Imagine you were a Jewish captive taken to a pagan county and placed in prisoner camp until you had been sold off as a servant to some pagan merchant or land owner.
Imagine you could not observe your religion except in secret as you bowed your knees and faced Jerusalem.
Imagine you had to suffer the abuse of being hit, beat, and made to do hard labor from before sunrise to after sunset.
Imagine you could only talk to a few captives near you in your Paleo-Hebrew tongue because none of you could speak Aramaic.
Imagine you slowly learned to speak the Aramaic language by force in order to cope and live in this pagan society.
Imagine you are not allowed to talk to the native Babylonian Syrians about God, about religion, about their idols and rituals. Just imagine living in a world where every day your life was at risk if you even disclosed you were a Jew. Yes, in Babylon where many prisoners from many lands were brought as slaves and merged together into one people of many colors and ethnicities. Imagine you are soon lost in all the paganism and no one knew any more where you came from, so you hid your Jewishness to stay alive.
Imagine you had to dress like these pagans and put on their head coverings, their style of clothing, to mix in and then disappear into the fabric of the city and the Babylon empire, scattered to be where ever your purchaser would take you and sell you or make you work for him?
Imagine you saw many Jews around you take up the pagan world and you wondered how they could do this when they were a separated people unto God and were not to partake of anything unclean or unholy?
Imagine as you saw priests join the pagan religion and begin to adopt these heathen rituals, practices, mysteries, celebrations, holidays. And then watch as these priests changed the numbered months into names from the Syrian Babylon calendar? And imagine you see them change the numbered days of the week to take on the pagan names of the days of the week. And you can do nothing but resist inside your heart. And little by little you see thousands falling down to idols and learning the ways of the heathen? And when you could, you would hide away in a secret place and bow down and pray to God.
Imagine you want so bad to convert your Jewish brothers and Sisters back to God but it was dangerous, because they could hate you for imposing your religious views upon them. And they could even report you and betray you because they had long given up the Jewish religious life and did not want to return to it. And here you are nearly all alone except for two or three other Jews who were like yourself, faithful to God praying every day to go back home.
Imagine you wanted to read the holy scrolls but they were now all in the hands of these paganized priests and they were translating them into Aramaic, a language you could not read although you could now speak it. And imagine you had no way to check if they translated the Paleo-Hebrew correctly and told they had the divine hand of God upon them. When you know they were friends with false religion, saw them celebrate pagan holidays, and observed them going into pagan temples where idols stood: and this was strictly prohibited by the laws of Moses.
Imagine, if you could only imagine, living in a world where compromise was every where and you had to continue to live your Jewish life in secret. Just imagine you could not get married until you found a man a woman a girl, a boy: who shared your faith because you refused to be unequally yoked together with a pagan unbeliever. Just imagine, how lonely you would feel. How the sorrows of being alone would come upon you and as you sang the songs of Zion, your spirit would be lifted and once again you would say in your mind and on mumbled lips: God take me home to Israel.
Imagine, you watched many Jews accept the name of a pagan god as an equivalent to the name of God. Imagine the priests now called rabbi from the Aramaic Babylon use of pagan priest and wise men. Imagine as these nee rabbis tell the Jews that Yaaveh is the same as Ehjeh asher Ehjeh. And imagine as these reprobate sell-outs tell the Jews the Syrians just have an ancient name for God that is acceptable as an alternative. Imagine as Jews every where begin to use Yaaveh or Yaavah but you refuse.
At this point I suggest you read my Bible Study "Two Babylons" written in 1993 and revised in 2001.
Imagine you could not observe your religion except in secret as you bowed your knees and faced Jerusalem.
Imagine you had to suffer the abuse of being hit, beat, and made to do hard labor from before sunrise to after sunset.
Imagine you could only talk to a few captives near you in your Paleo-Hebrew tongue because none of you could speak Aramaic.
Imagine you slowly learned to speak the Aramaic language by force in order to cope and live in this pagan society.
Imagine you are not allowed to talk to the native Babylonian Syrians about God, about religion, about their idols and rituals. Just imagine living in a world where every day your life was at risk if you even disclosed you were a Jew. Yes, in Babylon where many prisoners from many lands were brought as slaves and merged together into one people of many colors and ethnicities. Imagine you are soon lost in all the paganism and no one knew any more where you came from, so you hid your Jewishness to stay alive.
Imagine you had to dress like these pagans and put on their head coverings, their style of clothing, to mix in and then disappear into the fabric of the city and the Babylon empire, scattered to be where ever your purchaser would take you and sell you or make you work for him?
Imagine you saw many Jews around you take up the pagan world and you wondered how they could do this when they were a separated people unto God and were not to partake of anything unclean or unholy?
Imagine as you saw priests join the pagan religion and begin to adopt these heathen rituals, practices, mysteries, celebrations, holidays. And then watch as these priests changed the numbered months into names from the Syrian Babylon calendar? And imagine you see them change the numbered days of the week to take on the pagan names of the days of the week. And you can do nothing but resist inside your heart. And little by little you see thousands falling down to idols and learning the ways of the heathen? And when you could, you would hide away in a secret place and bow down and pray to God.
Imagine you want so bad to convert your Jewish brothers and Sisters back to God but it was dangerous, because they could hate you for imposing your religious views upon them. And they could even report you and betray you because they had long given up the Jewish religious life and did not want to return to it. And here you are nearly all alone except for two or three other Jews who were like yourself, faithful to God praying every day to go back home.
Imagine you wanted to read the holy scrolls but they were now all in the hands of these paganized priests and they were translating them into Aramaic, a language you could not read although you could now speak it. And imagine you had no way to check if they translated the Paleo-Hebrew correctly and told they had the divine hand of God upon them. When you know they were friends with false religion, saw them celebrate pagan holidays, and observed them going into pagan temples where idols stood: and this was strictly prohibited by the laws of Moses.
Imagine, if you could only imagine, living in a world where compromise was every where and you had to continue to live your Jewish life in secret. Just imagine you could not get married until you found a man a woman a girl, a boy: who shared your faith because you refused to be unequally yoked together with a pagan unbeliever. Just imagine, how lonely you would feel. How the sorrows of being alone would come upon you and as you sang the songs of Zion, your spirit would be lifted and once again you would say in your mind and on mumbled lips: God take me home to Israel.
Imagine, you watched many Jews accept the name of a pagan god as an equivalent to the name of God. Imagine the priests now called rabbi from the Aramaic Babylon use of pagan priest and wise men. Imagine as these nee rabbis tell the Jews that Yaaveh is the same as Ehjeh asher Ehjeh. And imagine as these reprobate sell-outs tell the Jews the Syrians just have an ancient name for God that is acceptable as an alternative. Imagine as Jews every where begin to use Yaaveh or Yaavah but you refuse.
At this point I suggest you read my Bible Study "Two Babylons" written in 1993 and revised in 2001.
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