HE HAS BORNE OUR GRIEFS AND CARRIED OUR SORROWS

Today religious Jews are in a time of great mourning, the "fast of the fifth month" (Zech. 7:3; 8:19).
I HAVE GOOD NEWS: "Surely HE has borne our GRIEFS and carried our SORROWS; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But HE was wounded for OUR transgressions, HE was bruised for OUR iniquities; the chastisement for OUR peace was upon Him, and by HIS stripes WE ARE HEALED" (Isaiah 53: 4-5).

Who is HE?  HE is the Jewish Messiah.  His name is YESHUA.  He is the same Lord and Savior of the Christians, but He is holding out His scarred hands to the Jews, saying, "Come unto ME!"  His crucifixion is described in Isaiah 53.  Jesus/Yeshua is the "suffering servant" and identifies with the Jews in their suffering.

The saddest day on the Jewish calendar begins tonight from sunset to sunset, July 25-26.  It is called the NINTH OF AV.  Many, many tragedies have befallen the Jewish people on this exact date throughout history, beginning with God's condemning them to wander in the wilderness for 40 YEARS and die there until their children went into the Promised Land.

BOTH THEIR TEMPLES IN JERUSALEM were destroyed on the Ninth of Av - by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. and by the Romans in A.D. 70.  Now what are the odds of both temples being destroyed on that exact date?  This is the most serious fast day for the Jews besides Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (coming soon this year September 22-23).

A string of tragedies for the Jews struck on this date of the ninth of Av.  Here are a few:

133 A.D. - Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans crushed
1290 - Jews expelled from England by King Edward
1306 - Jews expelled from France after many other expulsions over the years
1492 - Jews expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
1942 - Nazis begin mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka death camp
2005 - Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by expelling approximately 9,000 Jewish residents from Gush Katif and other Jewish communities in Gaza on August 15. Actually, the forced expulsion was changed to the tenth of Av because of the traditional mourning and fast of the ninth of Av.  Remember that Sharon fell into a coma the following January of 2006.  He remained in a coma for eight years!  His death came in January of 2014.

This is the tip of the iceberg.  Feel free to add to this list by making a comment at the end of this blog.

The Jewish people have endured much suffering down through the ages, fulfilling the prophecies of Moses in Deuteronomy, chapters 28 through 32.  But now the prophecies of Zechariah, chapters 12-14, among many other prophecies, are about to be fulfilled in our day.  It is a time for the restoration of the Jewish people back to their God by accepting His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as their Messiah.  The physical restoration back to the Land is almost complete.  The spiritual restoration will soon be complete, and they will say, "Baruch haba b'Shem Adonai!" --- "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"