024 The Fourth Month of Tammuz

The Watchman discusses the fourth month of Tammuz on God's Ecclesiastical Calendar. the perils presented during this time, and how to avoid them. Shalom!


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024 The Fourth Month of Tammuz

Welcome to The Watchman Speaks. I’m your host, Lonnie Richardson.

Today, Monday, June 19,2023 at sunset, begins Rosh Chodesh Tammuz. Simply put, it is the beginning of the fourth month as the spring months on God’s Ecclesiastical Calendar have ended, and the summer months begin. Put another way, one season is ending, and another is beginning. That’s how time works. Before something new can begin, something old has to come to an end.

If you’ve been following The Watchman Speaks since it began in January of this year, you will recall how I have laid out the preparatory work to understanding God’s time and how God works in His seasons. You will recall how we reconfirm our covenant with Christ In the month of Nisan, at the Passover, and celebrate The First Fruits as Christ is the First Fruit of the dead. Most Christians have not even heard of the First Fruits much less know what it is.

Then, we marched forward into the month of Iyar and advance in three of the Covenant Names of God. Yhwh Raphe, God is my Healer, in Exodus 15. Yhwh Y’reh, God Provides, in Exodus 16. And finally, Yhwh Nissi, God is my Banner in Exodus 17. 

From there we moved into the third month of Sewan which brings about the Feast of Weeks and the Pouring out of Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Just to show you what that looks like when you’ve prepared yourself in Nisan and Iyar, consider that my Nephew and his pastor have baptized 40 people in a drug rehab facility this month. How many has your church baptized this month? 

That’s how God works in His time and in His seasons. If you missed those episodes, go back and listen to them. It will improve your understanding of God’s time, His seasons, and how He works in His time and seasons.

But today we are moving into the fourth month or the month of Tammuz.

Tammuz is not mentioned, by name, as a month in the Bible. The only mentioning of Tammuz in the Bible can be found in the Book of Ezekiel. 

Ezekiel 8:14 “The He brought me to the entrance of the Lord’s House which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.”

Tammuz was a Mesopotamian deity attested from the 3rd to the 1st Mellennia B.C.E. Earlier Literature focuses on his marriage to Ishtar or Ashtoreth as she is known in the Bible. Tammuz was presented as a young man who died early. In some cultures, he was killed by a wild boar. In others, he was murdered by his lover Ishtar who rebelled against the other gods in rage, against even Baal, even the goddess of the underworld, to resurrect Tammuz.

In Ezekiel 8:14, the women weeping for Tammuz are in support of Ishtar or her rebellion and rage to bring Tammuz back from the dead. But God continues and tells Ezekiel, “Greater abominations than these will you see.”

The entirety of Ezekiel Chapter 8 are visions of abominations that Ezekiel was being shown by God. Abominations within the temple itself. Having said that, those same abominations manifest within the modern church willing to compromise.  In 8:16, “So He brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s House, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty five men with their backs towards the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. “

This indicates worship of the sun which introduces the third player, Baal, into the “let’s make abominations” game. Tammuz was the second player. So, who was the first player? As it seems, at this moment, it is safe to assume that anything or anyone associated with Tammuz was an abomination. 

Ezekiel 8:5, “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, raise your eyes now to the North.’ So I raised my eyes to the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this idol of jealousy at the entrance.”

What or who was that idol? Who or what is the idol of Jealousy? That would be Ishtar. Ashtoreth herself as she is known in the Bible. What was this idol jealous of? The worship of those towards God instead of her and her counterparts. But mostly towards her. What Ezekiel saw was a cultic pole, an ashtorah, of Ashtoreth. Who, by the way, was the driving spirit or entity behind the evil queen Jezebel.  

It is this same goddess in which gay pride and transgenderism is deeply rooted. It is the same entity driving Jezebel spoken of as a warning to the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2:20. “But this I have against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.”

There is the same wicked spirit manifesting some 5000 years from the ancient days, into the church in its infancy, into modern times. One who kills and fights with rage when she does not have her way. The fourth month, the month of Tammuz, falls in part in the month of June. What is June? It’s gay pride month. Is it any wonder why?

Okay, that’s who Tammuz was, and the abominations associated with him. So, why is a month of the Jewish Civil Calendar named after a Babylonian god?

Well, it could be that Judah spent seventy years in captivity, in Babylon. A new generation was born there, and it would have been natural that they picked up the language and some of the customs. However, none of the current names of the Jewish Calendar are mentioned in the Bible until towards the end of or after The Babylonian captivity of Judah.  

According to Jeremiah 39:2, “In the eleventh year of Zedekiah (King of Judah), in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city wall was breeched.”

Jeremiah 52:6 reads, “On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.”

It might be that the fourth month was named Tammuz in remembrance of Ezekiel’s visions of abominations. For it was these abominations that brought Babylon crushing down upon Judah. 

Ezekiel gives the account in Ezekiel 1:1 of how on the fifth day of the fourth month in the thirtieth year the visions of God began to manifest in him.

Historically, from a biblical perspective, the fourth month was not a happy month. The two things that kept Judah and Israel in hot water with God was the worship of idols and sexual immorality brought about by worshipping those idols. It is recorded and documented time after time. You know what? Even the golden calf came into being during the fourth month! The fourth month has been a sad month.

But it doesn’t have to Be! This is a month to guard your heart, your eyes and ears. 

Deuteronomy 11:26–28 (NASB95) 

  26      “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 

  27      the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; 

  28      and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.  

Deuteronomy 30:15–19 (NASB95) 

  15      “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 

  16      in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lordyour God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 

  17      “But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 

  18      I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. 

  19      “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 

This fourth month of Tammuz is a month to worship God …..or submit to a golden calf! In the Previous months we have re-dedicated our lives, stood and claimed three covenant names of God, and basked in the pouring out of Holy Spirit. Don’t let up now! Persevere! Move forward!

The tribe of Reuben is associated with the month of Tammuz. The tribe of Reuben was the fourth tribe to move out behind Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon. They were camped to the south with the tribes Simeon and Gad.

Reuben was the first born of Jacob and Leah. Genesis 29:32 “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.”

Reuben had a bit of a sad story. It’s a story that we can all relate to in some way or other. In Genesis 35:22, Reuben’s sin of adultery is recorded with Bilhah, Rachel’s maid who was also Jacob’s concubine. But his sin was not one just of immorality but his inability to control his passions under pressure. I will point out that this was prior to the law of Moses but it was still a serious transgression. The passage continues that “Jacob heard of it.” Nothing elese was mentioned.     

However, it must have been considered a serious transgression since Jacob removed Reuben’s rights as first born and transferred those rights to Joseph. Was this a foreshadowing of the ruination of Israel and Judah to come in their immoral acts? 

However, Reuben, although he messed up badly, does have redemptive qualities. If anyone had a reason or motive to see harm come to Joseph, it was Reuben. But Reuben was the one who dissuaded the brothers from killing Joseph and talked them into throwing Joseph into a pit instead. Scripture tells us that Reuben intended to rescue Joseph and “restore him to his father.” 

Reuben had learned that there were consequences for sin. When the brothers went to Egypt to buy grain and were arrested, Reuben reminded them of their sin against Joseph. Reuben stepped up to the plate and although he no longer had the rights of the first born, he acted like the first born. Instead of wallowing in self-pity or becoming resentful and spiteful, he learned and demonstrated the fruits of repentance in how he lived the rest of his life. We could all learn a valuable lesson from Reuben. 

When Moses blessed Reuben there was no mentioning of his sin from his past. Moses blessed Reuben in that he would live and not die and that his men would not be few.

Reuben and Gad took land east of the Jordan river yet they identified with the nation of Israel and fought to acquire Canaan.

The tribe of Reuben fought the dwellers of their land and God gave them victory as He gave Moses the victory when the Amalekites attacked Israel in Exodus 17. However, Reuben was one of the first tribes to turn away from God and go into captivity. Going full circle in Reuben’s prior sin.

By this time I suppose that many of you are thinking, as I am while I write this, “What does this mean to us?”

Well, I can tell you what it means to me.

I look into the Scriptures and I look back on my life. I recall all the idols I’ve worshipped in my life. All the hobbies that took precedence over everything and everyone else, including home and family. I wasted a lot of years chasing idols that I thought would make me happy. I enjoyed them for a time but soon enough the thrill and the joy wore off. Then I’d sell everything at a huge loss when I hit a time of need. Those who bought those things from me knew I was in a time of need and practically stole much of what I had knowing that they were going to sell it elsewhere for three or four times more than they gave me for it. It’s okay. I’ve forgiven them. That’s what I signed up for when I chose to worship those idols.

I think about all the money I wasted on fancy guns, boats, hunting, fishing, golf, RV Campers and other past times that were just that. Something to pass time. Or better yet, waste time. I think about all that time that I wasted that will never produce anything that would last. For most of four decades my life was a waste.

I thought that I was saved. But you couldn’t tell it by the way that I acted, or the way that I spoke, or the thoughts that I allowed to enter into my mind. I’d merely tip my hat to Jesus and wink as I went on to the next thing that would cause me to miss His mark. Did you know that’s what sin is? Sin is an ancient archery term that means, “to miss the mark”. Most of the time I wasn’t even shooting in the same arena that the mark was to be found. 

Oh, but one day, one day I had a very real encounter with Jesus. In that moment I was changed. In that moment I found peace, or something that resembled peace. When you have an encounter with Jesus, things change. When the Holy Spirit of the Living God truly dwells within you and you surrender all, you’ll be shaken like a rag doll. The truth is that I was no longer who or what I thought I was. If the truth be told, I wasn’t sure who or what I was. I just wanted God to use me to glorify His name. Years rolled by and I wasn’t being used. I didn’t know why. But now I know. 

I had to grow a thick skin. I had to make tough decisions. But most of all, I had to learn how to follow one who is greater than I ever will be.

I look into the Scriptures, and I look at my life today. I love one woman. Period. The end. No further discussion. I thank God that I am able by the power of His Holy Spirit to simply say, “No” to sexually immoral acts or thoughts. I thank God that I am able to set aside time that I once would have wasted and spend that time in worship, prayer, and meditation. Yes, I still work a full time job. Yes, I have a lawn to mow and a house to maintain. Yes, I am a full time husband and daddy. Most importantly, I am a full time believer. 

Now I do acquire antique hand tools for wood working and I restore those tools and use them. However, it is not an everyday involvement. Many times, it’s not an every week involvement. If I average two or three hours a week in the shop that’s a pretty good week.

As I said earlier, the two things that kept Judah and Israel in hot water with God are worshipping idols and sexual immorality. I choose to negate those two things in my life. Not because I have to, but because I want to. 

I choose to worship and pray. I choose to spend my time asking God what He wants me to talk about or write about. I am a watchman. I keep my eyes open. I issue warnings. That’s what I do.

It’s not a popular calling but it’s my calling. I’ve been posting this podcast for almost twenty five weeks and in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve not asked anyone for a dime. I could have a lot more followers if I conveyed a message like some of the more popular preachers/authors do today. I could make a lot more money too. But I’m not interested in becoming popular or making a lot of money.

I’m interested in this one thing. What did God Say?

Deuteronomy 30:19 rings in my ears.

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,

I choose the blessing. I’ve lived long enough with the curse. 

Tammuz is associated with Baal and Ishtar. Look around you. You can see those gods being manifested right here in the United States of America on a daily basis. Our schools are promoting it. Our government is promoting it. Heaven forbid, even churches are promoting it.

The idol of jealousy stands at the forefront screaming for her lost lover Tammuz rebellious even towards Baal. If you don’t believe that’s so, go talk to the folks at Target and Anheiser Busch.

This month of Tammuz you want to be certain that your worship shines brilliantly towards God or you may find yourself polishing a golden calf. 

Money and hobbies can become idols of worship. Baal stands with the worship of money and possesions. Ishtar and Tammuz stand with sexual immorality. 

Stop and think about it. The walls to the city of Jersualem were breeched in the fourth month, TWICE. The temple was destroyed on the ninth day of the fifth month TWICE! The first time Judah went into exile for seventy years. The second time God scattered the nation for almost 1900 years. And for what? Worshipping idols and sexual immorality.

I am The Old Watchman. You have been warned!


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