{"id":1808,"date":"2012-11-25T09:27:19","date_gmt":"2012-11-25T17:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/?p=1808"},"modified":"2014-08-23T15:53:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T22:53:23","slug":"come-out-of-babylon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/come-out-of-babylon\/","title":{"rendered":"Come out of Babylon, My People!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Genesis 31, Laban and Balaam. <\/strong>It is quite possible that the false prophet Balaam, who heard from YHVH and had a sense of righteousness, though was still steeped in paganism, was a descendant of Laban. Both were from Aram (part of greater Babylon) and only 280 years separated them. One of the Aramaic Targums (<em>Targum Jonathan<\/em>) equates Balaam with Laban, while other scholars view Balaam as Laban\u2019s grandson.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the case, both Laban and Balaam were involved in a mixed-religious system\u2014some truth and some error, some good and some evil.<\/p>\n<p>This is the nature of religious Babylon (meaning \u201cmixture\u201d or \u201cconfusion\u201d). A mixture of what? Of good and evil.<\/p>\n<p>Remember the tree by that name in the Garden of Eden? Who was the one who enticed man to indulge in that fruit in rebellion to YHVH\u2019s commands? Is not religious Babylon of today, out of which YHVH is calling his people (Rev\u202f18:4), just that\u2014a mixture of truth and pagan lies? How else, for example, do we account for the name of the Christian festival called <em>Easter <\/em>or <em>Ishtar<\/em> named after the Babylonian sex goddess of fertility? Or how else do we account for the Christmas tree phallus symbol that also originated from Babylonian sex worship? Or how about the Easter egg (an ancient Babylonian fertility or sex symbol) or the egg on the Jewish Passover <em>Seder<\/em> plate? All these are symbols of pagan sex worship.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/come-out-of-babylon\/attachment\/37001757\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1809\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1809\" title=\"37001757\" src=\"http:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/37001757-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/37001757-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/37001757-457x300.jpg 457w, https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/37001757.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As YHVH called Jacob away from Babylon back to <em>Beth-el<\/em> (<em>the House of El<\/em>), and as YHVH turned Jacob\u2019s heart back to the ways of his fathers, is not the same YHVH likewise now calling his people to come out of religious Babylon (Rev 18:4), to separate themselves from that which is unclean or <em>not kosher<\/em> (2\u2009Cor 6:17)? Yes, YHVH is now calling the modern descendants of Jacob (redeemed Israelites) to remember the Torah of Moses his servant and to listen to the spirit of Elijah as the children\u2019s hearts turn back to the fathers (Mal 4:4\u20136).<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"evernoteSiteMemory\"><a href=\"javascript:\" onclick=\"Evernote.doClip({title: 'Come out of Babylon, My People!',url: 'https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/come-out-of-babylon\/',contentID: 'post-1808',suggestTags: 'Babylon,Balaam,Genesis,Jacob,Laban',providerName: 'Hoshana Rabbah Blog',styling: 'text' });return false\" class=\"evernoteSiteMemoryLink\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.evernote.com\/article-clipper.png\" \nclass=\"evernoteSiteMemoryButton\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\t\t<div class=\"evernoteSiteMemoryClear\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Genesis 31, Laban and Balaam. It is quite possible that the false prophet Balaam, who heard from YHVH and had a sense of righteousness, though was still steeped in paganism, was a descendant of Laban. Both were from Aram (part &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/come-out-of-babylon\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[64],"tags":[281,317,21,19,316],"class_list":["post-1808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-readings","tag-babylon","tag-balaam","tag-genesis","tag-jacob","tag-laban"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Come out of Babylon, My People! | Hoshana Rabbah Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/come-out-of-babylon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Come out of Babylon, My People! | Hoshana Rabbah Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Genesis 31, Laban and Balaam. It is quite possible that the false prophet Balaam, who heard from YHVH and had a sense of righteousness, though was still steeped in paganism, was a descendant of Laban. 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