, I would stand in for my people and sacrifice my very salvation for them.”
In all the devastations and calamities associated with Tisha B’Av nothing eclipses the destruction of the 2nd Temple because it directly links to the rejection of Yeshua who prophesied its demise 40 years before the event: “For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you, encircle you, hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within your walls, leaving not one stone standing on another – and all because you did not recognise your opportunity when God offered it.” (Luke 19:43-44)
On two occasions people demanded Yeshua show a sign that He was the Messiah and on one of these times He answered His accusers, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and will You rear it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of His body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.” (John 2:18-22)
And when Yeshua was placed on trial for insurrection, people were bribed to misrepresent His words: “We heard him say, I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.” (Yeshua was prophesying spiritually about His own death and resurrection). (Mark 14:58)
World Jewry until this day still cannot take sense of the prophecy in Haggai 2: “6 Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens, the sea, and the land. 7 I will rattle all the nations, and all that is valuable in the eyes of the world will be willingly brought to My house. I will see to it that it is filled to the brim with My glory. 8 “You see, all the silver and all the gold in this world already belong to Me. 9 You will stand by and watch as the magnificence of this new house will eclipse the magnificence of My first house. And in this new house, I will give you peace.”
Although Solomon’s Temple was superior to the 2nd Temple in its physical construction and beauty, the 2nd Temple far exceeded the 1st one in glory. The mystery of the 9th Av is that it goes beyond our mourning over God’s judgment, to the spiritual, physical restoration and fullness, as foretold by the prophet Zechariah.
Every true believer is described in Scripture as being a Temple of the Ruach ha Kodesh (1Cor 6:19), where He makes His dwelling place within us. Satan’s intent is to defile that temple and steal, kill and destroy us through defilement. We are warned in Scripture not to grieve the Holy Spirit because it will always result in pain, regret, deep mourning and loss as demonstrated in the history of the Jewish people. God is calling us to be faithful even as He is entirely faithful so that there will never be a Tisha B’Av event in our lives.
This week’s Torah portion opens with the 5th Book of the Torah known as D’varim (Words) also known from the Greek as Deuteronomy (1:1–3:22 ) where we read,“These are the words [D’varim] which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness.” (Deut. 1:1)
There are many things we could say about spoken words that is contained in Scripture embedded in Judaism such as with ‘lashon hara’ (gossip or slander) and the power words can have over life and death. And also from a positive aspect how it can impact our spiritual and eternal life (Rom 10:9-10; “For if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For with the heart it is believed for righteousness, and with the mouth it is confessed for salvation..”
In this week’s parasha, we enter into the 5th book of the Torah, known in Hebrew as “Devarim” – “Words”. In the English it is called Deuteronomy derived from the two Greek words “Deuteron” = second & “nomos” = Law. It is not in fact a second law but a retelling and expansion of the first where a new generation is poised to enter Canaan. Yeshua He told His disciples, “If you love Me you will obey My commands.” The law is still in place but the manner in which we keep it is important – not legalistically but through a living relationship. The greatest expression of keeping the law is contained in Deut 6:5 & Lev. 19:18. Yeshua Himself expressed His love for us not by abolishing the Law but by fulfilling it by His sinless sacrifice!
Devarim (Deuteronomy) opens with reviewing Moses’ last month of his life. Here he is elevated from the status of liberator, miracle-worker, redeemer to “Moshe Rabbeinu”, “Moses, our Teacher.” It was His example of leadership style that caused the Jewish people to prosper and excel, but one yet greater than he of course was Yeshua – rabbi among rabbis, teacher among teachers, a leader among leaders, One described as the Living Word – “The Word of God” (John 1:1). And yet God until now has blinded the eyes of the Jewish people.
Throughout Israel’s history the period of the monarchy demonstrated the weakness of kingship leadership. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The northern kingdom of Israel could barely boast of any kings who were godly, but led their people down pathways of apostasy and glorified their own power and riches while the people groaned under the weight of their tyranny. To a lesser extend this was true also of the kings of Judah.
But Yeshua demonstrated the true meaning of kingship, as the King of Kings – the Servant king who, “… being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Phil.2
When someone exercises power over us, they diminish us, but when someone teaches us, they help us grow. And so God sent us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us that we might be taught by Him and grow into the full stature of maturity that God created us to be.
Moses spoke to the Israelites about their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness, and reviewed everything that God had commanded. Their greatest enemy was assimilation abandoning God’s Torah and exchanging it for the pagan culture of the nations. Even in modern times such as in the Holocaust, most of the German and Austrian Jewish victims considered themselves German and Austrian rather than Jewish, a folly they paid for resulting in their death.
At Tisha (9th) B’Av, the consequences of assimilation and spiritual infidelity are graphically illustrated by exile but here in this parsha, Moses shared his parting words with something beautiful about the character of our God. He reminded them that despite Israel’s constant disobedience and grumblings, God carried them through the wilderness throughout their 40-year journey the way a father carries his children. Why? Because judgement is not the same as covenant: The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as He did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries His son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” (Deut.1:30–31)
What does this speak about the tender loving care of our Abba Father for us who has taken our weaknesses and failings upon Himself and carries us in His arms of love even when we stumble and fall and fail Him as portrayed in the Parable of the Prodigal Son I shared in our Bible School broadcast last week – God’s love demonstrated towards us who have returned to Him from exile. Although there are consequences for sin, God can transform even the worst situations into something beautiful.
Yeshua is our prodigal Father who suffered for us and gave us His body as a sacrifice for sins. When we experience the ‘Fellowship of His Suffering’ we shed tears for Him, and every tear shed is bringing His return a little closer. So if this be true, may our prayer always be “Lord, if all you need is just one more tear, please let it be my tear.”
So, who among us will stand up to be counted and join hands with God as part of the remnant of the unashamed? “For I am not ashamed of the Good News, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who trusts—to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Rom 1:16
Raphael ben Levi www.mekudeshet.co.za
