The season of Dire Straits comes around every year in the Jewish calendar, but this time we have a perfect illustration of the concept with the now familiar image of the Strait of Hormuz. Forced to make their way through perilous narrow waters, the global shipping industry has had to navigate through the mine-ridden Hormuz Strait controlled by Iran, not knowing if their vessels and crews would make it.
The phrase “between the straits” means to be forced to thread your way between grave dangers on both sides—like a ship trying to squeeze through a perilously narrow path and trying to avoid the almost inevitable shipwreck.
The three weeks between the dates of 17th Tammuz and 9th of Av in the Jewish calendar are known as the time “בין המצרים” which means “between the straits” or in “dire straits.”
This is a concept based on a verse from the book of Lamentations:
Judah has gone into captivity,
Under affliction and hard servitude;
She dwells among the nations,
She finds no rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits. (Lamentations 1:3, NKJV)
Lamentations was written by Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, and it’s about the time the Babylonians broke down the walls of Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and took the people into exile. The walls were breached on the 17th of Tammuz in the Jewish calendar, and the temple destroyed on the 9th of Av, but what is astonishing how distress has often come upon the people of Israel exactly during these dates in the Jewish calendar.
In Hebrew thought the very word “narrow” is connected with suffering—as we might say “a tight spot” in English. The root word for narrow is צַר (tzar) from which we get the word metzarim (מְּצָרִים) which means straits, as in dire straits, and Mitzraim (מִצְרָיִם), which means Egypt—the land of the Hebrews’ suffering and oppression.
The Hormuz Strait and dire straits for Israel
This year, we’re in trouble yet again. The Strait of Hormuz has been wielded as a weapon, blackmailing the world into complying with the evil Islamic regime of Iran. The West seems to have capitulated, abandoning Israel and attempting to tie the hands of the IDF from protecting Israelis from terror attacks from Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy operating out of Lebanon.
Not long ago we were so hopeful that we would see regime change in Iran and freedom for the people there, and even more recently some very encouraging noises were coming from Lebanon, with the leaders taking a firm stand against Hezbollah and welcoming Israel’s strength to remove their chokehold on the country. Many people are bitterly disappointed here in Israel, but also in Iran and even other countries in the Middle East.
Predictably, commentators have been making sweeping pronouncements about what will happen, but as Rabbi Pinchas Taylor, Director of the American Faith Coalition, recently encouraged, the situation is not static and circumstances will continue to unfold, layer by layer. Instead of being quick to define everything as simply good or bad, it is wise to wait and see how things develop over time.
Wait and see…
He relayed a famous Chinese proverb that goes like this:
A farmer and his son had a beloved horse they relied on at the farm. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbors came to bring the bad news: “Your horse ran away,” they told the farmer. “What bad luck!”
The farmer replied: “Maybe. We’ll see.”
A few days later, the horse came back… bringing several others with him. The neighbors rejoiced, saying, “What great luck!”
The farmer again said: “Maybe. We’ll see.”
Later that week, the son tried to train one of the new horses. He was thrown off and broke his leg. The villagers came to commiserate: “What bad luck!”
The farmer said: “Maybe. We’ll see.”
Weeks later, soldiers came to recruit every able-bodied young man for war, but they did not take the farmer’s son….
The farmer in the parable understood that things can change and turnaround completely, showing the wisdom of waiting to see what transpires with time.
As persecuted Messianic pastor, Richard Wurmbrand counseled after 15 years of torture in a Romanian prison, “the wheel of life may put the emperor’s physician in prison, but it goes on turning. It may put me back into the palace, and even put me on the throne.”
Though Richard and his wife Sabina suffered incomprehensible cruelty under the Communists, they were eventually miraculously released. They started an organization to support persecuted believers, and have flown Scriptures into China and North Korea by balloon, proclaimed the gospel over the border from South Korea by loudspeaker, floated tracts into Cuba, smuggled Bibles into many Communist and Muslim countries and supported those suffering for their faith. It is impossible to calculate the number of lives that have been eternally affected. The wheel of life most definitely turned, just as he said.
Total turnaround?
Things change fast in the Middle East. Victory over the Iranian regime and its proxies seems to have slipped through our fingers right at the critical moment, but only God knows what the future holds. Please join us in praying for supernatural wisdom for those making decisions: for the Lebanese leaders to stay steadfast in determination to shake off the shackles of Hezbollah, and keep praying for breakthrough in Iran. Pray that the gospel would not be hindered, and that believers could travel freely.
The time of dire straits is characterized by tragedy and disaster, and it is common for Jewish people to fast in the month of Tammuz, the fourth month in the biblical calendar.
However, the fourth month is mentioned with very different connotations in Zechariah 8…
The prophet declares that the traditional time of fasting will become a time of joy:
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.” (Zechariah 8:19)
Let’s pray that we see such a turnaround during this time of dire straits, for breakthroughs in the heavens and on earth, and victory for truth and peace.
