31 Jul Tish B’av: Double Destruction
This coming Sunday (August 3rd 2025) is Tish B’av on the Jewish Calendar, the saddest day of the year for Jewish people. It was on this day in 586 BC that the Babylonians burnt the city of Jerusalem to the ground and it was utterly destroyed. In the book of Lamentations, a song of sorrow over Jerusalem’s fate, Jeremiah wrote:
I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. (Lam 3:1)
And
Her fall was astounding;
there was none to comfort her. (Lam 1:9)
And
The punishment of my people
is greater than that of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment
without a hand turned to help her. (Lam 4:6)
Jerusalem’s fall to the Babylonians was the result of the sin of the Lord’s people. They didn’t listen to the prophets and instead turned to follow after other gods and idols, which were not the true God at all. Some of them sacrificed their children to these gods, and in the Valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem was built a Topheth. (Jeremiah 7:31) This topheth was specifically to worship Molek by sacrificing babies to the Lord. The Lord was greatly saddened but the people of God would not listen to His voice and turn from their evil.
And so on Tish B’av Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, who represented the Lord’s judgement for the evil they had done. But not all of the people were evil. The Lord had those who were his, such as Daniel the prophet, and Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, and Jeremiah, Baruch and more. Out of the evil, the Lord preserved the good.
However there was second time that the Lord also disciplined Jerusalem. The city was destroyed a second time by fire, this time with Roman armies. And that second time, also fell on the same day in the Jewish calendar, Tish B’av.
The first time Jerusalem was destroyed, the people had rejected the Lord’s word through the prophets. But the second time they had rejected the Lord directly. Jesus said:
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. (Matt 23:37)
Jesus also said:
Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left on another, every one will be thrown down. (Matt 24:2)
The Jewish believers at the time of Jesus were also wicked. Jesus said they were a ‘wicked and adulterous generation.’ (Matt 16:4) But like the first time Jerusalem was destroyed, they were not all wicked. There were good people there too. Good people such as Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Barnabas, the 12, all those baptised by John, and more.
And so in the dealings of the Lord, he punished his people and his city twice, but on both occasions brought out of the most wonderful outcomes. He cleansed the hearts of his people.
However each year as Tish B’av comes around on the Jewish calendar, it is a time for sobriety and remembering. We remember that the Lord disciplines those he loves. We remember to check our hearts that we are listening to his voice and following him. We remove from our heart judgement against those that didn’t listen to Him. We are careful to never allow any condemnation against Jewish people living now as if what happened back then, was their fault. Rather we can sympathise with them on what is the saddest day in their calendar. May God bless them, and reveal Himself to them more and more. Pray for them. We wish them well.
NOTE: The Jewish calendar is a Lunisolar calendar and dates in that calendar do not match dates in the Gregorian calendar year in year out. So Tish B’av changes in our calendar every year just as Passover and other Jewish dates also do. This year (2025) Tish B’av is from Sundown on August 2nd to Sundown on August 3rd. It is effectively Sunday, August the 3rd, this year.
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