Biblical Significance of the Month of Av (5786)

The month of Av is the key month in the commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem, first by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian armies, and later by Titus and the Roman armies in the year 70 AD. It stands as one of the darkest hours in Israel's history.

On the ninth of Av, Tisha B'Av, Israel commemorates these two great tragedies together. On the very same day of the Jewish calendar, centuries apart, the temple was destroyed twice, once by the Babylonians and once by Rome. In both cases, these were moments of judgment for the people of Israel, and it is the prophet Jeremiah who speaks most fully about them.

Why the Judgment Came

In the opening chapters of his book, Jeremiah explains at length why God allowed the temple to be destroyed and the people to be taken captive. This was not simply about what was happening in that single moment of history. It was the outcome of centuries of accumulated sin, reaching back long before, even to the days of the judges and King Saul.

For nearly a thousand years, the Lord sent prophets “morning and evening, rising up early and staying up late,” to warn the people. Generation after generation sinned and trespassed against His commandments, and generation after generation, God sent another prophet to call them back. Finally, in the sixth century before Christ, judgment came, and it was irrevocable. The Lord even declared in Jeremiah 15:10:

“Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth”. 

It is worth noting that Jeremiah calls Nebuchadnezzar “my servant” (Jeremiah 25:9), not because he was righteous, but because God used him to carry out the judgment Israel's sin had made necessary.

Several reasons for the judgment appear again and again in the text:

• Pride, and a lack of the fear of God in the heart and mind.

• A constant pursuit of new traditions and foreign ways, adopting the practices of surrounding nations instead of seeking the Lord.

• A lack of sin consciousness, saying, “Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me” (Jeremiah 2:35).

• Confessions that did not match conduct, calling out “My father, thou art the guide of my youth” while continuing in wrongdoing, “thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest” (Jeremiah 3:4–5).

• False prophets who kept declaring peace and prosperity, when God had never sent that message at all.

The Mills of God Grind Slowly

An old saying puts it well: “The mills of God grind slowly.” It means that when it comes to nations, to the church, or to Israel, God rarely judges immediately. He is always giving grace, always giving room and time for repentance. In Israel's case, it took centuries before judgment finally came.

This is not unique to Israel. In Genesis 15, when God made a covenant to give Abraham the land, He also said plainly that the land would not be given right away, “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16). It took another four hundred years before Israel could enter Canaan, and before God was ready to judge the nations already living there. Judgment, when it comes, comes only after a long season of patience.

An Unrelenting Word from Jeremiah

One passage stands out with particular weight, found in Jeremiah 15. The Lord says to Jeremiah:

“Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth” (Jeremiah 15:1).

In other words, even if Israel's two greatest intercessors stood and pleaded, God would not relent from the judgment already decided.

The passage continues in verse 2:

“Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity” (Jeremiah 15:2). 

This finds a striking echo in Revelation 13:10, concerning the rise of the beast and its war against the saints:

“He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” 

What this shows is that a time is coming when God will bring judgment, first on the church, and then, as the book of Revelation makes clear, on the whole world. It will be an absolutely settled judgment. There may come a day when, as in Jeremiah's time, God says, “I am not changing my mind.” In that hour, believers will need two qualities above all else: faith, and endurance. Endurance here means more than patience. It means a willingness to suffer for the Lord's sake.

The Gospel Always Included This Warning

This is not a message invented to frighten people. It was part of the original gospel preaching of the apostles. In Acts 10:42, Peter tells Cornelius exactly what Yeshua commanded the disciples to preach, “that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.”

The same emphasis appears in Acts 17:30, where Paul stands among the philosophers in Athens and concludes his message this way:

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.”

Paul does not soften this. He invites people to trust in Yeshua and to receive healing and life, but he is equally direct in calling them to repent,

“because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

This is not a passing detail. It is God's fixed and irrevocable purpose for all mankind, that a day of judgment is coming.

This is why the month of Av remains so critical for the church. It recalls a season in Israel's history when God judged the nation, first through Babylon, then through Rome, and it stands as a warning that something similar awaits the world in the last days.

The relentlessness of God's judgment on Israel had only one way out, and it was not the intercession of great men and women of God, valuable as intercession is. Jeremiah makes clear, again and again, that the only thing that could truly deliver the people was repentance. As it is written in Jeremiah 4:1–2:

“If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.” 

This passage asks two things of the church today.

• Remember that it was part of the gospel message preached by both Peter and Paul, that God will one day judge the world just as He judged Israel, and that in these days the church will need faith and endurance.

• Recognize that this is also a time when God is calling the church, in particular, to return and to repent, to turn back to Him and turn away from sin. It is a time to invite the Holy Spirit to search every heart, to reveal any falsehood within, as the Psalms describe, and to fill each life afresh so believers can be bold lights and faithful witnesses in the dark days ahead.

  
  

No one knows exactly when these things will come. They may still be years away, or they may come very soon. Yet just as God dealt with the people of Israel, He is also dealing with the church, and with the nations of the world today.

This is something to be taken seriously, inviting the Holy Spirit to use His people as His voice and His witness in these prophetic times. This has not been an easy message, but it belongs to the fullness of the gospel that the word of God teaches, and may it be a blessing to all who read it.