Zechariah 8 & The Fast of Tammuz 17th

Good morning, everybody. My name is Chad R. Carvey of Faithful Performance, and I would like to speak with you this morning about an important day we have entered into. Today is July 6th on the Gregorian calendar, but on the biblical calendar it is called Tammuz 17th, and it carries great importance in the Holy Bible and before the Lord. When we look at Zechariah 8, it speaks of this very day as it will be observed in the millennial kingdom, when Jesus reigns for a thousand years. Unfortunately, modern-day Christianity is largely unfamiliar with this date, but it is a very important day — not only for the Jewish people, but also for Gentiles who love the God of Israel, who is Jesus, Yeshua. We will look at what the conclusion of this day will be in the millennial kingdom, because today it is a fast day.

If you are not familiar with Tammuz 17th, let us begin by looking at the biblical calendar. It is established in Genesis 1:14–18, based upon the sun and the moon — those are the two prerequisites God set in place. On that calendar, we are currently in the month called Tammuz, which is the fourth month. As you can see on the calendar, Tammuz falls in the lower right area, beginning after the Feast of Shavuot. That is where we will start — with Shavuot — because it leads directly to understanding how Tammuz 17th became a fast day.

If you are not familiar with Shavuot, its modern name is Pentecost. It falls fifty days after the resurrection of the Messiah on the Feast of First Fruits, and it was on that day that He poured out His Holy Spirit, as we read in Acts 2. This is really where the story of Tammuz 17th begins. We are all familiar with the Exodus from Egypt: Israel left on Passover and Unleavened Bread and journeyed for fifty days to the Festival of Shavuot. During that time, the Lord was wanting to purify them, to cleanse them, and to remove the idols and the uncleanness they had accumulated during over 210 years in Egypt. They were being refined and prepared for the great day of Shavuot, when the Torah was given to them at Mount Sinai.

After the Torah was given on the fiftieth day — Sivan 6 on the biblical calendar, which is month three — the people could not bear all of the instructions and the glory of the Lord, so they told Moses to go up and receive the rest of the Torah on their behalf. Moses went up the mountain for forty days. During that time, the children of Israel grew impatient. They did not know what had become of him. You can read this in Exodus 20 and forward. At the very end of those forty days, as Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments on the mountain, the Lord told him to go back down because the people had made a golden calf and were worshiping it, along with all manner of abominations.

Forty days after Shavuot — Sivan 6 — brings us to Tammuz 17th. That is when Moses came down from the mountain, saw the people worshiping the golden calf, broke the tablets, destroyed the calf, and made them drink it. It was at that moment that three thousand people died. Those three thousand deaths did not happen at Shavuot or at Sinai — they happened forty days later, on Tammuz 17th.

After that, Moses went back up the mountain for another forty days, interceding for the children of Israel with no guarantee of forgiveness. He came down again, and then went up a third time for forty more days. He came back down on the Day of Atonement — Yom Kippur — which is in the seventh month, Tishri, as you can see on the calendar. That is when the sin was fully forgiven. After Yom Kippur, the people began building the Tabernacle.

That is the full backdrop of Tammuz 17th: it connects to all the feast days through what I call the three sets of forty. From Shavuot, there are three sets of forty days that link together all the way to the Day of Atonement. Just as we can trace a parallel in the gospel from Passover — the resurrection — fifty days later to Shavuot and Pentecost, where the Torah was given and the Spirit was poured out, so Moses went up, the children of Israel disobeyed, he came back down on the fortieth day, and that is why Tammuz 17th became a cursed day, a fast day, for the Jewish people — as we will find in Zechariah 8.

One critical thing to understand about Zechariah 8 is that it speaks specifically about the biblical calendar. It is not speaking of April, May, July, or October. It is speaking of the biblical months. If we do not understand the biblical calendar, we will not be able to understand what Zechariah and the other prophets were saying, because they would have spoken in terms of the biblical calendar — not any man-made calendar. With that in mind, let us read Zechariah 8 together and look at what this prophet prophesied about these days.

This chapter is a prophecy about Jerusalem in the future — the millennial kingdom. In chapter 8 it says:

*Again the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; with great fervor I am zealous for her." Thus says the Lord: "I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem." This is the second coming and the millennial kingdom.*

*"Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain." Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets." Thus says the Lord of hosts: "If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, will it also be marvelous in my eyes?" says the Lord of hosts.*

*Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Behold, I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; I will bring them back" — speaking of the Jewish people — "and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness."*

*Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Let your hands be strong, you who have been hearing in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets who spoke in the day the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord of hosts, that the temple might be built. For before these days there were no wages for man nor any hire for beast; there was no peace from the enemy for whoever went out or came in, for I set all men, everyone, against his neighbor. But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days," says the Lord of hosts.*

*"For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew. I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all of these."*

He is speaking of the millennial kingdom.

*"And it shall come to pass that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and O house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear; let your hands be strong."*

*For thus says the Lord of hosts: "Just as I determined to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath," says the Lord of hosts, "and I would not relent, so again in these days I am determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear."*

*"These are the things you shall do: speak each man the truth to his neighbor; give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace; let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor; and do not love a false oath — for all these are things that I hate," says the Lord.*

And this is where Zechariah enters directly into the prophecy concerning Tammuz 17th and the other fast days. He is still speaking of the biblical calendar — not the Roman calendar or any other. He says, in verse 18:

*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."*

*Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Peoples shall come, the inhabitants of many cities; the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, 'Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord and seek the Lord of hosts.' I myself will also go." Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord.*

*Thus says the Lord of hosts: "In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'"*

Amen, amen, and amen. This is an extraordinary passage from the prophet. It is clearly a millennial kingdom passage — Yeshua dwelling in the midst of Jerusalem with His people, and that includes you and me. Remember, we are all grafted in, and that is such an important concept to hold onto when we are speaking about these fast days: Tammuz 17th, the Ninth of Av, Tevet 10. In the millennial kingdom, all of them will become feast days — joyful, cheerful feast days.

It is important to understand these days from every angle — from an Israel standpoint, but also in terms of personal application. Tammuz 17th became a cursed day in Jewish history because of the golden calf. Similarly, the Ninth of Av — as we will discuss — became a cursed day because that is when ten of the twelve spies brought back the evil report, and both temples were later destroyed on that same date. These days carry great weight, and we are going to walk through some of the events that have occurred on Tammuz 17th as they lead us into what is known as the Three Weeks of Sorrow, or the Dire Straits — a period of calamity and mourning in the history of the Jewish people that runs from this day forward.