TU'BA AV - Elohim's Day of Love (AV 15 - August 2, 2023)

Tuba Av — Elohim's Day of Love (Av 15)

The Cross to the Crown Series

August 2, 2023 — Av 15, 5783

Shalom, friends. My name is Chadwick Harvey. You are with Faithful Performance. Happy Tuba Av to everyone — Chag HaAhava, the Day of Love on God's biblical calendar. Today is the fifteenth day of the month of Av, and we are going to explore one of the most beautiful and hidden appointed times on the Lord's calendar: the day He set aside as His declaration of love for His people, situated in the most strategic position on the calendar year.

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WHERE TUBA AV FALLS ON THE CALENDAR

To understand the Day of Love, you have to understand where it sits. God's calendar is based on the sun and the moon — established in Genesis 1:14-18. Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens for signs and seasons — moedim, appointed times — and for days and years. The biblical calendar is not the Roman Gregorian calendar. It is the sun-and-moon calendar that God established at creation and gave to the Jewish people to give to the rest of us.

The biblical year begins at Nisan 1 — Exodus 12:2, the month of Passover. From there the calendar moves through a six-month sequence of profound purification and appointed times. Passover: the crucifixion. Unleavened Bread: the tomb. Feast of First Fruits: the Resurrection. Then a fifty-day Divine appointment — the Omer count — concluding at Shavuot: the giving of the Torah at Sinai, and the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, on the same day.

After Shavuot, Moses ascended Mount Sinai for his first forty days with the Lord to receive the rest of the Torah. He descended on the seventeenth of Tammuz — and found the people worshiping the golden calf. He broke the tablets, burned the calf, and made the people drink it. Three thousand died. Then he went back up for forty more days of intercession, came down on Av 29 with no assurance of forgiveness, and ascended a third time on Elul 1 — the month of repentance. He came down on Tishri 10 — the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur — with the second set of tablets and forgiveness sealed.

In that sequence — Tammuz 17 to Av 9 — are the Three Weeks of Sorrow: the period of mourning for both destructions of the Temple and all the calamities that have fallen on Israel on those dates across history. Six days after Tisha b'Av — six days after the ninth of Av — arrives Av 15: Tuba Av, the Day of Love.

The number six is the Vav — the connector, the mediator, the son of man. Yeshua is the mediator between heaven and earth. Six days after the greatest mourning, He brings the Day of Love. Then the month of Elul begins — repentance, intimacy, preparation — leading to the Feast of Trumpets, the Days of Awe, and Yom Kippur. The calendar tells a complete story.

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BLOOD MOONS AND THE DAY OF LOVE

In 2018 and 2019, three blood moons appeared in a trifecta on the most significant calendar dates: one on Tuba Shavat (the Tree New Year, in January/February), one on Tuba Av in 2018, and another on Tuba Shavat in 2019. Blood moons on feast days are God's signs for the Jewish people — Joel 2:30-31. Solar eclipses are warnings for nations.

That trifecta in 2018-2019 was, in my personal view, a warning connected to the Abraham Accords: do not divide the land. Joel 3 and Matthew 25 are clear — God judges the nations that divide His land. Shortly after the Abraham Accords were confirmed, both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump were out of office. When God is clear in His covenant and His people go against it, there are consequences. That is not disrespect; it is simply reading the pattern.

The celestial signs coming in the year ahead are also significant. Nisan 1 will bring a solar eclipse — a warning to the nations at the very opening of the biblical calendar. Elul 15 will bring a blood moon — a sign for the Jewish people in the middle of the month of repentance. And the Feast of Trumpets will bring another solar eclipse, on the day the books open for individuals and nations. God is consistent with His calendar. When the celestial bodies speak on His appointed times, it is worth paying attention.

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THE HISTORICAL AND TRADITIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TUBA AV

Tuba Av is not commanded explicitly in the Torah, but it appears in Judges 21:19 as a recognized holiday. The Talmud — extra-biblical writings of the Jewish people — records that the sages declared: there were no days more joyous for Israel than the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur. Two days. Think about that pairing: Yom Kippur, the most solemn fast of the year, and Tuba Av, six days after the darkest fast day, the ninth of Av. He connects the two highest expressions of joy to the two greatest moments of atonement and restoration.

Several historical events are associated with Tuba Av in the Jewish tradition:

The plague that accompanied Israel through forty years of wilderness wandering finally ended on Tuba Av. Every year on the ninth of Av, those who had been sentenced to die in the desert — those twenty years and older from the generation of the spies — would prepare their graves and a portion of them would die. In the fortieth year, they dug their graves and lay down on the ninth of Av, but none died. Day after day they waited, uncertain of the date. On Av 15, the full moon confirmed it: the ninth of Av had passed. The sentence was complete. The last remnant of that condemned generation had been shown mercy, and the new generation would go in to inherit the promised land. The plague ended and restoration began.

This is a direct parallel to the sin of the spies — the origin of Tisha b'Av — and its atonement. Just as Yom Kippur marks the atonement for the sin of the golden calf on that day Moses came down with the second tablets, Tuba Av marks the end of the judgment for the sin of the ten spies. In both cases, six weeks of mourning transition into the greatest joy. God's pattern: judgment, repentance, atonement, restoration.

Inter-tribal marriage was permitted on Tuba Av following the situation of Zelophehad's daughters — women without brothers who could only marry within their tribe to preserve their father's territorial inheritance. Once that restriction was lifted on Av 15, the boundaries between the tribes fell and the people were united in love.

The wood-offering for the Temple altar was completed annually on Tuba Av — the cutting of wood for the great altar was finished for the year. This is referenced in Nehemiah and noted by the historian Josephus, who called it the Feast of Xylophori, or the wood-bearing feast.

King Hoshea of the northern kingdom removed the guards on the road to Jerusalem on Tuba Av, allowing the ten tribes to once again have access to the Temple in Jerusalem.

And in the tradition that the Mishnah records: on Tuba Av and Yom Kippur, the unmarried daughters of Jerusalem would dress in white garments and go out to dance in the vineyards. The young men would come and choose their wives among them. This is not merely romantic folklore — it is a prophetic picture. In Revelation 19, the bride of Messiah is dressed in white. That is the Yom Kippur event. The white garments worn in the vineyards of Tuba Av — at the beginning of the grape harvest — are a foreshadow of the bridal garments of the bride at the final harvest.

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THE GRAPE HARVEST AND THE SECOND COMING

Tuba Av marks the beginning of the grape harvest in the land of Israel. This is not incidental. The agricultural seasons correspond precisely to the feast days:

The spring barley harvest aligns with Passover and First Fruits. The summer wheat harvest aligns with Shavuot. The fall grape harvest begins on Tuba Av and culminates through the fall feast days — Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

When the prophets and the Book of Revelation speak about the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God — the great harvest — they are speaking in the language of the grape harvest season. Isaiah 63 describes Yeshua coming from Bozrah with garments stained red, having trodden the winepress alone. Revelation 14 and 19 describe the same event. The beginning of the grape harvest on Tuba Av opens the season that culminates in the Second Coming events. Every agricultural marker on God's calendar points to the same prophetic reality.

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SEVEN WEEKS OF COMFORT

From Tisha b'Av through the Feast of Trumpets are seven weeks. The sages call this the seven weeks of comfort. The weekly Torah portions during this period draw from the prophet Isaiah — specifically his great comfort passages. The Lord moves from the remembrance of judgment and destruction into an extended season of consolation and preparation before the books open on the Feast of Trumpets.

This is exactly where we are on the calendar right now: seven weeks of comfort and preparation. Less than fifty days remain to the Feast of Trumpets — Rosh Hashanah — when the books open for individuals and nations, and the verdict is sealed ten days later on Yom Kippur. The cross-to-the-crown journey is entering its final month and a half of preparation. What we do in the month of Elul — the month of repentance, the month Moses spent on the mountain for the third forty days — matters enormously.

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THE TWO COVENANTS

Tuba Av also gives us a moment to understand why God is faithful to His calendar and His people even through judgment. There are two covenants at work throughout the entire biblical story.

The Abrahamic Covenant is unilateral, unconditional, and irrevocable. It depends entirely on God's sovereign righteousness — not on Israel's obedience, not on any nation's faithfulness, not on any human achievement. This is why replacement theology is not merely incorrect but spiritually dangerous: it claims that God has broken a promise He declared irrevocable. He has not and He will not. When Yeshua returns, He will fulfill every dimension of the Abrahamic Covenant — the promised land, the promised seed, the blessing to all nations.

The Mosaic Covenant is bilateral, conditional, and revocable. If Israel obeys, they will be blessed and remain in the land. If they disobey, they will be disciplined, exiled, and a new generation will rise to inherit what the previous generation forfeited — just as happened with the wilderness generation. This is the pattern: 586 BC, AD 70, and the promise of 1948 and beyond. The Mosaic Covenant's conditions explain the suffering. The Abrahamic Covenant's unconditional nature explains the restoration. Both are operating simultaneously throughout redemptive history.

Galatians 3 tells Gentile believers plainly: if you are in Messiah, you are a seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant. We are grafted in — Ephesians 2, Romans 11 — no longer strangers from the covenants, fellow citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel. Tuba Av is not just a Jewish day. It is a Day of Love for everyone who belongs to the God of Israel.

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THE KING IS IN THE FIELD

As Tuba Av transitions into the month of Elul — which begins in the coming days — the traditional teaching of the sages says: the king is in the field. During Elul, the king comes out of the palace and into the fields to meet his subjects before the royal court convenes on the Feast of Trumpets. This is a picture of Elohim during the month of repentance: He is accessible, near, present in the everyday places of life, walking with us in the field before the solemn appointments of judgment arrive.

Moses ascended for his final forty days on Elul 1. Yeshua was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness — Luke 4, which quotes Isaiah 61 — for His own forty days before His public ministry began. Those forty days, from Elul 1 to Tishri 10, are the days of preparation and testing before the Day of Atonement. The pattern is consistent throughout Scripture. The Lord is consistent with His calendar.

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A LOVING CHALLENGE

On this Day of Love, I want to leave a simple and loving challenge for everyone. Tell one person you do not know that God loves them today. A cashier, a bank teller, someone you pass on the street — whoever the Holy Spirit leads you to. We never know what people are carrying. We never know what one sentence — God loves you, Yeshua loves you — might mean to someone who has heard nothing but cruelty or indifference all day.

The love of many will grow cold — Yeshua said that in Matthew 24. We are watching it happen. Our answer is not to retreat but to shine brighter. Daniel 12 says those who lead many to righteousness shall shine like the stars forever. That shining begins with love — spoken plainly, unselfconsciously, in the ordinary moments of ordinary days.

Yeshua summarized the Torah in two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. Everything else flows from those two. Not legalistically, but genuinely. And when we love the God of Israel and love the people He made, we will naturally keep His commandments — not as a burden but as the expression of who we are becoming.

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CLOSING

Tuba Av is ending. We are entering the seven weeks of preparation that lead to the Feast of Trumpets. We are less than fifty days from the day the books open. The cross-to-the-crown journey that we have been on together — from letter to letter, from feast day to feast day, from new moon to new moon — is entering its final season before the fall appointed times arrive.

Get on God's calendar, beloved. Spend these weeks in intimacy with the Father, in repentance through Elul, in readiness for the day the shofar sounds. And let this Day of Love mark a turning point — from mourning to joy, from the three weeks of sorrow to the seven weeks of comfort, from the remembrance of what was lost to the anticipation of what will be restored.

He is going to turn every fast day into a feast day — Zechariah 8:19. The ninth of Av will become a moedim, a divine appointment of joy, in the millennial Kingdom. And Tuba Av — already a day of love — will shine even brighter when the full restoration comes and the bride stands before the King in white.

Happy Tuba Av to everyone. Chag HaAhava. Tell someone you love them today. Tell the Lord you love Him.

May God bless you. May He keep you. May His face shine upon you and give you His grace. May He lift up His countenance upon you and your family and give you His everlasting shalom. And always remember, shine brighter than the stars of heaven — just as the prophet Daniel said in Daniel 12. My name is Chadwick Harvey. You are with Faithful Performance.