Matthew 24-25/Luke 21 - The Olivet Discourse - Messiah's Final Warning

Beautiful Sabbath day here in the Southeast. my name is Chadwick Harvey, and you've reached Faithful Performance. Thank you for joining us as we culminate the three weeks of sorrow, from Tammuz 17th to today — the ninth day of Av — which also falls on a Shabbat. We are going to go through a great deal of biblical information that ties together scripture and prophetic understanding.

If you've been with us since Tammuz 17th, you know what these three weeks of sorrow encompass in terms of remembering the calamities that have befallen Israel throughout history. The reason we observe these fast days is because one day they will be turned into feast days. We can't only seek the good times; I believe we need to walk through the understanding each and every year of why the Lord ordained these as fast days — and to hold the hope of being in the Millennial Kingdom when He turns them into days of joyful gladness, as the scriptures tell us.

These days also carry a prophetic dimension. We know that history repeats itself, and when we look at the statistics surrounding the ninth of Av, it is a near certainty that things will happen on this day again — until Messiah turns it into a joyful feast day. This is an extraordinary time to be alive, when you consider the Shemitah year, what some are calling the Jubilee year ahead, and the shifting of kingdoms taking place in the Middle East and North Africa over the last twenty years. This is a great time to understand what God is telling us through the prophets and through the scriptures — and it all begins with God's calendar. If we don't understand God's calendar, the scripture we are about to read will have no relevance to us. We will not understand what the prophet Zechariah is trying to convey so that we can gain wisdom, knowledge, and understanding about what is going to occur in the future. It is all cyclical. The Bible repeats itself, history repeats itself, and that is precisely why we need to understand God's calendar.

Before we look at the scripture, let me briefly note that the three weeks of sorrow — also called the "dire straits" — is a three-week period between Tammuz 17 (this year falling on July 16th on the Gregorian calendar) and today, the ninth of Av (August 6th on the Gregorian calendar). It is a period of mourning and remembrance: why were the temples destroyed? Why did calamities come upon the Jewish people? It is about the temples, yes, but more importantly, it is about why the temples were destroyed.

As a born Gentile who is grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel according to Ephesians 2:11–13, I am often asked why I observe these fast days. In my personal view, it is not about legalism. I want to identify with God on the terms of His calendar — on how He looks at His days, whether that is the Shabbat, the divine appointments and feast days, the ninth of Av, or Tammuz 17th. Most Gentile believers are unfamiliar with these fast days because they are not taught in the church. I believe it is paramount for us to understand them — to grow intimate with the Lord, to understand why these were ordained as fast days, and to recognize that the same rebellion that provoked them back then is alive in our world today.

Yes, the temples were destroyed on these days. But there is also a personal application: we do not want our own temples destroyed through disobedience to what the Lord has ordained for us to understand, observe, keep, guard, and hold holy. That is why I personally hold to these things — and also because it is, in a sense, a commandment through the prophet Zechariah. We try to follow the Lord and to see these days as He sees them, not as mankind sees them, and that begins and ends with God's calendar.

If you have your Bible, turn to Zechariah 8. This prophecy is so significant to me. Without an understanding of God's calendar — the months and appointed times — this prophecy will not make sense. If you are reading it through the lens of the Gregorian calendar, it is all but impossible to interpret correctly, because God operates on His calendar, not mankind's. That said, we can correlate His calendar — the Hebrew calendar — with the Gregorian calendar so that we can identify these dates within the Western system most of us use for daily life. But we need at least a basic understanding of God's calendar when it comes to these things, including the ninth of Av and, critically, Messiah's second coming and His Millennial reign. This is why He gave us the prophecies, the calendar, and the covenants — He wants us to be on His timetable. We will not understand the events surrounding His return if we do not understand His calendar.

In Zechariah 8:18–20, the prophet delivers what I consider a remarkable and foundational prophecy:

*"Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.'"*

It is a brief prophecy, but it is critical to understand. There are four fast days spoken of here: the fast of the fourth month is Tammuz 17th; the fast of the fifth is today, the ninth of Av; then there is the fast of the seventh; and the fast of the tenth. These are not months on the Gregorian calendar — they are not referring to April, May, September, or October. They are the months of God's Hebrew calendar. Tammuz 17th is when the children of Israel worshiped the golden calf, and that day became cursed in Jewish history. Three weeks later comes the ninth of Av, the fast of the fifth month — the most cursed day in all of Jewish history, as the statistics will bear out.

God is deeply serious about these ordained days — what some call the minor feasts. When He returns, they will be turned into feast days, into cheerful celebrations. Some sages have suggested they will be more joyful than even the major divine appointments. Whether or not that is so, the point is unmistakable: calamity will give way to joy. Of course it will — it will be with Messiah in the Millennial Kingdom, and nothing is more joyful than that. It will be a celebration of the reconciliation and restoration of these fast days into feast days, centered on the Millennial Kingdom temple that will never be destroyed — before we are ultimately transitioned into the New Jerusalem, as described in Revelation 21–22.

These three weeks carry a particular anointing — the anointing of mourning. I am not saying everyone must be sad or depressed, but I believe we are called to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. I want to be personally intimate with the Lord through these prophecies that will one day transition into joyful, cheerful feast days. This is where I come from. Some may call it what they will, but I want to be on God's calendar, on His seasons, in the anointing of these months.

Throughout these three weeks, the anointing is one of mourning as we remember why the temples were destroyed and why the Jewish people were exiled and held in captivity — and we remember it so that we ourselves are not exiled, held captive, or have our own temples destroyed when we face the Lord. It is deeply personal, it is historical, and it is prophetic. When we look at the events of the time of Jacob's trouble — the seven-year tribulation — I believe with confidence that these dates (Tammuz 17th, the ninth of Av, the tenth of Tevet, and so on) will see events occur again that parallel the invasion of King Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, this time involving the Antichrist. These dates flow into the prophetic, into the personal, and into the historical facts we are examining.

Three weeks ago on Tammuz 17th we went through the events that made that day a cursed day in Jewish history. That is the day the children of Israel worshiped the golden calf. They were at Sinai, having just been released from Egypt by the mighty hand of the Lord — carried on eagle's wings, brought through the Red Sea, and purified over forty-nine days. On the fiftieth day at Mount Sinai — the Jubilee, the spiritual redemption of the one new body, the one new man — the Jewish people and the mixed multitude received the Torah, the ways of the Lord. Moses then ascended for forty days. When he came down, the people were worshiping the golden calf. That day was Tammuz 17th, which became a cursed day in Jewish history, as we discussed three weeks ago.

These three weeks then culminate with the ninth of Av — the most cursed day in all of Jewish history. I don't believe anyone would seriously debate that when confronted with the historical facts. The sheer number of catastrophic events that have befallen one people — the Jewish people — on the same calendar date across thousands of years is, statistically, unfathomable. This does not happen to one group of people by chance. You cannot run the numbers and arrive at any rational conclusion other than that this is a God-ordained reality.