The month of Av is the fifth month of the Jewish calendar. It occurs in either July or August of our calendar. The ninth of Av which occurs on August 6 this year (2022) has seen many tragedies for the Jewish people. It is no coincidence that so many tragic events for the Jewish people have occurred on the same day. There are no other nations who have seen so many tragic events happen on the same day. Look at America. We had the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, the attacks on the World trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, the first attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, and other tragedies, but they are never all on the same day the way things happened for the Jews. Other nations are the same. I believe God has had these events happen over and over on the same day as a way to show the Jewish people that God controls everything and the people need to turn to God and specifically Jesus for their salvation. God is always trying to wake the Jewish people up and bring them to Jesus. God brought these judgments on the same day to get the Jewish people to turn from their many sins over the years. The Jews have long mourned and fasted on the 9th of Av. They mourn over the destruction of Solomon’s temple on this day and later Herod’s temple on the same day. They look forward to their coming Messiah to restore all things, not realizing that their Messiah is Jesus who already came for them and was rejected by them. (Zechariah 7:3 And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?) (Zechariah 7:5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?) The Jews usually mourn and fast for the first eight days as well starting on the first of Av which is the day that Aaron died. (Numbers 33:38 And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month.) We will look at just some of the things that have occurred on the 9th of Av.
The first tragic event on the ninth of Av was when the twelve spies returned from searching out the future Promised Land and they gave an evil report saying that there were giants in the land and they could not take the land and all of their young ones would be killed. They admitted the land had great fruit and was a land of milk and honey as God said, but they did not trust God to take care of them as he had when they left Egypt and crossed the Red sea, and when God gave them water from the rock. (Numbers 13:27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.) God provided food, but they did not believe God. Only Caleb and Joshua believed God, but the other ten did not. Because of their evil report and disbelief in God, God killed the ten men that day and the Israelites wondered in the wilderness for an additional 38 more years for a total of 40 years when they could have crossed into the Promised Land. (Numbers 14:37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.) All of the people above 20 years old except Caleb and Joshua, God killed in the wilderness and they did not enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief. God kept the young ones that the people were so worried about. (Numbers 14:29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,) (Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.)
Solomon’s temple was destroyed on the ninth of Av by the Babylonians in 586 BC (some say 587 BC). Solomon’s temple was the first temple and was the most glorious building ever built. It was filled with gold all around it as well as the many objects in it though later they were made of brass. This was the place that worship was centered for the Jewish people to worship God. This was where the animal sacrifices were done. The Jews today still mourn over the loss of this temple and its grandeur as they long to restart animal sacrifices believing this is necessary for their salvation when it was only meant to point them to Jesus. The animal blood only covered their sins, but never forgave them. Only the blood of Jesus can. (Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.)
Herod’s temple was the second temple and was rebuilt as Zerubbabel’s temple when the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity and then later expanded by Herod. This temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 also on the ninth of Av. This temple was never as glorious as the first as God did not dwell in this temple like he did in Solomon’s. God allowed both of these temple’s to be destroyed due to the sin of the Jewish people. With the resurrection of Jesus there is also no need for a temple as all Christians are a temple of God. (I Corinthians 3:16-17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.) There is also no need for animal sacrifices anymore as Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross did away with the need for them. The Jews have never been able to have animal sacrifices since and they will one day build a third temple during the tribulation and restart animal sacrifices. The antichrist will desecrate the temple during the midpoint of the tribulation and I would not be surprised if it is not once again on the ninth of Av.
A fourth major tragedy occurred on the ninth of Av exactly one year later in 71 when the Romans plowed the temple mount and the whole city of Jerusalem with salt to show complete victory over the Jews and to keep anything from growing. Micah predicted this event. (Micah 3:12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.)
A fifth event was the destruction of the Jewish army led by Simon Bar Cochba in 135 on the ninth of Av. The Jews no longer had an army anymore after this date until modern Israel in 1948. The Roman historian Dio Cassius said 580,000 Jewish soldiers died by the sword and many others died by fire and famine. Simon had been a false Messiah that Jesus had warned about. (John 5:43 I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.) The Jews rejected the true Messiah in Jesus yet they jumped on the bandwagon to follow Simon in droves. How sad that they were so blind to follow a counterfeit, yet reject the true Messiah in Jesus.
A sixth major event was the expulsion of Jews from England by king Edward I in 1290 on the ninth of Av. It is estimated there were 3,000 Jews living in England at the time. Jews were forbidden to legally live in England for almost 360 years. They were allowed to return in the 1650’s under Cromwell. England only truly began to grow as a nation with the return of the Jewish people. She would become a great empire until she once again betrayed the Jews following World War II which cost her her empire.
Spain expelled all Jews on the ninth of Av in 1492, an estimated 800,000 Jews. The Spanish empire went into decline from this point forward just like England. God warned that he would bless those who bless Israel and would curse those who cursed Israel. God showed this not only with England and Spain, but also in other nations. Do not mess with God’s chosen people or you will reap what you sow. (Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.) Christopher Columbus left Spain on this same day in 1492 and ultimately discovered the New World which would become a haven for Jews. There is some evidence that Christopher Columbus was a Jew, so this would be a good day to leave on his voyage. Much of the money to pay for this trip was money confiscated from the Jews. Both England and Spain were Roman Catholic nations showing the long time hatred of Jews by the Roman Catholic Church.
An eighth major event on the ninth of Av was in 1914 when Russia entered World War I. This caused the Jews to be greatly persecuted by Russia and forced many to leave Russia for the land that would eventually become Israel in 1948.
Some other events that happened on the ninth of Av are in 136 the Romans rebuilt Jerusalem and renamed it Aelia Capitolina and the land was renamed Palaestina to try and keep the Jews from thinking of this as their homeland and prevent rebellion. This is where we get the name Palestine from which has caused great harm to the people of Israel in our day. There never has been a Palestinian people as this was a made up land that belonged to Israel.
The First Crusade was declared by Pope Urban II in 1096 which resulted in the deaths of 10,000 Jews on that first day of the ninth of Av.
France another Roman Catholic nation expelled all Jews on the ninth of Av in 1306 many of whom had come to France after leaving England after their expulsion from there.
In 1555 on the ninth of Av, the pope forced all Jews living in Rome to live in ghettos.
Heinrich Himmler was given approval for the Final Solution on the ninth of Av in 1941 to kill the Jews in what became the Holocaust. On the same day in 1942 the death camp Treblinka became operational. Over six million Jews would be killed in the Holocaust.
There have been other minor events that have occurred on the ninth of Av for the Jewish people. There is no way that all of these things could happen to one people on the same day unless God was involved in allowing them to happen on the same day. No nation even comes close to having major events happen on the same day the way the Jewish people have had. One person estimated the odds of the eight major events happening on the same day was 1 chance in over 863 quadrillion clearly showing that these events did not happen by random chance, but rather by the sovereignty of God. The number would be much greater if the other events were included. This is one big proof that God exists and that God is involved in the lives of his chosen people to try and bring them to Jesus. God is also involved in all nations despite what many people believe.
