I don't doubt who the Jews are of today. Like there are all kinds of Irish people, Chinese, and so on, we are mostly mutts nowadays anyways. but for belief wise for all races/religion, Some are hardcore, some are lax, Some don't even bother with the religion, some do. Of course I knew that the NT talks about spiritual Jews. They had to. If they are to recruit gentiles, they want the gentiles to feel that they can be spiritual Jews at heart, even if they are not Jews by blood. non Jews had an issue with that, and that is why Paul dealt with that the way he did. He told them they can be spiritual Jew at heart and not have to be Jew by blood. OT jews do not like gentiles very much.
my point is, I am talking about the mindset of the Jews of the Old and New Testament. not the purity of bloodline of today. I am saying that Jews of OT believe in a different messiah and how he would bring about peace. OT describes the messiah to be a "militant" ruler who will subdue all gentiles and Jews would be the superior race ruling over them. That is for another story. That is why the pharisees of NT have a hard time believing Jesus and kept waiting for the messiah. NT believes differently.
If you read the stories of the OT, they are not gentile friendly and they are all for their race. The Jews leaders even had to put in rules/laws to help them treat the gentiles right. It was that bad.
They are okay with gentile slavery and not Jewish slavery in their lands. I have a lot more evidence in bible how they treat their gentile slaves. They needed more laws for that to control them. It is all in the bible. That is of many reasons I doubt the validity of the scriptures.
I would understand how Moses came to be who he was. Think about it. I have seen it many times with pastors and sons in law who marry their daughters. They become mirror of the pastor and think just like him.
Take in account that Moses are like us. He think/feel like us. Consider the history of Moses's birth, upbringing and how he found out the truth about his adoption. If you have ever met anyone who's dealt with adoption or experienced how step children are treated. You would understand. There are a lot of psychological trauma involved.
Okay. Moses found out he was adopted, It is only then he "started" to get mixed feelings and see his people in a different light. We know how that felt. He left Egypt. He was taken in by a girl's family who he liked very much. he had his eye on her. It turns out she was the daughter of a priest who leads the Jews people in the valley with the Jewish faith. He wanted her, but of course he knew what he had to do to "win" the priest's heart and let him marry the priest' daughter. Since then, he felt he needed to please the father, so he can be on the good side.
I have seen this with churches. A friend's cousin, he was a good man, at one time, before all of that, you could tell him anything... you could be open.. but ever since marrying the pastor's daughter. He became close minded, he became defensive of the faith. He mirrored everything the pastor dad believed in. He became the pastor himself spiritually. He is training to take the pastor's place once the pastor gives up his position in church. He is next in line. He is the next leader of the church. Imagine the responsibility/stress to keep up appearance for the church. He had to lead, set a good example, impress the pastor, kiss his rear end, no matter what you think. Over time, it changes who you are.
We know that whatever information we take in, it becomes who we are. For example, any religion/religious person, it's very clear, animals and animal lovers, it is all clear, music and music lovers, it is all clear what they love. Whatever information we take out, makes us change who we are. The same applies for Moses.
Now...Naturally, as expected, Moses felt guilty that he left his Jewish people, family, relatives, friends, in Egypt when he left Egypt many years earlier. Family is the up-most motivator to make you do the right thing. Of course that is why he led them out of Egypt. It wasn't fair that he got out and not them. I would understand, i would do the same thing. He did it but not before he was "ready" as a leader, priest, etc. he had many wives, later on of course. Of course, for people to come help him if he ever need it, he had to get his people to agree, and of course He had to say that God commanded him to rescue them. they are all for it if God commands it.
You should see many things that Moses say in the scriptures, it was ridiculous. He is as carnal as you and me. no different, he is not more holy than you and me.
Moses said God is okay with Jews kidnapping women from the side of road so they can rape and take as wives. All because there were not enough wives for everyone from the previous war they had. That God commanded the slaughter of all male children, males, and all non virgins, and take only virgin girls that are virgins as wives. What is up with their issues virgins and non virgins. Non virgins deserve to live as much as the virgins did.
As for animal sacrifices. He says God says, word for word, what caught me is that it was so precise, to the letter. If you read carefully. at one point You will see that he says God commands you sacrifice fats of animals, but give the "meat" to the priesthood. That tell you something? People can't really eat fat, but they eat meat. They are all for free meat. Not everyone can afford lamb back then, but it was intense.. they said, even if you were unaware of your sin, and a priest or someone reminds you that you sinned, you are obliged to sacrifice an animal to get your sin forgiven anyway. God still condemns you even if you did not know you sinned? That is messed up to me.
If you read the bible, they give all the glory to God when something goes right with wars, their activities, etc, but condemns themselves whenever they lose the war because they "displeased" God. Like Babylon story. They got sent to Babylon all because they were a pest, preying on King Nebuchadnezzar trade routes to Egypt, his camels, etc. over and over and over. They were pushing King Nebuchadnezzar buttons to the point where King Nebuchadnezzar had enough of it, sent an army there. As a conclusion, Jews' Solomon temple and Jerusalem got destroyed and Jews got sent to Babylon as slaves.
Same goes for mindset of Christians of today. they believe that if something goes wrong, it is because they sinned and displeased God and when they did something right, it is because they did something right. That is why Christians judge the poor people of their church. they dont' help as much as they do with the "good ones." they give the poor a hard time when they ask for help to help pay for rent, ulitity bills, and so on. That is why they judge cities that got destroyed, like New Orleans. they say it is because God punished them. sometimes when something bad happens, it is what it is. Not because of what you did wrong. They believed in earthquakes, hurricanes, especially hurricanes, tornadoes, etc, to be punishment from God because of what they did wrong.
They did not know how and why tornadoes/hurricanes occur. they occur because of the right ingredients were given to create it. Hurricanes happen only during hurricane prone season and not before.. Jews people did not know that, and say it is God's way of punishing people. They don't understand the science behind it. we do now.
Ray got me this far. He did.. he freed me from church, freed me from spiritual/religious prison. he freed me from indoctrination, freed me from scotomas that conditioned me to believe in what my parents, grandparents, etc taught me to believe. The perceived truth rather than what the truth is.
I also know that people of past times did not have the right to question, for a very long long time. if they did, they would be persecuted and put to death. It is only recently that we are able to come out and be able to share our concerns.
Look up Gaileco, he was persecuted by the church because the scriptures teach that the sun revolves around the earth, and Gaielco found evidence that this is not the case, and that the earth revolves around the Sun. They gave Galileo a hard time because they were so stuck , so indoctrinated that they don't care what the evidence says but what the scriptures say. the perceived truth is a pain.
Ray is right about all traditions, heritage, etc coming from Egypt. They worship Baalism. Baalism just means you worship other gods. They worshipped Isis and Ra but of course they don't' say that in the bible specifically.
That is how they got their name Israel. Is is for Isis, goddess of Motherhood/fertility and mother to Horus. Ra is the sun god of the Egyptians, El just means High Lord. They also worshipped other gods in Babylon while they were there as well. That is why they believe a bit differently than their ancestors before Babylon. if you read stories before Babylon, and read stories of post Babylon, you will notice how it shifted somewhat. That is why you see hints of Christianity beliefs post Babylon than before Babylon. the religions in Babylon/Persian is another story.
Don't get me wrong. I do not doubt the validity of God. I do doubt the validity of the scriptures though. What if scriptures are the perceived truth of Jews and not what the actual truth is. I want to know how you know that God of the Jews are the right one, and all others are wrong? What if God is not what the Jews/scripture say he is. What if he is neutral, and wants us to be like him? neutral?
What if the Jews are as conditioned to believe as their ancestors did, without question and wrote about it, no matter what the evidence really says? What if they are as carnal as we are, they create their perception of God, and writes about it to fit their perception of God. many religions are like that? what makes Jews any different? What makes them right about God?