The Sabbath of Vision

Audio Teaching

Notes

Text: Deut. 1:1-8, 20-27, 34-38 and Isa. 1:16-20, 26-27

The Three Weeks and the Ninth of Av

• Mourning the loss of the First and Second Holy Temples
• Fast of the 9th of Av (25 hour fast).
• Abstain from meat during the week leading up to the 9th of Av. (In 2024, that would be Sunday, Aug. 11, and Monday, Aug. 12. The Fast is on Tuesday, and it is customary to continue abstaining from meat until the afternoon of the 10th of Av. We abstain from meat because when there is no Holy Temple, sacrifices cannot be offered.)

Notes on Deuteronomy and Covenant Review

• (1:7-8) The land belongs to Israel. It was promised to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and their offspring after them.
• Abraham was promised an heir but took matters up to himself and fathered Ishmael.
• Isaac is the heir, not Ishmael, but there is a promise to Ishmael: Gen. 16:6-12 (the reason for the conflict today).
• We then see another distinction between Jacob and Esau: Gen. 25:19-23 (cf. Rom. 9:1-24).
• [The Promise to Abraham: Gen. 12:1-8; 13:14-18; 15:1-21; 17:1-8]
• The Promise repeated to Isaac: Gen. 25:19-23
• The Promise repeated to Jacob: Gen. 35:10-12
• The reason why they had to go to war is because they did not trust God to deliver the land supernaturally. But even in going to war, God gave them leaders Joshua and Caleb (Deut. 1:34-38).

The Vision of Isaiah (Haftarah Portion)

Text: Isa. 1:16-20, 26-27

• Like Deuteronomy, Isaiah addresses Israel’s sins and failures, but that does not negate God’s eternal covenant with Israel.
• Isa. 2:1-4
• Isa. 49:8-16
• The walls of Israel are continually before God, including the Western Wall, which currently stands alone on the Temple Mount.
• Deut. 11:10-12 ESV “For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”
• Psa. 137:5-6 ESV “If I forget you, O Jerusalem,mlet my right hand forget its skill! 6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do no remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!”
• Isa. 49:17-23
• Those of the nations will bring the sons and daughters of Israel back to their land. When we support aliya back to Israel we are fulfilling Bible prophecy!

Christians and the 9th of Av

The Church has been one of the foremost persecutors of the Jewish people. Along with the First and Second Holy Temples being destroyed on the 9th of Av, Jews were expelled from Spain on that same day in 1492. What else happened in 1492? Columbus, an assumed non-Jew, left with the Jewish people.

• Ruth and Naomi
• Father Ten-Boom
• The Puritans
• Charles Spurgeon

We may not be able to go back in time and correct the wrongs of Church history, but we don’t have to carry the errors forward, nor do we have to walk in a wrong understanding of Israel and Judaism simply because that’s what we were taught.

Let us close with the Word of the Lord concerning the fast of the month of Av:

Zech. 8:18-23 ESV “And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, 19 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace. 20 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ 22 Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. 23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'”