Tikkun Global
Jerusalem, Israel
In the Hebrew calendar, the ninth day of the month of Av (tisha b’Av) is the date of the destruction of both the first and second Temples, as well as numerous other disasters in Jewish history. (The date appears in Jeremiah 39:2; 52:6; II Kings 25:3.)
Traditionally the book of Lamentations is read on this day. People fast, weep, and mourn. This year in Jerusalem, the Ninth of Av felt particularly somber – like the Day of Atonement. Everything was closed. The fear of the Lord was in the air.
Lamentations is a profound book, although not easy to read. It is written in ancient poetic form with the verses arranged in an alphabetic acrostic. How could a beautiful song be written by Jeremiah in the midst of this disaster? That is part of the point. The pain and disaster flowed from his heart as prophetic poetry.
The voice of Jerusalem cries out to God in the poem. It’s like the voice of a woman crying out to her husband or father. She says, We have sinned. You have punished us. We are destroyed. Everything is burned to ashes. Yet have mercy. Remember that we are your beloved people, in your beloved city. “The crown on our heads has fallen down. O woe unto us for we have sinned” (Lamentations 5:16).
The prophetic voice in Lamentations weaves together the feelings of the prophet Jeremiah, of the spirit of the city, of the people, of God, of the Messiah. The interplay of the perspectives is reminiscent of the Song of Solomon, but in an opposite parallel theme. Lamentations is more likened to a broken relationship, while Song of Solomon to a romance.
Of course, Lamentations, as a book of faith, contains the constant element of hope and future restoration. Yet, the majority of the book expresses the pain and shock at the tremendous punishment and righteous judgment of God. The pain and the love are mixed together.
“My eye flows down rivers of water over the breaking of the daughter of my people.” (Lamentations 3:48)
I feel this pain. Perhaps we all do. It is a godly pain, not self-pity. It is feeling the destruction of what was once good, holy and precious. It is the pain in the heart of God. It does not deny the future hope and restoration but feels the pain in the process. It is like Yeshua weeping over Lazarus’ death, even though he was soon to be raised (John 11:35).
So much destruction and pain has happened this year in our nations, families, congregations, and prayer houses; war, terrorism, Jihadism, lies in social media, antisemitism and anti-Zionism, sexual sin, gender confusion, diplomatic injustice, academic reverse-think, and perhaps above all, people just hating one another.
According to Jewish tradition, the destruction of the first Temple was due to the three worst sins of the Torah: bloodshed, sexual immorality, and idolatry. The reason for the destruction of the second Temple was hating without a cause ("Sin'at Khinam" שנאת חינם). That sin is considered to be the root of the other sins as well.
[Actually, the Bible says, “They hated Me without cause” – see Psalm 35:19; 38:19; 69:4 and John 15:25. It is a prophecy of unmerited hatred toward Yeshua.]
My heart is broken with all the pain and destruction. God Himself experiences incomprehensible pain because of our selfishness and sin. Let’s join our hearts together for this holy, grieving spirit, even as we believe for the final future redemption.
“Return us unto Yourself, O Lord, and we will return. Renew our days as before.” (Lamentations 5:21)
