Tisha B’Av: Destruction of God’s Temple

To be read or listened to conclude Av 9-10, 5782 (6th – 7th August 2022) – https://anchor.fm/sy-adamah

On the Hebrew calendar, Av 9 is a date that is annually marked and consistently observed as solemn time. Time where Jews fast and mourn as a community to commemorate the tragedies which surround this date.

Most notably, the commemoration focuses on the destruction of the First & Second Temples, the static structures of God’s House constructed through human hands.

However, the consistency has only one exception which occurs only when Av 9 falls on the weekly day of rest, the Seventh day: the Sabbath day. This day of the the week is one which is ordained and appointed by God as holy and sacred time in the Books of Genesis (Chapter 2), Exodus (Chapters 16, 20 & 31) and Leviticus (Chapter 23). When this coincidence occurs between the day to feast and the day to fast, it behooves the Jewish community for the former to precede the latter. In other words, it is deemed right and proper to postpone the day dedicated to fast and mourn the memory of the Temple (Tisha B’Av) to the next day, the first day of the week: the Sunday. This move is done to prevent a clash of meaning, intention and significance between each day.

However, despite this move, the day dedicated to feast (the Sabbath) that directly precedes Tisha B’Av is solemnly celebrated as Shabbat Chazon (Sabbath of Vision) inspired by Isaiah’s vision of the Temple’s destruction due to Israel’s sin (Chapter 1).

One way to read this re-arrangement in the eyes of the Jewish community is that the celebration of the Sabbath day takes precedent over Tisha B’Av despite the unfortunate events associated with it.

A possible alternative way to read this re-arrangement in the eyes of the Christian community would be an interpretation that gives the very reason why we can celebrate in the midst of misfortune: God’s promise of redemption and the joy of His salvation.

The key to this reading lies in understanding the following exchange between Jesus and the Jews:

“So the Jews answered and said to Him,

‘What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?’

Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’

Then the Jews said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’

But He was speaking of the temple of His body.”

John 2:18-21 (NKJV)

What is ‘this temple‘? What is the ‘sign‘? And what is ‘His body‘?

First, the Temple is not just a a building but a home. The temple is:

1. A House for God
2. A Sanctuary for Humanity
3. A Meeting Point, Common Ground or Communion between God & Humanity.

God’s House and Humanity’s Sanctuary are a Meeting Point between two sides of reality: heaven and earth. This Point acts as a place of common ground and a space of common-union between the two sides. This Point, this Place or this Space is the setting or environment by which God can commune with Man and Man with God. This Point, Place or Space has its archetype in Eden (Genesis 2 – 3) and its prototype in the Tabernacle (Exodus 31), however the encounter between these two opposites of heaven and earth within the Temple is supposed to house a relationship between Parent and Child. More biblically, a relationship between Father and Son:

” [YHWH]: ‘When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. but My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.’

According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.”

2 Samuel 7: 12-17 (NKJV)

Second, the sign is the physical body, material building and static structure of the Sanctuary commissioned and built by King Solomon after his father’s reign. This is commonly known as the First Temple:

” Then Solomon sent to Hiram, saying:

‘You know how my father David could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the wars which were fought against him on every side, until the LORD put his foes under the soles of his feet.

But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence.

And behold, I propose to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to my father David, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he shall build the house for my name.’ ”

1 Kings 5: 2-5 (NKJV)

Unfortunately, years after the reign of David and Solomon, God’s house was destroyed on Av 10 in the year 586 BC. According to the prophetic writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah, this destruction was self-caused due to the wayward behaviour of God’s chosen people, Israel:

“Now in the fifth month [Av], on the tenth day of the month […], Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire.”

Jeremiah 52: 12-13

Despite this tragedy, God’s house was then rebuilt years after by the regathered diaspora and has come to be known as the Second Temple documented in the Books of Ezra-Nehemiah:

” So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the command of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. Now the temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

Ezra 6:14-16 (NKJV)

Unfortunately, this Second house was also prophesied by Jesus to share a similar fate to the First, which was yet again fulfilled soon after in the year 70CE:

“Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.

And Jesus said to them, ‘ Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’

Matthew 24:1-3 (NKJV)

In the eyes of the Jewish community, it is ultimately God who orchestrates events in such a way as to redeem them eventually. In the eyes of the Christian community, there is (or at least should be) a recognition of God’s sign of salvation through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection:

” ‘ Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again.

No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

John 10: 17-18 (NKJV)

This sign of salvation is Self-appointed by the Son of Man, who identifies His own will as one and the same with the Father’s. This identification is one of covenant partnership between two sides of reality: heaven and earth. With the covenant between Father and Son, Man can become the Meeting Point, the Holy Place and the Sacred Space of the Temple. Jesus identified Himself with this physical body, material building and structure which He would permit to be destroyed by mortal men and yet trust this selfsame body to be restored by God. As both partners, Father and Son, are faithful to the terms of the covenant and as such to one another, Jesus trusted and knew that God’s House would be rebuilt and Humanity’s Sanctuary would be raised yet again. In short, God’s Promise will always stand firm and because of this we can trust that God’s House will always rise again.

Amen.

Bibliography

(Anon.). 1982. The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Berman, Joshua. 1995. The Temple: Its Symbolism and Meaning Now and Then. Joshua Berman. Wipf & Stock: Eugene, Oregon.

(Ed.) Agnon, S.Y. 1995. Days of Awe: A Treasury of Jewish Wisdom for Reflection, Repentance, and Renewal on the High Holy Days. Schocken Books. New York.

Stavrakopoulou, Franscesca. 2021. God: An Anatomy. Picador.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/144575/jewish/What-Is-Tisha-BAv.htm

The Fast of Tisha B’Av and the Coming of Adonai Tzidkenu

Music Library / Playlist:

• Maverick City – Temple
• Elevation Worship & Maverick City – Build Your Church
• Maverick City & Kirk Franklin – Kingdom
• Maverick City & Kirk Franklin – Fear is Not My Future