- This event has passed.
Three Weeks of Mourning – Fasting
Today, we fast and pray for the coming of Messiah JESUS, our Savior.
The Holy Bible tells us that when JESUS approached Jerusalem, He wept over the city because its people rejected God’s messengers.
Earlier, as Luke recorded, He cried and said:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34).
“And when JESUS drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44
We know that Jews fast on this day, that today Jews worshipped Golden Calf and in the sorrow and pain Moses broke the Holy Tablets. The fast of the 17th of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, known as Shivah Asar B’Tammuz, is the start of a three-week mourning period for the destruction of Jerusalem and the two Holy Temples.
The Five Tragic Events That Occurred on This Date
- Moses broke the Holy Tablets after he saw the Jewish people worshipping the Golden Calf.
- During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Jews stopped offering the daily sacrifices because they no longer had sheep.
- Apostomos burned the Holy Torah.
- An idol was placed in the Holy Temple.
- The Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem in 69 CE after a lengthy siege. Three weeks later, despite the Jews’ courageous resistance, the Romans destroyed the Second Holy Temple on the 9th of Av. The Jerusalem Talmud also records that the Babylonians breached Jerusalem’s walls on this same date before destroying the First Temple.
Shabbat suspends all the laws of mourning. This includes the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av. When either fast falls on Shabbat, people postpone it until Sunday and celebrate Shabbat with joy.
Many regard the destruction of the Holy Temple as the greatest tragedy in human history. God will bring ultimate redemption through its rebuilding, restoring harmony within His creation and between Himself and His creation.
With the coming of Moshiach, we will understand that every suffering served God’s ultimate purpose. The prophets foretold that these days of mourning will become days of joy. Every Shabbat gives us a foretaste of the Messianic Era. Therefore, on Shabbat we focus on the hope and joy that God has promised.
May we soon witness the fulfillment of the prophecy:
“I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow” (Jeremiah 31:12).
The Characteristics of YAH:
And the LORD YAHWEH said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Exodus 33:19-23
Moses request to God “And Moses said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” Exodus 34:9
God will Bless Non-Jews as sons and daughters:
3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
4 For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant—
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.
6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.”
8 The Sovereign Lord declares—
he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
besides those already gathered.”
Isaiah 56: 3-8
Recite Today: Exodus 32-34 , Isaiah 55-56 , Luke 13-19
Fast of the 17th of Tammuz:
Fasting Time: Dawn to Sunset 3:30 AM to 7:06 PM
