Pushing the envelope a little further on the 9th of Av

An Israeli minister wrote me in response to the recent article I sent to my mailing list on the 9th of Av and the groups that push the envelope on causing all out war over the Temple Mount.

At first I was going to just stay out of this, but I think as a watchman that I will push the envelope a little further on this issue of the 9th of Av.



Since I did not ask permission of the Israeli minister to use his private response to me, I am only going to take an excerpt from it that I want to get into further and not identify him.

"If I may add my 2 agorot worth: Jewish believers need to stop being sentimental over the destruction of the two temples on Tisha b'Av. God is moving on despite the sin of His people which brought about the destruction. As you said, He is building His Temple now without hands in the Body and Life of the believers, and is we [especially] Jewish believers prefer weeping with still unrepentant Jewish people rather than giving glory to Jesus/Yeshua, who Himself prophesied and gave the reason for the 2nd Temple's destruction, then we, too, are focusing too much on ourselves and our culture, and not enough on Him who crosses both."

My response: I think some people thought I was just being 'mean' but as long as any of us sees ourselves primarily as a victim, then we never are able to overcome.

Even if we are redeemed by the Blood, if we don't let the old things pass away we will never be able to walk as the new creation in Him. I see it over here a lot - in the Messianic congregations there is more of a desire to relate to the Jewish community than there is to walk in the newness of life in Messiah. Is it any wonder that so many in the American Messianic congregations are walking backwards into unbelief even sacrificing faith in the Deity of Yeshua to their desire to be more orthodox?

You are so right about the sentimentality. If I annually pick at the wound on the date of a horrific event in my life, building a shrine to my wounding, it is very unlikely that I will ever truly receive the healing the Lord offers me for it. Healing is available, but we have to receive it. I know this in my own life and believe it applies to the corporate woundings, too.

I read somewhere last week - can't remember exactly where - but about some Black leaders who talked about how wearied they became of every time they would go to an event, there would be forgiveness ceremonies, and how they got tired of every meeting being, 'Will you forgive us, the white man, for what you've suffered?' I'm sure some never tire of being in that position because there is a perverse kind of power in always being recognized in your victim-hood and wounds. The problem is that until we are ready to move on from there, we are stuck there.

I know it is important to teach those who are ignorant of the evils that have been done to the Jewish people - especially to those in the Church who are clueless, but we can't stay there continually rehearsing those things. We will never progress and we will keep those Christians from progressing, too. There are better things in store for us but we have to allow our souls to be healed; to forgive and to move on into the things He has in store for us as one people.