As Booney M started to sing " By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered the Zion. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song. How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a strange land?..... Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight..."
The rivers of Babylon probably refer to the Euphrates and its tributaries and the Chebar river! The Jewish people was in exile when Jerusalem was conquered by Babylonian circa 586 BC. The verses were taken from Psalm 137 and Psalm 19:14. It expresses the yearning for returning home and sadness of being in exile or captivity in a foreign land! Zion metaphorically is a home where we were born and raised! This feeling of displaced and deserted happens everywhere and we all just wanna go home to where we belong!
Civil wars broke the homes of many and families were separated and they never had a chance to meet each other again. When the red army of communism took control of China, Germany, Korea, Vietnam etc., this scene of physical displacement and weeping by the river of Babylon repeated in many parts of the world. The Kuomintang party led by President Jiang Kai Shek fled China to Taiwan and he brought along many of his followers, generals and soldiers from all over the provinces of China after his defeat in the civil war. While I was in Taiwan 20 over years ago, it was a pitiful sight to see many of the old and lonely soldiers spending the rest of their lives in this little island of Taiwan, separated by the strait of Taiwan overlooking the land once they used to call home, never be able to see their families and friends again! The same sad stories happened in North and South Korea, East and West Germany, Palestine, Eastern Europe and also those who fled and escaped to countries of democracy and found new freedom!
At home here in Malaysia, during the time when communism was still a threat to the nation, many of our elderly folks were prohibited to visit their families and relatives in mainland China. The differences in idealogy and political systems had cut off all forms of physical contact and communication other than occasional mails and letters exchange which took weeks to reach the other side of the mysterious communist world. That was the only means to get updated on the latest condition of our relatives living over there. Many did not live to see their brothers and sisters, wives and friends; their last departure from home village was also the final bidding goodbye to them forever!
I happened to have a chance to visit my grandpa's village in China about 2 years ago and the folks informed me that after the batch of immigrants left the village since at least 80 years ago, no one ever returned, I was the first related person went back to the village!
To many that belong to the later generations like me, the land of our ancestors left us no or little impression simply because we are all born and raised here, Malaysia is the only place we call home. Living in this modern world, we always have a chance to be more mobile than before. Equipped with an international passport and visa, we could work away from our home country for years to experience that feel of "By the rivers of Babylon..." though we always have the assurance that we could return home!
From my past expereince, I could withstand to leave Malaysia just for a period of about 2 years, and then the feeling of home sick will be getting stronger each day. As we get older, the yearning for our home town or village also becomes a more intense force than ever. Dwelling in a big city like Kuala Lumpur at times, is like "River of Babylon" to me in another form!
The capturing and the sending to exile for the Jews were probably the consequence of their disobedience to God. God knows the nature of man, it is more painful to banish one from returning home as a form of punishment than just to take his life away. We therefore need to constantly examine our hearts, our minds and words, so that we could be sanctified and holy before Him, and be pleasing to the eyes of the Al-mighty in whatever we act and do!
May God always bless us and keep us close at home with our love ones.
Sorry, it should be disobedience instead of inobedience! Ha Ha!
ReplyDeleteI guess that the Jews were banished or exiled because they killed the Prophets (Zachariah, John and more) without any good reasons..
ReplyDeleteThe Jews were portrayed in the Books as stubborn people despite miracles revealed and prophets were sent to advise them.
ReplyDeleteA very touching write. In this modern days, we call home where the roof over our head stands. Why, the Jews took the land from the Canaans. I would think Babylon was probably their original home if not nearer?
ReplyDeleteIf we trace their ancestry from patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim), he came from Ur of Babylon, the modern day Iraq. Theoretically speaking, both Jews and Arabs are Iraqi by race! After many centuries of migration, they are ethnically different! The Canaan was a land believed to make up of modern day Israel, Lebanon, Palestine territory, parts of Jordan, Syria and north eastern Egypt was occupied and conquered by Canaanites, Philistines, Samaritans(Jews), Nabataeans, Greek, Roman, Muslims and Christians over the centuries! It had become even more complicated after the 1948 war of independence and the 1967 six days war!
ReplyDeleteNo one could change the course of history and they have to find a solution to their multi-ethnic society for themselves if they want peace. We Malaysians to a certain extent face the problem of the same nature arguing on who is the original people of this land and who is the "Pendatang" and the issue is being exploited by unscrupulous politicians for their personal gain!
We are all 1 Malaysians!
Correction..the word is Canaanites. My apology. The irony was when the Jews were released from Babylon most of them preferred not to return to Jerusalem. They had learned new trade to survive and was not willing to return to the old life in Jerusalem......so the books said.
ReplyDeleteThe free spirit should be appreciated. It is those wielding power who put so much restrictions......Any people are "pendatang" in a sense, more so the modern Malays. Politicians should move away from ethnocentric rhetorics.
It was written in the Books that Jerusalem was already in a ruin and the land was already inhabited by many other "foreigners". Jews being very business minded, and perhaps at that time Babylon was a trade center and modern city, it was no surprise that many choose to stay behind.
ReplyDeleteMost American Jews would want to stay in the US and only the fundamental Jews and those from the former eastern block countries would want to go back to Israel, a country always threatened with wars and confrontation from its neighbors
Yes,and the majority wanted no part in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Jews from the eastern block are said to be mainly Ashkenazis.....and that's another story.
ReplyDeleteYes, if you read the Books on the prophet Zechariah (Or Zakaria?). He is trying to inspire the Jews to return and build the temple again!
ReplyDeleteHe also prophesized that Jews would be persecuted and scattered in exile all over the world one more time! And Jerusalem would be a battle ground of nations and also a religious center of the world
Having watched the reenactment of what could have been Joshua's wars on Canaan, I wondered...why Canaan? Why completely annihilate it?
ReplyDeleteIf you ever read about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Books, one would be able to know why God had chosen to destroy the cities by fire and brimstones. The people there did homosexuality, perversion and other horrendous sins. Abraham pleaded with God because his nephew Lot and family were staying in the city of Sodom. And the story behind the derivation of the word "Sodomy" is self-explanatory!
ReplyDeleteAbraham left his home city of Ur and God promised to give his descendants a "promised land". Israelis being one of the descendants of Abraham, Joshua was given the task when Moses (Musa) died and he took over the leadership. This fulfilled what God had earlier promised to Abraham through Joshua. The stubborn Israelis fled from Egypt were made to wonder in the desert wilderness for 40 years despite miracles were revealed many times to them. For their disobedience, God had not allowed those born in Eqypt to enter the promised land as a form of punishment!
Caananites at that time were practicing cults and child sacrifice in their worship of Molech, and God did the same to them as Sodom and Gomorrah, though this time through the invasion of the Israelis.