Today is the 9th of Av on the Hebrew Calendar, also known as Tisha b’Av. Today is a day of mourning and fasting in Israel because it’s a day that commemorates a list of catastrophes for the Jewish people.
On this day in HIS STORY, the 10 spies returned with their “bad report”.
In approximately 1313BC, the Israelites had just been brought out of Egypt by the Mighty Hand of God through His servant Moses. In Numbers 13, God told Moses to send 12 spies to spy out the land that HE (God) would be giving the Israelites.
Numbers 13: Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 2 “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them
Moses sent out 12 spies on a reconnaissance mission in order to spy out the land that God had promised to give them. They returned 40 days later, on the 9th of Av, to “report” on what Moses and the Israelites were facing in the Promised Land, the Land of Canaan. They reported that the land was indeed a land “flowing with milk and honey”, but there was a “catch”.
Numbers 13:33 There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
The inhabitants of the land were HUGE , fierce looking GIANTS. Somehow the flood had not completely wiped out the Nephilim who were the offspring of the fallen angels and human women (Genesis 6). The spies reported to Moses and the Israelite people that they were TINY compared to the GIANT inhabitants of the land. Only 2 spies (Joshua and Caleb) had enough FAITH in God that they felt the Nephilim could be overcome with the help of YHWH. The other 10 spies were terrified and said that there was NO WAY the Israelites could defeat this GIGANTIC and FIERCE people. God had just told the Israelites that HE would give them the Promised Land; however, the ten spies with the “bad report” frightened the people into not believing God. Let’s also remember that the Israelites had just WITNESSED GOD’S massive MIRACLES including the parting of the Red Sea, but when faced with GIANTS, they did NOT trust GOD. Not only this, but they began to grumble and complain, plotting to overthrow their God appointed leader, Moses, and find themselves a new leader who would lead them BACK to EGYPT! Of course, this wasn’t okay with God.
Numbers 14:4: So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
The Israelites would rather be slaves in EGYPT without GOD then FREE with God so long as they did not have to face the giants. For some reason, this reminds me of the Matrix. As a Metaphor, when we take the “blue pill”, we can continue to believe all is well, but remain a slave to sin, not even recognizing that there is sin in the world, and this eventually leads to our ultimate demise. Some people would rather remain slaves in a comfortable prison cell than fight to be free. But, when we take the red pill, we have to face the ugly reality that there is an enemy (a giant) who has deceived the entire world. Could the Red Pill be a metaphor for the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth? The Good news is that God doesn’t awaken His people to the reality of bondage and sin just to hand us over to the enemy. As God asked the Israelites to TRUST HIM…He asks us also to TRUST HIM.
But, still, MANY would rather remain in their comfy prison cell than to have their eyes OPENED and TRUST in JESUS CHRIST to defeat the GIANT (satan) and set them FREE. Because of the Israelite’s lack of faith and trust in God on the 9th of Av (even though they had SEEN God’s Miracles), God determined that they wander in the Wilderness for 40 years, until the entire adult generation of unbelievers died. Of that generation, ONLY Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who TRUSTED GOD, would enter the Promised Land.
Numbers 32:11 ‘None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully, 12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have followed the Lord fully.’ 13 So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord was destroyed.
I have to laugh at this whole “woke” movement. Only those who have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are truly “AWAKE (opposite of “woke”). Jesus has awakened us to the ugly reality that we are all born in bondage to sin and we cannot FREE OURSELVES……but in Christ, there is REMEDY! Jesus has set us FREE from the BONDAGE of the sin that has ENSLAVED EVERY human being since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden! Hallelujah! (Praises to YAH!). Understanding this..understanding the Spiritual battle on Planet Earth…is the true definition of “woke”.
Also on the 9th of Av, both Jewish Temples burned to the ground.
The First Temple was destroyed on the 9th of Av (586 BC). Five centuries later (in 70 AD), as the Romans drew closer to the Second Temple, ready to torch it, the Jews were shocked to realize that the Second Temple was destroyed on the same day as the first. The destruction of the 2nd Temple actually was the fulfillment of Jesus’ Words 40 YEARS earlier, just before His Crucifixion.
Matthew 24: Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. 2 And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”
The Israelites were forced to wander in the Wilderness for 40 years after the bad report on the 9th of Av, until that generation perished. The Jewish people were given 40 years after Jesus’ Crucifixion before the 2nd Jewish Temple was burned to the ground on the 9th of Av. Both Temples were burned to the ground because of sin, idolatry, and UNBELIEF.
There is definitely SOMETHING about this day in HIS story. Other notable events and calamities that ON THIS DAY…the 9th of Av.
The Jews Were Banished From Spain:
In 1492, the Golden Age of Spain came to a close when Queen Isabella and her husband Ferdinand ordered that the Jews be banished from the land. The edict of expulsion was signed on March 31, 1492, and the Jews were given exactly four months to put their affairs in order and leave the country. The Hebrew date on which no Jew was allowed any longer to remain in the land was the 9th of Av.
Both World Wars Began:
World War II and the Holocaust, historians conclude, was actually the long drawn-out conclusion of World War I that began in 1914. And yes, amazingly enough, Germany declared war on Russia, effectively catapulting the First World War into motion, on the 9th of Av, Tisha b’Av.
The 9th of Av is the 9th day of the 11th Hebrew month of Av. Though not the 9th of Av, many people believe that America’s 9/11 has a connection to the 9th of Av because it is the 11th day of the 9th month on the Gregorian Calendar. Perhaps those who perpetrated this attack understood this?
What do we make of all this? Jews see this as another confirmation of the deeply held conviction that history isn’t haphazard; events – even terrible ones – are part of a Divine plan and have spiritual meaning.
The 9th of Av seems to harken back to the beginning, and do we TRUST God to deliver us from the giant, or do we TRUST OURSELVES? Would we rather return to Egypt, to our comfy prison cells, or would we rather know the TRUTH, face the GIANT, and TRUST GOD to DELIVER US?
On the 9th of Av, 2017, a Wisconsin Company held a “chip party”.
Company leaders said this is the first U.S. appearance of technology already available in Europe. Coincidence? What if the Mark of the Beast, a technology per Revelation 12 that will be necessary to “buy or sell” anything during the Great Tribulation, is a type of chip like what they implanted in Wisconsin on the 9th of Av?
Revelation 13:17: and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
What if those chips someday incorporate crispr technology allowing them to alter or add the DNA of fallen angels to human DNA (days of Noah?) remaking human beings from the image of God to the image of the beast?? We know that whoever takes the mark will no longer be forgivable by the blood of Jesus, so there is SOMETHING very significant about this mark.
Revelation 13:14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who *had the wound of the sword and has come to life.
Come, let us “reason together”. Both Jewish Temples were destroyed on the 9th of Av, hundreds of years apart. The New Testament makes it clear that our human bodies, those who BELIEVE in Jesus and have the HOLY SPIRIT, are NOW the Temple of God
1 Corinthians 6:19: Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 3:16: Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Isn’t it POSSIBLE that something that could ultimately lead to the DESTRUCTION of the Temple (our human bodies) be instituted on the 9th of Av? Is that out of the realm of possibility? And..they had this chipping party on the 9th of Av in 2017, the same year that we had the Great American Eclipse. Was this a warning? Just to be clear, we DO NOT believe that the people who have been chipped have already taken the mark of the Beast OR that the people who scheduled this “chipping party” were even aware of the significance of the day that they chose. The Bible is clear..the mark won’t be instituted until the 1st and 2nd beast (antichrist/false prophet) are on the scene (Revelation 13)..but could the “god of this world” potentially be sending a message about a FUTURE event…that may even begin in some year, on the 9th of Av? Some people even “see” 9/11 and the destruction of the twin towers as a “shadow” or a metaphor for the planned future destruction of DNA strands and the creation of something else (image of beast)..in the destruction of the twin towers and the creation of the One World Tower.
At this point, we seek the Holy Spirit for WISDOM and and keep an open mind as to how these Last Days events will unfold. There definitely seems to be this curiosity, or dare I say even a “push” to encourage people to find out about their own DNA with all of these “23 and me” type kits. We must pay heed to the warnings in the book of Revelation, the ONLY book in the Bible that tells us we will be BLESSED if we read or listen to the book (Rev. 1:3). With all of this negative activity on the 9th of Av, I have to wonder if Adam and Eve “fell” into sin on that day. Could the destruction of this day have begun that long ago? It seems like a day of banishment and exile. Could it be that the 9th of Av was the day that Adam and Eve FIRST ate the nasty fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?? That’s just something that I wonder….especially since God tells us that He declares the END OUT OF the BEGINNING.
Isaiah 46:9: “Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
During the Great Tribulation, the Bride of Christ will be gone (Raptured), and only those who had not given their lives to Jesus Christ, including the Jewish people, will remain. The age of Grace will be over and God will turn His attention (focus) back to the Jewish people during the Tribulation period. During this time, the Mark of the Beast will be required to buy or sell, and it’s very likely that if anyone refuses the mark, they will die. That’s a pretty big giant. Will the Jewish people, or even Gentiles who come to Christ during this period, be able to TRUST GOD (represented by the TWO WITNESSES in JERUSALEM (Rev. 11:1-14) who will be like Joshua and Caleb... the two “Good” spies), or will they, out of fear of the GIANT, believe the “bad report” and take the Mark so that they can remain in ignorance and bondage, and survive………….for awhile?
Also interesting to note, today on the 9th of Av, there was major unrest in Israel on the Temple Mount, the location where there will eventually be a 3rd Temple constructed.
This year, 1,729 Jews ascended the Temple Mount, up from 1,440 last year.
By United with Israel Staff
Despite Arab rioting and clashes with Israeli police, 1,729 Jews visited the Temple Mount on Sunday.
Tisha b’Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, which commemorates the destruction of the first and second Holy Temple in Jerusalem, fell on Sunday this year (2019).
The number of visitors marking the occasion shows an increase of 20 percent since last year on Tisha b’Av, when 1,440 Jews visited the holy site.
Initially, the police decided to ban Jewish visits on Sunday, fearing Arab violence. They reversed the decision despite the riots.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/jewish-visits-to-temple-mount-on-tisha-bav-up-20/
Update: Tisha B’Av (9th of Av) is on August 6, 2022
