KalebOutWest said:
Those verses are not actually applicable to this situation or even about individual application, as Jehovah's Witnesses believe.
I'm guessing that you are the person who said that he knew Hebrew and that his parents were Jewish. Because this is another time that I've been explained how certain Hebrew scriptures actually have a meaning that is not the meaning that Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses put upon those scriptures. For example, I understand that the well-known verse at Ecclesiastes 1:15 is supposed to have a different original Jewish meaning compared to the way that JWs apply it. And then there's the whole thing about the way many Hebrew scriptures have been applied 'differently' to Jesus, however, I do not want to go into that.
KalebOutWest said:
Over a century had passed since the prophet Isaiah who penned the first section of the book had passed. Cyrus the Great had come on the scene and liberated the people from exile to Babylon. While the Jewish hope of the Messiah was not fully formed yet. . .
Interesting. So, when did the Jewish hope of the Messiah actually form and became fully formed? Because I thought that Genesis 3:15 was the first prophecy about the Messiah. Although, I suspect that Jews have a totally different meaning for Genesis 3:15.
KalebOutWest said:
But the text does not mean that young men today can literally hope in God to gain strength so they do not stumble, as in the case of "falling into sin." The "stumble and fall" that is being described is not sinning but comparing the strength of "Jacob/Israel" of verse 27 to being stronger than young men that don't have the power to cross the desert like Israel does.
KalebOutWest, I think that you may have broke my brain... Or you may have fixed it. Or perhaps helped to fix it. But I have to let all this sink in.
KalebOutWest said:
To use this same text as an encourgement for young people facing "sins" is not only taking it out of context but shows a deep lack of Biblical history and an inability to just read the context.
The context is about the Creator being the real Savior, the true Liberator, greater than any power found among the nations--it is not about how youths can find help when faced with sexual temptations.
I've always found it helpful to get answers about the Hebrew scriptures from people who speak Hebrew and who have a Jewish background. However, unfortunately, there have been some questions asked to Jewish people that they seem to evade.