Lessons From the 9th of Av

At sunset on Thursday, June 26, Thursday of this past week, observant Jews began the 21-day period of self-examination leading up to the ninth day of Av. Av is the name of the fifth month in the Hebrew calendar, the fifth month of the sacred calendar. The 21-day period begins with the fast of Tamaz, or Tamaz. Tamaz is the name of the fourth month in the sacred calendar. If you would turn to 1 Kings chapter 6, 1 Kings chapter 6, mostly in the Bible you'll see the months referred to as first month, second month, and so on. Occasionally you will see the name of the month listed. So we look at 1 Kings chapter 6 in verse 37.

In the fourth year was the foundation the house of the Lord laid in the month of Ziv, Z-I-F, and in the eleventh year in the month bull, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it, so was it seven years in building.

So I just turned to that verse to show you that sometimes you'll see the name of the month named in the Bible, but mostly it's referred to as first, second, and so on. The months in the Hebrew calendar, we're going to name them now. It's not necessarily a big part of what the sermon is about, but Nisan, which is called a bib or a avif, it's the first month, Ayar, the second month, Sivan, the third month, Tamaz, the fourth month, which falls June, July, Av, falls July, August, Elol, or Elol, the sixth month, Tishri, the seventh month, Chesbond, the eighth month, or Bulle, as we just saw in the Bible, Keslu, the ninth month, which corresponds to November, December, Tevet, the tenth month, December, January, Shavat, the eleventh month, January, February, Adar, February, March, and then Adar, too, on leap years, February, March.

So, the 21-day period begins with the fast of Tamaz in the fourth month. The Jews consider the ninth of Av to be the second most important fast of the year. We shall find that this fast is listed in the Bible later on. It's second only to Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Why do they call it? Why do they observe it? Why do they view it as the second most sacred day in the calendar? It is because, on this day, several tragic events happened in the nation of Israel.

So, will the next 17 days bring more tragic events to Israel? The ninth of Av will fall this year on July the 16th. Who knows? As we saw in the news items, the nation has been placed on high war alert. We live in one of the most uncertain times in human history. There is a powder keg out there.

It has a fuse. It has a very short fuse. And who knows when it might be lit? The name of Av literally means father. And if you look in a concordance, you'll see, first of all, Av is probably the first entrance in a Hebrew concordance. The Old Testament concordance. Av is the word, the Hebrew word, for father. It is usually the first mimetic sound of an off an infant's lips when they begin to say av, av, av, av.

They begin to do what we call takuh. It literally means father. It derives from the root which means to will or to desire. The ninth of Av is called the saddest day in the Jewish calendar because of all the tragic events that occurred on the ninth of Av.

The ninth of Av is a fast day to remember these tragedies that befell the Jews during the 21-day period between the 17th of Tamuz and the ninth of Av. This 21-day period is also known as Between the Straits, a three-week period from Tamuz the 17th to the ninth of Av.

There are prohibitions on the ninth of Av that are more stringent than on the day of Atonement. Jews are not allowed, observant Jews, to study certain portions of the Torah and the Torah or Torah, this is pinnateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and the Talmud on the ninth of Av. Certain portions. Some portions they do read. The Sabbath before the ninth of Av is called the Shabbat Chazon, meaning the Sabbath of Vision. On this Shabbat before the ninth of Av, they read the following scriptures. We're going to turn those scriptures. Jeremiah chapter 1.

On the Sabbath before the ninth of Av, they read these scriptures. Jeremiah chapter 1. In Jeremiah chapter 1, the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Eternal came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jeholachim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month in Av.

So that's one of the reasons to read it. Also in Jeremiah 2 and verse 4, Jeremiah 2.4, Hear you the word of the Eternal, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. So it is for everyone to listen to hear in chapter 3 and verse 4.

Will you not from this time cry unto me, my father, which in Hebrew is of, you are the guide of my youth. And they also read Isaiah chapter 1. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 1. So those verses from Jeremiah and then Isaiah chapter 1, 1 through 27. Now I don't know why they don't read 28, 29, and 30, but these would be read in the synagogue. Isaiah chapter 1 is a plea that God makes in which he points out the sins of Israel. In Isaiah chapter 1 verse 1, the vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotha, Ma'ihaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, Hear, O heavens, O give ear, O earth, for the Eternal has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. Of all the nations on the face of the earth, for the past 200 years, the United States of America has been the most favored nation, I suppose you would say, most blessed in so many different ways, with even having an emblem on their coins engraved that says, in God we trust. And America has been known as the home of the brave, the land of the free, the people that liberate people and bring them to freedom, and so on. All the positive things that could be said in that sense. But in the past several decades, especially beginning around the time of World War II and thereafter, the United States has become the exporter of the worst morals that you can possibly imagine to the rest of the world. It has been done primarily through the media, and especially Hollywood. I read an article yesterday that talked about a parent, maybe people are beginning to catch on to what Hollywood is doing. It's only taken them somewhere around 100 years. And they talked about this film about the White House that is currently showing where the box office reports are way down. The ox knows his owner and the ass is master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They are forsaken the eternal. They provoke the Holy One of Israel into anger. They are gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole land is sick and the whole heart faint from the sole of the feet and the head. There is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises, putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, your strangers, devour it in your presence. It is desolate as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage and a vineyard, as a lodge in the garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. And unless God had left you a small remnant, you would be as Sodom and Gomorrah. And the prophecy goes on. You'll notice later in this chapter where God pleads with them in verse 16. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. In essence, do the things that you heard in the sermonette as a nation. And at one time we had community and neighbor in the United States of America, but we no longer have community and neighbor except in small pockets in certain places around the country. The sense of community and that kind of caring and compassion have long passed off the scene. Come now, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, red, they shall be as white as snow, and though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. As you could say, wool represents forgiveness or doing away with.

If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of God has spoken it. And of course, God is long-suffering, merciful, not willing that any should perish. So, sentence against an evil work is not necessarily executed speedily, as it says in the book of Ecclesiastes.

So it's no wonder that they read Isaiah chapter 1. But the thing that is so interesting about the Jews, we could say the same thing about the Catholics, we could say it to some degree about the Protestants, can we say it about the Church of God? And that is, it's like if we go through the ritual, if we read from Jeremiah, if we read from Isaiah, if we do those things, then it makes everything all right. It is like someone asking for prayer and understanding, and not understanding that God heareth not sinners, that you must humble yourself, you must repent before God. If God is going to hear and answer our prayers, then we must humble ourselves before Him. If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, then will I hear from heaven and heal their land. Of course, you heard also in the opening prayer about healing the land, the nation. But there's no one, and even if it is called for, a national day of fasting and prayer, the understanding of what it's all about is so far from us that it's unbelievable. It says in the book of Proverbs that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God. I mean, even the northern kingdom, after they went in, after the kingdom was divided, they were quick to offer sacrifice, do those things, go through the form and through the ritual. You read about this, especially in Amos, the first three or four chapters. But as far as really turning to God, they did not.

Jews believe that the three weeks from the 17th of Tamos to the ninth day of Av are representative of the third day of Hosea 6.2. If we would now, let's turn to Hosea chapter 5. In Hosea chapter 5, I'll continue here after we turn to Hosea 5 of what they believe and then explain what we've always taught in minor prophets. When I use that term, always taught. I don't like that term, but I used it. Just because we've always taught, it doesn't make it true.

Jews believe that the three weeks from the 17th of Tamos to the ninth day of Av are representative of the third day of Hosea 6.2.

The Jews feel that they've been oppressed for 2,000 years, and now the third day or the next 1,000 years, they will be raised up, as in Psalm 90 verse 4, which says, a thousand years is a day with the Lord and a day is a thousand years.

So let's look at the meaning of this Hosea chapter 5.

Hosea 5 verse 1, hear this, O priests, and harken, you house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king, for judgment is toward you, because you have been a snare on Mesop and a net spread up on Tobor. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. I know Ephraim and Israel is not hid from me, for now Ephraim you commit Hordim, and Israel is defiled. When you read these prophecies, basically all the prophets, it's sort of like reading the newspaper today, or watching the news on television. And so here the prophet, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is taking to task Israel. And we will come on down to verse 13. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jerab, yet could he not heal you nor cure you of your wound. So the remedies that are sought today are through various political alliances diplomacy, that kind of thing, with the threat of war ever hanging out here. If you don't fall in line, well we'll cut off your fuel supply, we'll cut off your food supply, and if we have to, we'll go bomb the daylights out of you and bring you into line. For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I even I will tear and go away. I will take away and non shall rescue him. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense.

See, Judah, the Jews, they haven't acknowledged their offense. Well, of course, the early church consisted mainly of Jews because they started preaching the gospel in the environs of Jerusalem and then spread to Samaria, up to Antioch, and then throughout the Mediterranean world, and over toward the east, all the way to Babylon.

And the first century, there were a lot of Jews that were converted, and they weren't all just of the tribe of Judah. You can read about Anna the prophetess and the tribe that she was from, and so on. Or the great feast that Hezekiah, after he restored true worship in Judah, of all those that came from the tribes to the north. This is long after they had gone into captivity. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face. In their affliction, they will seek me early. So this is probably coming down to the time of the great tribulation. Because in the time of great tribulation, eventually many will turn under God. As you read about in Revelation chapter 7, it says, look at this great multitude. Who are these? Well, these are they who have come out of great tribulation and washed their roads. There should be a chapter break. We'll read 15 again and read into 6.

I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face. In their affliction, they will seek me early. Come and let us return unto the eternal, for he hath torn, and he will heal us, he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us. Of course, you also have in Ezekiel chapter 4 verse 6 somewhere along in there where it says, a day for a year that you will do this. Ezekiel was to lie on his side.

After two days will he revive us, or two days can represent two years. The Jews are saying it represents 2,000 years. In the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. The Great Tribulation lasts three and a half years, and in that last year, when the sixth seal is opened, it begins the day of the Lord in God's direct intervention. He begins to deal with the enemies of Israel, the enemies of the Church of God, the enemies that have smitten his people. There's probably, this is what I'm saying here, probably more the correct meaning, understanding of Hosea chapters 5 and first few verses here, than what the Jews think about it. The first Sabbath after the ninth day of Av is called Shabbat Nachamu. It means consolation or be comforted. The Sabbath of consolation and comfort. The Sabbath after the ninth day of Av. So it would be the Sabbath after the 16th of July. I believe the 16th of July, I think, is on a Tuesday. And for the next seven weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah, or Feast of Trumpets, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which point toward consolation and redemption.

During that seven weeks, from the ninth of Av up to the sixth of July, and redemption. During that seven weeks, from the ninth of Av up to Feast of Trumpets and Feast of Atonement, during that seven, roughly seven-week period, they also do, there are a lot of rituals and self-examination that goes on during that period of time. Av is historically represented as a people who mourn, but as the third day nears, it will be a time period represented in the hearts of a people who arise up against their oppressors. So that's back to what they believe with regard to Hosea 6.2. But Israel, the Jews, the Church, is not going to be redeemed and freed by the warfare of the people.

We're going to be redeemed and freed through the return of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is going to fight the battles. And a sharp sword, the word of God, will go out of his mouth and smite the nations. An old adage claims that history does indeed repeat itself. Some say lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place, and that's not true either. And history does repeat itself, and sadly history has repeated itself during the time period between Tammuz 17 and of the ninth. Here are some of the major tragedies that have occurred during this period.

The sin of the spies caused God to decree that the children of Israel, who wanted to return of Egypt, would not be permitted to enter into the Promised Land. So apparently they came back somewhere around the night of Aav. The first temple was destroyed, as Mrs. Eliot brought out, the ninth of Aav. Of course, there's a time period in this in which certainly the wall was breached, and this happened, and that happened, and finally it was burned.

Thirdly, the second temple was destroyed, and Betar, the last fortress holed out against the Romans during the Bar-Kokba revolt, and 135 fell on the night of Aav, or during that time period. See, there was a great revolt led by this man named Bar-Kokba, K-O-C-H-B-A, in 135 AD. And the Jews were crushed in this rebellion, and it's really the last rebellion that the Jews were able to mount against the Romans and to this day, almost 2,000 years later, they still will talk about next year in Jerusalem at feast time. Next one, one year after the fall of Betar, that fortress, the temple area was plowed, Temple Mount. This one is quite dramatic. In 1492, King Ferdinand of Spain issued the expulsion decree, setting the 9th of Aav as the final date by which not a single Jew would be allowed to walk on Spanish soil. The next one, World War I.

And also, they also talk about World War II and the Holocaust. The fast of Temas, according to Rabbi Akb, the interpretation is the fast that is mentioned in the book of Zechariah. Well, no question that it is. Let's turn now to Zechariah chapter 8. Zechariah chapter 8, and there are four fasts that are mentioned here. These fasts are in addition to the fast on the day of Atonement. Zechariah chapter 8.

We'll read verse 19, and then we'll go back and we'll pick up the context. That says the eternal host, the fast of the fourth month, that's Temus, the fast of the fifth month of the fast of the seventh Tishari, the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah, joy and gladness and cheerful feasts thereof love the truth and peace. Thus says the Lord of hosts, it shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities.

So those four fasts are mentioned there.

The fast in the month of Temus was originally on the ninth, but after the destruction of the second temple, the fast was moved to the seventeenth. According to the Mishnah, five calamities befell the Jewish people on Temus 17. Moses broke the two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai. The daily offerings ceased to be brought. The walls of Jerusalem were breached, proceeding to the destruction of the temple. Prior to Bar Copa's revolt in 135, Roman military leader Apostomus burned a Torah scroll, the first five books, and idol was erected in the temple. Now let's go back to verse 13 here in Zechariah 8 and read the context.

Zechariah 8, 13, And it shall come to pass, as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah. And more and more now, the Jews are being blamed for the problems of the world.

And people, even Jews to some degree, are blaming the Jews for the problems of the world.

And of course, this great dilemma of whether or not, what are you going to do about Syria, Hezbollah, what are you going to do about Fattah, that is, the uprising by the Palestinians, what are you going to do about Hamas in Gaza, what are you going to do about Iran getting a nuclear weapon, what are you going to do on and on?

It shall come to pass that as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah, and house of Israel. So will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong. For thus says the Eternal Host, as I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the Eternal Host, and I repented not. So again, have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, fear you not. So God says, in spite of everything, and that's one of the great things about the minor prophets, that they always hold out this hope, this restoration, in spite of all the things that you have done. These are the things which you shall do. In other words, after I deliver you, and I bring you to this point, here's what you do. And very similar, once again, to the Sermonep.

And one of the things you've heard from me for many years of judgment, mercy, and faith. These are the things that you shall do. Speak you ever man the truth to his neighbor, execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor. Love no fault oath for all these things or things that I hate, says the Eternal.

And the word of the Eternal Host came unto me, saying, Thus says the Lord of Hosts. So these four fasts that we named, that we read earlier. Verse 20, Thus says the Eternal Host that shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people and inhabitants of many cities.

Look at that last part of verse 19. The fast of the tenth month shall be to the house of Judah, joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love the truth and peace. Whereas these feasts have been times of mourning because of tragic events in the past, when you turn to God, they're going to change. And it's going to be a time of joy and truth and love and peace.

In verse 21, the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Eternal, seek the Eternal of Hosts. I will go also, yes, many people in strong nations shall come to seek the Eternal of Hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Eternal. Thus, as the Eternal Hosts, in those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. That is the restoration that is going to begin to take place in the millennium. And of course, there is also the fast of Esther, that Esther and her handmaidens did before she went to appear before King Ahasuerus when the evil Haman was trying to destroy all of the Jews. Why Israel would name one of its months Tammuz is strange, very strange in view of what we will read here from Ezekiel 8. Let's go to Ezekiel 8 verse 14.

Why would you name one of the months in the calendar Tammuz? In Ezekiel chapter 8, Ezekiel as a young man, what the ancients would do in warfare, they would go into a land and they would capture the intelligentsia and the young people, those with potential intellectually, those that were educated, those who had the potential to become leaders and some of the leaders, lead them away and they knew if they could expunge the land of those people, then the probability of a revolt was very small.

Now, if you, this is just a fact with regard to the way human beings are, that in the studies, and the Germans really pioneered this in World War II, that if they could identify the 5%, the 5%, just in a general terms of the populace, 5% fall into what is called dominant personality. These are the people from which the leaders come. They are somewhat born this way. You hear the expression and you hear the rhetorical question, are leaders born or are they made? Well, it's a combination of both and sometimes situation circumstance leads to leaderships or people coming to the fore, as we've seen here. Just think of, you go back two years and some of the people who are in performing great things in my view, and I think God is well pleased in the churches of the United Church of God congregations that were sort of sitting on the sidelines in the past.

And what has happened and what has transpired. Then there is the mid-range of people, the mid-dominant personality people, and then there are the low-dominant personality people.

Now, in God's view, God is not a respecter of persons, but we just have people, we have different personality makeup, and the fact is that most of the leaders come from these dominant personality people. And so the ancients recognized that they would take the young people, so they took Ezekiel, they took Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and they took him to Babylon. And Daniel and his three friends were schooled in all of the wisdom of the Babylonians, yet they remained faithful to the true God. So you can go to graduate school in Babylon and yet be faithful to God.

Now, a lot of people, if they go to graduate school, somehow the intellectual vanity takes over and they think, I don't know what they think. I do know that their thinking gets messed up. In a lot of cases, some cases they don't. But, anyhow, Ezekiel was taken there as a young man, and God called him to prophesy back to those who were still there in the environs of Jerusalem. And it also says to the whole house of Israel. In Ezekiel 8, verse 14, Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north. And behold, there sat a woman weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Have you seen this, O Son of Man? Turn you yet again, and you shall see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the eternal house, and he holed at the door of the temple of the eternal between the porch and the altar. About twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the eternal, their faces toward the east, and they worshiped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Have you seen this, O Son of Man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?

Where they have filled the land with violence and have returned to provoke me to anger, and lo, they put the branch to their nose.

Therefore will I also deal in fury. Mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity, and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them as an italics but them.

And sometimes, you know, I wonder after reading Hosea the last verse there in chapter 5, reading verse like this, if we are in that period of time in which God has said, Look, I've had it. I've let you go your own way. You can cry out all you want to. The time has come, and I don't know how quickly it is, but I'm just going to let you have it your way for a season. See what happens. And Hosea says, In their affliction, they shall seek me early. So who is this Tammuz?

It was called by various names, also called the Queen of Heaven, and was the root cause of Israel and Judah going into captivity. So we go back to Jeremiah now, chapter 7, verse 18. Jeremiah 7 and verse 18. Tammuz, also called the Queen of Heaven.

A Jewish website offers the following. Tammuz is the Babylonian name of the fourth month. Of course, it's not the Hebrew name, but it's after they came back from Babylon, it came to be the name that they called it by. Beginning with the summer solstice came a time of mourning the summer solstice. Of course, we've had here, I think, in June the 20th, I believe, where the sun has gone in the northern hemisphere, it has gone as far north as it's going to go. Then it begins to retreat back to the south to wintertime in the shortest day of the year.

Beginning with the summer solstice came a time of mourning in the ancient near east, as in the Aegean, the Aegean there in the sea around Greece. The Babylonians marked both the increase in daylight hours and the onset of killing summer heat and drought with a six-day funeral for the god, which was observed even at the door of the temple in Jerusalem to the horror of Ezekiel. The verses that we've just read speak to the worship of a Babylonian idol known as Tammuz. It seems most odd at first glance that the name would be chosen as the name of a Hebrew month. Now, that is not the god-inspired name of the month. That is the name that the Babylonians gave to it. The prophet Ezekiel was being shown by God the reasons for his great anger against Israel and Judah, namely the various forms of idol worship which had been adapted and adopted by them to replace his divine service. So we read in Jeremiah 7, verse 18, The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire.

The women knead their dough and make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Now, the same thing is happening today. It's just in a different form. It's in a different form.

The Marriage Act overturned by the Supreme Court. Of course, they left it really up to the states to decide. And even though the liberal state of California had passed the proposition that marriage was to be between a man and a woman, yet the Supreme Court overturned the Marriage Act. And who knows what the states will do? Now, several states have already passed laws that okay the marriage of homosexuals. And the funding of contraceptives and also the morning after pill, the federal court has upheld in one case the fact that a business has to provide that quote service. Whereas on the other hand, this past week, a federal court in Oklahoma upheld Hobby Lobby's lawsuit against Sebelius, cabinet member health and welfare, something like that, or title is, Sebelius and President Obama and the administration, where Obamacare says that a business must provide contraceptives, that is the Obamacare, the insurance, the company has to pay for, must provide the contraceptive devices, whatever they may be, the pill or device, and the morning after pill that would abort. And the Hobby Lobby lawsuit was upheld by a federal court in Oklahoma. Now, this appeal thing will go and go, and I would imagine that some court, before it gets to the Supreme Court or the Supreme Court itself, will throw it out. And this article talks about Hobby Lobby's religious orientation. They don't, they close the stores on Sunday. They don't work, even though they're not in the truth, per se, yet they do stand for something in that which is right. Now, how this is going to go, who knows? I'm just saying that this kind of worship, they had this during the days of Jeremiah, and we'll see further about this in Jeremiah 44. In Jeremiah chapter 44, 44, and verse 17, 44-17, read 16, as for the word you have spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto you. That's what the people said to Jeremiah. And, of course, that's what people say today. It seems that no matter what we do with regard to our attempts to reach the public, it is not just, even though this organization of the Church of God may say, oh, we're growing at such and such, really, when all is said and done, virtually nobody's growing. They may be swapping people back in, too, but as far as new people coming through the door and new converts and baptisms, not many.

Verse 17, but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth to burn incense and the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her as we have done.

And our fathers, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of food and were well and saw no evil. So we're just going to keep on doing what we've been doing, no matter what you say. But since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things that have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

And when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men? Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men and to the women, and to tell the people which had given him that answer, saying, The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings, your princes, the people of the land, did not the eternal remember them because it not and came it not into his mind, so that the eternal could no longer bear because of the evil of your doings, because the abominations which you have committed, therefore is your land a desolation and an astonishment and a curse without an inhabitant as in that day.

So, as I said earlier, God is long suffering. He is merciful. He's not willing that any should perish, but judgment is coming. Judgment is coming upon this land and upon the world.

The Jews are still looking for a Messiah who will come and restore the geopolitical fortune as in the days of Solomon, David, and Solomon. According to the teachings of Jewish sages, the Messiah, meaning the anointed one, will be born on the ninth of all. What a paradox! This is what some are saying. Relative to all other souls of Israel, the soul of Messiah who comes to redeem Israel from her state, spiritual as well as physical, is like a groom to his bride. After his birth on the ninth of Ab, he reveals himself to his bride and betroles her on the fifteenth of Ab. He will hold the office of King, rebuild the third temple on the location of the present-day Temple Mount. He will be born to the tribe of Judah, whose symbol is the lion representing the month of Ab, as in Genesis 49.9 and Revelation 5.5. Of course, this prophecy, the prophecy of a Messiah to come and that which is prophesied in Genesis and that which is spoken of in Revelation 5, is referring to Jesus Christ indeed, who is the lion of the tribe of Judah, who has already come. But the Jews are still looking for a Messiah who will come and restore their geopolitical fortunes, as in the days of David and Solomon. Look at John 5.39, and this is why Jesus Christ said what he said, "...Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and there they which testify of me, and you will not come to me, that you might have life. I receive not honor from men, but I know you that you have not the love of God in you." And in one place in the Gospels, it says that a greater than Solomon is here. Jesus Christ. The Jews are still looking for this Messiah. This paves the way for the false Messiah that we've talked about in recent sermons, 2 Thessalonians 2, the man of sin who sits in the temple of God, saying that he is God. So this great unrest in Israel at the present time in the Middle East is a virtual powder keg ready to explode at any time. A recent news item reported that Israel is ready to go alone against Iran. However, in one sense, that's secondary to the problems they have right on their doorsteps. As we have mentioned, Syria has belonged in Syria and Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Palestinians and Fatah, and all of these neighbors that surround them.

And now the Syrian situation has now brought the latent conflict, the underlying situation between East and West to a crisis point. The eventual showdown will be, in a sense, between East and West. As you read in Daniel 11, the last couple of verses says, The news out of the North and the East shall trouble him, that is, this beast power and this great conflict. Do you think that God is unaware of what's happening in the Middle East and all over the world on this historic date, whatever that date may be? As the people of the U.S. focus on escapism, Satan continues to draw the news tighter and tighter around the next of the peoples of the world. And I wonder at times if we are really aware. Of course, God is allowing these things to happen as the day of God's vengeance takes place. Could things go on for another 10 to 20 years? Of course, if it's God's will. But apart from repentance and God's intervention, the world is on a collision course with disaster. The Iraqi nuclear reactor that was destroyed by Israel is connected to the name Tammuz. If you remember the Israelis back in 1980 bombed the reactor that Saddam Hussein had built. Basically, you got it from the French. This is quite a story. It was called Tammuz 1 and Tammuz 2, and it's connected with Saddam succeeding the previous ruler of Iraq on Tammuz 17. So some call the reactor Tammuz 17. It's called Tammuz 1. Tammuz 1 was destroyed in France before they were able to get it to the Iraqis. And then Tammuz 2, which the Jews called Osarik, a combination of the two words.

So I'm going to read here what it says. When Iraq came shopping for a nuclear reactor, France found the offer of oil at favorable prices too good to pass up. The potential profit from weapons sales was another consideration.

In 1975, the French agreed to sell Iraq a 70-megawatt Osiris reactor and a low-grade 1-megawatt ISIS training reactor. Italy, with similar motivations, agreed to provide a plant to process nuclear fuel and separate the plutonium.

In 1976, work began on a nuclear complex at Al-Tawatha near a bend in the Tigris River.

The French name for the large reactor was Osarik. O-S-I-R-A-K. It's a combination of Osiris and Iraq. Saddam and the Iraqi leaders named the reactors Tomuz I and II. After Tomuz 17, June 17, the date of the takeover in 1958 from the previous regime.

Outside of Iraq, both the large reactor and the nuclear complex continued to be known as Osarik. In 1978, France agreed to Iraq's demands for a highly enriched uranium suitable for military purposes to fuel the reactors, refusing an Israeli appeal to substitute lower-grade caramel fuel.

In April 1979, two reactor cores were destroyed by sabotage in France just before they were to be shipped to Iraq. This set back the project by six months. They blamed Israeli intelligence Mossad Agency for it. The small ISIS-Tomuz II reactor was activated in February 1980. In June 1980, the first shipment of enriched uranium arrived in Iraq. Israel appealed to France, and Italy cut off assistance and sought support without much result from the U.S. and others. As Saddam Hussein was not yet the international pariah, he became after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Even the United States, Israel's greatest ally, was somewhat favorably disposed toward Saddam, who went to war with Iran in September 1980.

The U.S. regarded Iran, which had recently held 52 Americans hostage for more than a year, as its main enemy in the area. Bucking the trend, CIA Director William Casey gave Israel almost unlimited access to imagery from the USKH-11 reconnaissance satellite.

And so the Jews led by the Israelis, not Mr. Bailey, but Menachem Begin, sent fighter planes and bombers, and they took out that reactor.

Here's part of a newspaper account of that bombing on June 7, 1981. Israel bombs Baghdad nuclear reactor. The Israelis have bombed a French-built nuclear plant near Iraq's capital, Baghdad, saying they believed it was designed to make nuclear weapons to destroy Israel. So this news of this possibility of a nation that's an enemy of Israel getting a nuclear bomb has been there all along. Pakistan has a bomb, and Pakistan is a home of probably more terrorists than any nation on the face of the earth. And yet, of course, we try to walk a fine line with Pakistan.

So, brethren, I hope that we realize the critical nature of the times in which we lived, and yet we are so blessed that we have had the past two years here have been so wonderful in so many ways here in the Church of God. But let us not bury our heads in the sand and let us not forget what the world is going through at the present time. We know of the suffering in our immediate area. People all over the world are suffering. Many people fear the cataclysmic events associated with the end of the age. They had rather engaged themselves with some kind of escapism than to face the reality of the times. The day of the Lord will come upon them as a thief in the night. They are willingly ignorant. They pretend. They are in a state of denial. The veil remains on the face of most of the people on the face of the earth to this day, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3. Sadly, there are many in the U.S. who willingly choose to remain ignorant.

According to Revelation 11, the Temple Mount will be divided, given over to the nations for a period of 1260 days. Jerusalem will be surrounded by enemies, as in Zechariah 12. And then God will deliver and a remnant will be saved. Look at Zechariah 12. Zechariah 12. The burden of the word of the Eternal for Israel says, The Eternal which stretched forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. Verse 9, It shall come to pass in that day, when is that, as we merge into the millennium, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour out upon the house of David, upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one mourned for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Now we look at Micah, back a few pages, chapter 4. Micah chapter 4 speaks of the remnant that will be delivered.

But in the last days, the time of the beginning of the millennium, it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, shall be exalted above the hills, and many people shall walk in it.

Verse 7, And I will make her that halts a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation, and the eternals shall reign over them in Mount Zion, henceforth and for ever more.

Now finally, in Revelation chapter 1, you should read all of Micah 4. You should read all of Micah. You should come to Bible study. You should learn.

In Revelation chapter 1, this is the day we're looking forward to.

Revelation 1.7, Behold, he comes with clouds. Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierce him.

And all kindred of the earth shall wail because him, even so, Amen. In other words, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.