Session 2. A Day That Will Live in Infamy

When we study prophesy, we are exploring the subject of the future and time. These are hard subjects

and almost certainly can cause confusion. We have a hard time grasping how God sees time. We see

scripture like 2 Peter 3:8 that says that “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand

years is like a day.” and try to grasp just how our God looks at this thing called time. That verse seems

to indicate that he is not limited by time in any way. When we see how God loved David and Moses

even though He knew their future flaws and sins, it is astonishing. He even went so far as to say David

was a man after his own heart. In this study we are going to look at a topic that is not specifically

prophetic but is an absolutely amazing example of how much in control of time our God is.

The Jewish culture has observed a different calendar than what we use for over 5,700 years. This

Hebrew calendar is what is called a lunisolar based calendar which typically follows the phases of the

moon with periodic adjustments to synchronize to the Solar year. All Jewish holidays and feasts have

dates on the Jewish calendar. Since our Lord was crucified in the time period associated with the

Jewish Passover feast our holiday of Easter changes dates on the Gregorian calendar. The Passover

starts on the 15

day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. By this point you are probably wondering what

importance this could possibly have to us. We are going to review some sad stories about the Jewish

people both biblical and historical. I think you will be amazed at how much they say about the

omniscience of our God.

Let’s read Numbers 13:31-32 and see how the explorers

of the promised land reported what they had seen when

they returned from their explorations. Then read Numbers

14:1-4 to hear how the Israel Nation reacted to the news.

Finally, let’s look at how God felt about their behavior in

Numbers 14: 11-12.

1. Describe the attitude of the Israelites towards the

situation.

2. In reviewing Numbers 14:11-12 how would you

describe God’s feelings at this point?

Numbers 14:1-4 NIV Bible

1 That night all the members of the community

raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the

Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and

the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had

died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! 3 Why is the

Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by

the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as

plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to

Egypt?” 4 And they said to each other, “We should

choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Numbers 13:31-32 NIV Bible

31 But the men who had gone up with him said,

“We can’t attack those people; they are stronger

than we are.” 32 And they spread among the

Israelites a bad report about the land they had

explored. They said, “The land we explored

devours those living in it. All the people we saw

there are of great size.

3. What two things does God point out about the people?

4. Please read Numbers 14:28-30. After Moses had pleaded with God to not destroy the nation what

was the terrible consequence that God pronounced upon the people?

Keep this last event in mind, which was a consequence

of God’s anger for unbelief and contempt, as we look

at another sad story from the old testament later in the

history of the Jewish nation. Read 2 Kings 24:18-20.

It is the phrase we see often in the old testament

concerning the Jewish kings, “He did evil in the eyes of

the Lord.” This appears to be the “last straw” for God.

5. What does God do in the end?

2 Kings 25 describes the horrific scene that occurs let’s

read a crucial section in verses 8 and 9.

6. What happened to the temple of the Lord?

Numbers 14:11-12 NIV Bible

11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these

people treat me with contempt? How long will

they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the

signs I have performed among them? 12 I will

strike them down with a plague and destroy them,

but I will make you into a nation greater and

stronger than they.”

Numbers 14:28-30 NIV Bible

28 So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the

Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you

say: 29 In this wilderness your bodies will fall—

every one of you twenty years old or more who

was counted in the census and who has grumbled

against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I

swore with uplifted hand to make your home,

except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of

Nun.

2 Kings 24:18-20 NIV Bible

18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he

became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven

years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter

of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 19 He did evil

in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had

done. 20 It was because of the Lord’s anger that all

this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the

end he thrust them from his presence. Now

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

2 Kings 25:8-9 NIV Bible

8 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the

nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of

Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial

guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to

Jerusalem. 9 He set fire to the temple of the Lord,

the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem.

Every important building he burned down.

All this started on the 7

day of the fifth Hebrew month.

If you read all the things that happened (ch. 25) I can

imagine it took a couple of days to accomplish. Not

only was the level of destruction heartbreaking, but the

nation of Judah was taken into captivity into Babylon.

How terrible a day for the Jewish people! Now let’s

change to another terrible day predicted by Jesus. Read

Matthew 24:1.

7. Jesus was referring to the temple of his day which was also known as the Second Temple. What does

he say will happen to it?

And Now, the Rest of the Story

So now, at this point, you are wondering what the point for studying these events is. Here is the point.

All three of these events are recorded by the Jewish people to have happened on exactly the same day

on their Hebrew calendar. The date is the 9

of Av. The 5

month discussed in 2 Kings the 25

chapter

is Av. The temple destruction started on the 7

of Av and I would guess lasted 2 days. I wonder what

the mathematical chances are that 3 absolutely devastating events (national tragedies) would happen on

the same date on the calendar?

1. The Israelites are condemned to wander 40 years in the desert for unbelief and contempt for the

Lord.

2. The First Temple (Solomon’s Temple) is destroyed because the evil of the nation.

3. The Second Temple is destroyed by Rome in 70 AD while quelling a rebellion. Maybe the reason for

this is because the Jewish people were unbelieving and contemptuous towards God (Showing contempt

and rejecting Jesus)? That is speculation on my part but it seems logical to me.

Wrap up

Unfortunately, the day that will live in infamy continued after 70 AD. Here are a few more historical

events that the Jewish web site chabad.org mentions

happened on the 9

of Av:

4. The Fall of Betar (133 AD) – Another rebellion against Rome is crushed. About 580,000 Jews died

of starvation and war.

Matthew 24:1 NIV Bible

1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away

when his disciples came up to him to call his

attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these

things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone

here will be left on another; every one will be

thrown down.”

5. Expulsion from England (1290 AD) – The Jewish people were expelled from England by King

Edward I.

6. Expulsion from Spain (1492 AD) – The Jewish people were expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand

and Queen Isabella.

God is omniscient. He knows all things. He is not limited by time. In fact, you can see his presence in

aspects of events concerning when they happen. I hope this study has demonstrated just how in control

our God is. I think we need that understanding to be able to firmly believe the prophecies that are yet to

come. The Jewish people mark the 9

of Av (in Hebrew Tisha B’Av) as a day of fasting. The

destruction of the two temples mark the descent into exile for the Jewish nation. These events landing

all on the same day of the Hebrew year is not a coincidence. It is a sign that God is control of time.

Finally, I relay one of the most heartrending stories concerning the 9

of Av. It was the height of WWII

and Germany was implementing one of the most horrific plans ever conceived by man. This

information is provided by the Jewish web site Aish.com

The beginning of the end of the Warsaw Ghetto coincided with Tisha B'Av. Indeed, it was the

day of Tisha B'Av itself, July 23, 1942, that the first trainload of Jews arrived at their destination,

Treblinka, and sent to the gas chambers.

Remarkably, it was one year earlier, on July 31, 1941 (on the evening of the 8th of Av), that

Hermann Goring signed a document to implement the "final solution of the Jewish problem," i.e.

extermination. The Nazis had been killing Jews since the beginning, but not in a truly systematic

fashion. Einsatzgruppen firing squads, which gunned down more than a million Jews, proved

expensive and messy. Ghettos were disease-ridden, a bureaucratic nightmare to run, and

ultimately too slow achieving the goal of extermination.

Treblinka, one of six death camps, was an entirely new phenomenon: a "factory of death." Built

with renowned German industrial genius, it existed for the single purpose of murdering mass

numbers of people, mostly Jews – in the quickest, most cost effective way possible.

Treblinka was the destination for most of Warsaw's Jews. It was roughly the size of two football

fields, and utilized only about 20 SS police and 80 Ukrainian guards. In its 14 months of

existence, more than 800,000 Jews were gassed to death.

The Final Solution was decreed the day before Tisha B'Av 1941, and the cattle cars left Warsaw,

the largest ghetto with 400,000 Jews, on Tisha B'Av 1942.