![\"Destruction-of-Temple\"](\"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Destruction-of-Temple.jpg\")
<\/a>Destruction-of-Temple<\/p><\/div>
\nAlmost 700 years later, on those exact same dates, it happened again. On the 17th of Tammuz 70 AD, the Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem. Three weeks later on the 9th of Av 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Coincidence? Well\u2026 <\/p>\n
Because there\u2019s more. Much more. Time and time again, terrible tragedies have befallen the Jewish people on these two exact dates. Expulsion from countries, genocide, extermination, the list goes on. <\/p>\n
Bein HaMetzarim or \u201cBetween the straits\u201d is what this three-week period is called. The name comes from Lamentations 1:3, \u201cJudah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwells among the heathen, she finds no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.\u201d <\/p>\n
See, while under pressure, in a dreadful time, while in dire straits, the Jewish people were overtaken and went into captivity. Which brings us back to today, where Israel finds herself once again (or rather, still) under pressure, once again under attack. The words from Psalm 83:4, \u201cThey have said, Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be in remembrance no more\u201d reads more like a newspaper headline quoting Hamas than something written thousands of years ago. <\/p>\n
It is in times like these, when Israel\u2019s \u201cenemies are in tumult\u201d and those who hate her \u201chave raised their heads\u201d (Psalm 83:2), that, like the Psalmist, our prayer is to God alone for His protection and deliverance. It is often those times of pressure, those periods of dire straits that draws us closer to Him, fills our hearts with a deeper faith and invites us to live with an expectation. <\/p>\n
Because we have a beauty-for-ashes, mourning-into-dancing God, who always has the last word. It was He Who, against all odds, lovingly gathered the dry bones after an exile of nearly 2 000 years. It was He Who promised that the dry bones could live again. And it is He Who continues to breathe His life into and over the dry bones to call forth the promised life (Ezekiel 37:1-14). <\/p>\n
It is this very same God that also makes a promise about Israel\u2019s \u201cBetween the Strait\u201d time, \u201cThis is what the Lord Almighty says: \u2018The fasts of the fourth [Tammuz], fifth [Av], seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah\u2019\u201d (Zechariah 8:19).<\/p>\n
Where today the period between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av is synonymous with fasting, mourning and lamenting, remembering the legacy of tragedy that comes with this period, God promises\u2026 The day is coming where those days will be remembered with joy, with gladness and with feasting. <\/p>\n
How is that even possible? How can God turn such tragedy, such sorrow and despair, into something glorious? Well, could it be that God wants to do something so amazing, something so awesome, that it would by far eclipse the years of tragedy? Could it be that God wants to intervene on behalf of His people in such a supernatural way that it would simply overshadow the sorrow with the knowledge of God\u2019s unfailing love and protection? And could it be that God plans to do it in such a spectacular way that no man will be able to take credit for it? That the hearts of all Israel will know, \u201cThis was our God\u201d? <\/p>\n
In fact, could it be that God wants to intervene in such a miraculous way that it would not only steady the hearts of Israel and those who love her? Could it be that this is God\u2019s way of drawing those from the nations amassed against Israel to Him? Perhaps this is His way of overwhelming, of convincing. Because that is what the Psalmist asks for in Psalm 83:16;18: Give us the victory, shame our enemies \u201c\u2026 that they may seek, inquire for, and insistently require Your name, O Lord. That they may know that You, Whose name alone is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s speculative, yes. I don\u2019t pretend to have the answers or speak on God\u2019s behalf. But this I know. God is not bound by our dilemmas. Neither is He limited to our suggestions or solutions to a particularly tricky matter. In fact, His promise of \u201cimmeasurably more than all we ask or imagine\u201d (Ephesians 3:20) has certainly stood the test of time. And what the world calls an unsolvable problem, an issue without any viable solution\u2026 Well, those are the things that God uses to show Himself. His plan for the Middle East hasn\u2019t been derailed and isn\u2019t veering even one degree off course. Every detail is where it\u2019s always been \u2013 right under His control<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Elisabeth Hinze This morning, as Hamas\u2019s rockets continued to rain down on Israel despite a cease-fire being in place, observant Jews started a day-long fast to remember a tragic three-week period in Jewish history. The period starts and finishes with two particularly ominous days: the 17th of Tammuz (fourth month in the Biblical calendar) more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[67,625,289,125,295],"class_list":{"0":"post-1823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-biblical-spiritual","8":"tag-gaza","9":"tag-israeli-news","10":"tag-missiles-from-gaza","11":"tag-news-from-jerusalem","12":"tag-operation-protective-edge","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}