On the Hebrew calendar this day—Ab or Tisha b'Av—is recognized as one of mourning and memorializing of the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem (586 BC and AD 70).
Tisha b'Ov, or the ninth of Ov, is marked by the reading of Lamentations.
While I do not presume to judge people by times and seasons, Tisha b'Ov serves as a reminder that Biblical religion is not all triumphalism. It's a reminder that the covenanted people can fall into such serious sin that God may take away the liberty and power he has given them. Perhaps Western Christians of the 20th and 21st centuries are themselves living in an extended Tisha b'Ov.
Tisha b'Ov, or the ninth of Ov, is marked by the reading of Lamentations.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not presume to judge people by times and seasons, Tisha b'Ov serves as a reminder that Biblical religion is not all triumphalism. It's a reminder that the covenanted people can fall into such serious sin that God may take away the liberty and power he has given them. Perhaps Western Christians of the 20th and 21st centuries are themselves living in an extended Tisha b'Ov.