Auschwitz & The Two Jewish Temples

This story is a continuation of an earlier post here: https://blog.stevemoxham.com/2023/04/on-shavuot-three-and-half-weeks-later.html

As it happens, this 50th visit to Auschwitz was inspired exactly 1,350 days since God first inspired me to choose a date to visit Auschwitz on Saturday, August 10, 2019. That works out to be an average of one visit being inspired every 27 days, although it didn’t work out that way in practice. Both the 1st and 50th visits to Auschwitz were inspired on the Sabbath Day (Saturday, 9 Av, 5779 – Friday, 1 Iyyar, 5783, after nightfall). The 9th of Av being the typical day that Jews mark the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, about 600 years apart. In 2019, however, the day was observed one day later due to it coinciding with the Sabbath Day.

Interestingly, in Jewish tradition, the 1st of Iyyar is the day that construction began on the Second Temple! (Ezra 3:8). Construction of the First Temple also began in the second month of Iyyar, according to 1 Kings 6:1 and 2 Chronicles 3:2. Some Jewish sources also place this on the 1st of Iyyar.

Thus, these 50 visits to Auschwitz ending on Shavuot, began with the destruction of the first two Temples, and ended with the construction of the Second Temple, 1,350 days later! (1,351 days in the Hebrew calendar). That is clearly the Hand of God at work, because I had no knowledge of the Jewish history on the 1st of Iyyar! When God had me choose a date for the first visit, it wasn’t until after I chose it that I realised it was the 9th of Av!
Thus, this is clearly an effort by God to prove that He exists, and perhaps that He wants to speak directly to the Jewish people!

Another interesting event occurred on the 1st of Iyyar, and that was God ordering Moses to take a census of the people in the second year following their Exodus from Egypt:

“And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.” – Numbers 1:1–3

As mentioned earlier, the 1st of Iyyar fell exactly 700 days since the 70th day of the Jewish religious year in 2021 (11 Sivan, 5781), so this is an interesting day for these two events to occur on!

Update: August 15, 2023

In researching whether the number 1,350 days had any significance in relation to Christianity or Judaism, I came across the following statement. According to author James Allen Moseley, writing in his book “The Biographies of Jesus’ Apostles: Ambassadors in Chains”, Jesus’ ministry lasted 1,350 days from 29–33 A.D. He also mentioned that there are gaps in the gospels’ narratives totalling 770 days. Both of those numbers are interesting in relation to my story, given that the 50 visits to Auschwitz were inspired over a total of 1,350 days, and the 1st of Iyyar, 5783 fell on the 770th day since the start of the Jewish religious year on 1 Nisan, 5781!

Of course, I cannot verify the accuracy of those two numbers, but it was an intriguing correlation nevertheless! If Jesus’s ministry really did last 1,350 days, then it poses some interesting questions as to why those 50 visits to Auschwitz were inspired over that exact length of time.

The upshot is, they started with the worst and saddest day in Judaism’s history, but ended with some of their best: The building of the Second Temple, and Shavuot – the day that Jews believe God gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai. And that has always been the story of God’s redemption! Though we may fall, God is ready to pick us up again if we are willing to return to Him! He is willing to forgive, return to us, and restore us to our rightful place in the world. We just have to trust and have faith in Him that He is able to overcome all obstacles in our way. And that is the path to healing and restoration.

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