There is a Jewish holiday that isn’t mentioned much. To say that is really an understatement because it isn’t even acknowledged on my phones Hebrew calendar app,
This Jewish holiday, Tu B’Av (15th of Av) falls on our calendar from sunset Tuesday to sunset Wednesday Aug. 4th-5th 2020 as you can see by the picture below from a Hebrew calendar website I found online.
I can still remember how excited I was one night when I started reading about this Jewish holiday while at work running a crew boat in the oil field. The more I learned about each aspect of this holiday, which is many, the more I thought, “these are all pictures of the rapture of the church, the bride of Christ.” I was so excited that the guys I was working with that night must have thought I had found some great treasure as I told them about it.
This holiday is described in detail on this website if you are interested to learn more, https://www.ou.org/holidays/category/tu-bav/
I will give you the cliff note version about it.
First of all, this holiday is a sort of alternative to our Valentines’ Day. https://www.ou.org/holidays/tu-bav-kosher-alternative-valentines-day/
In the Book of Judges, the tribe of Benjamin did a wicked thing and was almost totally wiped out, literally. It’s told in Judges 19 and is very similar to the story of Genesis 19 of Sodom and Gomorrah. If I remember right there were only about 600 Benjaminite men left alive and no women for them to marry. The other 11 tribes repented of their anger towards the tribe of Benjamin and came up with a plan to give them wives from their daughters without actually “giving” them, something they had vowed not to do. There was a yearly festival (a “mo’ed”-appointed time), a dance on the night of the 15th of Av in a vineyard. Shiloh is where the “Ohel Moed” tent of meeting, Exodus 33:7, the Tabernacle of God was set up.
Judges 21:16-21 Then the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?” 17 And they said, “There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. 18 Yet we cannot give them wives from our daughters.” For the people of Israel had sworn, “Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin.” 19 So they said, “Behold, there is the yearly feast of the Lord at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.” 20 And they commanded the people of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in ambush in the vineyards 21 and watch. If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and snatch each man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
The Benjaminite men were allowed to “take a bride” from the young women who had come out in their “white dresses.” Does that sound a lot like the song “The Midnight Cry” when Jesus comes to gather His Bride or what!!!
Now these next similar events that are recognized on this day are a bit morbid but their outcomes are interesting, “Happy Burial Day” link below,
As it goes, when the 10 spies gave their unfaithful report to Moses about the giants in the land and how Israel would be devoured by them, God sentenced that generation to die in the wilderness. Everyone over the age of 20 for the next 40 years was condemned to die before entering the promised land. As this part of the story goes, each year on the night of the 15th of Av Moses had the assigned people who were going to die dig their own graves and sleep in them. That way on the next morning all the living Israelites had to do was cover them with the dirt, not touching the dead bodies which brought defilement, “sin” upon them.
When the 40 year punishment came to an end, the next morning came and it was time to bury the dead except they weren’t dead, they were still alive. Thinking they made a mistake in starting the month on the right day which was done by sighting the first sliver of the moon, they laid in their graves a 2nd night. In the morning they were still alive and that’s when they figured that God’s punishment on them had ended and they could now enter the promised land.
Another part of this tradition is that at the time of the Bar Kovah Revolt, when many men died, the ruler who defeated them didn’t allow their bodies to be buried. In this case it is said the bodies stayed piled up outdoors for days but wouldn’t decay. Eventually they were allowed to be buried and the Israelites who did thanked God for not allowing their bodies to decompose before they could receive a proper burial.
Psalm 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
This site also describes 6 remarkable events that were supposed to have occured on the 15th of Av, https://www.aish.com/jl/hol/o/48955491.html
To a Bible believing Jewish the Hebrew calendar is their catechism. Most Christians want little or nothing to do with the Hebrew calendar because it’s said the Jewish feast days aren’t relevant any more. Paul who wrote 1/3 of the New Testament was a Jew and mentions many times that he observed God’s feast days in Jerusalem as well as making and keeping vows. Every day should be considered a holy and precious gift from God to His children.
Jesus Is The Aleph & The Tav, The Alpha & The Omega, The First & The Last
א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Many times in the Bible it is said that when someone died, “they slept with their father.” For a child of God they don’t experience death. Jesus rebuked the pharisees one day about this,
Mark 12:26-27 But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.”
Matthew 9:18-19, 23-26
While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” 19 So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.
23 When Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, 24 He said to them, “Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him. 25 But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went out into all that land.
No One Knows the Day or Hour
Matthew 24:36-44
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Jesus Is The Aleph & The Tav, The Alpha & The Omega, The First & The Last
א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω
The tribe of Benjamin got its name from the last child born to Jacob “Israel” at the death of his beloved wife Rachel. Rachel had named him Ben-Oni – “son of my sorrow” but Jacob gave him the name Benjamin – “son of my right hand.”
When Jacob was lead to believe his beloved son Joseph was dead after seeing his coat of many colors stained in goat blood, he set his strongest affections on Benjamin. When the time of famine came, Jacob would not allow Benjamin go down to Egypt. After eating through the 1st provisions Joseph who now ruled in Egypt had sent Jacob was forced to send Benjamin there or starve. It must have been so hard for Jacob to send him because of his great love he had for him.
In the Bible, to be at the right side “is to be identified as being in the special place of honor”. In Jesus’ parable “The Sheep and the Goats”, the sheep and goats are separated with the sheep on the right hand of God and the goats on the left hand.
Jesus Himself is seated at “the right hand of God,” Mark 16:19, Luke 22:69, Matthew 22:44 and 26:64, Acts 2:34 and 7:55, 1 Peter 3:22
How great was our Dear Heavenly Father’s love for us that he would send His “Only Begotten Son,” the “Son of His Right Hand,” to be the propitiation for our sins.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Benjamin, “son of my right hand” snatching for himself virgin brides from in a vineyard at night is a picture of the rapture of the church. When the earth will seem to be surrounded by darkness the “right hand of God” will “catch up” – (Latin – rapturo, Greek – harpazo – G726 Strong’s)
In The Word 