Mbostrom2's Blog

July 12, 2006 is a date I will never forget.

Ken and I were in Dallas, TX at a convocation for World Ministry Fellowship at a morning session when someone came in saying, “We need to pray. Israel just went to war with Lebanon.” I could hardly wait to get to a computer to see what date this was on the Hebrew calendar. I knew that if the war began on a date that cycled in Jewish history it would fit into end times prophetic events. I was right! This date was Tammuz 17.

For several years I had been teaching on Jewish history, the Feasts of the Lord and Hebrew holy days. Because nobody really seemed interested, I began to put that study aside. July 12, 2006 is when I woke up to the assignment that I had been given. My emails and phone calls were very active with everyone wanting to know why this date was important.  This began my email teachings on the Hebrew calendar.

Several historic events happened on Tammuz 17 throughout history.   Zechariah 8:19 calls the 17th of Tammuz the ‘fast of the fourth month’.

1. Moses broke the tablets at Mount Sinai, in response to the building of the Golden Calf. (Exodus 32:19) This was 4o days after Shavuot (Feast of Pentecost). In biblical study, the number 40 always stands for a time of testings, trials. The Hebrew children flunked the test, forgetting how God saved their first born, delivered them from Egypt, parted the Red Sea for them and drowned Pharaoh and his army, turned the bitter water into sweet, flowing abundant water from a rock and rained manna from heaven 6 days a week. How soon they forgot Almighty God.
2. The daily offerings in the First Temple were suspended during the siege of Jerusalem in the 586 BC. Three weeks later Solomon’s Temple was destroyed and the Jewish children were taken to Babylon.
3.  Jerusalem’s walls were breached, prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD three weeks later.
4.  132 AD, prior to the Great Revolt with Bar Kokhba, the Roman general Apostamos burned a Torah scroll — setting a precedent for the horrific burning of Jewish books throughout the centuries.
5. During the time of Roman persecution, an idolatrous image was placed in the Holy Temple — a brazen act of blasphemy and desecration.
6. The Crusades were inaugurated during this period. Over a period of 200 years the Jewish population of England, France and Spain were exiled during this time period. The 1648 Khmelnitski massacres and many Holocaust decrees were also initiated during this three-week time frame.
7. On 1391, more than 4000 Jews were murdered in Toledo and Jaen, Spain
8. On 1559, the Jewish quarter of Prague was looted and burned
9. 2005, the day after the 17th of Tammuz, Jews began to forcefully remove Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip. They ended three weeks later, before the 9th of Av.
10. July 12, 2006-  Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, Second Lebanon War and known in Lebanon as the July War. Hezbollah (means ‘Party of God’), began ‘Operation True Promise’  and the war continued for 34 years until the United Nations brokered an agreement for a cease fire.

This begins a 3 week period of mourning until the 9th of Av, the most dreaded day on the Hebrew calendar. Both Solomon’s Temple (stood 410 years) and Herod’s Temples (stood 420 years) were destroyed on the 9th of Av. (I encourage you to check this blog in 3 weeks for the full story, or check on last year’s teachings of Tisha B’ Av). I also have a 2 CD teaching of this three-week period for sale on our product page on our web site- http://www.kenbostromministries.org/.

This three-week period is called Bein haMetzarim (between the straits) and  the ‘Time of the Dire Straits’ from Lamentations 1:3.  It is also known as the period of  ‘Mourning the Destruction’.

The custom for the ‘fast of the fourth month’ is to fast from sunup to sundown. During Bein HaMetzarim, there are no weddings, no eating of meat, pastries and drinking of wine.  During this time cutting of hair is forbidden. Many abstain from cinemas, theatres, concert halls  or any type of entertainment. This is a very serious time when they are reflecting on how God wants them to live and how they had been living. This is a time when many repent and change their ways, coming back to God.

This year’s Dire Straits will be a serious time for Israel as the surrounding nations are gathering to ‘push her into the sea’. Psalms 122:6 urges us to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Genesis 12:3 still stands, ‘who blesses Israel God will bless”